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Published: January 15th 2009
On the Plane
white skin and very tiredHello everybody!!!!
So sorry it has taken me so long to get this blog up and running. Stacey and I are currently back on the island of Bali in the area called Kuta. I will update you on our last 9 days.
We left Vancouver airport on the 6th and flew to Tokyo Japan. I am sure Japan is very nice but all we saw of it was the 20 minutes we spent running for our next flight. Our flights were nice, however very long. The first 10hr flight was completely full with no room to get up and move around. The second flight 8 hours was basically empty so we had a row of seats to ourselves and were able to get some sleep. We realized how far of a trip we were going on when it was over 24 hrs between the time we left Stacey’s house and reached our destination in Ubud Bali.
We got off our plane and before leaving the airport we had a security guy ask Stacey if we had “fastbook” once we figured out what he was saying we realized that facebook was what he wanted. Strict security measures here in Indonesia.
We were greeted by our driver that took us to “Nick’s Homestay” where we would spend our next three nights. It was a beautiful family compound where a few Balianese families lived as well as a few of us extra guests just passing through. They are the friendliest people and are fascinated to hear where we are from. They can’t wait to show you their culture and their island that they are very proud of. It has been a huge culture shock and the poverty level is amazing. Despite having nothing they are happy people. Although we are constantly approached by people wanting to sell us something or take us somewhere we have only seen one person begging for money. Our first night we were able to sleep quite well and woke to tea and breakfast. We have learned that most breakfasts in Indonesia consist of a banana pancake and fruit. The fruit is so amazing and is available everywhere. We decided to go and explore the area around where we were staying which is called Ubud. We walked about 30 feet down the street and came across a monkey sanctuary. We fed monkey’s no wait…..the monkeys fed themselves. They
Ubud Bali
Garden in front of our first house climbed all over me until the bananas were gone. Really cute but kinda scary. We then walked around looking in all the shops of dresses, paintings, wood carvings, clothes, and basically anything you can think of. A huge market that reminded me of Mexico with people following us around trying to get us to buy anything. There aren’t a lot of tourists at all so they are even more desperate to make a sale. We have seen mostly Australians and Europeans, no Americans or Canadians yet. I guess everyone else but us realized how long of a way to go this is haha. After a long day of walking we went back to our relaxing home and did some reading and planning.
The next day we decided we wanted to see some of the island. There are many ways to do this and many tours that you can do so we decided to rent a car and a driver for the day. This cost us a grand 35 dollars. We had thought of driving ourselves and realized that we have never driven on the left side of the road, neither of us are very good at driving standard, driving
Monkey is hungry
This little monkey thought he would help himself into Stacey's purse standard in which the stick is in your left hand would be new and the rules of the road don’t really exist here. So we hired a driver and were very glad we did. First he took us to a rice terrace….basically rice has to grow on flat ground and when you have a hillside you need to create a series of flat surfaces working down the mountain. The result looks like stairs down the mountain side. Next he took us to a temple. Hinduism in the main religion on Bali and to enter we needed to wear a surong and tie a sash around our waist. This temple was called the spring water temple. We saw families participating in ceremonies. From there he took us to a coffee plantation where we saw how the Balianese people make there traditional coffee and how they make coffee from collecting the coffee beans from the poop of an animal called a Luwak. The coffee is called Kopi Luwak. We were able to try a bunch of traditional drinks and after could purchase any we liked. Not to sure about drinking coffee from beans picked out of poop so I stuck to the
Traffic Laws
Who has the right away????? traditional coffee. After that our driver took us to a lookout where we could see Batu mountain and Lake Batu. The mountain is a volcano that last erupted in 1965. Our driver was great and struggled a bit with English so we laughed at trying to understand one another. He took us to a few places in which you could view the millions of wood carvings and paintings. Next he took us to another temple called the Rocky Temple. We descended down hundreds of stairs into a valley. The temple was quite simple but beautiful with a stream flowing through the valley. As we were walking we came across a guide that told us of a waterfall 200 meters up the valley. He lead us to the waterfall and then told us we could swim in the pool surrounding. So in we went, had a great swim and realized how glad we were to have each other there as swimming with a man in the middle of no where could have been a bit scary if we didn’t have each other to laugh with. Got some good pictures playing in the falls and then continued back to start the climb
back up the steps soaking wet. We then went to a black sand beach and played in the waves, this being the first time we had seen the ocean since arriving. After a very long day, tired and hungry we went home.
The next morning we caught a ferry to Lombok. We discovered that we are the only tourists who chose to take the cargo boat to Lombok and everyone stared at us the whole way haha. People are quite aggressive and persistent in trying to get you to buy things. I think that will be the only continuous challenge of this trip. The area is being hit by a huge storm right now and while on the boat lightning and thunder were frequent. We were a little nervous as we had to endure this rocking and thunder for another 5 hours. While we were reading our books a light outside on deck exploded and burst into flames…..hmmm….what to do? Clearly the safety procedures that we have in Canada are not in place here. No one knows what to do, one man tries to get a fire extinguisher while everyone else stands in fear. The fire extinguisher is
locked and no one can get it open. They even rip the box off the wall in attempt to get it out. Finally two teenaged boys get a garbage can and throw some water on it and then hit the light until the flames fly into the ocean. Hmmm…..pretty scary. We sure realize how safe our country is and how many safety regulations are in place. Stacey and I decided that it would be a good idea to locate some life jackets.
Needless to say we made it to Lombok. What we didn’t expect was the flooding they have been faced with. It has rained here for three days non stop and the people are being flooded out. Many parts of the road are covered with a foot of water and it is still raining. It was sad to see hundreds of people along the roadside knee deep in water with no where to go. We found a place for the night in the non flood area of Bengissi for 5$ a night for the two of us. It costs more for a meal than a nights accommodation. The next morning we made our way to Bangsal to board
a boat for the Gilli Islands. A couple hours of rocking violently we arrived on the island Gilli Trawangan. These three islands have no motorized vehicles, no dogs and no form of police. They are all covered with hundreds of cats who weirdly only have half a tail. On Bali there are dogs running around everywhere scavenging so it was nice to be somewhere without the dogs. The islands are very peaceful and the local people work hard to keep us tourists there spending our money. The island we arrived on is known as the “party island” however, it is the slow season in Indonesia right now so it was pretty quiet and relaxing. When we got off the boat we were greeted by many people wanting us to stay at their place. We found a nice place for 80,000Rp a night which is about 10$. Our first day we walked around the island in 2 hrs including many stops for swimming to cool down. The next day we took a boat to the most untouched island of the three Gili Air. We met a very eccentric man from the states who is living their illegally, but hired by the
Fresh Fruit
Drive by picture taking government, trying to escape western culture, trying to help kids get off drugs but is looking to make his own, who was once in rehab, who has had 7 wives and 7 kids…one with each hahaha. He was very entertaining and walked us around the whole island. We could never decide if he was completely full of it or not. Anyways, he showed us the best place to eat and introduced us to the locals as “his friends from Canada”. We spent the rest of our time snorkeling and hanging out on the beach. We caught a boat back to our island and had an early night.
The next morning I went scuba diving!!!! The first dive was to an area called Halik reef. Saw some turtles and tons of tropical fish. The second dive I did was in an area called sunset reef. WOW!!! Great dive, saw a 10 ft white tip reef shark, lots of turtles, blue spotted sting rays, and a huge school of barracudas. We also say a huge fish called a bump hat fish. It has a hard bone on the top of its head and it uses it to crash into the coral
to break off pieces for food. It was huge. The shark was really cool and circled around the group of us before continuing on. Once back on board we were loading up the last of the scuba divers when someone on board spotted a Manta Ray swimming at the surface of the water. With in seconds everyone had thrown on their masks and snorkel and were diving into the water to glimpse the huge creature. It was so amazing and completely ignored our presence. I never thought I would have the opportunity to see such creatures in the wild! The next day we walked to the top of the mountain on the island and enjoyed the view. That night we played Wii and foosball with some guys from Australia that were really fun. Wednesday night is the huge party night on the island and all the bars stay open till the sun comes up….haha Stacey and I headed home at midnight.
Since it took so long to get to the Gili Islands and the ferry lit on fire we decided to pay the extra money and take a fast boat back to Bali. Kuta is very different from the areas we have been so far. It is a very popular surfing area and full of tourists. Think we will try surfing tomorrow. It has chains of fast food restaurants and I even saw a starbucks…hmmm…I want to go back to the Gili Islands already. Oh well, we can do some shopping and surfing and then get out of here. Next we are heading to the north coast of Bali to a place called Lovina. Great place to do some hiking day trips and it has a great beach.
I know that was very long and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read it. We are doing really well. Both have had a few sunburned spots. We discovered that even through the clouds our white skin can burn. Other than that we are feeling happy and healthy. I have fallen in love with this country and can’t wait to see more. Next stop…Lovina. W.e weren't able to upload all the photos of Gili Islands etc. They will come soon
Love, Alicia
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Mitch
non-member comment
AWESOME!
Thanks so much for the update and pictures.... and monkeys. I can't believe you're there and I'm firmly jealous! Wish I could see it first hand. Crazy about your ferry, did you know a ferry sank right around that time in Indonesia and 200 people died?? Crazy, pay for safety!