Part 6: Bali and Lombok (part 1) - days 31- 37
DAY 31: we arrived in Bali the night of day 30. Our first 3 nights were in Ubud, which is in the middle of the country. It's not a beach destination; more of a country side retreat. Our hotel is very nice and a very good deal. We paid for 3 nights and the cheap price included an airport pick up, daily breakfast and a 90 minute massage for each of us. The room is nice (with a view of rice fields) and there is a nice pool. Anyway, day 1 (of 10 in Indonesia) was spent exploring Ubud. We started by walking though the monkey forest which is right by our hotel. There were so many monkeys everywhere. At first it was kind of cool....and then one attacked me. I was walking along, minding my own business, when it jumped onto me. It scared the shit out of me. After that, armed with the knowledge that the monkeys might jump at me at any time, the monkey forest was no longer fun. In fact, it was scary....especially when we came across about 20 monkeys having a bit of an orgy (which in turn led to them fighting and howling). Anyway, I no longer like monkeys. We managed to survive the forest and spent the morning exploring the town. There are lots of shops selling beads, clothing, artwork, wood work and so on. We also visited the market in town which had a lot of crap, but was still interesting. One of the guys in the market was selling watches. He made sure to let us know that they were "real fake watches." Other vendors were selling "fake fake watches," and he wanted to make sure we knew he had real fakes. Funny, but i know what he meant....he was selling a "rolex" whereas his rival was probably selling something like a "lorex" We had a fantastic lunch at a trendy hippy restaurant. Most of the people there looked like vegetarians, yoga fanatics, flaming gays, or a combination of all of the above. But the meal was delish and cheap. The afternoon was spent lounging at the pool and enjoying the free massage we got with the hotel (which was actually a really awesome massage). We went back in town for dinner, but it was nothing exciting. DAY 32:
I spent the day at the spa. 5 hours of pampering for under $50! Bali is definitely my kind of place. My spa package included a massage, a mud bath, a facial, a mani, a pedi, a hair wash/scalp massage and lunch. It was AWESOME. Meanwhile Craig had planned to spend the day going on a walk around some of the rice fields just out of town. Apparently he walked for an hour, got extremely lost and had to turn around and find his way back to the hotel. So instead he ventured back into the horrors of the monkey forest to check it out again, and said it wasn't as bad the second time....whatever, I still didn't want to go back. We had dinner in town and happy hour drinks and then went to a traditional Balinese dance performance. It was ok. Most of the dance seemed to be about the hands and the eyes. The dancers would come out in elaborate costumes and open their eyes really wide and then do funny movements with their hands as they danced (think Mr. Spock type fingers). The whole thing was quite bizarre. I'm not sure how long it was supposed to go on, but we left after an hour because the happy hour drinks were starting to wear off and it was all starting to seem the same. I'm glad we checked it out, but I probably wouldn't go again. DAY 33: We left Ubud this morning for Gili Trawangan. The Gili islands are 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok (which is an island also in indonesia, right next to Bali). We were picked up from the hotel at 7:30am and taken by van to Padang Bai, where we got a 90 minute ferry ride over. It was 11am when we arrived on Gili T. As mentioned the Gili islands is made up of 3 islands. Gili T is the party island, Gili Meno is the rustic/quiet island, and Gili Air is the resort/family friendly island. Gili T is the largest of the 3, but it is still tiny; 8km around. There is one main "street" on the east side of the island (I use the word street loosely as there are no motorized vehicles on the island). Hotels, bars, restaurants and shops line the main strip with most places having beach front set ups. The beach is stunning. Crystal clear turquoise water, reefs, white sand, etc. We spent most of day 1 here exploring our surroundings and lying on the beach. Lunch, dinner and drinks were all consumed at restaurants on the beach. The seafood there was fantastic. Our hotel was a little bungalow about 1 minute back from the main road (which made it nice and quiet at night except for the fucking roosters that populate the island and decide to cock-a-doodle-do at 2am, 4am, 5am, etc). It was a cute, clean place, but was pretty basic. One of the best parts was breaky, which was included. They made the most amazing banana pancakes with cinnamon. A fruit plate was also included daily but everyday the fruit was elaborately carved/shaped into a different animal. It became a joke between us, and the owner and the staff member who made the fruit animals as to what it would be that day. We could hear them laughing away in the kitchen as they carved a fish or turtle out of a papaya for us. Gili T is very interesting. The population is about 900 people apparently, but I'd say there are at least twice as many people here on any given day. The entire island thrives off tourism and nothing else. As mentioned, there are no cars here; there is also no police. I would have never thought an island in Indonesia could function with no law enforcement, but it does. I guess cause everyone knows everyone else and all the residents know that it is the tourists that pay their bills, there is very little crime. Not once have I felt threatened or sketched out in any way; everyone is really nice. One thing the lack of police does is open the door a bit for drugs. In indo, dealing drugs has very harsh penalties (I.e. Death) and possession can put you away for years....but here, with no police, things are more laid back. That doesn't mean that everyone runs wild, as it is still indo (In 4 days i haven't seen a single person smoking pot even) but it does mean there are some abnormalities. For instance, the advertisements at the bars.....Along with advertising beer, they advertise that they have "super fresh magic mushrooms." Some restaurants have "magic milkshakes" on the menus. Also interesting is the tourist and animal population. There are no dogs (not one) but there are more cats then people. And for some reason 90% of these cats have short curly tails, or no tails at all. Must be a breeding thing. I prefer stray cats to stray dogs, as they don't look as mangey, a few scraps off your plate feeds them for a day and there is little risk of getting bitten. As for the tourist population, I would say that about 75% of the tourists are french. No idea why they come here; not like it's close to France. Everyone you see speaks French. I would say french is the language of the majority here, followed by Indonesian followed by English....although the indos don't really know French, so the french have to speak English. DAY 34:
In an attempt to get some exercise and explore more of the island, we rented bikes for the day and rode around the island....all 8k. It took about an hour, only because parts were sand and we had to get off and push the bikes. It was quite the work out. With the temperature being in the high 30s + humidity, we were drenched in sweat by the end. We pulled up to a beach to dive in and cool off, but the ocean water where we stopped was literally like bath water, so it wasn't refreshing in anyway (I've heard that expression many times, but this is the first time i can confidently say that the water temperature was that of a bath) We spent the rest of the day on the beach. I got pretty burnt; suspiciously only on the areas that Craig applied sunscreen too (I.e my back). Once again, dinner and drinks were had ocean front. DAY 35: day 35 fell on Oct 28, which happens to be my birthday. As we wanted to do something a little more exciting than sitting on the beach, we did a snorkeling trip around the 3 islands by glass bottom boat. We stopped to snorkel at 3 points and we had lunch on gili air. The snorkeling was good. I think the fish and coral we saw snorkeling in Mexico were more impressive, however at the second stop we got to swim with sea turtles. It was awesome. We probably swam with 5 or 6 of them, some pretty big. It was one of the cooler things I've done here in Asia. We got back In the late afternoon and went for a run, which felt really good at the time, but in retrospect was probably not a good idea. The 35+ degree heat, combined with a bad sun burn and lack of water meant that after 1 birthday drink and appies i felt violently ill. So we got take out and postponed the birthday dinner to the next day (which was still the 28th in Vancouver). DAY 36: our last day in gili T was another beach day. We lounged, played frisbee in the turquoise water, had lunch on the beach, etc. We did my birthday dinner and had a fantastic meal at one of the nicer restaurants. I had barramunda and chips. Delish. When we first arrived, we were told there was no hard liquor available, just beer and wine, due to "immigration problems" (not sure what that meant). 5 minutes later a different server came up to us and told us (quietly) that they did have liquor, but they couldn't give us a menu, we just had to discretely tell him what we wanted. So i ordered a very cheap vodka 7, and specified smirnoff. Over the last few years in gili, there have been a few deaths caused by methanol being put in some of the local alcohols when produced. They can make the alcohol cheaper and stronger by adding methanol, so that occasionally happens. In moderation it isn't extremely harmful, but when they fuck it up and put too much in, it will literally kill you to drink it. Anyway, as a result of a few bad batches over the past few years, I always made sure I was drinking name brands from countries other than indonesia; smirnoff is pretty universal. Anyway, the server comes back a few minutes later and says he is extremely sorry. They don't have smirnoff for my drink. They only have some "french vodka," which they can use instead, for the same price; would i like gray goose, or belvedere? God I love Asia. So I drank very cheap belvederes and 7up and was extremely happy about it. The fact that the waiter had NO idea that a bottle of Belvedere is not interchangeable with Smirnoff, and that they were obviously having troubles with immigration, makes you wonder what kind of shady business was involved in getting the booze....but hey, I'm not complaining. We had more drinks after at a reggae bar. It was a good night. DAY 37: today was a travel day back to Bali. We took a "fast boat" back, the same one as we took there. The speed of the boat itself is kind of irrelevant when the boat leaves an hour late, we stop once in the middle of the ocean to pick up a stray buoy, we stop again to pick up two people off another boat and then we break down in the middle of nowhere and are stuck baking In the sun for 30 minutes as our super competent crew attempts to fix the problem. Anyway, eventually we made it and arrived in Sanur mid afternoon. We had a fairly uneventful day. Checked into our hotel, walked up and down the beach front boardwalk, looked in the stores, had dinner and drinks,etc. The beach here is ok, but after Gili T it's really nothing special. We decided to stay in Sanur over Kuta, as i have not heard good things about Kuta. Kuta is only 15 minutes away though, so we are going to venture over there tomorrow to explore, and maybe go out partying for Halloween. OTHER COMMENTS: the people here in Indonesia have been some of the nicest I've come across while traveling. In Ubud and Gili especially, the locals were fantastic. While there are touts trying to sell you stuff, they are polite, and when you say "no thank you", they say "have a nice day." Weird. People also go out of they way to help; offering directions or advice if you look lost. When Craig got lost on his walk, he said a few locals pulled over and asked if he needed a ride. And it's so refreshing to go into a store and ask a question and get a helpful answer, without any attempt to sell you something. Here in Sanur (and Kuta too i imagine) people are more aggressive in trying to sell you stuff, but i still think we are getting off easy compared to other countries. I'm approaching the half way point of my trip. In some ways, i can't believe it is already half over. In others, i can't believe I still have 6 weeks left here. It feels like i just got here, and that I've been here forever. Time is a funny thing while traveling. Sio Sent from my iPad
I spent the day at the spa. 5 hours of pampering for under $50! Bali is definitely my kind of place. My spa package included a massage, a mud bath, a facial, a mani, a pedi, a hair wash/scalp massage and lunch. It was AWESOME. Meanwhile Craig had planned to spend the day going on a walk around some of the rice fields just out of town. Apparently he walked for an hour, got extremely lost and had to turn around and find his way back to the hotel. So instead he ventured back into the horrors of the monkey forest to check it out again, and said it wasn't as bad the second time....whatever, I still didn't want to go back. We had dinner in town and happy hour drinks and then went to a traditional Balinese dance performance. It was ok. Most of the dance seemed to be about the hands and the eyes. The dancers would come out in elaborate costumes and open their eyes really wide and then do funny movements with their hands as they danced (think Mr. Spock type fingers). The whole thing was quite bizarre. I'm not sure how long it was supposed to go on, but we left after an hour because the happy hour drinks were starting to wear off and it was all starting to seem the same. I'm glad we checked it out, but I probably wouldn't go again. DAY 33: We left Ubud this morning for Gili Trawangan. The Gili islands are 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok (which is an island also in indonesia, right next to Bali). We were picked up from the hotel at 7:30am and taken by van to Padang Bai, where we got a 90 minute ferry ride over. It was 11am when we arrived on Gili T. As mentioned the Gili islands is made up of 3 islands. Gili T is the party island, Gili Meno is the rustic/quiet island, and Gili Air is the resort/family friendly island. Gili T is the largest of the 3, but it is still tiny; 8km around. There is one main "street" on the east side of the island (I use the word street loosely as there are no motorized vehicles on the island). Hotels, bars, restaurants and shops line the main strip with most places having beach front set ups. The beach is stunning. Crystal clear turquoise water, reefs, white sand, etc. We spent most of day 1 here exploring our surroundings and lying on the beach. Lunch, dinner and drinks were all consumed at restaurants on the beach. The seafood there was fantastic. Our hotel was a little bungalow about 1 minute back from the main road (which made it nice and quiet at night except for the fucking roosters that populate the island and decide to cock-a-doodle-do at 2am, 4am, 5am, etc). It was a cute, clean place, but was pretty basic. One of the best parts was breaky, which was included. They made the most amazing banana pancakes with cinnamon. A fruit plate was also included daily but everyday the fruit was elaborately carved/shaped into a different animal. It became a joke between us, and the owner and the staff member who made the fruit animals as to what it would be that day. We could hear them laughing away in the kitchen as they carved a fish or turtle out of a papaya for us. Gili T is very interesting. The population is about 900 people apparently, but I'd say there are at least twice as many people here on any given day. The entire island thrives off tourism and nothing else. As mentioned, there are no cars here; there is also no police. I would have never thought an island in Indonesia could function with no law enforcement, but it does. I guess cause everyone knows everyone else and all the residents know that it is the tourists that pay their bills, there is very little crime. Not once have I felt threatened or sketched out in any way; everyone is really nice. One thing the lack of police does is open the door a bit for drugs. In indo, dealing drugs has very harsh penalties (I.e. Death) and possession can put you away for years....but here, with no police, things are more laid back. That doesn't mean that everyone runs wild, as it is still indo (In 4 days i haven't seen a single person smoking pot even) but it does mean there are some abnormalities. For instance, the advertisements at the bars.....Along with advertising beer, they advertise that they have "super fresh magic mushrooms." Some restaurants have "magic milkshakes" on the menus. Also interesting is the tourist and animal population. There are no dogs (not one) but there are more cats then people. And for some reason 90% of these cats have short curly tails, or no tails at all. Must be a breeding thing. I prefer stray cats to stray dogs, as they don't look as mangey, a few scraps off your plate feeds them for a day and there is little risk of getting bitten. As for the tourist population, I would say that about 75% of the tourists are french. No idea why they come here; not like it's close to France. Everyone you see speaks French. I would say french is the language of the majority here, followed by Indonesian followed by English....although the indos don't really know French, so the french have to speak English. DAY 34:
In an attempt to get some exercise and explore more of the island, we rented bikes for the day and rode around the island....all 8k. It took about an hour, only because parts were sand and we had to get off and push the bikes. It was quite the work out. With the temperature being in the high 30s + humidity, we were drenched in sweat by the end. We pulled up to a beach to dive in and cool off, but the ocean water where we stopped was literally like bath water, so it wasn't refreshing in anyway (I've heard that expression many times, but this is the first time i can confidently say that the water temperature was that of a bath) We spent the rest of the day on the beach. I got pretty burnt; suspiciously only on the areas that Craig applied sunscreen too (I.e my back). Once again, dinner and drinks were had ocean front. DAY 35: day 35 fell on Oct 28, which happens to be my birthday. As we wanted to do something a little more exciting than sitting on the beach, we did a snorkeling trip around the 3 islands by glass bottom boat. We stopped to snorkel at 3 points and we had lunch on gili air. The snorkeling was good. I think the fish and coral we saw snorkeling in Mexico were more impressive, however at the second stop we got to swim with sea turtles. It was awesome. We probably swam with 5 or 6 of them, some pretty big. It was one of the cooler things I've done here in Asia. We got back In the late afternoon and went for a run, which felt really good at the time, but in retrospect was probably not a good idea. The 35+ degree heat, combined with a bad sun burn and lack of water meant that after 1 birthday drink and appies i felt violently ill. So we got take out and postponed the birthday dinner to the next day (which was still the 28th in Vancouver). DAY 36: our last day in gili T was another beach day. We lounged, played frisbee in the turquoise water, had lunch on the beach, etc. We did my birthday dinner and had a fantastic meal at one of the nicer restaurants. I had barramunda and chips. Delish. When we first arrived, we were told there was no hard liquor available, just beer and wine, due to "immigration problems" (not sure what that meant). 5 minutes later a different server came up to us and told us (quietly) that they did have liquor, but they couldn't give us a menu, we just had to discretely tell him what we wanted. So i ordered a very cheap vodka 7, and specified smirnoff. Over the last few years in gili, there have been a few deaths caused by methanol being put in some of the local alcohols when produced. They can make the alcohol cheaper and stronger by adding methanol, so that occasionally happens. In moderation it isn't extremely harmful, but when they fuck it up and put too much in, it will literally kill you to drink it. Anyway, as a result of a few bad batches over the past few years, I always made sure I was drinking name brands from countries other than indonesia; smirnoff is pretty universal. Anyway, the server comes back a few minutes later and says he is extremely sorry. They don't have smirnoff for my drink. They only have some "french vodka," which they can use instead, for the same price; would i like gray goose, or belvedere? God I love Asia. So I drank very cheap belvederes and 7up and was extremely happy about it. The fact that the waiter had NO idea that a bottle of Belvedere is not interchangeable with Smirnoff, and that they were obviously having troubles with immigration, makes you wonder what kind of shady business was involved in getting the booze....but hey, I'm not complaining. We had more drinks after at a reggae bar. It was a good night. DAY 37: today was a travel day back to Bali. We took a "fast boat" back, the same one as we took there. The speed of the boat itself is kind of irrelevant when the boat leaves an hour late, we stop once in the middle of the ocean to pick up a stray buoy, we stop again to pick up two people off another boat and then we break down in the middle of nowhere and are stuck baking In the sun for 30 minutes as our super competent crew attempts to fix the problem. Anyway, eventually we made it and arrived in Sanur mid afternoon. We had a fairly uneventful day. Checked into our hotel, walked up and down the beach front boardwalk, looked in the stores, had dinner and drinks,etc. The beach here is ok, but after Gili T it's really nothing special. We decided to stay in Sanur over Kuta, as i have not heard good things about Kuta. Kuta is only 15 minutes away though, so we are going to venture over there tomorrow to explore, and maybe go out partying for Halloween. OTHER COMMENTS: the people here in Indonesia have been some of the nicest I've come across while traveling. In Ubud and Gili especially, the locals were fantastic. While there are touts trying to sell you stuff, they are polite, and when you say "no thank you", they say "have a nice day." Weird. People also go out of they way to help; offering directions or advice if you look lost. When Craig got lost on his walk, he said a few locals pulled over and asked if he needed a ride. And it's so refreshing to go into a store and ask a question and get a helpful answer, without any attempt to sell you something. Here in Sanur (and Kuta too i imagine) people are more aggressive in trying to sell you stuff, but i still think we are getting off easy compared to other countries. I'm approaching the half way point of my trip. In some ways, i can't believe it is already half over. In others, i can't believe I still have 6 weeks left here. It feels like i just got here, and that I've been here forever. Time is a funny thing while traveling. Sio Sent from my iPad
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