Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 518

Suckers! The day after Wayne’s 40th I was feeling decidedly seedy. A good sleep in, a hearty grease-laden breakfast of egg and bacon and taking it real quiet was in order. A couple of Panadol sealed the deal. Later on around 1pm, we decided that we’d try find Lauren a new set of board shorts and headed off up the road in search for a shop. We bumped into an equally seedy Wayne and Cathy headed back the other way - said some quick hellos and made some rudimentary plans for later, or maybe the next day. Near Legian Street, we were approached by a bloke with what looked like a fistful of cards trying to hand some to us. We didn’t see the harm in it and so Jane and I took one each. The ... read more

I've changed the trip to a mountain biking/surfing trip. I'm in the capital of Lombok (Mataram pop. 130,000) the last "city" I'll come across so I'm taking advantage of it before I head further east...further back in time. Arriving in Lombok was already a change. Goats at the harbor. Horse drawn carriages on the road. Riding the bike from Kuta, Bali to Padangbai (harbor) took only 3 hours! It wasn't very pleasant, too many motorcycles and trucks. Once I got to Lombok the sounds of the many insects covered the little traffic noise! I'm really looking forward to getting on the more rural roads. As I approached the harbor on Bali I stopped by a temple (Hindu) when I heard the gamelan. I went down to the black sand beach to listen and watch the ... read more

Shopping Trip to Ubud All great journeys are paved with good intentions. US$40 to hire a driver for 8 hours includes car and petrol - cheap! The plan was to drive to Ubud and spend the day there shopping, checking out galleries, restaurants and maybe some cultural shows. Dancing First stop, major touristy Begong and Keris dance centre about 10km from our villa and about 20km short of Ubud. At first when the driver pulled over, there were lots of official looking people waving traffic to park on the wrong side of the road…what’s going on here? All the people are getting out of their cars/vans? Is this like a military checkpoint or something? I’m not carrying any ID with me - I read somewhere that you should carry your passports and visas with you, but ... read more

We arrived in West Sumatra late at night on December 4. A larger airport at Padang than expected but bit of a melee from the start and very hot and humid. The two men at Immigation took an inordinate amount of time reviewing passports and then stamped forms with vigour. After an hour we were waived through to collect our bags which I managed after only a short sharp tussle with shark-like wannabe baggage handlers. Customs officers smiling, but far too interested in the 4 arriving foreigners i(ncluding your fearless friends). Chatted with a friendly officer from Bukittinngi who expressed genuine pleasure that we were going hiking in the highlands the following week. For some reason I became separated from the missus and the Customs officer I was dealing with asked to go through the heavy ... read more

Bali Belly Lauren and Jane have been have a slight taste of Bali Belly. Nothing too serious at this stage - not sure what could have caused it. My strategy of sticking to cooked-only food and heaps of alcohol seem to be paying dividends so far. 4WD Safari Waka Land Cruise safaris took us up into the hills today. It was our first real encounter with all the traffic conditions and types of people that Bali had to offer. We were picked up in a Land Rover fully kitted out for a serious expedition - there was no mistaking that our ride had arrived, that’s for sure. We met up with a British couple from a hotel in Nusa Dua. They were closer to the UN Conference action than we were - they said it was ... read more