Advertisement
Published: November 16th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Welcome to Indonesia...
Tanjung Aan Beach, Lombok With Bali's largest volcano Mount Agung billowing smoke and threatening imminent eruption, things weren't look good for the Indonesian leg of our trip. However, Mother Nature showed just how unpredictable she can be and to the date of writing, Agung hasn't erupted. We felt slightly apprehensive about being on the island in the event of an eruption, so on arrival in Jakarta, we decided to avoid Bali and fly to Lombok - an idyllic and less developed island to the right of Bali.
Our first stop in Lombok was Kuta, a small town famous for its picture perfect beaches. The best beaches are located a bit of a drive from the town itself so we decided to rent a scooter for the five days we were there. Donal has become a bit of a pro over the past few months so it was great to have the freedom of the scooter for our stay.
One of our goals for our year away was to improve on our surfing skills (or rather our lack thereof). Selong Belanak is a very popular beach for beginner surfers so we joined the crowds there one morning to hone our skills. It was a
Going, Going, Gone!
Personal development on Selong Belanak Beach! great lesson and by the end we both had managed to catch a few waves and stand. We called back a few days later and rented boards but the waves weren't great (that's what we told ourselves anyway).
On top of surfing, Indonesia is also famous for yoga so we (Mau) decided to sign us up for a class of yin yoga which we were told was suitable for beginners. The yoga retreat was idyllic - set on a hillside over looking Kuta Beach. We were first to arrive for our class and we were both admittedly a little nervous as first timers. As the rest of the class started to arrive, it was obvious that we were the only rookies! Donal made a beeline for the door but our inconvenient position at the top of the class made his exit impossible so he was forced to stay to Mau's amusement. He broke out into a cold sweat when attempting the first "move". Apparently sitting crossed legged doesn't come naturally to all of us!! But once we relaxed into it we both found the class really enjoyable. It was great to stretch out the muscles after our surfing escapades
and it was very relaxing. So much so that Donal was almost asleep by the end of it!
As a tourist in Kuta, you will be approached daily by local kids, on the beach and in restaurants, selling handmade bracelets. We had some great chats and were amazed by their selling techniques. Mau thought she had found a child genius one day when she told a little boy we were from Ireland and he immediately responded with "Dublin"! We found this quite impressive as we are often met with blank stares so we proceeded to ask him the capital of as many countries we could think of and he got every single one right bar Botswana (which to be fair we had to google ourselves.....and have since forgotten!). Of course we bought a bracelet from the little genius. All we could do was laugh the next day when we heard a little girl in a cafe asking a family what country they were from only for a repeat of the previous evening's game to ensue. Played like a violin!
After a relaxing few days in Kuta, we (Donal) decided to climb the 3,726m high active volcano Mount Rinjani.
Spot the novice...
...standing way too forward on his board! This turned out to be such a challenging and rewarding experience that we have decided to dedicate a separate blog post to it!
Following our two day hike of Mount Rinjani we were dropped off at Bangsal harbour for our boat to Gili Trawangan (Gili T). By this time, we were:
- sleep deprived;
- starving;
- still in our climbing clothes not having had a chance to shower yet;
- manky dirty;
- almost definitely smelly;
- lacking the full use of our legs; and
- weighed down by our monstrous bags.
We crawled onto the ferry to Gili T and things went from bad to worse. We stopped at Gili Air and Gili Meno en route and were joined on board by several fashionably clad island hoppers; our awareness of our dirty appearance growing by the second! The island's are so small that the ferry didn't actually dock at these two islands but rather it pulled up close to shore and people walked through the water from the beach to get on and off the boat. We had visions of having to take off our shoes to reveal our dirty feet, and having to climb off
Spot the other novice...
...with the gigantic beginner board! the boat with our bags through the water minus the full use of our legs. Luckily the ferry pulled up to a pier on arrival so our nightmare never materialised. We disembarked the ferry and set about finding a horse and cart to take us to our guesthouse as the island of Gili T doesn't have any motorised vehicles (you couldn't make this up). We couldn't find a horse and cart willing to take us as our guesthouse was only 500m away (felt like 5 km)! So we had to trudge our way to our guesthouse with our bags on our backs. Talking about kicking someone when they're down!!
We spent our first couple of days in Gili T in rehabilitation mode - eating, sleeping and avoiding any strenuous form of exercise (i.e. walking and stairs) and before we knew it we were good as new. With Mount Rinjani to the east and Mount Agung to the west of the island, we enjoyed some beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the island. We had planned to spend a day scuba diving as Gili T is world renowned. Unfortunately, due to lingering head colds we had to abandon this plan but
did some snorkelling instead. The beaches are quite shallow with lots of corals so it's quite hard to navigate your way out to snorkel but once you do, you are treated to some beautifully coloured fish.
Gili T is a very small island - it only took us about an hour to cycle the whole way around. It's very touristy and if we're being honest we preferred Lombok as the beaches there were great for swimming and surfing whereas, while the beaches in Gili T are picturesque, they aren't really suitable for swimming or surfing (unless you're a really good surfer). Nevertheless we had a relaxing few days.
Given that Agung hadn't erupted, we decided to go to Bali for our last few days to an area called Seminyak close to the airport. Arriving into Seminyak we were surprised by how developed it was with lots of expensive hotels, restaurants, boutiques, etc. Bali is a very popular holiday destination in general but especially amongst Australians so with hindsight it makes sense.
We were within walking distance of a beautiful beach called Double Six Beach. Not as idyllic as the ones we had been to in Lombok but
Delighted with ourselves!
......take the photo QUICK!!!!! the waves were better for surfing so we spent our time there working on our surfing skills. We had our last dip in the water a few hours before our flight to Darwin and we had definitely come along way since our initial lesson in Kuta, although we are still definitely on the beginner spectrum!
And so after 101 days, our South East Asian adventure has come to an end and so too has the first half of our year away. Another continent beckons as we head for sunny Australia for the next couple of months. We're really looking forward to exploring another continent and sharing our next adventure with you all.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0598s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb