What is it with fresh mountain air, white slopes and having time off? I figured it is perfect for clearing the mind and let new and fresh stuff in. Last week I was in Davos, Switzerland for a week of sweet snowboarding.

It was great except for the damn pain in my back which kept me off the Parsenn and Jakobshorn mountains for a couple days. Either way we had good times. The sun was shining, the slopes were in good condition and again, having time off.

I took some photos with my iPhone using Hipstamatic, Instagram and Spica you can spot them in the full post.

My roll of film got developed at the end of last week. It had some photos from our trip to Berlin on it. Stoked as I was I immediately started scanning them. Each one of them reminds me how happy I am with my old Leica camera.

These were taken with a Leica M3, 50mm Summicron and Kodak T-Max400 film pushed 2 stops. Scanned with an Epson Perfection V500 scanner.

Berlin was a delight. Equipped with good people and the Berlin Unlike iPhone app we took the plane on Friday morning from Amsterdam to Berlin. Berlin, a city with such high energy which runs through the city, I love it!

We stayed in Kreuzberg at 36 Rooms, a very nice hostel with nice bars in the near area. The first day we just walked for a bit through the neighbourhood and hoppen on the subway towards Alexanderplatz in Mitte. We visited a stairway gallery in an alley and had some beers at Café Cinema (aka Café Kino) on the Rosenthaler Straße.

Len made me this wallpaper containing some of the pictures taken during our trip. It makes me smile!

Since we dropped back in town, I started to think of a lot again and all the fun stuff that’s suppose to be going on here. I’m eager to see all the guys again. I hope you are too. I know my parents will be happy to see me again and I’ll enjoy the Tuesday diners (no big portions for me anymore mom). But there’s way more.  

Wow, this was a mesmerizing 100 105 day trip! So nice to see all those peoples cultures and habits. So divers, so damn cool! Needless to say I really enjoyed all of this. A great experience and even a better one to share it with my cara, Len. I’m really happy we did this thing together. It’s good to know you can totally count on someone in a relationship and I love her for that.  

Me: Yes it is. Who is this?

MA: This is Malaysia Airlines. We have an airplane for you.

Me: What?!

MA: You are flying in four hours!  

Is it this bad? I guess it is. We were supposed to be sitting in the airplane right now doing Kuala Lumpur first before heading on to Amsterdam. Wasn’t it for the ash cloud which got our flight pushed to the 30th of April. Kind of a bummer at first because we were all set and you know, wanted to see all you guys again. Well, ain’t gonna happen till May.  

‘No thanks man. We’re just fine for now.’ Seems annoying knowing they’re asking you 30 times a day or so right? Well, you have to give those guys a break. They’re trying their best to make some money. It’s like even when you’re already on a scooter they still want to rent you another one. ‘Yeah, than you have 4WD my friend’. No thanks. You can imagine how funny they are right? Over here on sweet Gili Trawangan there’s no transport so there are no guys asking you.  

After spending 2,5 week on Bali it’s time to say goodbye to Bali for now and take the boat to the Gili’s. Last week we stayed in Sanur with Jan and Anneke (Len’s parents). We had a good time visiting some cultural places, enjoyed good meals and drinks and each others company. Len had success in her silver hunt so her business can flourish when we get home.   

Len got her parents a cooking class for their birthday over in Ubud, Bali. So we left Sanur and headed for this artistic place in the center of the island. We arrived at Casa Luna and learned some cool stuff about the Indonesian Balinese kitchen. Funny thing is they mix like 12 ingredients and make a big paste of it all before hitting it with the food (fish, meat, vegetables or even just rice). And right, they love it hot. As in spicy hot!  

Bali is sweet guys. Last week ended with our last surfing session and am happy to tell I was able to ride some green waves. Needless to tell they gave me a great feeling and still I’m telling. You just want more and more of  ‘em. Good times! Unfortunately no good pictures or videos of me riding the waves.  

We’re on Bali catching waves right now and we’re loving it! We’re at this surfcamp called KIMA surf which is all really well organized and it fully lives up to our expectations. You know, eat, surf, sleep. Very good place, nice people. The whole nine yards I guess.

The first day we had to get used to the waves at the Gado Gado spot. It was quite hard for us starters. But at the second day I already got promoted to the 2 * group. Yeah, right on!  

Hi there. News from the Len&Joe travelogue adventures. We have arrived on the Perhentian Island after a quick transfer deal between Lake Maninjau and the sweet island via Padang and Kuala Lumpur. And as far as we can tell it’s beautiful! And the water… ah just crystal clear and lukewarm. Just the way we like it. Guess we’ll be doing some more snorkeling and fixing the tan the coming days. Still 1/3 (33 days) to go and we’re loving it! Sunsets, sun, ocean, little breeze, coconuts… Can anyone provide us some tips how we’re able to make a living of all this? Would be great!  

Long time no see. We’re still on Sumatra at the moment and are waiting for our plane to head for the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. You know, to fix the tan. To relax more and to remind us how lucky we are to do all this.

So what about Sumatra. Are we feeling it? Not as a whole unfortunately. We weren’t quite aware that it got struck so many times by nature disasters (even since we’re here! Read more about it later) which got the whole tourism thing down which is kind of sad.