In a republic made up of more than 17000 islands you will obviously find the one or other beach 😮

Indonesia is not known for beaches as much as Thailand or other southeast Asian countries, however this may be only because the touristic infrastructure isn’t quite as developed as in some other countries. Meaning: there are many phantastic beaches in Indonesia, they are just a bit harder to get to than, say, Phuket. And many are completely natural – which means all the flotsam that the sea lands simple piles up on the beach.

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Today I want to show you a special plant, which grows exceptionally nice flowers, flowers like a firework!

In December 2011, when I arrived at the Vita guest house on Banda in the middle of the night, I saw it on the tree that grows in its yard.

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On the morning of the eclipse day, clouds moved in over Maba from the sea, so that I was afraid we wouldn’t see anything but clouds. We then rode a quixotic road inland because it looked as if there would be a clear view of the sky in this direction.

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Volcanos are almost omnipresent in Indonesia. From many places you can see several. Looking at the whole country, there are almost always a few that are currently active. Some time ago, I climbed one of those, the gunung Ibu (gunung = mountain, Ibu = woman, mother) in west Halmahera.

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Normally I’m not an early bird, rather like to sleep long into the day. But if there is something special that you can see and photograph only early in the morning, I’m eager to get up. Sunrise at nice viewpoints, and more generally the hour after sunrise, when the sun still stands low, the light is still warm and shines more from the side than from above, are often enough reason for me to get up early in Indonesia – more than at home! One other reason is that often, there is good visibility early in the morning, which then rapidly decreases as clouds come up during the day.

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