DAY OF MY LIFE: VISA "RUN" TO SINGAPORE

Like many of you probably know I had some issues with my visa as that freaking stamp in my passport stated that I should have left Indonesia on 17th of Oct but because of my accident I was overstaying. So I booked flights to Singapore and back. Nice early wake up at 5am so I have time to do my morning routines and have time to go to ATM before airport. Oh yea I dunno why but I just couldn't sleep so I had solid 1,5h sleep night before. Felt so energized!

I arrived to the airport and I was treated nicely. Staff directed me to the red carpet (VIP) check-in line and took my documents to do my check in and I could just sit and wait. After check-in it was time for immigration checkpoint which I knew was going to be painful. I was being polite and told to the officer I know I have overstayed before he even opened my passport.

"Ok, please follow my sir", and we walked to the immigration office.

"Sir you have overstayed 15 days. We have a fine of 300 000 rp per day making it total 4,5M rupiah"

I make my puppy face and explain the situation but with no luck. Officer handed me a piece of paper with contact details where I could try to write some kind of letter of mercy :D

After stacking the huge 2cm high pile of 100 000rp notes to the table and signing my fine I get the stamp on my passport. Free to go! I asked about this from my insurance company and they said they are not going to cover my fine. I asked why. Still after 3 days they haven't replied >:( Annoying!

Immigration shit handled and after setting of all the possible alarms at security check points it's time to rest somewhere. I saw a chinese restaurant with comfy looking sofas. I sat down and lifted my leg to relax. Like a hawk one of the staff members came and told me this is not public area you need to go. The menu looked so expensive that I decided not to even order a cup of tea and sloowly made my way elsewhere. Luckily I found this quite nice restaurant which had 4 TV screens on the wall showing Melbourne Cup, surfing, skiing even red bull rampage at some point and other extreme sports. I tried my luck and just raised my legs and closed my eyes. No one disturbed me yeah!

After walking to my gate which felt like walking a marathon I discovered that the flight is delayd. It was already delayed by one hour and now two more hours. Huoh.. Back to the extreme sport bar.

Having a rest on my way back to the sport bar

While I had my rest over there I got news update. The flight was delayed again by two more hours and new time for departure was 2:15pm. AAARGH! I was hoping to spend time at Singapore but now it seemed like a far away dream only. My luck is just unbelievable...

Rest of the trip went pretty normally except one thing. We were about to land to Singapore and you know all the air brakes on and one could actually see the airport already when suddenly the captain makes a maneuver and pulls the aircraft back to the sky. It felt like being in a rollercoaster. Engines roaring and ears popping. Everyone were sitting silently and waiting for information. Few minutes later we got the announcement: "This is your captain Sum Tin Went Wong. Sorry about the previous one but we had another plane in front of us" OH WOW :O :D After a short round trip we landed safely.

So because of the delay I didn't have the time to go explore the city of Singapore. Instead I booked my flight to Yangon Myanmar and had a little snack while talking to this middle aged dutch couple who were on their way to Sydney and were marveling at the Australian visitor entry form. I shared my expertise on that.

Flight to Bali went normally and my trusted taxi driver Suka was waiting for me at the airport to give me a lift back to my hostel. Because the official Blue Bird company have no access to the arrival terminal Suka just picked me up with his personal car on his own free time. Pretty cool!

After this long day I finally got my new visa stamp and another 4wks in Indonesia. Hopefully my leg will be in good condition and I can take my flight to Myanmar with a smile on my face!

PS. The next post will be about the Rinjani trek.

BACK TO INDONESIA

First in Australia is here by done. Amazing year that went way too fast. Luckily I did my farm work so at least another year ahead. First, lets enjoy Asia.

I arrived to Bali and went no where else than to Canggu. For my surprise, in a negative way, I realised how much the area has developed and is developing all the time. In few years it will be next Seminyak. Anyway, I enjoy Canggu. At first my plan was to stay there only for few days but ended up surfing and partying for a week surrounded by amazing people.

At the hostel I met a girl and we decided to do some adventurous island hopping. Sounded good as I haven’t been to these island and the pictures Adele showed really convinced me.

So we took the boat to Nusa Lembongan. Did some snorkeling, exploring the neighbouring island Nusa Ceningan and had a nice massage. And we got the most cleanest and cheapest homestay I’ve ever been into. Owners were really nice too giving us free candy :D We also enjoyed a free infinity pool with million starts above us. We were walking the beach and saw this nice looking pool in a villa area and decided just to jump in as it seemed to be quiet over there :P 

Cliffs at Nusa Ceningan

After Lembongan and Ceningan we took a boat to Nusa Penida, the real gem. Our plan was to enjoy the million star hotel and camp on the beaches but first night was ruined by the rain. As we were driving back from the beach and stopped to take some petrol the people of the house asked where we going. After hearing we don’t have a place to stay they offered us their daughters room! Filled with toys and 1 mattress we accepted it. Anyway we didn’t want to get wet and they made us food and we had some karaoke too. Really nice people! 

Our hosts at Ceningan

Moped gang

For these guys western style moped gang was a new thing

About the previous beach, after short walk and spiky rocks, there was hiding the most beautiful and completely natural infinity pool ever. We heard a story of a girl who unfortunately were flushed into the ocean by strong high tide waves hitting the pool and ended up drowned. I had a look at the tide charts and it was only mid tide getting to high so good to go! Absolutely amazing feeling standing at the edge feeling and seeing how the waves hit the rocks! Bit scary but to experience something you have to be a bit brave! Oh and there was also a pretty cool natural bridge.

Angel's Billabong infinity pool

Cool pose

Broken Sea natural bridge next to Angel's

Next day was a success! Swimming to an island with a temple on top of it. It required a bit effort to swim there and the currents were challenging so we had to be careful when trying to climb to the island. It can really hurt if a wave throws you towards the rocks. 

Island we swam to

We also found a temple built inside a cave

Entrance to the cave

Then we drove to another beach in the middle of the night. Navigating by using my headlamp we climbed down this really steep track. The track didn’t lead us to the beach but instead to a real treehouse! :O:DDD That looked so DOPE we had to climb in even though the door was locked. The treehouse had a bed inside so we decided to settle in for a night. Interesting thing was that we had no idea how it looked like outside coz it was pitch black. So after enjoying the night we woke up 5:30 to see the sunrise and that UNREAL view to the ocean! I’ve never experienced a wake up like that before and for completely free! :D

Treehouse

Sunrise from the treehouse 8)

Next stop was Ubud in Bali. Adele had her scooter left at the pier and for our surprise when we got back to Sanur (the pier in Bali) the scooter was NOT there! WTF..? The locals said that some guy came and took the scooter. Our only hope was that the guy who took it was the owner, not thief or some other lower class scumbag. After several phone calls and a visit to rental place all was good! There was misunderstanding about extending the rent so the owner tracked down (how the fuck?) the scooter and took it back.

After one night in Ubud we were heading to Gili Trawangan. Yes, Gili T again but I had few other mates going there as well so I thought it will be good times and its only short distance from Lombok where I wanted to go next.

This lovely lady gave us both necklaces as a gift. Ok it probably worked coz then I bought my first souvenir. Map of Bali carved in wood. It actually is pretty nice. 

Good times with locals!

After Gili I said goodbye to Adele and me and my mates took the boat to Lombok and headed to Kuta beach which is the complete opposite to Bali’s Kuta. Really small and undeveloped village. Good change of atmosphere! We also met two girls Julia and Laura who we met in Canggu before. We did some surfing and a trip to the waterfalls. Waterfall trip was great. We saw two snakes. Georg’s and some brown poisonous little bastard which almost bit Georg. I won’t forget how he jumped in to the air when he saw that. 

Day trip to waterfalls

It’s friday morning and rest of the group is heading back to Bali and Im sitting in a car driving to Senaru to start my trek to Gn Rinjani. It had an eruption just last week and it was closed for few days but it’s open again so lets hit it! Hiking the volcano takes 3 days so I probably have some kind of social media silence during that time so don’t worry. I’ll report when Im back!

GIMME YA VOICE!

Holaa!!

Once again I apologise for not updating my blog. Its just been quite normal everyday life here at Gold Coast working 6 days a week so nothing too special hasn’t happened. We made a little roadtrip few weeks back to Byron Bay and Nimbin with dem lads which was one epic adventure. I lost my phone which luckily was found afterwards and Im getting it back! Sweeeet! Will post sum stuff when I get it!

Hippy vibes at Byron. Absolute amazing time.

Beautiful Gold Coast 8)

But lets get back to business! My first year here in Australia is about to end and Im heading back to Asia. Im starting from Bali. Yes yes I know I’ve been there already but what can I do. It’s really lovely place and I was thinking of taking part in a surf camp to master the waves of Padang Padang! :D

After Bali? I’ve been to Sumatra and Java so east is where I point my compass. Question is where to? There's Komodo, Flores, Sulawesi, Papua, sooo many places! I need your, my dear friend's help. Any piece of advice, hints or tips are welcome!

Places in eastern Indonesia where you have been and liked it, stuff you have done or know that are good adventure OR then just things you want ME to do! :D 

IT’S ALL OPEN!  GIVE IT OUT LOUD!

After Indonesia I was thinking of going to Philippines so ALL THE ABOVE APPLIES FOR THIS TOO!

Please leave comments here beloooow or if you’r feeling shy just PM me.

Thanks fellas and bellas!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!

365! That is the number of days I’ve been travelling so far. 365 days ago I left my home country Finland behind and started my big journey. Journey that has been one hell of a ride! Malaysia, Indonesia and now Australia. I must say that I’ve honoured the name of my blog pretty well as at first my plan was to come straight to Oz but as you know it didn’t quite happen like that.

I have confronted many ups and downs. I’ve been in situations I’ve never thought of being. I have found myself lost in the middle of nowhere but I have survived. Even when been lost I have found something good in those moments. I've found something in me. I’ve learned. Heck I slept in a living room of a local house in Indonesia and enjoyed their hospitality after bus driver happily informed me that this is my last stop. Moment that I never forget among all the other great moments. There are so amazing people all over the world. I’ve been blessed to meet at least a tiny amount of those this world carries. Nature. I’ve seen many sunsets with a surrounding that looks almost unreal. I’ve climbed volcanos in the middle of a pitch dark night to witness the most beautiful sunrises this Mother Earth offers. I’ve seen how people can destroy nature. How people can destroy themselves. I’ve experienced history, culture, art, food, people, everything I can imagine. World is such a big playground but during my travels I’ve also learned that distances really don’t matter. Just go! It’s our playground and it’s ours to enjoy!

Cliché or not but that really isn't bullshit when people tell that you just can’t understand certain things if you don’t travel first. There are things you just have to experience to understand and feel them. And to do so you really need different kind of travel than 2 weeks in Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach. You really need to back your stuff and start wandering. And that reminds me of another cliché quote but yet it’s so much true. “Not all who wander are lost"

After all this being said, after 365 best days of my life, I still crave for more. 

And more will I see :) Going with the flow and takki auki!

Enjoying the Queensland winter at Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast. Eyes at the future and all the surprises it will bring to me!

CAIRNS WORLD CUP SUM UP

Tzadaam! Race is over and we have three happy winners. Matt Walker won the Juniors, Rachel Atherton women and Loic Bruni took his first ever World Cup win! Congratulations to everyone :)

Day was really beautiful and there was no sign of clouds or rain. Perfect conditions for racers, spectators and media to enjoy the race. Only one bad news was that the junior cup leader Finnley Iles couldn't compete as he broke his arm. Shiiaaat! He was totally flying on the course when doing practise runs.

Volunteers selling mosquito repellent and sunscreen

Fox stand presenting their forks

Sadly this rig was just hanging in the tent on race day  

My favorite athlete the Italian National Champion Veronika Widmann

I though I would take tons of photos during the race but then I realised that fuck, I want to see and enjoy the race so I just took few photos and rest of the time I was yelling like crazy and making noise with my bell and horn. That's the right world cup spirit right?!

Instagoodness

The race went well without any major crashes. Steve Smith got unlucky and his run was ruined by flat front tire. Still he crossed the finish line with a long wheelie. Stylish as always. The number one in qualifications Troy Brosnan seemed to take the win leading in every splits but the last 300 metres took it's toll and Troy ended up on second place just +0.493 seconds back from Bruni. The disappointment was tangible.

Vige Gaetan (10th Junior Men) making his way thru The Generator

Ruffin Thibaut (60th Men Elite) pedalling like crazy towards finish line

The sad man. But after the first expression he put a little smile on his face

And the happy man who took his first World Cup WIN!

If Bruni enjoyed his first win, this champ was celebrating her 28th win with a margin of 7 seconds before Tracey Hannah. She's unstoppable at the moment.

After the awards were over it was time to prepare for the Cairns nightlife. It was quite cool to have drinks with the buds like Brendan Fairclough. To sum this up the whole World Cup event was a really great experience and I will definitely remember it always! I still got some deconstruction tomorrow and a thank you BBQ offered by Mountainbike Australia.

 

And for everyone's information: THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE NEXT YEAR HERE IN CAIRNS SO BE HERE OR BE NOWHERE! IT'S GONNA BE BIG!

SEE YA IN 2017! 

CAIRNS DOWNHILL WORLD CUP PREPARATIONS

As I told you in previous post I was heading to Cairns for the UCI Downhill World Cup. You have probably seen my posts already in social media about the event and thats GOOD! I'm going to recap here shortly what I've been up to here.

I started working on Monday in construction team offering my absolute expertise in this field. We built few platforms for the TV crew on the XCO course. After we finished the platforms I saw one guy struggling to decide how to line the course so I gave a hand and did some lining as well. All the riders can now thank me of that gnarly lining before hell's gate! xD Next thing was to sit and relax. Working at the WC event ain't too stressful at least for the casual workforce.  Before the first day was done I put few signs on place at the finish gate, installed a grippy flooring at the DH start gate and set up the pallets to the ground at the bike wash corner. People were totally excited about the colours we put there. Few shades of green gives Aussies a little mental cutting edge against other nationalities. Time to call day done and open a beer. Cheers!

On Tuesday I was in broadcast crew. This was quite good exercise as our job was to pull loads of TV cable from the bottom of the hill to the TV cameras. Friday was also broadcasting. All the cables were on the hill so now we were taking the cameras on right spots.

Camera spot 6 to truck. We are on and rolling. Sweet!

Thursday was exciting day as I was one of the 41 course marshals. I started climbing towards my spot at 7:00am and because of the slight delay in practise I got my ass back to the event village at about 6:00pm. Quite long day but who cares. I was able to see all the pros practising their lines and for my surprise my marshal point showed to be quite interesting as who else than Duncan Philpott, Sven Martin and Tim Bardsley-Smith was keeping me company for several hours. It was so cool to chat with these sport photograph GURUS!! And as cherry on top of everything I also met the mountainbike legend Rod Warner! 

Morning on qualification day. Never get bored of these views here in Queensland.

Martin and Tim as snipers behind the net. Nice camouflage bros!

Claudio Caluori and Troy Brosnan doing their course preview

Massive huck before the Paw Paw's

Tomorrow is the Big Day as the racers are going to fly through the tropical jungle of Cairns here in Queensland Australia and settle who will be the winner of round 2. Lets hope we have a nice sunny weather and everything goes well.

PS. I have tomorrow off so I can concentrate on the race and shoot some photos and just fully enjoy the World Cup atmosphere! Stay tuned and remember to watch the Redbull live stream from redbulltv.com ! See ya laterz!

HAPPY 88th FARMDAY TO ME!!

Super stoked right now! Im so excited to inform that my hard time in Merbein is done and I have completed my 88 days at farms to be eligible to get my 2nd year visa to Australia! Woohoo! 8) The morning got a real kick start as my boss gave me a shot of moonshine to celebrate the day and said "Welcome to manhood" :D What a man!
Ok, my hard time isn't actually over coz I have a good job and I have to save some currency. Im planning to stay few more weeks until I head back north to Cairns for the downhill world cup event! Sweeeet!! So looking forward to it!

But lets take a quick look what's been going on.

After my holiday with my parents I came back to Merbein to earn some money and celebrate my 30th birthday! Ya man! People won’t believe that I turned 30. And I never believed that I would celebrate that day while travelling. I think I have never said this before so now its the time. Its never too late to travel and im glad I made my decision. This has been the most amazing thing I’ve done in my life. 

I think most of you really don't know how this stuff works here. Lets take a closer look what's happening. What is it like to do your hard time and earn your 88 days of rural work for the 2nd year visa? Not the simplest of questions but this is my point of view from where I have worked.

Between 3:30-7:30 depending of your job the alarm goes off and it's time to face another day in paradise. Now don't laugh when I say this but winter is coming and the temperature can be at +10C in the morning and that is FREEZING. I have never slept with clothes on but here I started wearing shorts and t-shirt so I wont wake up in the middle of the night shaking. Just one month back the situation was totally different. Temperature didn't go below +30C even during nights.

After quick brekkie and making my lunch (2 sandwiches with 1)tuna or 2)eggs) I jump to a van and driver drops us to work.

Then depending of your job, put your headphones on if doing pruning or picking some fruits or like me, jump to ATV/tractor and start messing around. Unlike in Finland there is no legal break after 2h of work and so on. Fuck those laws and rules. No one cares about those things here. Only thing you have to worry about is your work. My basic day is from 10-12h and usually I have one 10 to 20min break. Sometimes I eat my lunch while driving. Longest day I've done was 17h and after 3h of sleep another 12h shift. And forget about having weekends off. When the season is on, we work! During past 4 weeks I've had 3 days off and normal weekly hours are around from 75 to 80. Obviously at first that was like hell. It's +40C outside and the sun is trying to melt me. Normal water consumption has been around 5-7l per day. Pretty crazy aye?

Taking empty crates to grape pickers

My Malaysian fans. They are always super stoked when I speak some malay with them! I even got invitation to Borneo to climb the highest mountain Kota Kinabalu.

Anyway it is so weird how human can adapt to situations like this. Well not everyone, I have seen that. Some people cross their limits and just cracks and not always is that nice to see. I've been thinking how hard it was sometimes to survive the days back in Finland with coffee breaks and proper lunch break but here the times just flies and boom I notice that I have worked 5h without break. Also the 2 day weekend felt always waaaayyy too short to gain your energy back and feel ready for the next week at work. At the moment we have a situation and not all the grapes are ready to be picked so im having my second day off in a row now. Exceptional! And guess what? Feels like I haven't worked in ages. I've been able to do stuff or just do nothing. Actually yesterday I asked if I could help somewhere else because I didn't want to have second day off. Totally weird state of existence. This is also probably why im writing this new post at the moment hehe :D

Downsides of this lifestyle is some sort of lack in personal life. I don't have the energy to socialise every evening drinking beer and playing goon pong but lately it has been better as we start working few hours later. And I have set my mind to work hard and earn money so that hasn't bothered me too much. Some people have even declined to take certain job offers because of the long days and not being able to party after that. Also I haven't been eating the most healthy food coz sometimes I just haven't had the energy to cook. Easier to drop by Maccas or KFC after work and go to bed. But I think those times are gone now as season is going to end soon.

Playing beer pong with my Swedish bro Simon. We were on fire and won like at least 13,8 games!

Ok, now we have survived a day at farm and we can cross yet another day off from the calendar. But what happens after work? People gather around to garden, front porch or living room to watching tv/movies and enjoying the free time. Life in Merbein is really simple. There is one market with bottle shop, one pub, ATM and 2 takeaway "restaurants". We have a river which is the border between Victoria (where Merbein is) and New South Wales. I think everyone knows this river thing already :D Within 15min drive we got the rural city of Mildura. Funny thing, although it's so close to us we rarely go there. Well, at least I don't spend too much money to nonsense here :D

Sometime in the evening usually between 7 and 9 the job board for next day comes up and there you can see what time your pick up leaves and where you work. For me it's only the wake up time that interests me coz im one of the lucky guys (meaning working hard and not fucking things up) that work only for one farmer. Trusted dude I am!

That's pretty much it. Doing your required farm days is doing like hard time in jail but more fun! :D Anyway im so excited and looking forward to go somewhere else and start travelling again. After all as I said this place is quite dead. I'll tell you guys more when it's time to move. Cheers all!