Indonesia 14th October- 31st Ocober 2012

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So after our whistlestop tour of WA it was a steady trip back through Indonesia in time for our flight home at the end of the month. First stop Bali and Seminyak. Apparently not quite as crazy as Kuta but with an upmarket feel about it. This was bang on. Hotel wasn't great, "The Haven", bigged itself up to be an exclusive hotel in central Seminyak which it was not. Room was nice but noisy and it was on the very edge of town. But exploring we went and after a recommendation we headed to Potato Head Beach Club! Mmmmm, money money money = this chill out pool and beach party day. You got your own sun (double) beds for the day, cocktails a plenty which flowed along with your cash! View was amazing, sunset awesome and infinity pool to die for. Add to that a swim up bar and decent grub and Potato Head did it for us. I suppose you could say we were not seeing the real Bali, but for a day who cares, spoil yourself. I would recommend it. Other than this Seminyak was perhaps a little too exclusive. Not much in the way of bars outside of hotels and it was hard to find some decent reasonably priced local food. So instead we ended up in a champagne bar! This backpacker budget in Bali was blown. Great night though. Cocktails were not cheap, but with them came endless tapas dishes, yum yum yum. So having arrived at 7pm and said we would stay for maybe 2 we started walking home at 1am drunk and full!

We left Seminyak thinking it was an ok place. We enjoyed ourselves but certainly paid for the priviledge. Off to the Gili Islands we went, first stop Gili Air and Manta Dive Resort. Well what an awesome little island this was. No motorised transport and you could walk all the way round in 90 minutes. Horse and carts were the way forward. We however, chose to walk the apparent 5 minuite walk to our resort. 20 minutes later we arrived sweating in the extreme 35c heat and carrying a 20kg back pack. What was I thinking!, just trying to claw back a few pennies from our Seminyak experience. So we checked in and went in search of dive sites. Hans Reef and Shark Point appealed and both were accomodated in our stay. In fact we liked the place so much we extended our time and kicked Sengigii off the list, as others we met on our travels had slated it. Beautiful sunsets, barbecues on the beach and diving is what the Gili's are about. Very Spoilt, perhaps too spoilt in recent times to fully appreciate the beauty of this place but we gave it our best shot. 2 dives a day then letting the happy hour beers flow became the norm. If only we could stay longer. But no, off to Gili Trangawan we go. Apparently the busier island with bars etc. It was, but you could hardly call it crowded or overrun. Again horse was the transport method and again we walked along to our hotel, Bale Sampan. A boutique villa resort on the seafront. Perfect. The ride over to Gili T was interesting. We had to charter our own boat. £20 so not so bad. The boat held 25. So when we had paid, we got on with our bags and so did a load of locals! Cheek! Felt like going round and asking for a contribution to the charter. This we soon found out was the norm in Indonesia. The westerners pay and the locals ride for free. We even had one in the boot of our taxi on one occasion! We hired a couple of push bikes to cycle around Gili T as it was a bit larger than Gili Air, this wasnt a brilliantly thought out plan though as most of the track around the island was deep sand and my 'Happy Shopper' bike struggled to get through. I dont think it had anything to do with my cycling effort though 😉

Out of the 2 islands our favourite was Gili Air. So chilled out but with a few bars and nice restaurants. You got to know people in a short space of time. I suppose in a way it reminded us of Tao with us both agreeing we still missed it there.

After the Gili's came Ubud, Bali. We both hoped it would be more "real" and we would experience life in Bali. I booked a room in a big Villa with a pool. The place was gorgeous but unfortunately in the middle of nowhere! We were surrounded by paddy-fields. Essentially the villa was an island with a small path running to it. Uma Mundi was its name. If it provided a shuttle service it would have been perfect but the place was new so maybe in time. Ubud itself was not really what I expected. The arcitecture was facinating with temples and what looked like ruins. The hassle however was not appreciated. Every 2 minutes "taxi" or "buy this, buy that". No, No, NO. Mark lost his cool once, which showed his temper at hawkers had actually improved!! A wander around Monkey Forest was our afternoons entertainment, the monkies would do almost anything for some sweetcorn and apples so we got them posing for a few photos. We got lost in the market due to the rat run styled isles between the stalls, then found a gorgeous ice cream parlour. 'Opps' Restaurant and Warung Cafe were both great eats and I would happily go back to either for the Nasi Goreng or the Crispy Duck. The one thing that drew us to Ubud was the opportunity to climb Mount Batur. A volcano which stands 1800m high. After Kota Kinabalu how hard could it be?? A 2am start and a dodgy mini bus ride later to the start we were greeted with our compulsory guides and started the climb. It was infact, fairly easy going. One part a touch steep but on the whole an easy climb. The only thing that made you need to watch your footing was the loose stones. We arrived at the top for 5.30am. Sunset was at 6am. The guide cooked eggs in the volcanic fissures for breakfast which were served alongside green bread! Mark stuck to his jelly snakes he bought from the mini mart the previous day! Monkeys roamed the top and the view into the crater was pretty cool with the steam still rising from the bottom. Another sunrise later and we made our way down. Back to the Villa for breakfast and a sleep ;-). The volcano was the reason we ventured north in Bali but compared to Kota Kinabalu is was actually a bit of a disappointment. One more day in Bali was spent wandering throguh Ubud and relaxing round the pool. Enjoyable but by now we were both really looking forward to our trip to Komodo National Park.

Back to the airport we went and onto the smallest plane I have ever been on! 2 small propellors and a door you had to duck to get into. Gulp! Takeoff was surprisingly calm and even landing was fairly smooth. Maybe my fear of flying was finally under control. We arrived in Flores and the town of Labuan Bajo. Well that was a bit of a dump. Clearly the jumping off point for Komodo and nothing more. The town was supposed to be the next big thing according to lonely planet but in my opinion it had a long way to go. Luckily we only had a few hours to wait before our boat transfer to Sebayor Island and Komodo Dive Resort. Our first impression of the resort was awesome! Gorgeous individual huts with 4 poster beds only steps from the sea. 10 huts in total, a proper desert island retreat. The dive centre was great, got us sized up and even added Manta Point dive to the list after they realised I had never seen them. This could be my favourite place. It was clear it was a new resort, staff were still learning and service was slack at times. Its downfall was the lack of social area. There was the restaurant which was pleasent overlooking the sea, but that was really it. No bar, no place to socialize with the other guests. It was trying to make the area above the restaurant a bar area but again it had a long way to go as staff would not come up there which made ordering drinks difficult. The food was also a bit repetitive. Italian and Indonesian. Fish or chicken and pasta each night. It was nice, all-be-it a bit bland at times but by day 4 of the same you longed for a tuck shop where you could buy crisps and snacks. Unfortunately nothing like that existed.

We went for the diving and the diving did not disappoint. Dealing with currents at times was a challenge and a few nerves set in when our dive briefing involved us being told the current was like a washing machine and it could be very hard to get out! Mmmmm we thought. Gulp. It actually was not that bad and once we were in the cavern the current subsided. Pristine corals and loads of aquatic life made it our second best dive resort after Sipidan. Now for the mantas! The day came, rub those lucky nipples, as Manuel used to say, as that brings you whale sharks!! SO we applied his theory to Mantas. I rubbed Marks! Off we went to Manta Point and the chance to see them. The previous group had seen 4 but all at a distance as the current was too strong to hold on for long. That will do I thought, just let me see 1. We were not disappointed, 2 within a few minutes with another 3 coming over the top of us from behind, turning the sky black. 2-3m wide gliding through the water. Awesome awesome awesome. But more to come! In total, 24 sightings of Mantas. Thank you! thank you! They truely are my favourite. However, I still have not seen the elusive whale shark, Tao next year is now a must!

So that brought our "hot trip" to a close. 40c to 10c to -30c over the next 2 weeks. It would be snow very soon. Not sure how we are going to deal with such severe temperature changes so quickly. We said goodbye to the mantas and headed to Kuala Lumpur for the night before our flight home to the UK. Family and friends have been missed. But the UK? I'm not so sure.......

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