Take Off

X Play, f2.0, 1/2632, ISO 50, JPG

After the airport re-opened, it was time to leave Bali and head to Bangkok for a few days as a stop-over. To be honest, there's not that much to do in Bali after a few days anyway.
Bangkok is not my favorite city but should be fun for a short stay.

Bali Views

Another try to take some nice landscape photos during a 260km road trip around the eastern part of Bali got spoiled a bit by clouds.

Not just clouds but also some rain and fog but it still made for a nice experience and provided slightly different views most people expect from Bali.

The trip itself was nice and some of the roads along the mountains were great and very scenic.

Especially the area around Amed is very nice and would be worth staying at for a few days should I head back to Bali.

Bali Landscape

TG-4, f2.8, 1/1000, ISO 200, RAW, 25mm

Surfing

TG-4, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 160, RAW, 100mm

Chasing the Volcano

Some of you might have read the news about Mt. Agung, the volcano on Bali, starting to smoke and being close to an eruption.

While the news made it sound very bad, the situation in Bali was pretty much relaxed and I didn't hear or see anything from the volcano.

I decided to change that and take a road trip to photograph the volcano, it seemed exciting and fun.

Unfortunately, the weather got in the way. Clouds blocked the views of Mt. Agung from the area I figured would provide the best views.

Still, it was a great trip overall, some nice and very steep roads and great scenery around. I even got a few glimpses of the smoking Mt. Agung.

Yellow Umbrella

TG-4, f4.9, 1/320, ISO 200, RAW, 100mm

In Ubud

4 years ago, I chose Ubud as my base for staying in Bali. I figured it was quieter and away from the main tourist drag around Kuta.

It ended up being quite a nice stay and while it was touristy, it wasn't too busy and not too crowded.

Times have changed though and now Ubud is pretty crowded with even more tourist restaurants and souvenir shops around.

It's still reasonably nice thanks to the surrounding area and the traffic, while bad, is not as bad as in Depnasar.

Canggu Beach

After arriving in Depnasar last night, the first things to do were to get a motorbike and a hotel that's not near the airport.

Bali has a few tourist areas near Depnasar, with the most obvious and worst of all being Kuta, then the high end Seminak and Canggu, a more hipster and surfer area.

I decided to stay in Canggu since a friend stayed there and it seemed the best out of the available choices.

It also has a few bars with cheaper beer prices and some decent restaurants and local food stalls. The beach is not the best to be honest, no comparison with the beach in Da Nang but for surfing it's better.

Trip to Pantai Nglambor

 Having more time today, I decided to head to Nglambor beach for some snorkeling.

Not content with the fast route, I decided to take the scenic route. Many people go to Vietnam and Laos for motorbike trips but Indonesia has some amazing roads and scenery and is probably better than Laos for a motorbike trip.

After some detours on the scenic route, it got a bit late by the time I finally made it to Nglambor beach but there was enough time for some quick swimming and snorkeling.

The Olympus TG-4 is great to have along to take both photos from my motorbike journeys but also for the occasions when it's either pouring or when I am at a beach.

My underwater photos are not that amazing yet but I need more practice since it's not the same as doing street or landscape photography.

Trip to Ketep Pass

NO trip to Indonesia would be complete without seeing a volcano and given how many there are you never have to go to far to see one.

Mount Merapi is the closest volcano to Jogja and a short drive will get you either to the mountain itself where you can hike to the top or you can go to Ketep Pass, where you get a great view of Mont Merapi.

Since I didn't fancy hiking, I decided to drive to the Ketep Pass instead. The views along the way were great but unfortunately rain spoiled a bit the view once I got to the pass.

Lucky the rain stopped and the clouds cleared a bit to give me still a nice and atmospheric view of the surrounding landscape.

I can definitely recommend a drive to Ketep Pass, especially on a nice day you'll get some amazing views from there and the drive itself is not too bad either.