Travel | HYPERJULIA

Mimizan Instagram report

13-08-2012

I’m back from Mimizan Plage again! This year I chose to not bring my SLR camera with me, since I dragged that thing around with me for about 4 months already. I’ve been in Mimizan 4 times now, so taking photo’s with Instagram and my analogue Pentax is fine enough! I got back home just yesterday, so I didn’t get my analogue photo’s developed yet, but here’s a summary of the photo’s I took with Instagram.

We had some amazing bands and musicians visiting our camp this year! I loved the big group of friends from Piñata and Durke’s longboard crew. I had an awesome time with those guys jamming, surfing and partying. Thanx guys, see you in The Hague soon next time I hope :)
My two best friends came over for 4 days.We went to San Sebastian together to have a day ‘off’ the surf camp and enjoy the most delicious tapas. It was a bit to hot to do cultural stuff, so we kind of hung around in the old town and tried out some different restaurants for Coca Cola and tapas haha.

Unfortunately I could only stay for 2 weeks since I have my jobs at home waiting for me, but better than nothing right?!

© by Hyperjulia

A small summary of what you see on the pics btw;
My belgium friend Maxime and Amy who I met at the camp. Eelke playing his guitar. Neon polished nails for the neon party. Marshmallows and candles on the beach when we organized a little rave party at the beach.
Sunset in Mimizan-Plage. Marlie and a ‘Confit de Canard’. Eating ice-cream (omg they have sorbet chocolate ice-cream there, haven’t had that for years!!). And a cute bracelet made from shells.
The streets of San Sebastian. Delicious tapas. Esther eating them and the curch with beautiful light beams coming through the windows.

The end of my trip

By: hyperjulia

24-06-2012

Diary, Photo, Travel

It’s a fact.. In 4 days I’m back in the cold, rainy and stressfull country I was born in. My 4 months lasting trip is coming to an end. A trip full of adventures, of meeting new and great people, of major culture differences, of poor and rich, sea, beach, waves.. And so on.
But also a trip of learning more about myself. I questioned myself a few thing before I left. Will I be able to travel by myself, have adventures and experience them by myself, eat in a restaurant by myself, get on a plane by myself..? Can I cope with my own problems by myself without being able to talk about it to my friends? Most questions I can answer with a Yes.
We people are not made to be by ourselves. We always search for people to surround us, give us love, happiness and advice. And yeah, most stuff you are able to do by yourself, what’s hard about being on a plane on your own, or a bus, a room? But till a certain point.. Once in a while stuff happens, and you need to share that with someone. I was lucky and grateful that I met so many people who listened to my stories, and shared opinions about that, because that’s what you need to become a better and richer person. Richer in the sense of being able to replace yourself in other people’s minds, thoughts and opinions.
One thing I’m sure about.. Traveling gave me a big load of confidence, independence, and world knowledge.
I saw beautiful things, I saw sad things, I’ve been to the most gorgeous places in the world and some that weren’t that interesting.. But putting those together made this trip a success and amazing.
Right now I’m staying in Kuta Bali. The most touristy place in indonesia with hardly any culture and nature, but the easiest place to meet people, go out, surf, shop and spend the last days of my trip on my own and with a few indonesian surf-buddy’s. Time for a quick surf session now. Next post will be typed from behind my desk back in my own apartment..

© by Hyperjulia

And then there was Lombok

By: hyperjulia

11-06-2012

Diary, Photo, Travel

Here we are, on Lombok. After leaving paradise Gili Trawangan behind, it was time to see a bit more of Indonesia. When we first arrived in Kuta, Lombok we where totally surprised by what we saw. Where is everything?? Although the beach was stunning and we stayed like 50m from the beach it wasn’t IT. But, after a walk around finding a place to get my visa extended, we found out Kuta is not only a street but there’s much more. And to make it even better, we booked a trip with a private driver to see more of the neighbourhood and the south coast of Lombok. An amazing trip, on which we visited a couple different stunning beaches. The roads weren’t as good as back home… Read: dirt and rocks with lots of holes and bumps. But with a patient driver and some humour we made it to every spot we wanted to see, with amazing views, white sandy beaches, clear green/blue water, rocks, cliffs, green hills with grass (what kind of reminded us of England/Ireland) waves and so on. A great day with my two girls Sue and Jill.
While having dinner we met to guys from Brazil and England, who we hang out with the next day. The Brazilian guy has been surfing his whole life and we decided to go to Gerupuk to have a surf session in the morning. Got a motorbike, put both surfboards on it, and drove off to the surfspot. The road was supposed to be easy, but still very bumpy. Unfortunately I slipped off the road while getting up a little hill and we both fell. We managed to save our boards by jumping over them.. my tho, hip and knee didn’t though. But we decided to continue our adventure and got to Gerupuk. Paul knew a boy with a boat that took us to the nice waves. After an hour of struggling and catching a few waves, I got crampy legs and wasn’t able to be in the water anymore. I’ve been walking like a grandma for at least 3 days because of my sour legs hahaha! But really glad I went there and had this adventure, because next to flaws the waves are just amazing and the landscape you have to drive trough is gorgeous.
Unfortunately the surf here is not great for beginners, and it’s a hassle plus it costs a lot of money to get to the surf-spots and the waves, so we’ve chosen to go back to Bali in a few days. Check out some more surfspots there, and have some party nights as well just before we all head back home! Jup time flies, only a bit more than 2 weeks left here :( but looking forward to see all my friends and family again.. And start blogging about my fashion and interior stuff again!

© by Hyperjulia

Paradise called Gili Trawangan

By: hyperjulia

01-06-2012

Diary, Photo, Travel

I’m not going to talk around it, just like the title already says.. I am in Paradise. Gili Trawangan it’s called. It has white beach all around, bars, welcoming and nice locals, the clearest sea water I’ve ever seen… and it’s cheap!! What more do you want? Well at this moment nothing more. Right now I’m sharing an apartment with Sue and an English guy. Germans and Dutch people are over populating this Island but glad I found some other nationalities to hang out with.. After all I didn’t go half way around the world to be with Dutch people.
So basically life here on the Island is really easy. You get up, have breakfast, go to the beach, have lunch, swim, maybe surf or snorkel, have dinner, and than go out for drinks. You can vary it a bit by doing some trips. Like today we did a snorkel trip around the three islands. Being on a boat here is already great, the sea is sooo clear and turquoise.. But snorkeling and seeing turtles and octopuses was even better!
The Island itself is really peaceful.. The fact that there are no cars and motorbikes makes me really happy. Asia is motorbike hell, they make a horrible sound and you always fear being run over by them.. No worries here! Back to basics on the island with ponies, bmx-bikes and using your own feet to transport yourself with. That means I’m just walking around in my bare feet, which gives me the ultimate holiday feeling! When I get the chance I try to hang out with the locals, just to get to know more about their lives and culture. Partying is hilarious here, locals and tourist totally mix and hang out with each other, which by the way makes the whole vibe on the island really chilled out and relaxed.
Unfortunately the surf hasn’t been good since I’ve been on Gili Trawangan, but lets hope I still get a chance to surf here on my new board.
Well, right now, I’m the happiest person on the world being on this amazing Island and I’m gonna leave you with my photo’s for now.. They will speak for themselves.

© by Hyperjulia

From the beach to the rice fields

By: hyperjulia

28-05-2012

Diary, Photo, Travel

From Padang Padang/Uluwatu Sue (Irish lady I met in Cambodia) and I moved to Seminyak. The waves in Uluwatu weren’t really great and after a week of only surfing, sleeping, eating and reading it was time to move to some place with more bars, restaurants, shops etc. We thought Seminyak would be a small more quite town next to Kuta, but unfortunately this place was as crowded by families and rich tourists. We did some surfing and almost the same stuff as we did in Padang (reading, sleeping and eating), the second day I went searching for a surfboard. Hopped on my motorbike and threw myself in the crazy crowd of motorbikes, cars and trucks called Indonesian traffic. It’s not like there is a traffic jam at a certain time of the day, apparently everybody wants to go to Kuta.. so it’s traffic jam into the city almost the whole day. But with the motorbike experience I gained in Vietnam and Loa I made my way trough the cars and trucks.
After some hours driving and scanning around I found some local surf-shops who where able to offer me everything I needed. Looked around and stopped at the shop with the best deal… And so I’m the proud owner of my own surfboard now! Yeay
In the late afternoon we met up with a few Philipinian guys we met in Padang. We went to one of the most fancy beach clubs I’ve ever been to, enjoying the sunset with some lounge music on the background and a few drinks. Nice evening and great guys! Too bad it’s not in our budget to do that every night hihi.

Ok but we didn’t like Seminyak that much and it was expensive so after a quick surf-session in the morning to try out my board we moved to Ubud yesterday.
For the people who saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love.. Jup it’s that village Julia Roberts stays in.
Everything here is green! So many palm trees, beautiful flowers, grass, rice fields. Just stunning. At the end of the road is a Monkey Forrest, which we are going to visit in the afternoon if it stops raining today hopefully!
Had a stroll with Sue yesterday at the local market.. I’ve seen many markets trough South East Asia, but the Indonesian ones I love most. So many vibrant colours, beautiful patterned and colourful bed covers, batik, sarongs, bamboo baskets, jewelry and so on. Until now I totally love this place!

Ubud

Uluwatu & Padang Padang

230512 – Bali summer dress

By: hyperjulia

22-05-2012

Diary, I'm wearing, Travel

My first outfit post while traveling!
It has been to hot to wear actual fashionable a nice clothing for the last two months to get some outfit pictures. Today here in Bali it’s actually kind of cloudy and chilly and my room mate Sue was in to help me getting some pics and so here’s an outfit post finally!
Just bought this dress on the beach. I totally loved the dark green, purple and blue colours tie-dyed together and couldn’t leave it for only €5,- so I bought it. The necklace I found on a market in Saigon. I’ve been searching for big necklaces for like 2 months, and finally found it there! So happy with it.. As well as the silver necklace I bought there, might show that one another time.
The 2 gold bracelets I found at a little stall in Bangkok. They had so many different ones and couldn’t help myself from buying one with my star sign (leo) and one traditional Thai one with bells.
It feels good wearing a dress here! Without wearing any make-up and walking around in swim/surf wear the whole day, you don’t really feel that feminine, so felt good wearing something elegant again.

from Phnom Penn to Bali and a lot in between

By: hyperjulia

19-05-2012

Diary, Photo, Travel

So although I’ve tried to write this story 2 times before as well (it keeps disappearing!) I’m going to try and do it a 3rd time.
After about a week in Phnom Penn of hanging on the couch and in a swimming pool I took off to Siem Reap. I stayed here with a Louise who I met in Phnom Penn earlier. Obviously you go and visit the Angkor Wat if you’re in Siem Reap and so we started off with a sunset visit on the highest temple. The next day we went for sunrise around 5.30 and our TukTuk driver drove us to the less touristy temples, which was really nice since it was still cool in the morning and there was actually hardly nobody but us. The 3rd day we decided to get bikes and drive around there by our selves. It’s a nice drive to the park, but as a Dutchie I can say… Asian aren’t the best bike designers! We had sour asses for like 3 days haha. But it was worth it to see the Angkor Wat itself and the Angkor Tomb which was even more beautiful. I have to say this was one of the most funniest days I’ve had on my trip. Louise was still half drunk from the night before and I’m pretty clumsy which made us laugh constantly. At one point I saw this big elephant statue which I was determent about to sit on. I jumped on there from a wall and stood on it for a while, only getting off the elephant was another story! It was based pretty high from the floor on another wall, and since I didn’t want to break my legs yet I took me like 10 min to find a way to get on the ground again. Hilarious, especially if the others are taking pictures of you instead of helping you.
Siem Reap itself was really nice as well. Had some fun nights out and the village is pretty cozy.

After Siem Reap I packed my stuff to go to Koh Chang, a small Island under the mainland of Thailand. A bus ride that lasted 14 hours instead of 10 having me waiting on my own in the middle of nowhere to be picked up by another random mini van there again, but eventually got there before midnight. Getting up the next morning I found out the village is right next to the beach! I had a really great time here chilling on the beach, driving around on the motorbike seeing elephants on the sides of the streets and going out at night. A band used to play every night, I participated on my last evening as well with a few songs. Conclusion of Koh Chang, lots of fun and chilling time.

From there I went to Bangkok which was actually just an in-between stop to get my flight to Bali. I’ve started off my trip in Bangkok and at that time I was totally culture shocked so I hoped I would like the city more now I’m all used to the culture, people etc. but I have to say I still don’t really like it that much. So warm, hectic and stressfull that I was glad to get on my plane just in time and fly off to Bali where I am right now.

Stayed in Kuta one night and already had 2 surf session on the day I got there, pretty nice! the next day I fixed a motorbike to rent and drove off to Padang Padang with my backpack. It’s way different from what I accepted the place to be, but it’s nice. Rented myself a (little crappy) board for now, but in search of a board to buy for myself. Haven’t found the perfect board yet, so I’ll further my search maybe today or tomorrow.

Well it’s 8.30 in the morning now, time to go to the beach..

Under here some photo’s I took the last 2 weeks