Black & White San Francisco

San Francisco, Just Beautiful!

When you are in San Francisco, it’s like you are in Europe!! Everybody will tell you this and it is true. We extended our stay here and spend more than 2 weeks, so that says enough about the place. The Andrews Hotel is the BEST!!!. The staff, especially Oscar, are very friendly and helpful. It’s a small boutique hotel with a very,
very good Italian restaurant (FINO). As a guest you get a complimentary glass of wine every day between 17.00 and 19.00. The perfect time after a long day of exploring the city.

San Francisco is now one of our favorite cities in the world. It is clean, very safe, picturesque, friendly and just amazing! We walked on the Golden Gate bridge, took the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf and spend the most romantic night at the Top of the Marks!!

Too much to tell, so just enjoy the photos…

Maui, Tails of Whales

"

Hawaii and her Beautiful Islands!

Oahu, Kauai, Hawaii(the Big Island) and Maui….My god, what are those islands beautiful!! We flew to every island and stayed around 3 weeks in total. Not only we had terrific weather, the food, the people, the scenery was just perfect. From every island we can say lots of nice things, but we will give you some highlights…

Kauai is very laidback, but really developed. You‘ll find 30-ers, well educated, environmentally aware people. A lot of Americans moved here to spend more time to live than work. A very friendly environment with all the luxury around. Hanalei Bay was the most perfect place….Imagine yourself, palmtrees, guave plantations, the beautifull ocean, colorful hammocks, stop at Mango Mamma’s for the best breakfast and lunch on the whole Island!!!!! (next to the school on the road to Hanalei Bay). Around lunchtime taking a surf in the relaxing bay with a longboard, feel the sand between your toes, see the sunset and go back home and make some dinner with some vegetables and fruit from the garden.....Do you need more??

Hawaii, Two sides, Two Words: Rainy & Sunny (and a Volcano Park!!!).
You have to see it to believe it! We loved to see the volcano environment, especially if it is still active and you can see the lava flows. Beautiful and so peaceful. When you go, you get a ticket for 7 days (you can’t walk because of the distances). So if they give you 7 days to see the area, imagine how big it is!

Oahu is very nice too. Waikiki is crowded, but a really romantic place. The Northshore is nice to see the big waves and surfers who rides them. Hale’iwa is a very nice place and they have nice restaurants there (we recommend the Thai). And then there is Diamond Head!! From here you have a 360 view and you can see the whole of Waikiki. A typical TravelFlavour happening. A beautiful view and climb up.

Maui, not only we met our friends from Australia here, we saw lots and lots of whales, amazing!! These animals are really huge!! Even the baby is scary big… but what a beautiful encounter. Some great pictures taken again and a day to remember with our friends from OZ.

We also went up the Halekala..laleualei or something like that….If you’ve seen “50 first dates” you would understand, we can’t remember all the Hawaiian names….
Again a volcanic mountain area, but now 3 km above sea level. We went up to experience the sunset. While going up by car, we drove some parts through the clouds. That was something special, instead of flying through them by airplane. You have to be carefull that you don’t get sick of the height, so take it slowly. Off course we saw the famous Silver Sword (see picture). A plant/flower only found on the top of the Maui volcano. When we where at the highest point we waited for the sunset…“Downstairs”, at sea level, it was 30 degrees, but now “upstairs”, at 10.000 ft. it was like minus 10 degrees!!?!?! What the F*&K!! I’m carrying my thermo underwear to every hot place until now, for what?? And now I forget to put it on??!! So people, after like, 5 seconds, I couldn’t take pictures anymore, because my fingers where frozen!! Thank God I heard my mothers voice (hallucinating from the cold?!) “honey put your hands under your arm pits … And after a while I could move my hands again. Did I already tell you I LOVE my MOTHER!!! Off course Huib was really supporting, he laughed the whole time, because let say he just adored me (so I want to believe)….But overall one of the best experiences again….You’ve got to do it, to believe it!

Oahu

Kauai

Hawaii, The Big Island

Volcano Park, The Big Island

Los Angeles, City of Dreams!!

After a bad two weeks in Tahiti we’d finally arrived in LA! It was amazing to see the difference after a couple of weeks of Island Style. It was busy, hectic, developed and Fantastic!!

Unfortunately when we arrived Huib got sick (on Tahiti of course), very sick! So after a couple of days staying in our kabel tv- hotel (with150 channels!!!), we could finally explore the city. We stayed at the Comfort Inn on Sunset Boulevard, yep guys the place to be (if you’re on the right side of it….). Because the city is much bigger than you think. Like in every movie they talk about blocks, you know, 3 blocks further, etc. Well the BLOCKS in LA are more like 3 football stadiums each!!?!?!?! That means if someone tells you it is just 4 blocks away, don’t think you can walk it easily! Here’s a tip: TAKE THE BUS!! We are used to walk a lot, high mountains in NZ, national parks in OZ, jungle tracks, shopping (poor Huib), you name it!! We can do it, but LA, well let’s say that the public transport is really a must. But it’s good arranged. For just US$3,- you can hop-on-hop-off everywhere you want for the rest of the whole day. So we thought to take the bus to Santa Monica and Venice. Santa Monica Boulevard is a parallel street of Sunset Boulevard. So taking one bus and just sit and wait until you arrive. After almost 2 hours we finally arrived!! (and that’s not because there is a lot of traffic). We thought that it was just half an hour drive from the boulevard and how much longer can it be??!! Well the bus driver told us it was just a little bit more than 50 km!! picture this: ONE STREET 50KM LONG!!!! So LA is BIG!! But very nice…

Everybody is living there own dream here. Even if they are homeless, they all live in their own movie, soap or dream! From the guy in the bus with his big Parrot, thinking he is a pirate, from the old homeless lady who was flirting with Huib by telling him she was a famous movie star in the twenties!! I couldn’t stop laughing when once some crazy dude hopped on the bus and kept shouting: NEXT STOP – ISRAEL every time the next stop was announced. Everybody was shouting to this guy: HEY – SHUT THE F*CK UP, GET OF THE BUS M*TH#RF*CKR… It was as we where in a movie scene or something.

Hollywood, Beverly Hills: the house of John Travolta is amazing and Marciano (from Guess) has 30 or something Ferrari’s on the driveway, Rodeo Drive: nice vibe is hanging there around sunset, Downtown: the Guggenheim-alike looks good, and the night clubs like the famous SKY BAR and Ivy restaurant are really good fun. Even the Premiere of “Music and Lyrics” with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore!! Yes, ladies and gentleman we saw them in live!!!! (And for the girls, Hugh is GREAT!!!).

So definitely a must see, especially if you are a movie addicts like us!

Hasta la vista, baby! We’ll be back!

Los Angeles

TIP

Just click once on one of your favourite photo!

The Forgotten Story

There a moments in your life, you just don’t want to relive! This is one of those moments….We forgot to post this story, don’t ask me why but we don’t want to keep this to ourselves.

As you already know we went to Siargao Island, from the Flavour item, but how we came there is a story itself. We departed from Cebu, The Philippines and a friend of us booked a flight and told us this was a very safe airline. Because in Asia you just never know…
We were going to fly with Asian Spirit and there is a saying about that airline; “You fly like angel – you land like a spirit”…due to the high number of plane crashes?!?!
We were very excited to go to Siargao, because it would be our first adventurous trip on our world trip. It was a paradise island with millions of palm trees and nice exotic cocktails, so we would have our first relax week from the day we departed. What could possibly go wrong??

On the airport I was making fun and told Huib it would be a very small airplane. But what I didn’t knew that it really was a small airplane. To be precise; an 18-seater with two propellers!!! Before us a couple of other dudes also checked in with either two boards!!?? So when we saw the airplane we still thought it was a joke. Because how can 12 surfboards!! And 18 people excluding the crew?? What CREW there was no crew!! Fit in this airplane??

Well it did fit, but don’t think an emergency exit would help, because our entrance aka emergency exit was blocked. Yep, by surfboards! So still we were making fun with everybody in the airplane and laughing about how packed this little flying thing was. The flight would be 1 hour and after that an other 15 mins. We had a stop at Surigao.

In the airplane I red the newspaper of that day, and I saw an article over the Typhoon Milenyo, what had destroyed litterly Manila and region, 78 people died in that Typhoon, just 4 days before. But an other Typhoon Neneng was rushing over that day!! Over our region?! We didn’t knew that, in Cebu the sun was shining and it was bloody hot! So, I showed Huib the article and we were like….no way we will have troubles with that otherwise we wouldn’t be flying?

After 45 minutes, we were in trouble. The airplane was shaking and it was very dark outside. We got in a tropical storm! We had some aircushions and everybody was quiet and we only looked to each other. Huib and I hold hands and I was thinking that this couldn’t be happening. When the pilot tried to land in Surigao the whole plane was shaking and because off the strong wind we had a few terrifying airdrops as well. We almost hit some palm trees before we landed.

So we did land but we had to go out, because for some people this was their final destination, almost ours too. It was still raining and the wind blew us away before we could enter the terminal…well terminal it was more like a waiting area with just one guard? We did got umbrellas but that wasn’t a help. I wanted to kiss the ground just like the Pope! So happy that we made it. In the waiting area some dudes were also catching the plane again to go to Siargao. Yep, we still had an 15 minutes flight to go. Before we knew we had to go back on the plane. But me and Huib were in a rush or something, because which idiot is going back on that same plane with a heavy storm going on to fly an other 15 minutes!!!! All of us went back on the plane! Don’t ask me why. And in a strange way we were making fun?!? What’s that, FEAR? Well the surfboards went back too and before we knew we were taking off. MY GOD!! This was really a flight to HELL!! Imaging this, you sit in a 18 seater-plane with no emergency exit, not that that would help you, in a Typhoon called Neneng, and you just read the paper of how many people died in the Typhoon a couple of days before. Plus you just survived, 10 minutes ago, a nearly airplane crash!! HOW WOULD YOU FEEL!?!?!

Well apparently Huib had the strong feeling of taping this all, maybe to sew them after words and I was sitting next to the agent of the airline!? He told me this was routine business and the pilot was the best one. He flew every week and this pilot, a she, was very good. This region is known for a bumpy flight he said. So he was trying to relax me and to be honest it helped. But when we had a FREE fall, we weren’t relaxed at all anymore. One guy flew above and bumped his head. He was a very big tough guy and now looking at me with real fear in his eyes. We were all afraid. We saw the palm trees coming nearer again and only hills. No roads, no houses, no nothing only Palm trees!! And when the agent said to me,” my god where is she flying to? this is not the runway!?!” And we were already flying for 20 minutes! He stood up to look out of every window. We fall a couple of times and the plane was heavenly shaking.Well that was my breaking point. I was sweating, swearing and squeezing Huib’s hand. I thought How could this be the end of our worldtrip?

The pilot apparently took an other route and before we knew we saw a runway, well more a piece of land with grass and we supposed that would be the runway. And it was, again with shaking, and trying to hit some palm trees an almost crash then a landing. But complements to the pilot. The co-pilot however, well he was pretty white and got sick.

When I stepped out of the airplane I waited for the pilot. I talked to her, because I wanted to know who was flying back a week later?? Yes people, I was already checking everything out for my return flight.

Well the owner of our resort was picking us up in a very nice minibus. Again with two surfboards 5 people in a minibus, which was stripped from the inside. I sat in the middle with two surfboards against my head and with every bump I hit my head on the roof….but I was happy to be still alive…It was an 1 hour bumpy road. But the nature was already stunning! And soon we forgot about the flight…

The day after the owner told us we could go with a boat to a surf break just in front of Dako island. Well that was nice, we thought. Apparently the whole resort knew this and we would go with 9 people, 6 surfboards and 5 bodyboards and two locals as our captains on a BANG-KA (see picture). Without life-vests, don’t ask me this too. Oh, and remember the Typhoon Neneng. Well the sun was shining and this island was really paradise.
We were standing with all the surfers to go and we were figuring out how 11 people with all their gear fit in that little boat? So happy as we were we jumped in the boat and again full of fun we were making joke’s. On the way up we had some fun, water was flushing over us and off course we thought this was normal.


On halfway one of the locals panicked, he ask us in little English, “this is not good do you want to turn and try it another day? Because of Typhoon, this is not good.” So everybody said to turn immediately. Off course I was already afraid again and Huib said to me. “G, watch out we can capsize if we turn so hold yourself.” He just finished his sentence and there we went. The local captain felt into the water and all the boards to. He was yelling. “Balance, balance, balance” So we Balanced!?!?! After stabilization we tried to rush back, because the waves were getting bigger. The guy behind me was also in the airplane and to said this was also a method to come over our trauma of the airplane. We really had to laugh. We weren’t even 24 hours on the way and we already had 2 crashes and a capsizing boat adventure experienced.

Well the days after were very nice except of the earthquake middle in the night!?!? Oh I’m sorry I didn’t told this already? Yep an earthquake at 2.30hr in the middle of the night! So After that we had to take our flight back, but there was an option of taking a boat of 4 hours back to Surigao and then again an airplane to Cebu. So we ask an American Surfer, who became third in an international quicksilver competition a week before on Cloud 9, and he told that the other surfers took the boat, a very big large ferry, and almost capsized. So that wasn’t an option for us either. Better thinking for 15 minutes then 4 hours that your dying.

Don’t think it was easy for us going back on that airplane, we seriously consider to cancelled but didn’t had a solution of going back on a different way.
This flight was unbelievable to, because this was the best flight ever. We didn’t even felt the landing!!?!? So this is how diverse the Philippines can be.
And I haven’t even told about the landslide a few days later…To celebrate that we arrived alive in Cebu. We went with my brother to the Kawassan Falls at Cebu. A beautiful Waterfall just 4 hour drive from Cebu City. When we arrived it was raining their but not so heavy. We had to walk for an half hour for the first fall and immediately the biggest fall. Some locals were our guides. It was stunning! We took a swim in the lagoon and we could have a special massage from the waterfall with a Bamboo rack so we did. Before we could come behind the waterfall we had to lie on the Bamboo rack and go under some rocks. Well I’m not really Miss Piggy but even I was scared of getting stuck under the rocks. When we were behind the fall the noise was immense! So only my brother and Huib did the massage, because I thought it would break my bones if I would go….
You could also jump off the waterfall and one other foreigner was doing this. …
After our refreshing dip we got some lunch at the only restaurant there, real good local food.
We weren’t even finished eating and I was looking behind me when I saw and heard a rock smashing down with a loud thunder noise. Locals we running away and the big Rock smashed down on a couple off tables. Fortunately nobody got hurt, but if the locals weren’t reacting so fast 3 people would have died. This was also the way up to the waterfall jump. The restaurant owner told us that she had complained several times about that rock, but the government wouldn’t want to do anything. (To give you an impression the rock was like 5x5m)
So because of the heavy rainfall the landslide happened .

So that’s our real adventure in the Philippines! I hope you enjoyed just like we did!

Photos The Forgotten Story

Photos The Forgotten Story

Photos The Forgotten Story