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Published: March 8th 2007
Hello,
What a busy time I've had. The last time I wrote I was in Bali about to go into the countryside to explore. I stayed in Ubud, a much quieter place than Kuta, surrounded by rice fields where I could hear ducks and frogs all day long. A short walk away I found a forest full of monkeys, one of them even tried to steal my friend Sarah's bag, they are very cheeky!
While I stayed in Ubud I took a tour around Bali, first stopping at a rice field where I learnt how it is made, it looks just like barley and grows in very wet fields and it comes as white, red and black rice. I then went up to Git Git waterfalls, to a royal temple and I went to a school for Balinese artists. It was all very interesting.
From Bali I travelled by boat to Gili Trawangan, one of three islands near Lombok. On the way, I was amazed to see whales and dolphins skimming the water. People go there to Scuba dive and snorkel so they can see the huge range of marine life that lives in the clear waters. I
was lucky enough to see turtles, trigger fish, parrot fish, and even small white tip reef sharks. There are no cars on the island and everybody travels by cidomo, a small horse drawn cart. The restaurants are very different as they are roofed platforms on stilts and you sit on cushions, these are known as barougas. Everyone there was very friendly and it was a very tranquil place to sit and relax and watch the beautiful sunset.
From the Gili islands I went to Lombok for a few days to see some lovely waterfalls at the foot of Mount Rinjani, which is the second highest volcanic peak in Indonesia. It was so powerful I got wet from the spray!
To reach my next destination I took a very long journey taking about 40 hours by boat, then cidomo, mini bus, coach and ferry! I was very tired when I eventually reached the island of Flores. It was possible from here to get a small boat with some other travellers over to Rinca, this is part of the Komodo National Park. A guide led the way through Pre-historic landscape pointing out the unique Komodo Dragons, also known as a
monitor lizard. They can be very dangerous so I had to be careful, growing to be over 2 metres long and up to 50 years old. They have a septic bite and can kill animals as big as buffalo. Luckily I saw many but they were all sleeping.
This ends my travels through Indonesia but starts my new adventures in Malaysia. I hope you keep exploring with me.
Stripey x
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