Last few days in Indonesia

My last blog had my time on Bali and the Gili Islands.  After that post I left the blissful Island of Gili Air and moved onto the party island of Gili Trawangan.  Catching the public boat was a doddle, my travel book (Lonely Planet Bali and Lombok) had warned about over crowding on the boats.  Well that has been well and truly ticked off.  It was so overcrowded it struggled to get going, thankfully the journey was just a short hop.

Gili Air harbour

The Island is very similar in both size and nature to Gili Air the only difference being that it has a few more bars.  I arrived early, too early to check in, so I dropped my bag and walked the perimeter of the island (1.5 hours), lovely walk that, mixing coastal path with beach and a spot of paddling.

Gili Trawangan

Getting back, the owner had arrived and it wasn't that the room was not ready earlier, it was that the air con in the room was not working.  One thing that you need over in Indonesia is good air conditioning, it can get seriously hot and humid during the day and doesn't drop much below 30C even through the night.  The owner was good, he moved me to another place just down the street.  The owner complimented me on how well I had taken the news, he said normally tourists shout at him for such problems. I liked him, arranged a discount for later in the week and moved back to his homestay once the air con was fixed.  He offered to go with me to his home on mainland Lombok and stay in his family home - why I didn't take up that opportunity I do not know.  I must take more opportunities like this on this trip, this is what it is about, been spontaneous, grabbing opportunities, not be the over polite Englishman saying "no thank you, I'd love to but....." and make some excuse up.

I often feel you can tell how good a day you have had on a trip by the number of photographs you have taken.  Sometimes it doesn't tally, for example, when I was watching cricket in a bars with a couple of my mates I didn't take any, but still had a great time.  My couple of days on Gili Trawangan I only took a handful of photo's.  The island was beautiful and was nice just to relax and wander around.  After all you can only take so many photographs of white beach, blue sea and boat bobbing up and down, but that doesn't mean it wasn't nice been there.

Tough life

I resisted the temptation to join in with the all night parties, caught the start of them but by 11 each night I was ready for bed. One night I was introduced to a new drink by a couple of Irish girls that were living on the Island.  Vodka Joss, basically you poured a sachet of powdered energy drink/sherbet into your mouth mixed it with a shot of vodka and swill around your mouth for about 20 seconds, by which time a chemical reaction was happening in your mouth it foamed up and it felt like it was going to come out of your nose.  Needless to say I only had the one.

Extra Joss - Energy Powder/Vodka mixer

The Gili Islands residents are predominantly Muslim, so it seemed strange to have a mix of discos and bars and the frequent call to prayer. Every hotel I had on the Muslim Islands (Java and the Gilis) seemed to be right next door to a mosque and I was frequently awoken to the soothing sound from the muezzin.

The journey back to the back to the mainland of Bali was in a high powered speedboat.  No overcrowding on this boat, but the whole journey had music blasting out, young revellers drinking beer and dancing on the top deck.  I was supping a cup of tea with a couple of old timers and a young French couple.

Decent boat trip back to mainland

In Sanur I stayed at a descent (and very cheap) homestay, the girls working there were super friendly, bonkers and great fun to chat with.  I enjoyed my time here, just a couple of days but both nights I got talking to different Australians, both of whom were sound.  Had a good chat with them about cricket and rugby.  To be honest I never thought I'd be saying that sentence ever (privately or publicly).  It was full moon when I was in Sanur, but no wild parties as happens in Thailand.

Full Moon over Sanur Bay

 
From Sanur I caught a Uber Taxi to Kuta, can't stress how good the introduction of Uber to tourist destinations is, but it does suffer the rogue taxi drivers who make a few extra quid out of tourists.  I have no sympathy for the taxi drivers that double, treble or worse the price when they see a Westerner.

Kuta a place where young Australians come to party on cheap booze was surprisingly enjoyable.  The beach is serene and stretches for miles up the coast.  I had 3 great days in Kuta.  I spent the days walking up the beach watching the surf schools and boats bobbing in the water.  Early evening Kuta beach is the scene of an incredible sunset which was very popular.  Just prior to the sun setting sea turtles were released into the sea from the conservation site.

Spectacular sunset over Kuta beach

I did a couple of tourist attractions in Kuta I went to a large temple, where music was been played and a large gathering around the back of the temple.  On checking it out there was a dragon dance on the stage along with a bride and groom.  Just as I realised I'd gatecrashed a wedding I was handed a bottle of pop so stayed for a bit. 

The wedding crasher

 The other sight in Kuta is the memorial to the youngsters that were killed in the Bali bombings.  These were just kids partying the night away when their lives were cut short, spending time at sights like this puts things into perspective.

Memorial for the victims of the Bali Bombing

One bar had a nightly drink promotion offering a free bar for 4 hours including a free BBQ for under a fiver.  Once over I would be all over a deal like this, but perhaps I'm getting old or maturing or just boring, I preferred to spend my evening in the many bars listening to reasonable standard of live bands.

I really enjoyed my time in Indonesia, Java was probably the highlight for me as there was more things to do that appealed to me.  October was the start of rainy season and I only had about 3 drops and that was on top of a volcano.  It is not packed with tourists and prices of hotels were a snip of the prices quoted in the Lonely Planet.  If I were to come back I would travel again in this month.

From Indonesia I take with me only 2 fridge magnets and a new pair of flip flops, but most importantly a shed load of happy memories.

Next stop is Singapore.

Bali and the Gili Islands

I'd enjoyed KL and Java and now it's Bali's turn to draw me in. When I think of Bali I think of blissful beaches and lounging around. Normally I like to be on the go at all times. I wasn't sure Bali was going to be for me. However that was then, now I have the time to lounge around and relax I may take to the beach life easier than I thought.

 

On my to do list was snorkelling, I'm not sure how I would take to this, I've never opened my eyes under water even wearing goggles, also I'm not the greatest of swimmers.  All did not end too well as you will find out at the bottom of this blog!

 

One of many Bintang beers

The first couple of days I stopped in Seminyak famed for glorious beaches and bars.  During my two days I spent here I never saw the beach or the sea! The simple reason is that I was meeting 2 Barmy Army Legends to watch the cricket in a bar over many beers and the odd Jagerbomb to celebrate milestones.  It was great to speak with familiar likeminded people for a couple of days.  I took a holiday from my travelling and for two days it was like been on a cricket tour! 

 

Up until this point I had meticulously written down every single expenditure and had a full reconciliation of what I had spent on accommodation, transport, food and drink etc.  These two days my stats are a little hazy due to excess Bintang consumption, but I got it back on track.

 

I wasn't overly fussed to have missed out on the beach life as I was aware I would return prior to catching my flight, by which time I would have none of the barmy army to 'encourage' me to stay in a bar all day.

 

Using the excellent Uber that has been introduced to parts of Indonesia I travelled by taxi up to Ubud for some culture and recover from a couple of heavy days.  The 1.5 hour taxi was less than £6 for a door to door service and worked out cheaper than the tourist bus.

 

My £9.50 a night hotel in Ubud was about 3-4km from the centre up a slight incline.  It had a glorious infinity pool, which was occupied by 8 foreign exchange girls from South America, nice.  One afternoon I was in the infinity pool watching the sunset through the coconut trees, thinking it was Monday morning back home, and thought this is more like it.

Hotel pool (minus the South American girls)

I didn't do much in Ubud, visited a couple of temples but the highlight was the Monkey Forest.  Basically a jungle just near the centre of town which housed thousands of monkeys.  I'm not normally a fan of monkeys but these ones seemed to be used to tourists.  Some tourists were quite clueless in picking up baby monkeys much to the anger of the mothers.  I had a great time watching them play and get aggressive with overly enthusiastic tourists. The walk back to the hotel each day was eventful as you would never know which temple a dog would belt out of and start barking like crazy at you, it didn't help it was pitch black after dark also.

My favourite Monkey.. 

From Ubud I hit the coast at Padangbay wandering to some picture postcard beaches, then caught the speed boat to the Gili Islands.  The Gilis are 3 small islands ringed with white sand.  I watched some beautiful sunsets into the ocean (one of which with a German girl I had met on the boat), had freshly caught fish for dinner on the beach with waves practically tickling the table legs.  My choice of drink moved from the decent beer that is Bintang to a whole variety of cocktails.  The Gili Islands were more expensive than Bali and a bit of a tourist trap.

 

Gili Air

Mojito at Sunset

Beenbags on the beach at sunset, got to be done

The sunsets one final time over Lombok from Gili Air

Finally, my snorkelling trip didn't quite go to plan, I booked a day trip on a glass bottom boat which took you to 4 different snorkelling locations.  This was my first time, and in doing so in the middle of the ocean was quite literally diving off the top board.  Thankfully someone in the group requested a life jacket, and I followed suit, something I was so pleased about.  The first couple of minutes were brilliant, a whole new world opened up in front of my eyes, technicolor fish and a coral seabed.  I was loving it until my snorkel filled with water I started to panic, flapping about and taking in more and more salty seawater.  I was quite distressed, I swam to a different boat and clung on whilst I got my composure,  I made my way back to our boat got in and the snorkelling trip from then on turned into a glass bottom boat trip. 

They say when travelling you should try new experiences, which I did, I may do this again, but next time walking out from the beach where I can put my feet on the ground if I don't like it.  An Aussie women whose 6 year son was also finding it difficult was extremely nice to me.  At dive spot number 3 I was determined to go back in but like a bungy jumper teetering on the edge, I was on the side of the boat and fear prevented me from jumping.  From the safety of the boat I got to see 2 giant sea turtles with hoards of snorkelers from my group frantically pursuing them.

My snorkelling trip which turned into a glass-bottom boat trip