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Indonesia - Part One Bali
Hello Asia!
After a tiring flight and a detour to Singapore we arrived in Bali, Indonesia. Our first stop Kuta! First impressions…lots of motorbikes, dogs, hagglers and surfer dudes. It was no wonder that Bali had been nicknamed Austral-asia. At the first sight of our accommodation that we were staying at that night Kim wanted to burst into tears. To say that our bedroom was no better than a prison cell was an understatement with red patches of paint on the wall that looked home to a bloodbath, smelly wet bed sheets and water that ran out of the sink onto the bathroom floor we nicknamed it Grimmauld Place. It’s a good job we were only there one night and too tired to care. It was in Kuta that we met up with our friends from back home Anna and Dave who we planned to spend the next five days with.
The next day we decided to escape hectic Kuta. After driving to many places and panicking that the taxi driver was taking us off to the unknown we ended up in Sanur. Kim was especially pleased to find that the accommodation was
a bit nicer including hot water, fresh towels and a pool. We spent the next few days in Sanur as our days began to evolve around eating, drinking and sunbathing a relaxing lifestyle that suited us both after a busy session in Aus. After our third day of doing nothing we thought it would be wise to get out and see some of the Indonesian culture. We did a day’s trip which involved a viewing of the Barong Dance; a fight between good and evil. This dance is one of Bali’s specialities and the actors take this dance quite seriously. We were particularly astonished to find that the actors were actually stabbing themselves in the chest with a blunt blade which displayed several bruises…a scary sight to see! We viewed many of the trades in villages such as the making of silver and gold jewellery, wood carvings, paintings, growing rice in the fields and it was lovely to have lunch with adjacent to a live volcano…as you do! One particular thing we had noticed about Indonesia is how much the locals are after your money…it just shows how poorer country Indonesia is. On this day trip it was apparent that
extra costs were cropping up everywhere even the tourist tax that was slipped to the police by our driver on the sly…dodgy!
Sanur was home to our first massage which for no more than £1.20 we could have a one hour massage. This is one thing that we have been getting particularly used to in Asia is the one hour weekly massages that can be done for no more than three pound…its our favourite time of the week. We had a fantastic time with Anna and Dave in Sanur. We picked up many tips on how to handle travelling in Asia such as the many Bottles of Bintang to get you through the day and we felt like we were broken in gently knowing that they were there to help and guide us on what to do. As we head to the Gilli Islands they are travelling to Australia now and we wish them all the best.
Gilli Islands
It had been in our plans to visit the Gilli Islands as were so close and we have heard that these islands are some of the most beautiful to snorkel and relax. After a 4.5 hour journey on
a rickety wooden slow boat we reached Gilli Trawangan. We were very pleased to find a gorgeous home stay called BlackSand where we could stay for £4 a night including free breakfast…a bargain! We stayed here for the next 7 days.
Gilli Trawangan is a small island which you can walk round in 2.5 hours. James has learnt that he needs to keep his boxers on under his swimming shorts as the walking resulted in some serious chafing which he had to walk like a cowboy for the next couple of days as he was in so much pain…thank goodness for packing the Savlon. There are a strip of restaurants, diving and tour offices and guest houses down one side of the island. Magic Mushroom pizzas are one of the attractions on Gilli Trawangan being the party island out of the three. This island is also known as a mini Amsterdam. However we were not tempted to have a dabble as one of the bartenders that we got chatting too had just been in prison for 1.5 years for selling an ounce of marijuana and we knew that tourists are subjected to entrapment no matter how open they are
Cocktails in the 5 star resort we sneaked into
This became a regular occurance as it was happy hour between 4- 7 serving 2 for 1 cocktails everyday!!about these pizzas on the menu. To save money on drinks Kim had been drinking the local spirit which is called Arak, the equivalent to the local vodka. We later found out that a few people had died from this spirit and it was not being sold anymore as what it says on the label is not what a lucky escape is necessarily in the bottle…for Kim!
We were particularly pleased to find out that you could use the swimming pools of the hotels if you bought food and drink. So no surprise there when Kim insisted on a cocktail each afternoon (not Arak) at the pool bar of a 5 star resort. One day James decided to go snorkelling off the beach of Trawangan. He hired out a mask, snorkel and some flippers whilst Kim soaked up the rays. 10 minutes later James came back looking gloomy and said that his mask had been washed away by the waves and the current so he hired another mask to go and find the one that he had lost. Again James came back this time looking angry. Not only had he lost his first mask and couldn’t find it but
James snorkling
He had just scene his first wild turtle he had broken the second mask. We were just going to run but we did the honest thing and told the guy that we rented the mask off. He demanded a fine of 70 US dollars there and then. James knew that he could get one cheaper and we were getting worried about the consequences of not buying one after they wanted to know where we were staying. Luckily James found one and they accepted it…let this be a lesson to you; buying your own snorkelling gear is a wise decision. The snorkelling on Gilli Trawangan, Gilli Meno and Gilli Air was amazing. James saw his first wild turtle here grazing at the bottom of the ocean floor. This was a highlight at it was out of season.
Lombok - Mt Rinjani
After much relaxation we were starting to get the urge for another adventure so we started to plan our volcano climb which we had planned to do on Mt Rinjani on the Island of Lombok. It didn’t get off to a good start in Bangsal (the port on Lombok) as Kim naively let a random stranger take her backpack off the boat and onto the beach
and than didn’t realise that he was only doing it for money. After a heated confrontation and James closing the car door on his face we left to go to Senarua; a 2 hour drive up into the mountains. Still to this day the guest house at Senarau where we started our trek was home to the worst toilet we have ever seen; a hole in the floor in a donkey barn full of spiders and no clean walls to hold on to. Bless James his dodgy tummy does end him up in some right pickles.
We began our 2 day one night trek up Mt Rinjani. As Mt Rinjani was home to an active volcano we could not climb up to the summit but just to the crater edge which we later found out was sufficient. We had read that this trek was moderate to challenging but that was an understatement. Walking approximately six hours and covering 7 km uphill was the most physically and challenging activity we have ever done to date. We were greatful when the rain came as it stopped us from over heating however its timing was perfect as it happened the first hour
of the trek which meant for the rest of the day we were soaked. Luckily when we got to camp our porters cooked dinner and assembled our tents, leaving us to dry off and rest our weary feet.
We were due to start our 600m climb to the crater at 3:30am in the morning, Sleeping would have been fine apart from the sleeping bag Kim had was made for a small Asian woman which left half her body out of the sleeping bag unable to even turnover in it. James stomach could not have picked a better time that morning to erupt and as there were no toilets around so to the bush we went. James got a nice souvenir of that experience. As he bent down to do his business he sat right into a bunch of stinging nettles which to this day the images still haunt Kim’s memory as he hovered three quarters of the way in the air with a nasty nettle rash on his bum doing his business.
The climb to the carter edge was treacherous. It was steep, lots of loose volcanic rubble and rocks which dotted the peak of the crater. Finally
at 6:30 am we made it to the crater. As the noise of the volcano erupting and the sight of the lava pouring out we realised that all the hard slog had been worth it. At the top it was freezing…a temperature which is unfamiliar to us since New Zealand. Although we were standing at the crater edge looking down onto the active volcano placed in the middle of the lake, anxiety was something we did not feel but overwhelmed with the feeling of wowness. Coming back down was more harsh on the body than coming up. Kim gave her trainers a good run for their money as she continually fell down and eventually had to have James in front of her and the guide behind her to stop her from falling off the cliffs edge. James had a few good falls that day opting to save his bottle of water rather than himself his 360 degree turn was enough to put the shivers up both of us. The last 1.5Km was murderous as our backs were sore from carrying our rucksacks and our legs and feet were giving way to the numerous steep steps which were formed by the
roots of the trees.
But oh no the fun didn’t stop there! We had to hop on the back of mopeds to our hotels. This was Kim’s first moped ride and she hated it needless to say she could not swing her legs over it to get off as they were just too weak. The accommodation we got to was appalling and for those of you who have been to festivals and camped you know that when you get back all you want is a nice hot bath with clean towels and your own bed. We arrived to a twin room (which did not bother us) but we had no hot water, a hole in the floor, no sink, no fan, a dribble for a shower which you could not put your head under for the fear of catching hypothermia and no fan to prevent mosquitoes. At this point we were past it so we settled for what we got and headed for some sleep as we had to be up at six in the morning to travel 12 hours back to Ubud, Bali.
Now we had heard not to get accommodation in Ubud with bamboo ceilings as
the rafts play host to rats so as you can imagine this was the first question we asked followed by “is there a western toilet?”. Our accommodation in Ubud was stunning. It was a traditional Balinese home stay which had a family golden retriever and four puppies (Kim thought this was fate as it is her dream dog). The sight of Kim walking like a stiff cowboy, trying to walk up and down the stairs and up numerous Kerbs caused quite a few locals to look at her strangely followed by questions asking what was wrong.
The idea of a spa day was becoming more and more tempting as we were getting stiffer and stiffer and felt the need for some relaxation and a Balinese massage. We booked ourselves in for a session at Sang Spa…Kim 5 hours for £23 and James 2 hours. It was a little nerving for James as he had to put on black paper pants which he put on the wrong way round…again another disturbing image for Kim. We visited Monkey Forest which is home to free roaming monkeys (Kim’s nightmare) both skittish and aggressive. We had been told that if you didn’t want
the monkeys to climb on you than to empty all pockets and not carry any sort of food on you. We were surprised to find that they did not like James omelette which he had left over from breakfast. As soon as Kim saw them hanging off James t-shirt it was enough for her to leave where as James was in his element buying numerous bananas to tease them. Serves him right when one of them actually bit him on his arm.
We had a fabulous time in Bali but it was time now to leave and fly to Singapore for a few days before flying onto Bangkok. Bye for now!
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