Ratio Vivo - Living, the reason

South East Asia and Kyrgyzstan seen through our camera lens

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Same picture 164 days later...

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Additional pictures from Kyrgyzstan...

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We have spent the last three weeks in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. We have been living at a temporary orphanage for street kids. Back in 2011 we visited the same orphanage with our boarding school. It was very nice to be back. Even though Kyrgyzstan isn't a country that is commonly known, it's a country that struggles a lot. More than 40% of the population lives under the international limit for poverty (1$ a day). Many kids are living on the streets or struggling with abusive or addicted parents. The kids we have met have been through a lot of devastating things, but they are some of the sweetest kids we have ever met. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make them happy, just playing volleyball or learning a bit of English puts the biggest smile on their face. These three weeks have given us so much, and we really wish that we could stay just a little longer.

8 countries, 19 flights, 30 cities, 164 days, 3047 photos and countless amazing experiences later we are now making the last preparations to go home for a couple of days before we go to Barcelona, Spain on friday.

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After Indonesia the next step on our journey was Singapore. In Singapore we have enjoyed the urban life and a bit of western civilisation. It has been a short stay because it is not exactly a cheap city and therefore not so soothing when you're on a budget but we've enjoyed it alot. While we have been here we have enjoyed the amazing skyline of Singapore and visited the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari which was very good. The animals there were amazing and it was a very nice experience to see them after the sun had set. Tonight we start a 30h journey to Bishkek in Kyrgyztan where we will spend the last three weeks before we go home to Denmark. (And yes, we are very sad that our adventure is slowly coming to an end).

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After indulging in the lovely sunrise over Gunung Bromo we left for Yogyakarta. Wanting to take the local bus all the way was of course too much to hope for, and we ended up having to rent an entire minivan for just the two of us to get to Yogyakarta. The drive was long but we finally arrived around midnight. In Yogyakarta we have spent some days relaxing. We also visited Borobudur where we saw the sunrise and explored the beautiful temple. 

Today we landed in Singapore which is the last stop before we go to Kyrgyztan.

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From Labuan Bajo we headed towards Gunung Bromo to see the still active volcano and see the sun rise over the amazing landscape. The trip started with a flight to Surabaya and a bus from Surabaya to Probolinggo. After a night in Probolinggo we were able to catch the local bus to Cemoro Lawang which is the entry point for the volcano. When we arrived in Cemoro Lawang we climbed the volcano and enjoyed the amazing view from the top of the crater. We went to sleep early to get up at 2:30 am to see the sunrise. After 2 hours of trekking we found the perfect spot. It was spectacular, probably the most beautiful sunrise we have seen yet and we enjoyed it a lot. When we got back to Cemoro Lawang we enjoyed a big buffet breakfast.

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More photos from Komodo...

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Next stop after lovely Ubud was Labuan Bajo, Flores. Originally we didn't plan to go there but our diving instructor from Thailand told us that we had to go diving in Komodo Nationalpark and since Labuan Bajo is the entry point to the park we simply had to go. The diving there was amazing, originally we planned on diving for 2 days but we ended up diving for 4 days since we just couldn't stop. During our dives we got so spoiled! We saw manta rays (!!!!), sharks, turtles, trevallys, a pygmy seahorse, dolphins, sweetlips and many more. The fish there were so huge you would think they had taken steroids. In Labuan Bajo we actually ran into our diving instructor from Thailand who had come there to work during the peak season. So we did some diving with him too which was very cool.

Since we were in Komodo we had to go and see the Komodo Dragons. They are huge, really cool but very scary creatures (did you know that they can run 20km/h and eat their own children?!). All to all our visit to Labuan Bajo and Komodo Nationalpark was amazing and we are so happy that we had it recommended to us.

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Some more pictures from our lovely stay in Ubud.

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After surfing for a week we went to Ubud, Bali, to meet up with Lea’s uncle Jørgen. Ubud was amazing and we ended up spending almost three weeks there. 

We spent a lot of time with Jørgen who lives in a very nice house in Ubud. He showed us around in the beautiful nature around the city, took us to a white sand beach a couple of times, taught us how to eat padang food (which we have come to love!), helped us get our visas renewed, took us to a spa where we got a lovely balinese massage, and in general he just helped us get a feeling uf belonging there (we can most definetely understand why he chose to live there). We also spent some days surfing, some more days by the beach, drove to Amed to get a good view of Gunung Agung and drove up Gunung Batur. 

After spending two weeks with Jørgen he went to Jakarta to do some business which meant that we moved into his house for almost a week while he was away. It was so nice to have a feeling og belonging there and we had a really hard time leaving Ubud.

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Next up - the pearl of Indonesia, Bali. We arrived on the beautiful island about three weeks ago and went on surfingcamp for a week at Legian beach. Exhausting, challenging and extremely fun experience with ups and downs. All in all a great week with loads of swallowed saltwater and injuries all over, but worth it!

And yes - the helmets were necessary!

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After relaxing by the beautiful beaches of Port Barton we left for El Nido. We stayed with the most lovely and welcoming guesthouse-owners which meant that we ended up staying for 6 days. The magnet of El Nido is island hopping tours which we joined and enjoyed, though it had a lot of tourists compared to Port Barton. We rented a scooter a couple of times and visited Nacpan beach, enjoyed the nice waves and swam in the lovely water. It furthermore let us to visit the two Twin Beaches. We really enjoyed El Nido as it was very beautiful and it was nice to be somewhere with electricity 24hrs/day.

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After finally arriving in Puerto Princesa on Palawan we took a minivan to Port Barton; a small city on the west coast of Palawan. In Port Barton we enjoyed the great weather and being a little secluded (there are only electricity for 6 hours a day). We went on an island hopping tour where we had lunch on the beautiful Paradise Island and snorkelled at some great reefs. Our diving-eagernes sent us diving in an old shipwreck, visiting a hawksbill turtle family and enjoying a very nice, shallow and big reef. We also spent a lot of time playing table tennis, reading books and mainly just enjoying life at the beautiful beaches.

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From Ifugao the plan was to go straight to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, however a cancelled flight and a night spent awake at the airport made that very difficult. Here are some pictures of our 48 hours of transportation.

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And more photos of Ifugao...

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After Vietnam we flew to Manila, The Philippines. From here we went straight to Banaue in Ifugao to visit the famous rice terraces. We went on a 4 day trek with a guide and it was truly fantastic hiking for several hours a day on, through and almost in the rice terraces. The views were breathtaking and the spectacular rice terraces kept on amazing us. The first day was in the main city of Banaue, planning our trip. First day was from Banaue to Cambulo via Pula. The next day we continued our trip to Batad with the beautiful amphitheater of rice terraces about 1 km. across. After two nights in these incredible surroundings we headed for Bangaan and back to Banaue where we went on another bus back to Manilla.

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From Mui Ne we took the bus to Saigon where we enjoyed a couple of days in the busy big city. We saw the War Remnants Museum and some of the remains of the war as well as pictures snapped during the war. We furthermore went to a skybar where the view was, of course, amazing overlooking the entire city by night.