Erwin and Dorits' Endless Summer

While we enjoyed the company of Chris, Tanja, Jaime and Martha during our last month on Bali, after 3 month we were ready for a change. On the 4th of june we flew to Honolulu, Island of Oahu, Hawaii. Our flight took 30 hours including 2 stop overs in Melbourne and Sydney.

The first days we stayed in a hostel in the capital city Honolulu. The first days of our stay we had to get used to the prices, fast food chains on every corner, big cars and everything else America has to offer. One day trip to Waikiki revealed that Hawaii is the most popluar tourist destination for Japanese as there are more Japanese peolpe than anyone else on the street of Waikiki which is very touristy.

We decided that this is nothing for us and went to a surfer hostel on the “North Shore” , famous for its monsterous waves in winter time. In winters it gets very crowded on this prestine stretch of coast line because ‚”Banzai Pipeline”, Sunset Beach and Waimea Bay can produce waves over 20 meters high. Today, in summer though, the wild ocean transforms into a peacefull flat lake. Which is terrific for snorkeling, but not for surfing.

It was a really nice suprice to us that Torben (Dorit’s brother) made a quick decision to come over for a 2 week holiday. We already saw some bits of Oahu so we decided to hop on a plane to an other island after Torbens first 2 days in Waikiki. To our disappointment, there are no ferrys between the Islands, so you have to fly, and there is a no terrific public transport on the Islands itself to travel. So we ended up renting cars.

The 3 of us flew to Hawai’i The Big Island. The biggest one and the most eastern island. It is the newest and the vulcan is still active. It is still erupting and sometimes lava is to be seen. Most of the island is covert with lava rock, which results in a lot of black sand beaches. After a while the ground covers itself with plants and trees again but a big area is still new lava rock. At some places there is even steam coming out of the ground and after sunset you can see a red glow over a big crater. On “The Big Island” is the highest vulcano of the world with over 4000 meters. We violated our car rental contract and reached the summit over a steep dirt road where 4 wheel drive was requierd ;o)

After spending a week in Singapore we came back to Bali. Just a couple of days 3 of our german friends visited us in Kuta. We went surfing in the mornings and sight seeing in the afternoons. Again we visited Tanah Lot Temple with it 5 meter python; went to Ubud; drove past burning pigs which were being prepared for a ceremonial fest and went to the beautiful beach of  Balangan…. of course everywhere on the motorbike.

Erwin..                                            and                          Dorit, enjoying local food.

40 kg… you have to carry with 2 people or you use it as a pillow;…;o)               “Tanah Lot”

In Australia we met Rüdiger in Burleigh and just a couple of weeks ago we saw him again in Kuta. He also had visitors arriving from Germany and it turned out that we all were on same “golflengte/Wellenlänge”….;o) In the water and on land: Tanja, Carina, Erwin, Chris (Aachen), März, Stefan, Rudi (Frankfurt-Darmstadt) and Dorit!

Chris cruising along Jalan Canggu after a morning surf session; Monkey family ; Indonesian kids preforming a traditional dance…

Chris and Erwin at Canggu beach..

Erwin having fun at the “Old Man” in Canggu..

Dorit speeds it up to catch the next section at the “Old Man”.

The shoemaker in Ubud comes to you; 3 Buddah’s in the forest; Indo-kids happy and easy satisfied.

The catch of the day!

Bali wonders of nature: flowers, bananas, cactus and palmtrees