A rendang recipe: Collection of all ideas that have inspired me in Indonesia

Ingredients:
2 kg beef diced like goulash-style
3 grated ripe coconuts or 3-4 cans of coconut milk

I. Basic paste: It can be made with an electric blender but I still use the old lumpang(Indonesian mortar and pestle)
30 shallots
10 cloves of garlic
1 piece of ginger root about a finger-length
100 g red chilis
pepper


II. Additional spices ground to a paste:
1 galanga root
3  lemon grass shoots
3 anis stars
5 keffir lime leaves
5 salam leaves(Indonesian laurels)
2 curcuma leaves

III. Other additional ingredients:
1 teaspoon grated coconut roasted until gold brown(serundeng), then crush it with a mortal and pestle until the oil separates from the rest)
1 table spoon minced boiled beef liver
1 table spoon tamarind water
salt, sugar

How to prepare and cook:
1. Make the coconut milk by hand if possible. If you can't find fresh coconuts you can take the canned ones. Soak the grated coconuts in 4 cups of water for 1 hour, then press through a strainer. The texture and thicknes depends a lot on how much water you take and how long you soak it
2..Saute the meat and the basic paste until fragrant. Add some water and continue to simmer on low heat until the water has evaporated. If the heat is too low, the meat may become to tender and fall apart. Observe the dish carefully
3.. Add the coconut milk and additional spices no II ground to a paste, add more water if necessary .
4.. Continue to stir and lower the heat, test the meat for tenderness
5.. Add additional ingredients no III
6.. Continue to simmer on low heat until it has the typical dark brown colour that is so special about rendang. The water needs to evaporate until it is dry. It is the caramelised coconut milk and grated coconut which gives the dish the natural brown colour

Of course rendang needs a lot of patience due to the slow cooking until it is tender. I just remember that I ordered a nice-looking and fragrant rendang in a renowned Padang restaurant in Jakarta but then I became so disappointed because I had a hard time to cut the tough meat with a knife. Apparently they wanted to save money on electricity or gas.

Later I met a German lady in the airplane. She has visited Indonesia many times and gave me tips about how to give the rendang the brown colour. I stayed polite as she told me that everybody praised her rendang. But I thought that the dish was given a 'shock therapy' by putting it into the oven. I have also tried it in a pressure cooker. In this case we have to cook the meat with the spices until tender in a relatively short time. However, I found that because the boiling time is cut short, the dish couldn't get that special brown black colour we can only achieve by caramelising the coconut gravy

Roti Cenai Jalan Transfer 56 Penang

Actually this place is one of my favourite breakfast places. The roti is crisp(garing) and not doughy, unlike some negative criticism on this hawker stall. The curries are delicious, beef curry RM 1,50, chicken I don't know and it is not listed, my favourite spicy mutton curry is RM 3,-. The meat is delicious and tender, so that I can nearly tear it apart with a spoon and a fork.

As seen so often in Malaysia, they have business cooperation with a drink vendor from whom I regularly order Teh Tarik. Although it is nearly obligatory to order a drink in a hawker stall, I appreciate that he simply accepts a no for no. In my opinion this violates against consumer rights, even though they write it on the wall. The staff is not quite friendly and I suspect that they are not even Malaysians. One person told me in a rude manner that I should give them one of the many small 1 RM that I had. As I told them that I needed my RMs for the bus, he repeated it again. In the meantime I know that many people look like Malaysian and speak some Malay or Englisch, but they are foreign workers from the surrounding countries.

Next door there is a good roti bakar(chargrilled Bengali bread) vendor who also sells curries and roti. He doesn't have mutton curry and normally I only buy teh tarik and roti bakar from him, sometimes with raw eggs half-boiled on the hot grilled sandwich. You can also order kaya on your roti if you don't like raw eggs. Behind this place there is a shortcut of a backstreet leading directly to Penang Road quite opposite Chulia Street

The luggage of a flashpacker

I still have the adventurous spirit of a backpacker but I loathe sleeping on floors at a couchsurfing host's place or sharing a dorm room with potential thieves or strangers in a hostel. There are three things in my traveling life that are of utmost importance to me and these are: Freedom, independence and comfort. A hotel is very likely to suit my needs and I often use Couchsurfing, virtualtourist or Meetups.com for social interaction and a kind of local touch in a culture that is not my own. I have not used AirBnB yet, especially not in South East Asia where I can get clean, decent and convenient enough hotels or family-owned guest houses for as much as maximum EUR 10,-

Some airlines charge extra money for checked-in luggage, so this is already a reason to not carry too much checked luggage. Apart from everything, it can be downright inconvenient to wait and be pushed by people at the conveyor belt until you can collect your luggage. After some experience I have decided to travel light and only carry a cabin case, laptop bag in form of a smaller cabin case that transforms into a backpack and a big handbag. We need to aware that we are only allowed to carry liquids of maximum 10 x 100 ml in a zipper bag. So any contact lenses, medicines, make-up, toileteries or other liquids need to be stored as mentioned above.ou can organise your things. You can find and organize them very quickly.
I have just bought small organizer bags with tags which can help you to find your things easily


In my small cabin suitcase I have packed:

1. Many T-shirts and figure-hugging tops, 2 bikinis
2. A pair of jeans for cold days, maybe a thinner pair of long batik pants
3. I like skirts, so I bring two, alternatively a pair of pants and an office skirt or suit will do
4. socks and stockings for cold weather or air-conditioned rooms
5. A jacket and jumper
6. flip flops
7. shoes, a pair of pumps if you combine it with business events, maybe trekking/running shoes
8. 2 dresses to go out or if you combine it with a business trip some conservative business clothing. At least one of them should be a simple black dress. The right accesories will transform it to a party dress, business attire, reception etc. My favourites are a loose batik dress for hot weather and a black dress/business suit. The business attire becomes unnecessary if you don't have business appointments
9. 1 or 2 fast-drying travel towels
10. Transparent toileteiries kit with 100 ml bottles of toileteries, make-up, tooth brush, contact lenses, comb/hairbrush etc
11. Small umbrella
12. Cutlery, formalin-free melamin  plastik plate and glass, coffee cup, washrope, pegs 
13. Smartphone and tablet with keyboard
I can also store thinner clothing such as tops, T-shirts and thin dresses in my laptop bag (see photo below) or a mid-size backpack. The laptop bag in the picture can easily transform into a medium-size backpack. Thin shirts, T-shirts and tops with jeans or skirts can be combined in such a way that you have a wider variety with relatively few items. My choice is a mixture of smart casual and leisure....

All the items mentioned above will fit very well in a 7 kg cabin case plus medium size backpack or laptop case.  It is still considered ultra-light packing. You may have to divide your things in both the cabin trolley case and backpack. Please check with your airlines about luggage allowance. Low-cost airlines are less compliant with baggage allowance than full-service airlines. Lufthansa has low compliance with everything, Air Asia is quite generous with cabin luggage but quite incompliant with checked baggage.I hope you will enjoy travelling this way, no need to drag your whole household with you.

Please remember that my list is most suitable to travel in sub- and tropical countries, for Europe we need at least one thicker pair of jeans, more socks, stockings, a thick wind- and waterproof jacket, a jumper and an umbrella. The weight and packing is still ultra-light although for colder climate you may have to reduce the amount of things to bring. Leave warm clothes and formal dresses at home when you definitely plan to travel leisurely in (sub)tropical climate

Figure-hugging tops and T-shirts can also serve as a protection to your body against wind and cold. In this case you can use them both as underwear and summer clothes. It is very important to dress in layers, as you can take off or put on more clothes as the temperature changes. Multiple layers of clothes store body heat inbetween the layers and are much more effective than one thick jumper without anything underneath.

Take 1-2 showers per day and change clothes daily, especially in tropical countries:
If you stay in people's houses, nothing is more disturbing than a penetrating smell. Clothes need to be washed regularly and dirty clothes in a separate bag which needs to get into the laundry ASAP or washed by hand.

Food on Batam Island

As I visited Dr. Frans Setiawan whom I got in contact with through Couchsurfing, I got to know a little bit of the life on Batam Island. They lived in a beautiful housing compound named Bukit Sukajadi which has hills and forested parts in the background. In the morning I got to enjoy some jogging and tai chi training. Although Batam doesn't have surf beaches and outstanding tourist sites, spending some time there especially when you can join a local event would be worth the effort. It is easy to get to Singapore by ferry. Holders of Indonesian passports can get a good deal of about § 15,-. Buying ferry tickets at the terminal is usually more expensive. Cheaper tickets needed to be bought at travel agencies in a shopping mall

On days that both of my hosts needed to work the whole day and didn't have time for me, I have been dropped at Nagoya Hill shopping mall. After shopping around and trying different kinds of food, I started to make contact with some property business representatives. They drove me around the island to show their properties in areas I wanted to spend time in. This was my first impression of what was going on on Batam Island. I saw some coastal and forrested areas, among others the Panbil village and the nearby Kepri mall.

Frans drove us a bit through Batam, the food there was cheap, very tasty with excellent service. He introduced me to his friends Uwan and Sabrina. We had breakfast in Batu Aji, the more lower middle class part of Batam. After this we drove past a couple of villages onto Barelang.

There we had a beautiful seafood late lunch while I was exploring the houses on stilts in the water. It was similar to the clan jetties in Penang, the houses and stilts were a bit less sturdy and the environment more genuine rural. I was very impressed by the friendliness of the people because they didn't hesitate to invite me into their homes

The food was relatively expensive for such an area, possibly because many Singaporeans come to visit Batam for food and spa

Hiking: Sports, nature and tourism

If you hike a beautiful area with a lot of historic cultural sites along with beautiful outlooks on nature, it is hard to maintain the athletic aspects only. Sports physicians define hiking as walking through nature with different type of tracks and at a minimum speed of 5-6 km. It can range from an easy paved road to paved forest trails, rougher track area, different types of soil up to slippery extremely steep serpentines.In most cases the distance ranges between 10 and 30 km per day.

However, there will always be the touristic side of the hike. This means that we need to count sightseeing  ancient castles and other historic cultural sites, different photo stops which shouldn't be missed or just enjoying the scenery. These non-sports activities add  some extra time to the planned hike. We always have to go for compromises because if we want to enjoy nature and culture to the fullest,  the minimum cardiovascular workout cannot be maintained throughout the whole hike. A stretch of app 20 km can easily take around 6-7 hours including all breaks.

This is another part of the Rheinsteig between Braubach and Filsen, alongside the Rhine including steep ascends and descends, partly slippery, partly in forested areas and the other stretch in the hot sunny part along the Rhine

Wispertal: A piece of heaven at the doorstep

The car ride between Mainz and Lorch, where the hike starts, is already a trip on its own. It goes through winding roads along the Rhine and through beauitful hills and architecture

I have been to Wispertal a few times to buy fresh rainbow trouts. This time it was the first time that I explored the place by hiking. If you consider hiking as a good sport to boost your  cardiovascular system, you have to keep a certain pace from beginning to end. I had difficulties to make the right decision: either I had to stop and take some time to zoom the right focus and take the picture from the right angle, or I had to keep my pace from beginning till end

The trail started at the beautiful UNESCO heritage site Lorch with its beautiful buildings, churches and scenery. The hike goes through the forest, many slate trees and shrubs, the remaining wild berries and several outlooks far beyond the Rhine to the other side, the Hunsrück mountain range.

The trail was broad enough for the relatively large group and we also had the opportunities for fruitful conversations with some very interesting people. We have also been very lucky that it hadn't rained for some time and had no problems with a slippery ground. Most of the trail was soft soil and hardly any rocks on a well-formed track.

There were some ascends and descends, the one up to the ancient castle ruine Sauerburg was one of them. From the description the trail was around 18,5 km with some fairly rough stretches and a difference in altitude of about 700 m. The last stretch was along the famous Rheinsteig trail back to Lorch, a gradually descending track. The view on the Rhine, its castles, mountain range and wineries on the other side was divine, which more than often distracts a good hiker from his purpose.

Rhineside hiking tracks are sunnier and warmer for most of the time, making the stamina a lot lesser after a good hike in forested areas. Even the road was a lot smoother and slowly descending, it was the hardest part because of the heat. From a lookout point near Kaub, we could see the small castle Pfalzgrafenstein built on the island Reichenau in the middle of the Rhine. This was formerly a venue built for custom purposes and nowadays open as a museum

Going on such a hike is challenging enough for your stamina and we can all combine it with beautiful scenery, ancient castles and churches along with great social interaction. Absolutely recommendable for visitors to Germany too!

Touring the vineyards in a tractor-pulled trailer with free-flowing wine

My Australian friend Monica has organised a typical drinking tour to the Dörrschuck winery in Lörzweiler near Bingen. It has a beautiful location at the mouth of the Rhine Gorge. For EUR 15,- it gets you a beautiful tour, four types of free-flowing wines, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks.

It is not the type of wine tasting where you can taste many different types of wine before buying them.  Although Andreas Dörrschuck had excellent expertise, he didn't present much about wine-manufacturing unless you ask him explicit questions. Rather is it a mixture between a drinking orgy, a fun event with friends, family or colleagues and a tour through a beautiful vineyards with breathtaking views of the Rhine,

Andreas Dörrschuck, the owner of the winery, drove the tractor pulling a 14 seater trailer. The trailor was covered with a canvas roof in case of rain and too much sun. It was raining on that day, first it was covered but later Andreas opened it to allow us a better view.

As soon as we arrived, Andreas introduced some beautiful wines for us to taste. Then we embarked on the trailer. It was arranged in a way only a meticulous German business can do. In the middle of the trailer, there was a long plank with holes to put in the glasses and bottles. It also served as a table where you could put your plate with food. The wines and food was kept cold in a cooler box.

Food such as pretzels and homemade Spundekäs, a typical Mainz wine companion snack made of  cream cheese, chopped onions and paprika powder, was available in abundance. The main idea was to help ourselves to all the good food and fine. Water and grape juice was also provided but the majority of people preferred the wine

It was a great group with some great conversations and jokes. A good diversity of nationalities only added spice to the event. Two visitors came directly from Australia. After the tour, Andreas still had a little surprise for us. A lovely semi-dry red wine was waiting for us to be tasted. Andreas' expertise of winegrowing also made the tour unforgettable

Such a tour easily tempts you to drink excessively due to the self-service and the happy atmosphere. One of our friends, an experienced drinker and avid traveller collapsed all of a sudden. Thank God a few of our friends brought him home by bus and taxi, so nobody needed to worry about people not getting home