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Published: December 22nd 2005
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With only a couple of weeks left in our trip, we decided to relax and really enjoy ourselves - meaning no more bus rides from hell - just beautiful beaches. We decided to spend a week on Gili Trawangan in Indonesia, and then 10 more days in Kuta (Bali).
Gili Trawangan is a tiny tripical island with no motorcycles/cars and only 1 horse power Tuk Tuk's (They have 1 horse in front to pull them around!). Anyone can find their own section of white sand beach with no one in sight! For the week in Gili T we sat on the beach. When it was dark, we sat in the bar. When we felt adventurous, we snorkeled with turtles. That's pretty much all we did on Gili T - but it was fantastic!
There was only one negative aspect of Gili Trawangan - getting there. We flew to a little island in Indonesia called Lombok, and then travelled via mini bus and horse to get to a port called Bangsal where we would board a boat to the island. Bangsal really is the armpit of Indonesia. The place was crawling with beggers, rip off artists, thieves, and appartently the
mafia. The only thing they were missing was Tuk Tuk drivers and Lady boy hookers. We had to sit on the ground and wait for 4 hours to get the boat over to Gili T. During this wait we were constantly approached by all of the above mentioned people. One guy squatted beside me and murmured into my ear for 45 mins asking me to buy something, then accused me of breaking his necklace and wanted money for it, and finally telling me that I am "bloody sexy" and that he wants to sleep with me!? Thats when I had enough and really told him to F*%*! off! I was a little hesitant to tell him what I thought, as you never know what they will do to you in a land like this. I talked to a lot of people that had similar experiences, had items stolen or were ripped off with various scams.
After our week on Gili T, we ran (literally) through Bangsal as fast as we could and jumped on a ferry to Bali. The ferry was much like the BC ferries to Vancouver Island. For the ferry ride, we sat on the roof, which
was basically a flat tin sheet over top of the entire ferry. We chilled up there for 4 hours to sun tan and play guitar! This made the ferry ride an absolute blast! Check out the picture on the roof of Jeroen, myself, and Graham. Graham lives in BC as well and joined us for the last 2 weeks of our trip.
Bali is quite famous as a beautiful tourist resort, but its tourism has been devestated by several terrorist bombings in the past years. The biggest one was in 2002 which killed over 200 tourists in a night club. If you want to party, Bali is no longer the place to go. The reason we went to Bali was to surf, as it is very well known for its great surfing beaches. We spent most of our days on the beach surfing (or once in a while drowning). The rest of our time was spent eating, being harrassed by local sales people, or sitting at the bar sipping on really cheap Indonesian beer/vodka. They called their vodka 'Arak', and our favourite drink was called the 'Arak Attack'. I also had a daily massage on the beach after surfing.
Kids
we found them on a deserted stretch of beach. There is nothing like laying in the sun on the beach and buying a massage with your pocket change.
One day we rented a motorbike without the proper drivers lisence. It's usally ok to do this in Asia, but we were stopped within 5 minutes and failed to show a proper lisence. The BC drivers lisence didn't fly over too well. He told us we had to go to court, but a $10 bribe made him leave...Living in a corrupt country has its advantages!
A lot of the streets in Kuta Bali are tiny little alley ways with home-run shops on either side. As we walked by, they would all holler out something like "YES,YES, come take a look" or "Yes, T-shirt, sandals, board shorts, massage". Just picture yourself walking down the street and having about 30 people yell out "yes, yes" followed by something stupid to get you into their store. If you walked around for 30 minutes, you wouldn't be surprised to hear "YES YES, T-shirt, glasses, hats, blowjob"! What a weird place... Some times we would walk down the street with money in our hands and eyed objects in every store just to get the
hello
We also found this cow on a deserted stretch of beach! sales people worked up. It was quite funny...
I am now by myself in Bangkok to catch a flight home. Last night I met some people and went to an Irish pub to play foosball. When it closed, we all went to a bar on the street. They give us a mat on the road, and thats it. It was such a good time sitting down and sharing travelling stories with 30 other people in the crazy streets of Bangkok. Today I went on a huge shopping binge. I threw out most of my belongings and filled my bag with cheap counterfit goods. Hopefully there are no Canadian Customs officials reading this, as I really hope to smuggle everything home!
I also went to see a beautiful temple called the Grand Palace - you can see pictures below.
When I arrived in Bangkok I made sure that I had the same room that I started my trip with back in September. It is quite weird walking the streets alone and seeing the same sights that I saw 4 months ago. Being here again has really allowed me to reflect on my trip - I will be
coming home with one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It's so sad to leave, but then again I am quite excited to have hot showers, a home, and not have to live out of a bag or bargain for my breakfast anymore!
My flight leaves at 6am, so I am staying up all night to enjoy my last night, then I will have a looong 26 hr flight home- can't wait!
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matt
non-member comment
amazing trip
great blog, I am excited to say that i will do the same se asia trip in a month.