Indonesian Adventures

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So after a failed attempt and partial electrocution at the beginning of our Asian adventure I've finally found a (semi) trustworthy computer to do some updates on! Our first few days landing in Bali we spent just outside of the hectic tourist centre near Kuta Beach, in a slightly more quiet town called Seminyak. Chelsea and Angus found us within a day and we spent most of our time touring the ally ways, walking along the beach and watching sunset in a rooftop patio restaurant. We were pleasantly surprised by the cheap and delicious foods, and soon realized how important eating is to the indonesian culture. Hill, Chels and I all shared a room for a couple nights with our own bathroom (even a flush toilet!), but we were quickly tired of the tourist oriented town and rainy weather so we booked a boat to the Gili Islands of Lombok. Best decision of my life to date. After a 2 hour boat ride through stunning green mountainous islands we arrived at Gili Trawagan. All 3 Gili islands have no motor vehicles, instead there are pony-drawn carriages to take you "long" distances (I say "long" because it only takes 2 hours to walk all of Gili T, the biggest island). We quickly found 2 rooms for only 50,000RP a night each (equivalent to roughly 6 dollars), and it turned out quite well seeing as our choice accommodation was also the hit bar on the island, Rudy's. It didn't take long to fall in love with the island. Every meal we ate was under 50,000 RP, usually sitting on cushions under a grass hut gazebo that was less than 3 meters from the ocean - the exception being a tree house restaurant that you climb (and the waiter with your food and drinks following) a 15 foot bamboo ladder to the grass hut overlooking the sea and the jaw dropping islands of Lombok. Every morning we ate our breakfast at Rudy's and sat mesmerized by Lombok's landscape. At night we found a really cheap and tastey food market that we soon frequented for dishes of local Nasi Goreng. Day 2 on the island the girls and I rented bikes and toured the coast line, stopping from beach to beach to cool off in between. Day 3 we were guided by one of the locals up the "mountain" of the island to behold a stunning panorama view of the Gili's beaches and the surrounding island. On our way home that night we avoided the dark by catching one of the pony-drawn carriages back into the main part of town. We couldn't stop laughing and smiling as we bounced around dodging fellow travelers and pot holes. We spent a few days meeting people and laying lazy eyed on the beach until we decided to do some more activities. Hillary and I rented fins, a snorkle and a mask and headed out to the north part of the island to see some of the most beautiful corals in the world. We were pleasantly surprised by also seeing two huge sea turtles! The next day we took a snorkling tour to the other 2 Gili's and saw, yet again, more sea turtles! We spent a day exploring the inland parts of the island, and were at no shortage of spider sightings - the biggest I'd ever seen BY FAR. On our final day on the island we hopped onto a "ferry" (a tiny boat that way at a 45degree angle battling the small waves and current and possibly leaking) to Gili Meno. Gili Meno is the middle sized island but much more laid back than Gili T. We spent the day swimming and wandering around, Chelsea learned how to properly cut a pineapple by one of the local women, and finally stopping at another tree top restaurant for lunch with the BEST coconut juice I've ever tasted - Chels and Hillary can vouch for me. Most of the days started with a ton of sunshine and finished with storms where we would huddle under the leaky grass huts and watch the lightning strike over Lombok. After 8 nights on the Gili Islands we were sad to leave, but any longer would have been to much. We headed back to mainland Bali and spent the night with Chelsea in the oh so busy Kuta, before she flew back to Australia the following day. Next it was off the Ubud - the cultural capital of Bali. After an hour shuttle inland we arrived and found ourselves a cheap room with a patio right away. We fell in love with Ubud, and were really pleased that we decided to leave the touristed south areas of Bali to experience the real lifestyle. That day we tried our first suckling pig (surprisingly tastey) and drank through straws out of a cut open coconut. We attended a traditional Balinese dance that night and were awed by the elaborate costumes and unique dance styles - they even dance with their eyes! The next day we started early after our free breakfast (Hillary had banana pancakes, her usual go to) and hopped on the back of two different motor bikes for our guided tour. Dont worry - we were wearing helmets. You couldn't keep the smiles from our faces as we swerved in and out of traffic until we reached the second largest of the rice paddies on Bali. Next we went to taste some different types of Kopi (coffee) - we tried Ginger, Ginseng, Bali, Luwak (which is the most expensive in the world, ironically it's made from the droppings of the Luwak animal) Cocoa and Lemon: all were fantastic. We hopped back on the bikes and headed to the the viewing sights of the recently active Batur volcano and surrounding lake. Unfortunately the top was covered in cloud and it soon started to pour rain but the sight was still gorgeous - you can even see the black stained earth where the volcano devastated the surrounded towns a decade ago. After that we headed to two different temples near Ubud before going back to our place to rest. Yesterday was by far one of the best days of the trip so far. This morning we woke up early, checked out and walked over to the Monkey Sanctuary. Wild monkeys live among the temples and overgrowing trees and my god they are EVERYWHERE. I think I took about 90 pictures and 1 video. These monkeys were cute in a terrifying way, and we even saw a little kid get bitten by one after it stole a water bottle out of the backpack of his nanny. Pranksters. This afternoon we take the shuttle back to Kuta so we're close to the airport for our flight tomorrow. I can't believe our two weeks in Indonesia are finally up, this is definitely a country I will come back to explore! Missing everyone at home, wish us a safe day of travel over to Thailand!

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Photos

Bali
temples around Seminyak

Hindu Offerings
you see these everywhere, outside of shops, temples, etc.

Sunset over Kuta Beach
they had these really cool pirate kites that reminded us of peter pan

Boat to Gilis
dont worry we actually took a bigger boat for the majority of the ride

View of Lombok
this was at our tree trop restaurant

View of Lombok and Gili Meno
looking out from the gazebo of Rudys

North part of gili
where Hillary and I snorkled

baby turtles!
turtle conservations are all over the Gilis

Inland Gili
people work at all ages here

View of Lombok
from our day trip to Gili Meno

View of Gili Trawagan
from the restaurant on Gili Meno

Chels, Hill, Me, Jordan, Sean
random run ins with other tsawwassen folks

Ubud Dance
this is actually a guy

Our Ubud Tour
cool roots from one of the trees near the elephant temple

Grace n Hill
second largest rice paddy in Bali

Rice Paddy
our first stop on the bikes around Ubud