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We are currently sitting in Ubud, Bali and its our last day of Indonesia! Cant believe we've been here a month, time has gone ridiculously quick but we're ready to move on to pastures new
When we last wrote, we were leaving Bromo and all the volcanoes of Java. After another 13 hour ride from hell we arrived in Kuta which is the main tourist area in Bali. Its also where about a million Australians come on holiday so it felt a little like we had just gone to Ibiza or something. It was odd suddenly paying through the roof for rooms, everybody speaking English and trying to deal with god knows how many touts
To be honest, we didn't do too much here (we needed to recover after the Volcano climb!!) so we just spent time relaxing by the pool and getting knocked around by massive waves - great fun!! Our original plan was to learn to dive here but we decided it was way too busy so instead got a speedboat over to the Gili Islands, a group of three idyllic islands with no motorised transport whatsoever. A bit like Herm but bigger
After negotiating a
brilliant room with a strange Italian owner, we signed up for the diving. Next day, bright and early we reported for the start. 15 minutes later Paul had given up. He decided it definately wasn't for him so left Sarah to it for a few days
During the course Sarah did 4 open water dives and loved every minute of it....she saw millions of fish and turtles and cant wait to experience dives in different countries, different conditions etc.
Once that was over we relaxed on a beach again (very strenuous this travelling lark!) but eventually decided to move on. Our plan was to go to Lombok and then continue going east over towards Komodo, where hopefully we would see the famous dragons and climb another volcano or two.
After an interesting ride in public transport (you try bartering where NOBODY speaks your language) we arrived in a tiny mountain village on the east of Lombok. Now one thing Indonesians dont seem to get is the concept of distances. Our guesthouse owner produced a map of the local area, telling us there was a lovely walk down to some natural pools surrounded by monkeys which according to
him was only 4km away. Well, after walking for approximately 2 hours we were nowhere near anything, it was sweltering hot and we had the uphill stretch back to the guesthouse to look forward to. So we gave up. The saving grace of that experience was just how friendly the locals, and especially the children were. Every step of the way we had kids following us, speaking broken English, wanting high-fives etc.
We followed the sound of loud music all the way back to our guesthouse and found a wedding procession starting next door! We were promptly invited (as were 3 neighbouring villages!) to join in the celebrations and were treated like honoured guests
Unfortunately the next day, Pauls cough that he's had for a few days took a turn for the worse. He was coughing his guts up and feeling very sorry for himself so we decided to cut our losses and get back to air-con and tv, after the local doctor came along and diagnosed bronchitis. He gave Paul medicine and vitamins and the bill only came to 50,000 RP which is only about 3 pounds fifty pence - not bad and a hell of a
lot cheaper than home. So Komodo will have to be left until we come back at the end our trip (possibly...)
After two days of not moving out of the hotel room (we found a takeaway KFC!) we went back to Bali again and headed for Ubud which is perched halfway up an active volcano. This is the other half of Bali's main tourism centres and we were hoping it was better than Kuta. Luckily it didn't disappoint. With Paul feeling better but still coughing we got back into the swing of things and visited the Monkey Forest where there were hundreds of the buggers. We then looked at a couple of temples and yesterday went for a 25km dawn bike tour. Not quite as impressive as it sounds because the tour company took us up the summit of a volcano and we then free-wheeled down through loads of local picturesque villages and rice paddies. Very good fun and a nice sun-tan to boot
Tonight we are going to see a traditional Balinese masked dance show and then tomorrow night we have to sleep in the airport in KL because our connecting flight has changed and theres no
hotels around - at least not in our price range.
Looking forward to China and the change of pace / weather and we will update in a few weeks.
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Faz
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Diving
Hey Higgins, Since your other half enjoys Diving so much why don't you take up my suggestion of going Island Hopping in the Philippines.