Indonesia

Thank you for all your encouragement and kind comments about the blog… but please keep them coming (she says quite shamelessly) as we really enjoy reading them and hearing about life back in the UK.

We’re currently in Vietnam where it looks like we’ll be spending Christmas. Would you believe that Saigon is full of Christmas tat, including fake snow and penguins. Honestly when did it ever snow in Saigon and today they were playing Maria Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You”. (Good Grief).

Indonesia

Arriving Kuala Lumpur

Back we go to the Blog and it is summer where following ten weeks enjoying the best of the Indian Monsoon weather we’d left Mumbai airport in search of blue skies and sunshine.

Close to midnight we landed at Kuala Lumpur International airport, the cleanliness and just simple shininess of it all amazed us. Terry had none of the usual hassle in arranging a price for a taxi and as we sped along, doing at least 100mph, we were genuinely entranced not only by the quality of the tarmac roads but more that the many vehicles were all capable of travelling at high speed. Clearly we’d been in India long enough!

With smug smiles on our faces we got to KL centre and hit dense unmoving traffic. Worse the taxi driver couldn’t find our hotel, which proved to be tucked away in the maze that is Petaling Market, China Town. The harassed taxi driver tried to get us out, even though not one of us knew quite where the hotel was. We declined but Terry set off to make enquiries and the taxi driver started to drive away with me and the bags still in it. Once I’d pointed out that Terry had all the money he stopped and waited; within minutes Terry returned with a staff member from our hotel. Phew, don’t think that the taxi driver meant harm but was simply in a panic to get back to the paying fares that he was missing out on.

KL

KL is a strange mix of mostly very modern architecture with older buildings tucked in between (or should that be underneath). The large office blocks were all decked out in Malaysian flags for Independence Day. Apparently the government requires that they put up flags but it did look rather special. It wasn’t, however, the beautifully sunny day we had dreamed of as the heavens opened before breakfast was finished. Seems that KL’s rainy season had arrived early.

A few days were happily spent wandering around KL, between the heavy, frequent down pours with our newly acquired umbrellas. We loved wandering around the branch of Marks and Spencer’s in the Petronas Towers’ shopping mall. (Well we were five months away from home and they sold Earl Grey Tea Bags. Even better in China Town’s market we picked up Series four Dr Who on DVD, hooray).

The shopping mall is also home to the Philharmonic Orchestra, who were putting on Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. As the box office was closed we looked up details on the net; to find they have a strict dress code. Terry hadn’t packed his dress suit so that was a no go. Instead we found a centenary tribute to Puccini at the Chinese centre (!) With tickets booked we walked there in a torrential downpour only to find that we had got the wrong day. It was in fact the night for a Malaysian women’s group who were charming and invited us in to watch an art house film about life for women in Iran. If it was strange for me imagine how Terry felt.

Fed up with rain, next day we caught a flight to Bali!

Indonesia - Bali

It was time for some serious RnR and we found it in a reasonably priced hotel on the border between Legian and Seminyak. But after half a day on the beach, finding it difficult to sit still, we hired a motor bike to explore the area.

We were really struck by the warmth of the Balinese people and enjoyed the quality of the restaurants that front Legian beach. Many had free wifi and I apologise again to those who received a smug email.

Several days passed and then we were off to Gili Trawangan. The Gilis are three tiny coral islands just off Lombok. By now it was Ramadan and most of Indonesia is Muslim, so it was very much calmer than normal as we’re just too old for a party island never mind full moon parties.

Diving off Lombok

We’d booked up for five days scuba diving whilst on the Gilis. It was all very relaxed and the waters have masses of fish, sea snakes and sharks etc but sadly the coral has been largely killed off not only by the fishing (the fishermen had been using cyanide bombs and are now paid not to fish!) but mostly from a sudden rise in water temperature a few years ago. Happily it is starting to recover.

Journey to Dragon Country

In between diving and eating gorgeous meals in restaurants on the white coral sands we had to decide what to do next. Indonesia is home to Komodo Dragons which can be found roaming free in the Komodo National Park off Flores.(a catholic island in eastern Indonesia - just north of Timor).

There were several options for getting there; by far the cheapest was a four day boat trip. Even as we booked it I confess to being nervous not only at the thought of four nights sleeping out on deck but also as we’d heard tales of un-seaworthy boats sinking in the seas around the less touristy islands.

Despite the living conditions and there being neither life jackets nor sea charts in sight, the boat journey proved to be fabulous and I suspect will be a highlight of our whole trip. Seventeen of us slept out on a tarpaulin covered deck, in a space about the size of our deck at home (but sadly there wasn’t a hot tub). Whilst its best not to dwell on the toilet facility, I’ll just say how unusual it is to see the sea bed at such times.

Every day we stopped at really remote coral islands and snorkelled on some of the best reefs I imagine I’ll ever see. Even being stung by jelly fish didn’t detract from it (Terry and one other chap were bitten by a little pink fish - goodness knows what that was about.).

Towards the end of the voyage we stopped off at both Komodo and Rinca Islands to watch the dragons. One of the few remaining examples of evolutionary gigantism, they didn’t disappoint.

Flores

Whilst out there, in a land without working internet connection nor mobile phone signal, we of course went diving, off a hard boat in the Komodo National Marine Park. Sited at the junction of two oceans, where the deep waters rise bringing an abundance of nutrients there is an amazing diversity of marine life; all around stunning underwater topography.

The same day, we set off, across the beautiful island of Flores, on a road which snaked its way precariously, winding up the sides of volcanoes and plunging back down to the sea. We were off to see the crater lakes of Kellimutu Volcano. There are three and not only is each a different colour, but their colours have been changing over the last hundred years. The waters in the lakes are best viewed at sunrise but sadly after a 3.30am wake up we were thwarted by cloud; but hey not everything can go your way.

Next day and a quick flight saw us back on Bali and after a few days in Ubud, which is very green but also heavily built up, we were back in lovely Legian. This time we were able to relax and soak up some sunshine.

You’ll have already guessed that we loved Indonesia and might be there still, but for our visa privileges only lasting thirty days, so another flight saw us in Jakarta for an overnight stay, on the way back to Malaysia.

Jakarta

We’d been warned about how heavily populated, noisy and polluted Jakarta is and its all true. Seeing the wooden schooners moored in Sunda Kelapa port was impressive but we were also ready to leave. Having a few hours to kill whilst awaiting the flight off we went to the Cinema. Mama Mia was showing and what an anti-dote to Ramadan in Jakarta it proved to be. Weeping with laughter we set off to Borneo and the Orang-utans.

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