Indonesia - Exotic
Day 84: Thursday June 10th 2004. Got up bright and early for the fast ferry to Medan, Indonesia. The ferry ride was impressively fast, taking only 5 hours to cross the Straights of Malaka. Once at the other side we were hussled through customs, with officials insisting we queue jumped the locals, much to my embarrassment. I guess it had something to do with the 25 US dollar visa charges they now extract from all arriving Westerners. Leaving the ferry terminal, we were again hussled onto a bus, the destination of which we had no idea of. Aaron had a good whinge about the heat for the duration of the journey.
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| Local transport |
On the bus a local guy (Bido) asked if we wanted to get off at the tourist information office, which sounded like a great idea. The office actually turned out to be just another ticket agent, who happened to call themselves 'Tourist Information'. Clever. Despite sussing their rouse, we bought airline tickets for Bali from them for the next day. We checked into a hotel next door, and found a nice place for dinner and a beer. Medan, is just a gateway to the rest of Indonesia, with little to do, so I spent the evening watching DVDs in my room.
Day 85: Friday June 11th 2004. Our flight was at 3:30pm, so we spent the day bumming around at Sputnik cafe, where we'd had beer and food the night before. It was all very congenial.
An expensive taxi to the airport, a short flight, a debacle at Jakarta airport involving going through customs twice and another short flight delivered us to Denpasser, the capital of Bali. We met a girl called Nina at the airport who gave us a recommendation for somewhere to stay just outside Buta, the major tourist town here in Bali. Su's Cottages turned out to be in the lap of luxury, with satellite TV, hot showers (for the first time since Africa) and a balcony overlooking the swimming pool and palm tree courtyard. All this luxury is setting us back about a tenner a night between us, which is a little over budget, but hey, it rocks here!
Day 86: Saturday June 12th 2004. Bali is indeed beautiful. We spent the morning checking out options for activities, and have decided to go for, primarily, the surfing. There is also white water rafting here (a must) and some pretty cool diving too! We booked up surfing lessons for tomorrow morning. We then hired body boards and spent the rest of the day body boarding in the surf. I really like it here!
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| Paddy field |
Day 87: Sunday June 13th 2004. Surf lessons 1. Very cool, got to stand up on the board, no worries.
Day 88: Monday June 14th 2004. Surf lessons 2. Was going well until I was slammed into the board, side on, by a wave! My old snowboarding injury was duly re-injured. whoops...
Day 89: Tuesday June 15th 2004. We decided to take a break from the surfing, and hired motorbikes for an exploration to the north. Using only a compass, we navigated the hectic Balinese traffic, learning a whole new set of road rules on the way. Nestled in the central mountains of Bali we found some wonderful botanical gardens, some pictures of which are below. On the way down the mountains we found the Git Git waterfall (unfortunate name!) and monkeys (Macaques) by the roadside, begging for food. Although it was getting late, and the mountainous bits had been a bit chilly, we continued on to the north coast. After a bit of riding around, we stopped for some food in Lovina, the tourist trap of the north.
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| Orchids | Lake | Balanise demon | |
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| Macaque | Macaques | Git Git waterfall |
We commenced the journey back at sunset, against the advice of the locals. I have to admit wondering if it was a good idea at the start, as it seemed like we were riding through a mosquito storm, and our helmets had no visors! However, as night fell the mozzies died down. As we climbed back up through the mountains the temperature began to drop - we later found out that they were over 2500M tall. It was starting to look like we had overestimated both the length and the height of our journey! Bitterly cold in just shorts and t-shirts, we hacked on through the mountains. I was reminded of riding my motorbike though an English winter's morning. Some tropical island experience this was!
Eventually, we stopped in the mountains for petrol, and found a cheap clothes shop. The only trouble was, it was a kids clothes shop, and so we completed the final part of our journey wearing kids jackets bought for a couple of quid each. We must have looked pretty amusing, but the benefits of being just that little warmer made it worthwhile. Once safely back into the 'South East Asia's answer to Ibiza' (i.e. Kuta) we gave our jackets to a market stall worker, who seemed very happy with their freebies.
Day 90: Wednesday June 16th 2004. It appears that riding a motorbike all day on a bruised rib is a bad idea! Since our rather posh room included a TV, and there was an internet cafe 50M down the road, an extended period of laziness and recuperation ensued. It's amazing how quickly the habits of home take back over!
Day 91: Thursday June 17th 2004. TV, Internet, food and drink - recuperation.
Day 92: Friday June 18th 2004. Ditto
Day 93: Saturday June 19th 2004. Ditto
Day 94: Sunday June 20th 2004. Ditto. Cabin fever settling in.
Day 95: Monday June 21st 2004. Ditto
Day 96: Tuesday June 22nd 2004. Woke up this morning resolute that it was time Aaron and I spent some time apart. I packed, said my farewells, and set of for 'somewhere nice' in Lombok. The taxi out of Kuta to the ferry port was astronomically expensive, but escaping tourist traps often is. I caught the 3:30 ferry to Lombok, with an onwards ticket to the Gili islands, the destination I had settled on en-route. The plan was for an overnight stay in Sengiggi, Lombok, before completing the journey to Gili Tragawan by bus and ferry tomorrow morning. Spent an interesting evening talking to an almost retired Aussie builder / developer I had met on the bus. He had some opinions, I listened!
Day 97: Wednesday June 23rd 2004. Arrived on Gili Tragawan this morning around 11am. No cars or motorbikes or anything - just horses with carts and push bikes. The locals are very friendly, the sea is turquoise, the sand white - stunning island. After moving into a room slightly out of 'town', I hired some snorkelling gear. All I can say is that it's not often you see turtles on a snorkel trip. Not where I've snorkelled before, anyway. I think I'm gonna like it here. I have booked up for some diving tomorrow...
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| Gillie T. harbour | On the boat over | Island transport |
Day 98: Thursday June 24th 2004. Diving day one Shark point and Manta point - awesome diving - turtles, sharks, rays, plus all the other colourful little buggers you come to expect!
Day 99: Friday June 25th 2004. Diving day two. A reef called Turbo in the morning, and a ballistic current night dive in the evening.
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| Yours truly | Turtle | Cuttlefish | Garden Eels |
Day 100: Saturday June 26th 2004. I hired a mountain bike first thing and set off to circumnavigate the island for the day. A couple of hours later, I got back home having circled the island far quicker than I had expected. I bought a ticket for Gili Meno, the island next door, for tomorrow and spent the rest of the day chilling.
Day 101: Sunday June 27th 2004. I was all set to leave this morning, but my hosts had unexpectedly disappeared to Lombok for the day. I couldn't not settle my bill or collect my laundry. Whilst sitting in the sun having a quiet smoke, a local guy invited me to his house for coffee and smokes. He was very hospitable, and also invited a Japanese girl called Meca in too. Meca is a Japanese translator, and so her English was excellent - I liked her a lot. We spent the day together, and I was glad I'd not left the island. What a sweetie.
Day 102: Monday June 28th 2004. OK, today I am really going to leave! The only trouble is, it's party night on the island... damn. If I'm going to Singapore, I have a week to get all the way up there... I'll move to Gili Meno, as planned, and take it from there.
Day 103: Tuesday June 29th 2004. Gilli Meno 1. Diving was not too impressive. Lovely chilled place thought, I prefer it to the now seemingly hectic(!) Gilli T.
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| Meno sunset | Bug shot! |
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| Sunset panorama - Lombok in background |
Day 104: Wednesday June 30th 2004. Gilli Meno 2. Diving still not impressing me. The island is though - I'd ideally stay here a good few days longer. So chilled, and with locals I can actually talk to without underhand attempts at relieving me of some cash. Indonesians at their best - both warm and cool.
Day 105: Thursday July 1st 2004. Travelled back to bloody Kuta. Had a good crowd to spend the journey with. Checked into a very nice hotel, but Kuta still sucks.
Day 106: Friday July 2nd 2004. I booked a flight to Singapore for the 5th. Kuta; for the first time in my life, read a whole novel in less than 24 hours. How bored am I?
Day 107: Saturday July 3rd 2004. I went to great trouble hiring surfing gear to have another go at surfing again today. I was reminded of a line from an old skate rock tune by the Circle Jerks: 'Surf's to big and gnarly for me'. I got tumbled, spun, thrown and generally battered. Maybe metre and a half waves, albeit on a beach break, are not the best waves for learning on. Maybe I'll just wait until I get somewhere where the breaks are a little more manageable... Still, at least I made the effort.
Day 108: Sunday July 4th 2004. I just had to note this one down: I appeared for breakfast this morning, and as I sat down I was slightly amused to note a young western guy asleep, head down, on the table. He had clearly been in some sort of compos mentis state when he had arrived, as he had apparently managed to order breakfast. I thought nothing of him and ordered my own breakfast. After some time, security approached and woke him. The guy must have been on some sort of amphetamines the night before, as when he awoke, he had that utterly bemused expression on his face. My amusement continued to grow as he appeared to realise that he was supposed to be eating breakfast, and so picked up his mobile phone, and put it in his mouth, as if to eat it. Giggling to myself, I put his actions down to drowsiness upon awakening. My consternation at his actions continued to grow as he, after an amount of time I would have considered enough to have snapped out of it, attempted to take another bite of his Samsung. The security guard and I exchanged mirth filled looks, as the guy then decided that the correct way to consume his mobile phone was obviously to unscrew the aerial and chew on that end instead. Not that he could even get that together. Funny. If I ever get like that, just put me to bed (as the security guard duly did)
After that, I packed my stuff up and headed for the airport. It was nice to know, with certainty, that the LIGHT BLUE taxi would not rip me off. I have to admit that I had no regrets leaving Kuta: Indonesia, I MAY be back, but only for a short holiday...
My flight to Singapore was marred only by the dodgy guts the airplane food gave me. Bloody Balinese, even managed to bugger up my travels at 36000 feet. Kuta is the Costa del Sol/Majorca of south east Asia. I couldn't help feeling that spending so much time in Kuta had been a mistake. I guess at times like this, one has to just accept that decisions were made and that what ever had been had been.