Advertisement
Published: March 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Kuta Beach
Walking back from a morning surfing on Kuta Beach Well its been a while since I last left Singapore due to studying for midterms and the Chinese New Year, but finally our recess break has arrived. For recess we decided to spend 10 days on the gorgeous islands in Indonesia. Indonesia is a huge chain of islands spanning all the way from Singapore down to Australia. We chose to fly to the island Bali and see where the week could take us.
Our first stop was the surfing paradise of Kuta on Bali. Kuta has long since been taken over by western culture with massive outlet style stores boasting brands like Billabong, Polo and Oakley. The night life is huge and there are bars, restaurants and clubs with any theme you could ever imagine. Many of you may know Kuta as the location of the horrific night club bombings in 2002. Although the area has recovered fairly well from the incident, there are still an eerily low number of tourists in the area for how build up it is. The town is very commercialized but still manages to maintain an amazing culture cause of how the whole town revolves around surfing.
Our first two days in Kuta were
Again Perfection
Steam from the volcano with Lake Batur acting as he perfect backdrop spent out on the water surfing and in town at the bars. The surfing was amazing and Kuta was a great place to learn cause of the beach breaks (opposed to coral). On the second day out I even found a cheap deal on a board so I figured I would pick it up to bring back home with me. Probably not the wised investment for life in Canada, but at the moment I couldn’t pass it up. Our second night in Kuta we took a quick trip out to Tanah Lot, an ancient water temple. The location is the most photographed area in Indonesia and it not hard to see why. We arrived at the temple for sunset and sat on the rocky cliffs for hours just watching the sun go down over the temple while some locals surfed massive waves in the bay.
After two days of surfing in the Indonesian heat, we were burnt and tired and needed a break. We decided to head up to the northern coast of Bali to climb Mt. Batur, and infamous volcano on the island. We arrived at the base of the volcano late at night and had no idea
Paradise
Looking out from the beach on Gili Trawangan of what our surroundings were like. The trek started by waking up at 3:00 AM to hike up the pitch black mountain (where we still couldn’t tell what anything looked like) and by 6:00 AM we arrived at the peak to see the sunrise. As the sun rose, we realized we were looking at the most beautiful landscape of our lives. In front of us was Lake Batur, Mt. Agung (an adjacent volcano), the ocean and Lombok (another Indonesian Island) off in the distance. The sunrise was truly spectacular made even better by the breakfast our guides made us with the steam from the volcano (hardboiled eggs and steamed banana sandwiches). After the sunrise we trekked around the mountain visiting different eruption sites and eventually headed back down to the base.
After Mt. Batur we headed to Padangbai to catch a ferry over to the next island in the Indonesian chain, Lombok. Once on Lombok we headed for the Gili‘s, a set of 3 islands off the north-west coast of Lombok. This journey turned out to be a day long but we eventually made it to what can only be described as paradise. We chose to stay on Gili
The first walk
Me and Matt walking out to the breaks for the first time on Kuta Trawangan, the largest island and only one with surfing. The Gili’s are practically deserted islands with no motor vehicles, no markets, no people selling things on the beach and due to low season…practically no people. The islands had nothing to do except snorkel, take a walk around the island and lie on the beach, a perfect break from it all. After two days of doing absolutely nothing on the sugar white sand beaches (I’m seriously not trying to brag…just being descriptive) it was time the head back to Kuta for on more day of surfing. Looking back on the trip as a whole, I really wish we allotted more time to Lombok as it seemed so beautiful and much less traveled than Bali.
Our last day in Kuta was spent surfing again until we simply couldn’t paddle out anymore. After getting a weeks tease of the surfing lifestyle, its going be tough not getting the chance again for a while…especially now that I have a board. The later half of the day was spent browsing the artsy side of Bali. Balinese art is another one of the islands claims to fame with beautiful paintings and carving made from or
Setting Sun over Kuta
The infamous Kuta sunset on just about anything you could ever imagine.
Ten days in Indonesia has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The country is filled with beautiful landscapes, amazing people and an all around great culture.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 62; dbt: 0.1121s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mel
non-member comment
Wow...that's all i can say. What an incredible trip.... Maybe we can tow you on your new surfboard behind Janke's boat this summer or something :p Take care steve, miss ya!