Rain was pouring down outside as I sat on one of the colorful hostel couches. iPad on the lap, peanut butter sandwich on the right and coffee on the left. I was happy that the rain was backing my decision not to move at all that day. The day before had been busy: Seven hours…
Getting from Singapore’s Changi airport to the city is easy! Before you plan, ask your hostel whether they can pick you up. Most of them offer free airport pickup- you just have to ask! Alright, here are actually four ways to do so… and here we go:
Have you ever hiked up Ijen crater in East Java in the middle of the night to stare at its blue flames? Read this to avoid the most common mistakes and get blown away by this nightly spectacle.
Munduk is a little village in northern Bali high up the mountains. It’s a gem not a lot of people know about. If you want to escape the rather touristy parts of Ubud or Canggu and enjoy a cooler climate, Munduk is the place to go. It’s located west of Buyan and Tamblingan Lakes and…
Ever considered to learn Scuba diving? For only 229€ (1065 MYR) including food and accommodation for 4 days you can dive into a yet unknown and mysterious world and breathe underwater. Sounds too good to be true? That’s what I thought and it was the best decision I had ever made!
What is there to do in Malaysia‘s capital city Kuala Lumpur if you only have one day to spare? Since we have stayed in Kuala Lumpur for almost a week, but got kind of stuck in our AirBnB with a bottle of rum and some coconut water, this list is a short one. But hey!…
Since we had missed our bus to Perenthian and my travel buddies were running out of time- we decided to head up to Cameron Highlands and spend more time together. Sweating like crazy in Georgetown it was time to chill down a bit up in the mountains. If you google “Cameron Highlands” you’ll see plenty…
„Georgetown, the capital city of the Malaysian island of Penang, a romantic little town inspired by various cultures, colorful, beautiful with some interesting street art to watch out for.” some travel guide wrote. “What a lie!” We thought.
Langkawi, an island northwest of Malaysia, that borders Thailand is one of the friendliest places I’ve been so far. Everyone seems to be happy and helpful. Haven’t had one single bad thing happen to me! I had planned to stay for 2 nights and ended up spending a week there. There is NO party at…
Koh Lipe, a “tiny little remote island south of Thailand. The beaches are breathtaking and there are lots of pirate style beach bars you can hang out at. It’s quite chill and there are diving monkeys that swim towards you. It’s actually really hard to reach as you have to jump off a fisher‘s boat…
Travels have started again! After two months in my old childhood room (which my mom had redecorated with linen (!) paintings of myself 😆❤️), I decided to leave the Lost daughter Shrine behind and start to travel again. Thailand it was to be for a little.
Cancun, located in Carribean Mexico, beautiful to look at on Google, crowded and invaded by after effects of mass tourism: part-time holiday vacationers, who always know best what goes wrong. Cancun is an interesting 90 minutes drive away from Cancun and you’ll find transport at the airport easily. More on the bottom of the article.…
After living in Brazil for almost 2,5 years it was time to come back to Germany for a bit. It has been a rollercoaster ride of various feelings – both good and bad – but I wouldn’t want to miss any of these. The cultural differences couldn’t have been bigger and I soon came to…
New Year’s is coming up in Brazil. And while we are mostly all getting drunk with sparkling wine, collect tiny statues of chimney sweepers or lady bugs in Germany to finally shoot the hell out of these firecrackers at midnight, Brazil has far more rituals to entertain one another than the Germans do.
After 2,5 years living as a Gringa in Brazil I’ve seen some weird stuff I want to share with you. With the help of some friends and the Facebook Group “Worldwide Expats in Brazil” I created a list of some shocking, hilarious, weird and strange stuff that happens in Brazil! Some of that is mostly…
Ilha Grande is a tiny little island south of Rio that doesn’t have any roads nor any big cities. It’s quite the opposite to loud and busy São Paulo and that’s where I wanted to take my friend who visited me from Germany. By the way I’m the crazy smalI one on the right. We’ve known…
São Paulo’s got some dodgy areas you better not go into. That’s what people tell you. I ended up spending 5 hours in one of these and this is how it happened. . .
I’m sitting in my flat. The last time. Will be moving out tomorrow, work for another 1,5 weeks and then wait for my mom to come and travel with me to Ilha Grande and Rio. I’m excited. And sad. Both at the same time. Feels weird, haha 😀 My flat looks empty and it…
Minca is a little village up in the mountains in Northern Colombia. It is one hour away from dirty Santa Santa Marta and a tiny little backpacker village. If you want to escape Santa Marta’s busy and dusty roads and relax a bit in nature, Minca is the place to go. The weather is refreshingly…
Ready to make your travel life a lot easier? Have you ever wondered how to stop nasty mosquito bites from itching or how to turn a bunk bed into a private room? Ever thought about being out in the sun without sweating like an idiot? Well you’ve come to the right page! We are help…
Tayrona National Park is northeast of Santa Marta, has beautiful beaches and steep hiking trails. The entry fee is around 64000 Pesos in peak season. You can sneak in for free, but you need someone to give their entry bracelets to you.
Couchsurfing! Or how to find interesting people and crash their couches for free. Find out all you need to know in this article and become a professional couchsurfer! I started to share my couch in 2010 when I was living in Heidelberg, Germany. I was still studying at university by then and had a lot…
Couchsurfing: Staying at stranger’s couches for free. Ever done that? I started sharing my couch in 2010 when I was living in Heidelberg, Germany. My first couchsurfers were a friendly couple from I forgot where. We shared stories about traveling and I had them stay at my place for free. I hosted a lot of…
Why you should have an international (!) proof of a yellow fever vaccination… Excited to go to Colombia I packed my bag and got a cab to the airport in São Paulo. I had done my check-in online already, so I just walked through the security control without having to wait in line. I was…
You might expect an article here that tells you how much it costs to travel the world. But this is not something I want to talk about here. I am talking about the emotional gains and costs of being constantly abroad and how these long-term travels can affect ones perception of traveling.
TOO LAZY TO READ? CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE ARTICLE. I made it to Florianopolis! “One of the most breathtaking places in Brazil”, I was told in Indonesia. Well, if someone tells me that near Bali, I guess I have to check it out. And I was not to be disappointed.
Ever wanted to go sandboarding? Why not do it in Death Valley- deep down in the Atacama desert?! The Death Valley in Chile (Valle de La Muerte) is about 2km away from San Pedro de Atacama, a small city in the middle of the Atacama desert. Tours are around 20.000 Pesos and normally start at 9am.…
Do you like stones? Awesome. The moon valley in Chile might be your quiet rock haven. A place you can pretend to hide from civilisation whilst you walk around stones with plenty of other tourists doing exactly the same thing. The moon valley in the north of Chile (El Valle de la Luna) is 15km…
The Pampas – an area located deep in the Yucuma river is surrounded by jungly forests and muddy ground. Crocodiles are everywhere and stare at you with their mouths open whilst you pass them in tiny wooden boats. You can swim with Pink River Dolphins and see a huge variety of wildlife, such as Anacondas,…
“The place where heaven meets the earth”. The salt flats in Bolivia (Salar de Uyuni) are an unreal landscape in that consists of a more or less 12 meter layer of salt, you can cruise around on with a jeep or take amazing pictures with surreal perspectives. In the dry season (April- November) you can…
Ayahuasca- the “Vine of Death”, some call it. A traditional spiritual medicine from the Amazonian rainforest used in ceremonies. It is a dark brownish brew with a consistency of cough syrup, that is made out of a vine called “Banisteriopsis caapi”. It is brewed with leaves containing DMT. DMT is a chemical in our bodies…
Public transportation in Bolivia is – let’s put it that way- improvable.You’re lucky if you arrive on time, the roads are sometimes covered in snow, the tires of the bus are made for sunny summer weather. Bathrooms do not exist and don’t you dare to drink too much within this never ending ride. I went…
Once in the rainforest why not do a 3 Day survival trip? I needed some stuff to figure out for myself and thought this was a great opportunity to get to know my limits better and to learn some survival techniques.
Are you heading to La Paz and want to have the best time ever? Read along and find out on what you shouldn’t miss out.
After traveling through Bolivia for almost a month now, I definitely don’t want to hold back on the weird stuff I’ve encountered. And here we go:
Santa Cruz was the cheapest option from São Paulo, so I figured this was a good choice to start out. There’s not really much to see apart from your hair getting all dusty, flying plastic bags and weird weather. But I have to admit- this place has made me laugh a lot so far and…
I didn’t know you could chew on cane sugar or that if you swam any river upwards on Hawaii you’d find a waterfall at some point. I didn’t know that there’s a game in America where you set up a bonfire at the beach and jump over it after piling up more and more wood.…
Paraty is a tiny city with a cosy harbour in Brazil. The roads are bumpy, the people friendly and once you get there, you will not want to leave again. Party is an old fisherman’s town and has its own chilled out vibe. Life is slow, stress does not exist and the little islands around…
São Paulo, Brazil’s monster. The financial disctrict of Brazil, Skyscaper wonderland. Incredibly ugly (some say) and incredibly interesting. What can you do in a city that it so big you can easily get lost in? 1. HANG OUT AT IBIRAPUERA PARK!
Do you want to hike up to Machu Picchu in the most adventurous way possible? Do you want to include as many activities possible? If you answered with yes, the Inca Jungle Trail it is. It leads 3 days though the Peruvian jungle, where you can do zip lining, water rafting, downhill mountain biking and…
You can find the recent capital of the Inca Empire on 3,399m high up in the Peruvian Andes. Cusco therefore even has a higher altitude than Machu Picchu and you can feel that. The first day I arrived I felt like an old lady wo had lost her walking stick and oxygen mask. Every few…
Walking through Cusco, Peru I couldn’t help but notice heaps of Peruvian mannequins. Highly neglected, sometimes a bit tortured, they stood their ground and proudly represented Peruvian high fashion. This is what they would have said:
Are you heading to Rio de Janeiro and don’t know what to do yet? Here’s a To-Do List of awesome activities you can not miss out on in Rio. Make sure to bring your camera. If you don’t walk around like a blind idiot, Rio is not much more dangerous than other cities in Brazil.…
Paragliding in Rio de Janeiro was one of the best experiences I have had so far. You pass mountains and glide though the air and can see birds beneath you. Everything is calm and you enjoy a one of a kind breathtaking view all over Rio. I loved it.
Hidden islands in Rio de Janeiro? We all know of the famous sights in Rio, we have heard of the famous Copacabana or Ipanema beach, seen pictures of Christ the Redeemer and probably googled the view of the Sugarloaf mountain. And though all of them are beautiful as fuck, there are also some magical places,…
Are you traveling on a budget? Trying to see as much as you can for as little money as possible? After traveling around the world for the past 8 years, there are some travel hacks I want to share with you, that will make your life on the go a lot easier and you will…
Australia has been one of my favourite countries so far. It is safe and easy to travel around, the people are laid back, funny and friendly and the nature is just mind-blowing. I’ve traveled along the east coast and listed you some places you cannot miss with a lot of photos on the way. Enjoy…
Canggu- Bali’s best kept secret? Since Kuta is now packed with tourists, souvenir shops, trash and Bintang bottles, the first pioneers started to flee to Canggu. As we know, Hipsters are the modern explorers marking the first era to destroy a local culture with fancy food, artsy restaurants and hip neighbourhoods. In those early stages…
Do you want to get some insights about the best beaches in Brazil? Then come join my 4 Day Road Trip around the northeast of Brazil, where I put together some drone footage of the nicest beaches on the way.
What to do when you’re in Bali and the rain pours down? Walking through puddles of water does not sound like the best thing to do on a holiday on a tropical island! But there are ways to enjoy Ubud, or Bali in general, when it rains like hell. WATCH THE RAIN PATTERNS!
Have you ever wondered what to pack? Have you always ended up packing too much? Take a look in my backpack and see what I pack in. I hope this helps you leave out some unnecessary things or it might give you some ideas that make your travels easier.
After some lazy days on Gili Air and an even lazier breakfast I tried to make my way to the harbor to head to Tetebatu, a small village in the mountains close to Mount Rinjani. A nice girl I’ve once met on a party close to my hometown in Germany had helped build a bungalow…
Crossfit Training- a training method that was invented by a dude called Greg Glassman. I am pretty sure he does not like humans. It is a workout that includes weightlifting, high-intensity interval training, gymnastics, plyometrics and many more workouts I have no clue of. But what had brought me to the point to work out…
Have you ever been to the small Koh Chang in Thailand? It’s a tiny island located in western Thailand, close to Ranong and one of my best friends runs a bar there. It was her birthday soon, so my friends and my me plotted a surprise visit, she had not expected. I had told her…
São Paulo – The financial district of Brazil. “It is the most populous and wealthiest city in Brazil. It exerts strong international influences in commerce, finance, arts and entertainment” (Wikipedia). Sound pretty nice, huh? But there is another side behind that financial city a lot of people are used to overlook.
Do you want to visit Big Island, Hawaii and see as much as possible in a few days? Here’s your guide to do so on a Road trip around the southernmost Hawaiian island. It is possible in four days though I would recommend at least five and spend some more time in Pahoa. I’ve lived…
Hawaii’s volcanoes are “shield” volcanoes. They don’t explode and spit lava, they let it gently flow out creating a beautiful landscape worth seeing. “The volcano is erupting!” I heard someone shout. PERFECT I thought. How do I get there?
Have you ever been to a Native American Sweat Lodge ceremony? I had not known what to expect when I signed up for this, but some hours later I found myself sitting around a fire in a tent sweating for 3 hours straight surrounded by strangers on drugs. Sober. And this is how it started:
Hahaha! Yes, this works – not kidding here. A good friend from Australia taught me how to hypnotise a chicken ✨ and this is how it works:
There we go again! Why volunteer work and not just hang out at the beach in Hawaii and enjoy the art of doing nothing? Because it’s boring! It’s so damn boring to hang out at a beach and relax. You can do it anywhere. I feel like volunteering gets me to experience the country in…
On my way to Hawaii I had an overlay of 7 hours in Vegas. I always tend to book the cheapest flight and as no-one wants to be stuck in airports for more than an hour, prices go down if you do. Why not actually enjoy it! I had enough time to explore the city.…
Do you need a job, but don’t have any qualifications? Do you want to get paid a little but actually do not want to work at all? High Five! I guess you have come to the right place! Customer service in Brazil provides all of the above mentioned requirements. All you have to do is…
Need to calm down your mind? Been over thinking? Meditation is the key to sort out every shit that has been piling up in your head. But how to start? Here’s are some easy guidelines explained in 7 steps. It took me ages to make it past stage 5, but I’m sure you can focus…
The goal of beer pong is to hit the beer cups of the opponent team with ping pong balls. Once a cup is hit, the beer inside has to be drunk. Each player of one team shows one ball, then it’s the other team’s turn. The game continues until one team loses all of their…
We have all seen the movie “The Beach”, with backpacking Leo who dives into a hidden paradise, – a secret island somewhere in the Andaman Sea. In the movie he got a map in Bangkok, found someone to charter a small boat with, and swam the remaining distance towards the island. Well guess what! You…
Off to Koh Phi Phi, an island where you can walk from one side to the other side in less than 5 minutes. It’s bigger than it sounds, but is also kind of narrow. In the middle you find yourself in tourist trap wonderland: t-shirts, bars, sand and whiskey buckets. It’s backpackers’ paradise and the…
And there we go: Jericoacoacoaaaa…what!? Yup, that one took me a while, but as most people just refer to this small fishing village as “Jeri”, you are good to go! Jericoacoara is located 300 kilometres north-west of Fortaleza. It lies in the middle of an environmental protection area and it cannot be entered with cars. The…
I will never learn how to pronounce this one, but the Chatuchawhat?! Chatuchak Market is one of the biggest animal markets in Thailand. Right in the middle of Bangkok it is as dodgy as it sounds. You can see almost every little creature caged up ready to be sold to stupid people who don’t give…
Angkor Wat? Angkor …What?! Never heard of it? Don’t worry- if you see the pictures you know what I am talking about. Angkor Wat is a temple complex in western Cambodia, close to Siem Reap. It is one of the largest religious monuments in the world and you need at least a day to visit…
Street Food … sounds like stomach ache and long bathroom sessions. Yes, there is some truth behind that rumour, though it can also be really fantastic if the setting is right…
Travel advice from other backpackers is always good to get when you’re on the road. Not denying that one, but watch out when it comes to hostels… And here is why:
Trat is boring, there is nothing to do, there are barely any hostels and it doesn’t have a nice beach. Still everyone miraculously gets stuck there! How come?
Traveling away from the rain had us end up on Koh Samed, one of the smaller islands in the east of Thailand. Escaping the rain is the only way to travel around Thailand during rainy season. Do not plan anything, just make sure that damn rain cannot catch up with you! We had flown from Chiang Mai…
The sun is shining and I am walking along the streets with one of my best friends. My work in Chiang Mai had come to an end. One last dinner before we were to head south to explore some islands. How could that not be a beautiful day. Well, just ask the panicking crab that…
“A weekend trip to PAI! On Scooters? Yeah let’s do this!” This sounded awesome!! We had a whole weekend … Friday until Sunday, which sounded really short when we started to talk about it. Could we skip school on Monday as teachers? Hahahaha sometimes being in school never ends (or not being in school). We…
Volunteering is working for free without getting paid! Sounds terrible, right? But there is so much more to that concept. Once you start, you will most likely not want to stop. Up until now I prefer to work/ volunteer when I’m traveling and I am not the most hard-working person on earth. I actually took…
You’re heading to Thailand? Great. You read the headline with the list of things you are not supposed to do, so I guess you are 1) really obeyant and don’t want to do anything wrong, then don’t worry- you wouldn’t probably do any of these anyways; or you are 2) very rebellious, then I welcome you…
I went to Bali, won a trip to Thailand, woke up in hospital, had lost the past 3-4 months of my memory and was sitting at the airport again. With me one of my best friends, who happened to travel to Bangkok aswell. She’s one of the coolest people I know and I was happy…
I I opened my eyes. The bed sheets were really comfortable. One of those feathery badass ones that make you want to stay in bed all day long. The crying eyes of my Mom made me want to leave this bed pretty quickly. The lights were too bright. A nurse was walking past my bed…
Nyepi day. I had no idea what I had to expect. After 4 insane days on the . I was on my way back to Bali. When I turned around I saw the white beach, we had hung out the day before. The water was light blue. Slightly pink clouds were floating in a sky…
Borobudur. The world’s largest Buddhist temple, located in central Java. It took me 17 hours to reach it from Bali and I have to say it was worth the struggle… hadn’t there been the umbrella people. UMBRELLA PEOPLE [Am’brela Pi:pl] Human beings of Chinese or Japanese origin holding up devices consisting of a circular canopy…
I was in the car for hours and hours and hours. The trip didn’t seem to end. My driver got his 5-year-old boy to join the journey and probably blocked out the fact that it was only me in the car, who couldn’t speak Indonesian fluently. Seemed fair. The road to our hotel in Java…
“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Leaving Bali to head to Java felt right. I started to get too comfortable and needed something new. But before heading to Java, there was something I needed to do. Full of the excitement that lies in heading…
YAY! A road trip! I LOVE those! Though this one was a bit fancier than normal: We had a driver. His name was Agung, he lived close to us in Ubud and didn’t talk much, but he nodded. So every time he did that, I pictured him saying “Yes great! Awesome” and this is how…
Bali. A tropical island in the Indian Ocean. But wait what? How can it snow there? And why would it bring me to Thailand? Sounds like an episode of Lost, but no polar bears in this story…
BALI. The Island Of Gods. Sometimes I wonder if these gods look down on their people with a huge grin on their faces. I guess they do and here is why:
Have you ever googled fancy hotels? Ever sat there in awe staring at their beautiful pools on your computer screen while sweating to death in a rundown internet cafe? No? Well, you definitely should, because there’s a way to get in there for free… But first let me tell you how not to do it.
Bananas! Packed with nutrients, rich in potassium and magnesium, they are considered one of the healthiest fruits and I DO HATE THEM. Oh MYYY … back in Bali just the mere thought made me shiver in disgust and here is why:
Studying Indonesian. This burning heat- it’s killing me! You get up in the morning and more or less force yourself into the shower to quickly wake up under annoying droplets of low water pressure that are coming down way too cold. But it’s good. It wakes you up, you feel refreshed and ready to start…
Using bathrooms in Indonesia is quite an experience I have to admit. Especially without toilet paper. And here we go… After 10 hours of sitting in the plane, eating too much weird food and watching series …and my failed attempts to beat that damn chess computer, I finally made it to Kuala Lumpur. My first stop before Denpasar.…