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Published: February 6th 2007
After a brief 24 hours post christmas shopping spree in Singapore, we headed off to Bali. Let us say right from the start so there is no ambiguity, that Indonesia is very very cheap compared to most other Asian countries we have visited (expensive Thailand springs to mind!). As a guide prices of beer, food, accommodation, massages etc were approximately 60% cheaper than Thailand. It's the sort of place that immediately made us wonder why other places in South East Asia are expensive by comparison. For example, one large Bintang beer cost 60p, one plate of Nasi Goreng (chicken fried rice) cost 50p, 1 massage (even better than Thai massage) was 2 quid for one hour, accommodation ranged from 2 quid to 10 quid a night, the 10 quid being the most exclusive. 10 quid in Kuta (a treat after 2 weeks in a campervan) got us a room big enough for 30 people with an overly ornate entrance and 2 great swimming pools.
We spent New Year's Eve on Kuta because we had heard it was a place to party. Kuta is a strange place as you can tell straight away that the resort is used to tourists in
Boat captain to Gili Trawangan
A little young and he got us wet but he steered the old girl in the right direction.much higher numbers. But with all the bad publicity Bali gets, the place is really suffering and prices are at rock bottom. The bad press being the result of a seemingly unfair, unjust and prejudiced anti-drugs policy and the continuing threat of more bombs. It's immediately apparent that the country is a little prejudiced as the Indonesians sell all kinds of drugs on the streets, yet it puts Aussie backpackers in prison for carrying a relatively small amount of marijuana.
Kuta's beach isn't as picture perfect as we had imagined, but there was some storms at the time we were there. Despite this a day at the beach was still very interesting because of the sunbather/surfer mix and some of the biggest waves we have seen. The majority of tourists in Kuta were Aussie surfer types who were obviously taking advantage of the very cheap budget flights from down under (eg 100 quid return with accommodation!). This seems to have turned Kuta into an Aussie equivalent of Majorca's Magaluf with lots of obnoxious surfer dudes and dudettes binge drinking and frowning on anyone that doesn't surf. Another thing we noticed was no matter how cold or wet the weather,
the Aussie guys liked to walk around with their tops off and board shorts on all the time. Appropriate or not it just wasn't a pleasant sight! That's not to say we didn't like Kuta, we did due to the cheapness (think 8 quid a day spending money including 2 massages!). Another observation we had was that apart from a few waitresses in restaurants, most of the tourist work (eg in bars etc) had men rather than women working in them. Whilst the men were free to laze of the beach all day it was rare to see an Indonesian women doing the same. Donna noticed a lack of respect for women in general after being almost run over and shoulder barged too many times to count - surprisingly the Aussie men were just as bad as the Indonesians. Saying this though we met some Indonesians in Kuta who were the warmest, friendliest people we have met yet in Asia, so bear in mind Bali is an island of contrasts.
Our funniest experience by far was our first massage, we both went into the cubicles and started to undress, expecting to be given some loose clothes to put on
We just cant get enough of these sunsets
This was done using the camera remote so apologies for the cheese! like in Thailand. The massage girls came into the cubicle, demanded Donna take off her bikini top and Neil strip to his boxers. We both proceeded to have a massage, a little while later our underwear was pulled under our backsides and the girls proceeded to happily massage our bums with cocoa butter and Neil was offered a 'special', too shy to ask what this was, we sent a few girls we had met in Trawangan in to enquire what a 'special' was! Very unusual massages but amazingly relaxing and beat any other massages we had had in any other part of Asia hands down...yes we are comparing! What was even more unusual was the conversation in the cubicle next to us of an Aussie girl with the massage girl...it went something like this:
Massage girl: ' You come here with husband'
Aussie girl : ' No I dont have a husband'
Massage girl: 'You want husband'
Aussie girl: ' No I dont want husband'
Massage girl: 'You like Indonesian Men?'
Aussie girl: 'No..they smell bad'
Massage girl: ' You want girlfriend ..you can have here too no problem'
Aussie girl: 'Where?....from here?'
Massage girl: 'Yes..you come back here
at 10pm..you can take me'
Aussie girl: '10 you say...okay ..see you then!'
Both of us were also regularly questioned by the Indos about our relationship with questions such as...Are you married? Why you not married? What is the problem with your relationship? How many kids you have? Why dont you have kids? Do you have problems in bed?
We therefore found it best to answer with the perfect answers that did not bring on further questions which were...Yes we are married and we will have children very soon..one boy and one girl!
Soon after New Year and when the weather had cleared up a bit and were advised that the ferries could run, we travelled to Gilli Trawangan off the north west tip of Lombok. This involved a 2 hour bus journey, a 5 hour ferry journey to Lombok, another 2 hour bus journey on Lombok and then a 40 minute small and unsteady boat ride to Trawangan (where we got soaking wet!). A note to other backpackers, if you take this route to the Gilli's the transport operators will have you spend an hour in restaurants between each transport change and try and get you
Happy horse at our hotel
Was there any need to include all the anatomical parts? Every time we laid by the pool we couldnt help staring.... to buy breakfast, lunch and tea. Forcefully saying no to these offers will get you to the Gilli's faster than our 12 hour long fiasco! Alterantively be sensible and take the 17 quid plane to Mataram.....But oh my god was it worth it getting to the Gillis!
The Gillis are the most perfect beaches we have ever seen and probably will ever see. Our accommodation was basic, included breakfast and was only 2 quid a night, although we had a fight every morning with the stoned grumpy teenager who ran the bungalows. He never seemed to have any tomatoes or bread and considering that 4 out of 5 options for breakfast involved tomatoes and bread it made life difficult for us. We met some really nice people here who went mainly for the diving, although it had many other things to offer, great snorkelling and really laid back bars to chill out in and watch DVD's. The place was so good that our intended 3 day stay turned into an 8 day stay and we only left then because we had run out of money and there was no ATM to get more! Neil also got very ill here
Great pool at our hotel
not bad for under 10 squid and had a raging temperature. He was hallucinating..as he often does when he's sick (Donna thinks he just wants sympathy). With this though our travel thermometre read 39.3 degrees...maybe he was a bit ill. We got a little worried that Malaria may be the cause but turns out it was just some dodgy Indo bug which Donna was to also get in the Philippines (see next blog entry)
We would visit Indonesia again just for these beaches, they were that amazing and made the majority of Thailand's beaches look pitiful by comparison. See the beach and sunset pictures for an idea of paradise! There were only 3 things to do on the Gillis...drink, sunbathe and watch the amazing sunsets. Thats why there are so many pictures of sunsets! As for there being so many pictures of us both in this blog entry ...we can only apologise and say that this was so that our parents back home will have some nice pictures of the two of us when actually its because we are really vain and like staring at ourselves when we read our blogs each day... Hee hee!
Leaving the Gillis to get back to Bali was
New Years Eve in Kuta
had a few Bintangs to get us in the mood (for celebrating that is!) as much a hassle as getting there. We skipped most of the hassle by sticking near a very abrupt American woman who as she desribed in her words "If they dont listen, just scream at them and keep on screaming then they'll listen" And scream she did...as well as push a few away from here because they were 'invading her personal space' and smoking too near her.
Our short 3 week stay in Bali and Lombok was a welcome rest after 3 months of hectic travelling around South America and New Zealand, it was a cheap respite too, we spent 350 quid for the two of us. Without a doubt we will be coming back to Indonesia to explore what other hidden treasures it has to offer.
This is probably the shortest and uneventful blog we have written so far, but what can you say about lying on a beach doing nothing?
Our next leg takes us to the Philippines, via a 10 hour stopover in Singapore's budget terminal, think Tom Hanks in that film the Terminal to give you a preview of the start of our next entry.
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flydragon
Journey
massage story
I love that massage story you guys told. So funny! I like to read you guys' blogs. It makes me feel like I am there too. Nice pictures.