Costa Rica III – Jungle & ocean, the movies
A picture is worth a thousand words…maybe this is true with a movie clip too?
All posts tagged: Travels
Costa Rica II – Where jungle meets ocean
Here we’re in a cute little cafe called Almendra having a lemonade after one of our excursions in town. After our break we have another two hours of yoga in the afternoons before we walk down to the beach to have a swim and to enjoy the sunsets. Beautiful, out of this world beautiful, sunsets! Every day different. Everybody gathers on the beach and watch the sun slip into the sea. What a wonderful way to end a day. One day we had a guest teacher, Nico, who taught us to trust each other enough to try Acroyoga, which one does in pairs with a third person that assists. In the feature photo on my blog post from yesterday Nico and Malin, another teacher here, shows a stunningly beautiful pose where Malin is flying. Here it’s Nico and Jessika are showing how a headstand with partner looks like. One of the many dogs on this beach is accompanying them. The dogs here have a wonderful life by the way. They are free to come down …
Costa Rica I – Eat yoga love
I’m having a break from my travels around the world documenting homes to participate in a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. We are in beautiful Santa Teresa on the Pacific coast. The seemingly endless beach with lovely warm waves, attract surfers and yogis alike. At the crack of dawn we walk silently down to the beach to have a yoga session and then to watch the sun rise above the trees. The only sounds are monkeys are screaming in the jungle behind us. Otherwise everything is very quiet and peaceful. Early in the morning the beach is pristine and stunningly beautiful. Then there is short break before we have more yoga up in the Shala before brunch. Sometimes I stayed on at the beach and meditated. Connected. Pure magic. When the delicious brunch is served at 9:30 we are more than ready to indulge. Smoothies, fruits, salad, rice and beans, bread, homemade peanut butter, banana cake and ginger tea is what I usually have. Yummy! Hope to keep up this healthy way to start a …
Singapore III
This year 2015 Singapore celebrates 50 years of independence. And it’s also been acclaimed as the world’s best country to visit due to it’s excellent shopping, rich cultural life and food culture. I skipped the shopping on Orchard road completely to focus on for me a much more important thing – the food, which was fantastic. Eating out is everyone’s favourite pastime here. Singapore is a hotpot of cuisines. Influences from the Chinese, Malayan and Indian cuisine of course as well as other Asian countries, the Middle East cuisine and pretty much from all over the world as a result from the country’s history with immigrants from many countries. There is an endless variety to choose from. From really good and affordable street food found in the hawker food stalls, food courts to high end restaurants. My first night I went to a hawker food court just up the road and sought out the stall which had the most customers and had a big bowl of tasty soup for nearly nothing. As I’m a soup …
Singapore part II
Of course I had to visit Raffles Hotel. Not only to sample the obligatory Singapore Sling, which I did. But the building of this iconic hotel is truly beautiful. Now it’s surrounded on all sides by the modern life of high-rises and busy roads. But it also sits in a garden that somehow keeps the outside world at bay giving it a serene splendour. This however is slightly taken away by the fact that it’s also swarming with tourists, well that’s includes me too I guess. On a spur I felt like I wanted to have afternoon tea here but that was a no go as one has to book that one week in advance! You get the picture. Oh well there’s always a place in the bar so I went there and had a Singapore Sling instead. This classic cocktail was invented by the bartender Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915. At this time women were not allowed to consume alcohol in public. But he cleverly thought out a way to create a cocktail that …
Singapore part I
Singapore is a city, an island and a country. Small in size but with a population of 5 million people. I found Singapore very green, humid and…unfortunately very hazy. But also with striking architecture, old colonial houses and the sometimes surreal new buildings and stunning structures such as the Supertree Grove in the Gardens by the Bay. As the haze was so prominent during my visit I have to mention this issue. I stayed at first with Joe and his friends and his flat that has this amazing view over looking the Gardens by the Bay. This huge recreational park area created from a vision Singapore had, to transit from “A city with a garden” to become “A garden with a city” opened in 2011. I had envisioned sitting on the balcony looking out over all this splendour, but unfortunately the haze was so bad that most days we couldn’t even have the doors to the balcony open. The haze is seasonal apparently and is the smoke that drifts in from, mostly illegal, slash-and-burn fires …
Hong Kong part III
Hong Kong is not only a city. It’s a archipelago too. One day I gave myself a mini break and decided to make a trip out to an island to find a beach. I went to the quay and found myself a ferry that would take me to the island of Lantau where I had read about a nice beach. It was so refreshing to be on the water and to see the city from this vantage point. And it was nice to leave the bustling and noisy masses of cars, buildings and people behind me for a while. On Lantau Island I found a bus that took me to the pristine beaches of Cheung Sha. It was quite amazing that only a short ferry and bus ride away was this beautiful beach nearly devoid of people. Only me, myself and the warm waves of the South China Sea. Pure bliss! Of course Hong Kong is about food! One favourite restaurant was Crystal Jade. Oh the number of delicious dishes I had here! The Dim Sun was spectacularly good here and …
Hong Kong part II
I moved to another part of Hong Kong, to a studio on the 31st floor of a high-rise with it’s own private rooftop terrace. I have always been interested small space living and this studio is a perfect example of this. The cleverly designed solutions worked very well and despite the limited floor space it didn’t feel cramped at all. I believe that the spectacular views on the three sides were a part of this but that the calm colour setting also contributed. Samuel who this home belongs to was currently working in Shanghai and therefore I could stay here. I really enjoyed living here. I liked the design and the views. And it’s location too. Not to mention the private roof terrace! How cool wasn’t that! I managed during the photo shoot on the rooftop, to crouch on the edge of the roof in order to take a shot downwards towards the street way below. It was seriously scary, as I have a fear of heights. Also as it was a seriously hot and humid day, working on the rooftop left me totally faint and drenched in sweat. But …
Hong Kong part I
Arriving to Hong Kong straight from Shanghai, my first impression was – that it felt small! Who would have thought this? It’s also an extremely vertical city. Densely populated and confined in a relatively small area, makes this a necessity. It’s actually one of the world’s most densely populated metropolises. Also the fact that it’s surrounded by green hills and water makes it a very beautiful place. I also found Hong Kong very clean, orderly and well organised. Many pavements are raised above the streets, with roofs and glazed walls that provided both shade from the sun and shelter from the rain. Also they make a very efficient passage for the many business people who hurries through them morning, noon and night. Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading financial centres and many of the tallest skyscrapers are the homes of various banks and financial institutes. In Hong Kong rules the principle of ”one country, two systems”. Meaning that although a part of China since 1997 when it was returned to Chinese sovereignty, it retains it’s own capitalist economic and political systems. It was such a relief that the taxi drivers, at …
Shanghai part I
At last my travels have started. And what an amazing beginning it has been. But due to poor access to Internet in China and a very busy time in Asia, I have been unable to blog about my experiences. So here is a short recap of my time in Shanghai. My home for the first week was a ground floor studio in a cute little lane house, nestled away down an alleyway in Jingan. A slice of genuine Shanghai, a place where I perceived folks were going about their daily lives pretty much the same way as they have done for decades. Hanging their washing in the lanes, drying their chillies outside their kitchen doors. I didn’t see many other westerners around there. My little lane house was inherited to my landlady Annie, who was very sweet and immensely helpful, from her parents. She has redecorated it into a really comfy and snug little place. I loved staying here. It consists of only one room, that used to be two smaller rooms, a shower room and toilet and at the back a kitchen …
Bohemialife 