Monday 13 February 2012

Bali, Lombok & The Gili Islands...

After a long journey, crossing by ferry and then more hours on our cramped public bus, we eventually arrived in Bali. We where dropped off in Kuta, which is a 'lively' resort. Now I use the term lively loosely, its more like the equivalent of Australia's version of what Benidorm is for England. After one evening there, it was all too much for us, even me and John felt super old in Kuta. It was a resort full of young, wild and drunken Australians and that was definitely not what we where wanting, especially in order to embrace Balinese culture. So, the next morning, we hopped on a bus and headed North to a place called Ubud. 

Ubud was true Bali for me, the small town is filled with traditional houses, people are traditional and orthodox on their beliefs and means of following Balinese tradition. The place is laidback and has lots of interesting places to explore and most of all, has delicious food to offer. We spent a couple of days cycling around the main area of Ubud and pushed further into the outskirts, visiting temples and taking in the lovely luscious lands of what I felt was the true Bali. The open green fields glow as the sunshine beams down and the air swells around you. I felt like Lance Armstrong at one point, battling up a huge hill in the pouring down rain, feeling my calf muscles burning but knowing that it was all worth it. These are the experiences that I love and what makes the journey worthwhile. After a couple of days, we opted to head over to a place called Padangbai for a night then get the ferry over to Lombok. Padangbai is a small harbour town, it is more a place to stay to rest and await your journey across to Lombok or the Gili's. We where lucky enough to find a gem of a guesthouse, the actual room was more like our own house, with a downstairs, upstairs and balcony included. The one night we chose to stay, a local wedding was happening next door and the mix of traditional Balinese music and hardcore trance music blasted on until the wee hours. It's funny such an eclectic mix that the locals seem to enjoy! 

We opted to catch the public ferry across to Lombok, mainly for the reasons of it being the cheapest option to travel. We could have paid more and arrived at our destination in 90 minutes, but no we opted to travel with all the local people on the huge ferry which took 5 hours to cross 25km! The journey was interesting, as I boarded the enormous car ferry, I noticed that for the whole ferry, there was only one small dingy life-raft boat on board, considering there must be around 200 people on board that day, the small lifeboat probably holds 30 people. This was my small concern but kept thinking positive and was super thankful I am a decent swimmer when it comes to the sea. After spending hours of doodling in my notebook, playing chase with the cockroaches running around my feet and having a nap in my chair, I was happy to see the green hills of Lombok infront of me. Once we left the ferry, it was minibus time to head up to a place called Senggigi, North West of Lombok. This is a coastal town, which offers good waves and time to rest and take in Lombok's beauty.

As we hopped off the minibus, we where greeted by a man called Abdul. He offered us a package to scuba dive on the Gili Islands and also stay in Senggigi for few days, which was perfect for us. We usually don't book anything in a package, more do everything as we go really, but this sounded good and the place to stay looked nice too. We stayed in a local village area with a traditional room and this is the place where our lessons began in the Indonesian language. All Abdul's friends hungout at the guesthouse and his friend Dedi owned the place. We would sit and chat to them for hours and worked on perfecting our knowledge of the Indonesian language. We spent the next three days, wandering around the place, eating local street food and engaging with locals. By the end of our time in Senggigi, I could have a small conversation with local people, asking how they are, saying my name, asking their name, saying my country of origin, asking where they come from and talking about food or the weather. I could order my food and drinks in Indonesian and ask for the bill, also being able to understand the numbers...I can count one to ten in Indonesian, this is something I am immensely proud of!

We headed over to Gili Trawangan, the furthest of the three Gili Islands, by a small fisherman boat. The boat should probably carry maybe 30 people, on the day I crossed over, I was crushed on with 50 people and was surrounded by stock of beer, water and other things being delivered to the islands. The waves where rather choppy and each slammed into the boat as we crossed the open water. Thankfully, I arrived safe and sound to Trawangan and the initial quietness and open sands welcomed me happily. We wandered along the track around the island and bumped into a local guy who worked at a guesthouse. In the end, we walked with him and went to check out and stay at this guesthouse called Dua Nina. It was clean and basic and a good price for us too. All water on the island is cold and the water is sea water, as there is no fresh water on Trawangan, so plenty of ice cold sea water showers.
Gili Trawangan is surrounded by white sands, calm and tranquil and the means of transport is only bicycle or horse and cart. The way of life is slow and this is something I enjoyed. I would wake each morning and walk around half of the island, find a secluded spot on the beach under a tree and enjoy reading my book. In the evenings, we would visit the food market, a small court with local benches and eat traditional Nasi Goreng, washed down with an ice cold Bintang Beer, perfect! The plan was to stay for 3 days or so, catch some beach time, do some snorkeling, scuba diving and relaxing then head back to Bali. Well, that was until the next day, the news arrived that the huge car ferry that we had travelled across on had crashed off the coast of Lombok. The strong winds and waves where dangerous and forced the ferry to roll and crash into rocks. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and all managed to survive.

When John went to do his scuba diving, we found out that Abdul had conned us in a way, well...he used to work with Lombok Dive but a few months back he stopped paying them. Thankfully, Monay the guy who owns and runs the diving school gave John the day of diving, then asked for his help to go back to Lombok with him and go to see Abdul. John ventured over around 5pm, that night he never returned, I was anxious and worried, on both the situation with Abdul and also the sea conditions incase he tried to get back on a boat. Thankfully, he called after 9pm and I was updated on all what had happened in the past couple of hours. Basically, when they arrived back, John was not the only person confronting Abdul, there was two German girls there screaming at him and then later two Americans came in too. All ended up down the police station and it all came out that Abdul used to be a successful business man and respected by everyone, however, within the past few months his gambling addiction had wasted away all his money and most of his friends. We where the least affected as we where only owed two dives, so Monay said he would help his old friend out and give them to John. However, the other four people he had conned where owed over 1000 pound. That evening, he managed to get somebody to buy half of his business so he could pay them the money. Even though he had in a way robbed from us, John said he couldn't help but feel sorry for Abdul, as he was a man who was at rock-bottom due to his addiction. I was happy the next day when John arrived back to Gili Trawangan, safe, ready to dive and on the look out for turtles!

The safety standards and records in Indonesia are not the best and there doesn't seem to be any type of concern or worry about the lack of safety they have in place. With this accident occurring, the harbour master had ordered that no boats, small or large where to leave dock for at least the next 3 days. By day 3, the boats where still not running back to Bali, this is when I began to feel slightly worried and anxious in order to catch our flight. Luckily, we still had time so instead of chancing the slow ferry back, we opted to pay more and when possible catch the fast boat straight back to Bali. After spending a week on the Gili's, we headed back to Bali and had a couple of days in hand to enjoy Ubud once again before catching our flight to Oz. Once, we where back in Ubud again, I felt extremely happy and relieved. The whole time we have been in Indonesia, the weather has been overcast with intervals of tropical rainfall, however it is still hot, a humidity that draws you to tiredness. I prefer the weather to be overcast, as it is manageable and you are able to walk around and enjoy the beauty of the place much more. Ubud was my favourite place in Bali, it is filled with tradition, amazing people and tasty food. Each night, we ventured to a local restaurant, which a local woman owned and ran, she was the one and only chef and cooked everything from scratch! The deserts are my favourite thing about Bali, Lombok and Gili foods, the 'Da Wa Wa', which is simple pancake pastry rolled into a sort of springroll shape and filled with fresh coconut and palm sugar, delicious!

Indonesia is a spectacular place in terms of natural beauty and traditional life. The people and cultures are calm and welcoming. The food and music is mesmerising and most importantly the language is becoming my favourite to learn. Considering the whole of Indonesia consists of 17508 islands and the population is around 233 million people, I should be able to interact and use my second tongue (now Indonesian) to get by on my good ole travels.

Exploring one of many temples in Bali...

After my rain shower on the bike...

Open fields of green in Bali...

Resting after my cycle marathon around Ubud...

A typical afternoon of rain in Bali...

Perfect end to my evening...fresh bread and a nice pot of tea!

Hitting the road again...

Enjoying the sights and fresh air...

Chilling in our beautiful guesthouse...

John having a jam with locals in Senggigi...

Playing 'The Beatles' on his bass...

Enjoying the beauty of Gili Trawangan...

The traditional horse and carts on the island...

Needing a vanilla ice cream to cool be down...

Enjoying the island...

My daily walk along the beach...

Watching time pass me by...

One of the wrecks on the island...

The delicious food back in Ubud...

Tucking in to my tasty feast...

The traditional celebrations and decorations outside people's homes in Ubud...

Outside our home in Bali...tradition and beauty!