The Final Month

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Greetings. Our time on the road has come to an end, so all that remains to be done is fill you in on the fourth and final month of our amazing trip. It has flown by, with indecent haste, especially these past four weeks, which began with us landing on the island of Lombok and spending a few days in the city of Mataram.

The highlight of our time here was witnessing a stick-fighting competition, which was taking place on the 70^th anniversary of Indonesian independence. It was exactly what it sounds like. Two men. In a ring. With sticks. Trying to beat each other senseless, whilst at the same time trying to make sure they are not on the receiving end by protecting themselves with a shield held in their other hand. It was fast and brutal, but good fun to watch and it was all done in good spirits with the opponents often fighting with smiles on their faces and always embracing their rival at the end of each fight.

We left Mataram and dry land behind us to begin a boat trip to Flores, which took four days and three nights. Along the way we were treated to some phenomenal snorkelling stops, as well as some nice short treks on some of the remote islands which we stopped at. The highlight of the trip though came on the final morning, when we got to visit the islands of Komodo and Rinca and see the incredible Komodo dragons which inhabit the islands at close quarters.

Labuan Bajo was the name of the town which we used as our base for our time in Flores. We chartered a boat to take us to Kalong Island, where we enjoyed watching the strange, but quite mystical, sight of a flying fox migration at sunset. We sat in our little boat as the darkness began to grow around us and watched as thousands and thousands of these huge fruit bats flew over our heads and made for the mainland to find some food.

We also spent an interesting night visiting a traditional village in the mountains, called Wae Rebo. It took a seemingly endless, bumpy car journey and a steep hike to reach the village, but when we did we were able to observe the village life and interact with the villagers to learn a little about the remote lives which they live.

It has been the norm for us to usually spend no longer than three nights in any one place on this trip, but we bucked this trend when we returned to Lombok and spent a whole week exploring the southern coastline around the town of Kuta. Kuta, Lombok shouldn’t be confused with Kuta, Bali. It is a brilliant place. Really awesome. We spent our week attempting to surf, and when that failed, exploring the pristine beaches and dramatic headland which rises above them.

To do our exploring we needed our own transport, something else we haven’t had for the duration of our trip. Enter Sexy Bitch. Sorry to lower the tone. Sexy Bitch was the name of our trusty Kuta scooter (seriously) and we managed to escape any dramas, despite Lombok throwing cows, potholes, police, motorbikes, children and at one point a whole throng of people into our path and testing out my amateur riding abilities.

Thankfully the walls to all of the local premises remained intact. For those who don’t know, this is a reference to the time when Chris Ellis drove us into a wall in Laos during our trip four years ago. Speaking of Chris (how seamless was that link!?), he made a cameo appearance on this trip as well, although readers of the four years ago blog will be disappointed to discover that I have no tales of any foolishness on his behalf to regale them with this time. He was three quarters of the way through a two week holiday with his girlfriend Lucy and they became the first familiar faces that I had laid eyes on in over three months when they arrived in Kuta for two nights. It was really good to see them both, and when the nostalgic evening game of crib began, it was almost as though the intervening four years since our trip could never have happened.

Chris and Lucy weren’t the last special guest appearances as we left Kuta to meet Jenny and Sophie at the airport, two more friends from home, and set off for the final twelve days of the trip as a group of four, rather than two. Our first stop was Gunung Rinjani, Indonesia’s second highest volcano, which we climbed up and down in the space of two torturous days.

The first day was steep and hot, but the second day, on the back of a cold, sleepless night seemed never ending. We woke at 2am for our attempt on the summit, which took three hours. The final hour was one of the toughest things that I’ve ever done. The gradient of the hill was ridiculous and the ground beneath our feet unstable, so that you’d constantly be sliding back down the way that you had come if you didn’t find enough purchase on the slope. Then there was the wind which was trying to cut us in half and the race against the sun, which was beginning to light up the horizon in the east and putting pressure on us to keep going, even though the looming silhouette of the summit never seemed to be getting any closer.

Eventually, the climb was over. There were times when I had genuinely thought that I wouldn’t make it, which isn’t something I’m accustomed to thinking during these types of activities. But we did it, and about 15 minutes before the sun appeared and cast its early morning light over the incredible view lain out in every direction before our eyes.

The sock gloves on my hands weren’t really cutting it, so after a while at the top it was time to go all the way back down again. It was another seven hours of tough, slippy descent and we notched up an impressive 17 falls between us (Simon – 1, Jenny – 4, Sinead – 12), before we arrived back at our waiting car at the bottom, filthy dirty and feeling pretty defeated after our ordeal.

Relaxation was in order, so we were whisked off to the Gili islands, where we spent five nights recovering and sampling the delights which the three small gems have to offer. We enjoyed some live music, watched a film on the beach and explored all islands on foot in some depth. From Gili Meno we did a snorkelling trip, during which Shin went to quite extreme lengths to avoid sunburn, by donning her black t-shirt and leggings and essentially dressing as a seal once she had her fins on as well.

On Gili Air we all did some diving. This meant a ‘tune up’ for Sophie and I, who had both dived before and an introduction to diving for Jenny and Shin, who had not. This was done in a swimming pool in the morning, before heading out in the afternoon to the sea. As ever, it was a strange, but awesome experience and we were rewarded by seeing two huge sea turtles, which are the jewel in the crown of the Gili islands underwater scene.

We returned to Bali via a boat which had dolphins jumping alongside it and travelled to Ubud for our last major stop of the trip. Here we had a couple of nights out, which was impressive considering most of the town had shut up and gone to bed by 11pm. We also explored some rice terraces, received a police fine for riding our scooter without an international driving license and visited two temples, at one of which Jenny and Shin got cleansed as a part of a Hindu ritual.

We visited a monkey forest, where Jenny got nibbled by a macaque and also took in a Balinese dance. We saw the Kecak fire dance and it was a really impressive spectacle. It was quite difficult to understand the story which was unfolding in front of us, but the sound of the performers chanting and clicking in time with each other was hypnotic in the low light of the fire which they were surrounding.

We returned to Kuta, Bali (boo) for a last surf, meal, beer and sleep and then Shin and I flew on to rainy Bangkok early the following morning. We stayed nice and close to the airport which we landed at, as we thought that this would be both sensible and useful for when we caught our next flight a day later. Unfortunately, we discovered during the course of the day that we would be flying home from a completely different airport some 50km away. So our well intentioned plan didn’t really work out terribly well.

We made our way into the city to try some Thai food and have a wander around Lumphini Park when there was a break in the weather. Then we went to find a restaurant called the ‘Long Table’, which is on the 25^th floor of a skyscraper. It was quite a swanky establishment and I was quite surprised to be allowed in wearing my grubby shorts and resembling a drowned rat, but they didn’t seem to mind too much and we had a couple of drinks whilst looking out over the night time city view to cap a great last night at the end of a fantastic four month trip.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your lives to keep up to date with our adventures, for those that have been. We’re safely back in the UK now, readjusting to some home comforts and settling back into normal life. Coming home from something like this is always a bit of a mix of emotions, and although we are both a bit glum that it has come to an end, we are ridiculously grateful that it happened and we were able to have the opportunity to take time out of our lives to explore some other corners of the planet. We are very, very lucky. We’ve seen and done some brilliant things, met some amazing people and I’ve got to do it all alongside the very best of travel companions.

Now we get to see all our family, friends and football teams once again, which helps to soften the blow of the trip ending considerably. I’m really looking forward to getting to see everybody once again after so long. So thanks again for reading. I shall see you very soon.



Simon

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