Indonesia (Bali, Lombok and Gili's) 29th November - 20th December 2010

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We arrived at Denpasar Airport after a short flight and were looking forward to some good old fashioned lazing around on sunny beaches. Since we left the UK we have not stopped moving (the most we have stayed in one place is 4 nights and that was back in September) so we thought it was time we did some ‘staying still’. We were quickly through all the security checks and in the ‘taksi’ queue. We befriended an Auzzie girl which enabled us split the bill 3 ways and headed to Poppies Lane in Kuta - the renowned backpacker area. As it was late all the socialites were out – Kuta was living up to its reputation of being flooded with Australians! We initially struggled to find accommodation to meet our budget. We searched high and low then settled on the very first place we walked by, it wasn’t the nicest place we have stayed in, far from it in fact, but it was a bed (although we had no sink strangely). The next morning it was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to hit Kuta beach. Inspired by the many surfers, Dan found a small surf shack, booked a lesson and hired a board for the day. He quickly got the hang of it and by the end was catching some good waves whilst Laura concentrated on catching some rays instead!

After our second night in the below average accommodation, we decided that this wasn’t the right place for us to settle in, so upgraded to a nicer area called Seminyak a few kilometres along the coast. The homestay and the beach were a lot cleaner and we had managed to get away from the majority of the Australian school kids that were on holiday experiencing there first beers. Following some serious surf related injuries (grazed knees and chest) we spent most of our days here topping up our tans, reading and trying to avoid the persistent sales women on the beach, “no we don’t want a temporary tattoo, a kite or a 8 inch knife”! The other reason for our move up the coast was to head to Bali’s premier club, Double Six, to see Sander Van Doorn (a well known DJ) play there. After a few Bintangs (the local beer) we went out as a 3, having made friends with a Indian chap from our homestay. Despite it already being 12.30am, the club was empty so we decided to head out again and have some cheap drinks on the beach. Later when we returned it was slightly busier and we had a good night; the venue was a pretty cool place equipped with a bungy jump into a pool!

After 3 days on the beach we decided we didn’t want to hang around the touristy places so headed inland to Ubud in a ‘Bemo’. During the journey we learnt about Bali’s unique Hindu culture from our driver called Maddy (the neighbouring islands of Java and Lombok are both predominantly Muslim). We arrived and quickly appreciated the chilled out vibe and cooler climate, it very much reminded us of Pai in Thailand. We were suckered into the first home stay we found because of the friendly resident dog. The first thing we did was head for Monkey Forest. This was a great experience, although we would have to think twice before taking a bunch of bananas in with us again as they literally went ape for them! There were hundreds of monkeys everywhere across the sprawling jungle, playing and fighting with each other and trying to pinch unsuspecting tourist’s belongings! We later checked out Pasar Seni market where Laura brought a dress after lots of hard bartering. That evening we went to see a traditional Balinese dance show performed by all women cast. It was really good! The makeup was striking and the dances made us laugh at first as they use facial expressions and hand movements to tell the story of their dances. The next day we took ourselves off for a walk around the many rice paddy fields swamped by well constructed man made irrigation systems and scattered with ducks. The route turned out to be a lot longer than we had anticipated (have they never heard of scaling their maps?!) This, coupled with a very hot day left us exhausted, although we were both glad we did it! We rounded off our time in Ubud at Warung Ibu Oka a legendary restaurant, famous for serving babi guleng – roast suckling pig. We weren’t sure which part of the pigs we may have been eating at times, but it was still good grub.

Our next stop was Gili Air a tiny island off the coast of Lombok, but first we had to get there. The fast boat was going to cost about £40 each one way so we opted for the much more fairly priced slow boat option, who wants to rush anyway?! We left Ubud at 7am in a mini bus which took us to Padangbai, east coast Bali. At 9am we boarded a ferry (making a bad choice of seats – no breeze and surrounded by chain smoking locals grr) and it took 5 long hours to cross over to Lombok. We then had to get 2 mini buses to get us to Bangsai where we were greeted by a load of scammers who told us that we couldn’t get on the boat to the Gili’s until 10pm unless we brought a return ticket from them. Our Lonely Planet had warned us this was a con, but even with this knowledge we had to endure 30 minutes of arguing with them. Eventually we were on another boat (and hadn’t brought their ticket) and at 6pm we stepped foot onto beautiful Gili Air. It had taken us no less than 11 hours to travel a distance of about 60km (as the crow flies). Our moods were instantly lifted as we walked (the island has no transport other than bikes or horse and cart) to find accommodation on this paradise island, and even the rain couldn’t spoil it. We slept in a beach bungalow (which also lacked a sink, cleaning your teeth in a shower isn’t fun!) which had amazing views over Gunung Rinjani, the 2nd highest volcano in Indonesia (well when it wasn’t too cloudy). Gili Air was definitely a place we could do some ‘staying still’. We spent our days on the beach, snorkelling in the clear blue seas, eating, drinking and chatting to the super laid back and friendly locals. We walked around the island in 80 minutes! Unfortunately we were here in the wet season and most afternoons were spent reading or playing games on our veranda, sheltering from the persistent rain. The Gili Isles are famous for their beautiful coral reefs so we booked ourselves onto a couple of scuba dives at the friendly Manta Dive shop. Although the storms meant visibility wasn’t the best, we still had 2 amazing dives and got to see a black tip reef shark, 3 huge lobsters, some sting rays and loads of turtles and fish!

Despite wanting to stay still, the wet weather, combined with our desire to want to see everything, meant we were keen to witness what the other Gili isles were like. Gili Air is the laid back island, Gili Meno is the quite honeymoon island (we avoided that!) and Gili Trawangan is the largest and the ‘party island’. Partying isn’t weather dependent so we caught a boat across for a few days on Gili T. The beaches were just as pretty here but there were lots more people and even a cash point! We spent a late night in Rudy’s Pub, mostly chatting to the locals and learning more of their culture – this left us wanting to explore Lombok – our plan of staying still really was failing! We ate cheap local food in the food market – Indonesian food isn’t our favourite cuisine. Most of the time its fried rice or noodles, with a fried egg on top and a giant prawn cracker! After a couple of days on Gili Trawangan, it was time to say goodbye to the paradise islands and head to mainland Lombok to a place called Senggigi. We were excited about this. To quote our Lonely Planet “You can spend a lifetime of travel in search of the perfect beach, and it would be hard to top those around Senggigi. Think: a series of sweeping bays with white-sand beaches, coconut palms, cliff and mountain backdrops, and blood-red views of Bali’s Gunung Agung at sunset”. Wow we thought!

We headed straight for Senggigi beach; we had just put out our towels and as if on cue; down came the rain... We think the Lonely Planet over sold it, it was not as great as expected, although maybe we have just been spoilt with beautiful beaches in recent times, and the weather didn’t help! We later went out for dinner where we experienced one of the many power cuts that plague Indonesia. Some might say the candle lit was romantic but we found it more of an annoyance and ruined our card games! Senggigi as a whole felt like a ghost town (it is low season) so we made a decision to leave our big bags at the home stay and hire a moped to explore other parts of the island (as recommended by the guys on Gili T).

Our destination was Kuta Lombok, a 100km ish journey down to the south coast. It was an interesting ride to say the least! We had no map but thankfully Dan’s good sense of direction paid off and we made it there in a couple of hours, managing to traverse the part built, not at all built, and even the currently being built roads! The horrific journey was worth it; the small beach town had fantastic panoramic views to feast on, an unspoilt deserted beautiful beach friendly locals and cheap accommodation! We unintentionally adopted a puppy for the afternoon called Bangoo. He was dumped on Laura’s lap on the back of the moped to come out for a ride with us to the beach by the landlady of the home stay we had based ourselves at. We spent most of the afternoon dog sitting and eventually took him back (feeling we had done our bit) so we could cruise along the coast and see more of the area’s natural beauty. We found the locals very friendly and they were really interested in improving their English. The next day we were interviewed and videoed by a group of school girls who had been set homework to interrogate tourists about their native education systems. We also met 2 aspiring teachers (John and Omar) who taught at a local school. After a morning spent chatting with them on the beach, they offered us a tour of the area in exchange for us helping them more with their pronunciation. We thought this was a great idea and arranged to meet early the next day. We found them at Omar's aunt's simple house on the beach front, we were kindly offered teeth rotting sugary coffee which, of course we accepted. As a 4, we travelled on appalling pot holed steep roads to Mawan beach where we briefly met more family members who lived in a tiny fishing village. They assumed that we, as westerners, smoked and were quite disappointed when we could not offer them a cigarette, after this we were not sure whether they were laughing at or with us... The beach was unbelievably good, without a doubt the best we have ever seen (probably because no one goes there as you have to risk your life on the roads to get there!) The water was so clear you could look down and see the bottom from quite a distance, and the sand was as white as Richard Hammonds teeth, then the surrounding mountains looked as if they could have been found off the coast of Scotland with great white waves crashing into protruding rocky bases. The tour continued further west to the next bay called Selong Blanak, this if anything was even more beautiful! It was picture perfect and just what we had imagined and hoped the beaches of Bali would be like, plus the population of both the beaches including us was 8! It was most definitely an undiscovered jewel and we are glad to have seen them in their natural state without any development surrounding them. After this we thanked our tour guides and headed back to Senggigi to return the moped. We made a detour into the capital Mataram to stop for a well earned Pizza Hut lunch (yey no rice or noodles!) and to book a flight back to Bali to avoid the tedious journey we experienced on the way out.

Our budget flight cost us far less than the fast boat would have cost (the perk of being here in low season) and only took 20 minutes (which was a good thing as it didn’t feel overly safe!). It was an experience to fly on a plane with propeller’s and felt like we had stepped back in time! We arrived back into Bali and decided to travel to Legian just up from Kuta and found more cheap accommodation (still with no sink?!). We went to the beach for the afternoon and decided to have a night out on the tiles following dinner. We went to a bar called Vi Ai Pi on Jl Legian which was next to the memorial for the 2002 Bali bombings. We watched a local live band ruin some good western music and then headed next door to the roof garden terraces where we made the most of the golden passes being handed out on arrival, granting us ‘free flow drinks and snacks’ which we took full advantage of! We danced the night away and watched impressive fire dancers only having purchased 1 drink all night long! The next day Dan surfed whilst Laura had a quiet day, feeling the effects of the Arak in the jungle juice which they filled our free drinks with!

With only 5 days left in Bali, we were keen to see more than just the typical holiday spots (we had well and truly given up on the ‘staying still’ plan now, we just can’t stop moving around!). Cue our next adventure to northern Bali. We left our bags and rented a moped and this time invested in a map to get us to volcanic Gunung Batur. It was a long ride (although the roads seemed brilliant compared to Lombok) and for the first time in a long while we felt cold as we headed into the mountains. We reached our destination up some very steep roads; at one point the poor bike couldn’t even make it up the hill without Laura having to dismount to lighten the load! The views across the lake and volcanoes were stunning. From where we stood we could see the active Gunung Batur, Gunung Abang and Gunung Agung - the highest at 3142m. A local offered to guide us on a walk up Batur, but the cold and lack of footwear other than flip-flops made us decline which, was a shame. The windy wet cold weather was enough to prompt us to move on back to a warmer climate so we continued north to Lovina.

We checked into a cheap room and went for a late lunch on the beach front. The volcanic black sand looked less impressive than we imagined and was covered in rubbish, plus the sea was a murky looking colour which you might expect to find off the coast of Frinton-on- Sea! What a disappointment! We met a nice English couple and spent the evening sharing travelling tales with them and avoiding our rooms as we seemed to be the only people suffering from a constant power cut which lasted the whole night! The weather hadn’t improved the next day so we cut our losses and left.

We drove to Gitgit Waterfall which was really impressive and full of fast flowing water! We wanted to have a dip as we had done in the waterfalls in Thailand, but just as we arrived the heavens opened on us once more! We took shelter for a while but it was clear this wasn’t just a passing shower and we were in the middle of nowhere, so on went the waterproofs (our Vietnam purchases were about to be tested to the extreme!) and we got back on the bike. At this point we were really pushing our luck, the rain was so heavy and our helmets didn’t have visors so we could hardly see anything! We drove extra slowly and eventually the rain slowed. Our waterproof jackets would have worked had the rain not been going up our sleeves and down our collars! We decided to spend the night in Sanur on the west coast. This had nice beaches, but the sand was all imported and the sea front was covered in upmarket holiday resorts – not backpacker’s terrain! The weather didn’t pick up here, in fact it deteriorated and we got stuck in a huge thunderstorm (the thunder was so loud it was setting car alarms off!) and got soaked on our walk back from dinner for the second time in one day! At this point we began to get excited about the thought of heading to summer in Australia! (Although we here it’s been raining there too!) One night in Sanur was enough so it was back to Legian for our final days in Bali, where the weather got wetter and wetter.

So now it’s time to leave Bali, having slept in no less than 11 different beds! Seems much as we want to settle somewhere, our desire to explore and see everything just won’t let us. We feel like we’ve had enough time in Bali, it’s nice but not somewhere we would rush back to. Lombok and the Gili isles are definitely places we would like to spend more time, along with the other hundreds of islands that make up Indonesia. We can’t believe that it’s less than a week until Christmas; we couldn’t feel any less festive if we tried! Happy Christmas everyone!

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Comments

[Swanderman]

Lombok - The "Unspoilt Bali"
Great reading your story. Like everyone I know who's done the trip, once you've been to Lombok, you won't go back to Bali.