Goodbye Malaysia, Apa Kabar Indonesia - Nusa Ceningan, Indonesia
Nusa Ceningan, Indonesia
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
We landed on the island of Bali and tried to get far away from the hustle and bustle of Kuta. We decided on Ubud, one of 13 villages that make up the area. We arrived at our homestay very late, down a dark alley and no house number and crashed in the only room that wasn't taken. We felt like we were trespassing, but it turned out to be our room. We woke up to roosters and dogs barking at 5am. Good thing we both can sleep through almost anything. This continued for 4 days, but was made up for by the hospitality and amazing breakfasts made for us. Breakfast started with a fruit salad piled up as high as a pineapple, then a choice of mains including egg any style with CHEESE and the standard coffee or tea. Worth the $15/night just for the breakfast.
I once again had a deep craving for Mexican food and we found a great place. I turned into a bit of a glutton and ended up ordering a second eight layer burrito after the first tasted so amazing. Over our stay we walked up and down the streets and enjoyed a few good meals. One establishment raises all profits for helping less fortunate Balinese people access health care. We also visited many Warungs, which are local eateries that are meant to be basic and cheaper in price. Almost every day, Tish has discovered at least one critter hiding inside one of our meals. Usually it's just a single dead ant and she scoops it out and continues on. One evening I ordered a coconut curry and was well on my way of finishing it when Tish discovered at least 20 ants having a curry party. Not sure how many I ate, but hey extra protein for the day. It turned out to be the only dish we have had to send back during our travels. Yuk!!
We went on a cycling tour that drove us up the mountain side for a nice relaxing ride down. We visited a coffee bean plantation that harvests the famous civet cat poop coffee beans. The catpooccino was tasty, but at $6 CDN, it was the most expensive coffee we have had out here. We also visited a volcano that erupted in 1968 which created a lava field that is still visible today. Absolutely no flora has grown in the area for over 40 years and helps create an incredibly scenic view. We also stopped along the way at a few rice terraces (nothing like Batad, Phillipines) and toured a local home in a small village. Our local guide told us about many of the local traditions including grinding down their canines to relieve the body of the inner beast and the sleeping arrangements of the entire extended family, who all live in a compound of sorts.
Before lunch a few of us decided to take the uphill journey before adding to our waistline during lunch. We passed by what looked like to be a fire just off the road. There were people all over the place as we weaved around them and then noticed that it was no regular fire. It was a cremation and you could see the body. Should have held my breath!!
The only way to realistically get from Bali to the Gili Islands was by fast boat. We researched it and it seemed that there was not one company that seemed totally reputable. Some even had engine failures that gave passengers 2nd degree burns and others capsized attempting to navigate through the rough seas. We trusted our homestay and took the company they book through. Maybe a bad idea!!! Some people thought it would be a nice time to add to their tan and decided to ride on the top while we took the last 2 seats inside. The boat barely made its way through the sea for 110 minutes. Holding on for dear life as the boat tilted 30 degrees one way and then the other. The people on top had the most frightened looks on their faces as they got completely drenched and were held in by a small rail about a foot off the roof. We made it. How? We don't know.
Gili Meno, Lombok
After our harrowing boat ride we at least made it to the beautiful island of Gili Meno. The Gili Islands are a collection of 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok (the larger island to the east of Bali). Gili Meno is the quietest of the 3 with the only mode of transport being horse and buggy. We stayed in a nice bungalow with a far off view of the ocean. We enjoyed it immensely. Thought about diving and snorkelling and surfing and boat rides, but decided to just take it easy. We took walks around the island (would only take 1.5 hours if you didn't stop), watched the surfers catch the big ones and had a blast.
Senggigi, Lombok
Our guidebook mentioned the beautiful beaches surrounding Senggigi. As we were just getting used to living the beach life again we decided to check it out. It was mostly disappointing. The beaches were definitely not what we had become accustomed to in the Gilis. One beach did have black volcanic sand that I was looking forward to seeing. There were also dozens of local kids, some must have been at least 12, who were frolicking on the beach butt naked. Cudos!!!
We rented another moto to take a closer look of the coastline away from Senggigi. It was much more beautiful than around Senggigi. We find it strange that many of the touristy areas you hear about aren't even close to the beauty as they are cracked up to be. Perhaps the locals are much better at hiding their paradise than we thought.We stopped at a hotel on the peak of one of the many peninsulas to find it was totally deserted. It was creepy, but fun to walk around the pool and walkways with no one around to take care of this 5 star secluded retreat.
Kuta, Lombok
After much deliberation, Tish convinced me to hire a car over renting motos for the 3 hour journey to Kuta. Turned out to be a wise decision as it was deadly hot that day and the traffic was intense going through some of the cities. Kuta is also home to many beautiful beaches that surfers flock to. We rented a moto for 3 days and explored this mostly untouched southern coast of Lombok. The beaches were as advertised. There was even one that had sand that looked like pepper grains. It was much different to step on as your foot would sink 6 inches before you could take your next step. One day when riding into town a bat flew right into my helmet visor. It whipped my head back, but luckily we did not repeat our Vietnamese moto experience and stayed on track. Poor bat.
Tetebatu, Lombok
We tried to go to "Pink Beach" on the way to central Lombok, but were cohersed into leaving early before the beach shows off its pink tinge in the late afternoon. We still got to enjoy at least 5 kms of beach coastline all to ourselves. The only people we ran into was a local family with 5 kids that came by just to see what the tall white people were up to.
Tetebatu is a small village at the base of Mt. Rinjani. This volcano is the 2nd largest in Indonesia and includes a 50 square km caldera filled with water. Many people who visit Lombok decide to hike the volcano, but we didn't. After hiking Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia and seeing beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon a year ago we decided to leave the hiking to the more adventurous at this point in our trip. The view of the volcano was spectacular from our homestay with the rice terraces (once again, nothing like Batad, Philippines) and a soccer pitch (new word from UK travellers) in the foreground. I really enjoyed watching countless people playing soccer and was about to join until I realized how good they were compared to an old timer like me who hasn't played since he was 12 years old.
Unfortunately, during that game the goalie got his feet swept up from under him while he jumped for a ball and landed ******* his back and neck. Tish ran out and attempted to give a hand to the unconscious body. The fellow players were attempting to pick him but his whole body was limp like a rag doll. They even tried to give him water while he lay on his back which only caused him to choke and foam from the mouth. Tish could not relay anything to them as no one spoke English she at least got them to stop choking him with water. He eventually regained consciousness and ended up riding on a moto about an hour later. Made us feel fortunate for the medical services that we have back home that anyone can go to the hospital regardless of income.
We had to decide how to get to our next destination which is a small island close to Bali. Two equally bad choices. Either we take an even longer fast boat ride with the least reliable and only fast boat operator or take a flight with Lion Air that only 3 weeks prior had a plane, at the same airport, miss the runway. The passengers had to evacuate the plane which split in half, half on the rock wall and half in the ocean. We decided on the latter. Since we are writing this blog, we made it!!! Crazy the decisions we make when travelling which we would never duplicate back home.
Nusa Ceningan
We found out about this great island from a couple of our friends in Vancouver who stayed close by only 3 months prior. The island was secluded and tranquil. We had to take a shorter speed boat on much calmer seas to a larger island, ride a jeepney to a man bridge and then hop on a moto with our bags on a bumpy roller coaster ride to our accommodation. The whole experience was actually a lot better than it sounds as the fast boat company took care of us the whole way from the airport. We ended up being dropped of at a different accommodation for a night as our place was overbooked because of a funeral. We were a bit skeptical, but we had the entire place to ourselves with an amazing view of the roaring waves from our bungalow. We enjoyed the afternoon in the pool and on the hammock as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.
The next day we were taken to our booked oceanview bungalow hut. It was soooo peaceful. Just what we were looking for. A few days later we ran into a couple from London that strangely enough had experienced the same 1 night stay at the other place as us. We are convinced that they only stayed at the other accommodation because our place had someone who paid the regular price instead of the discounted internet rate. Ohhhh well. They were our favourite couple that we had met during out 5 months of travelling. We seemed to have a very similar laid back attitude and sense of humour. I may have found 2 people that knew more about Jim Carrey than I do. I never thought anyone could like Dumb and Dumber as much as me.
We rented a moto for a day and went to at least 5 different places looking for helmets with the same reply "no police." After our accident we were even more reluctant to take a moto without a helmet. We weren't as concerned about the police as we were about our lives. In the end we had no choice and took it very easy without helmets. We ventured to the larger island, Nusa Lembongan. We enjoyed a delicious crepe at a French restaurant, visited the mangroves and walked along the beach. We took a final stop at an area called Dream Beach and then returned just as the sun set. Our last moto ride. For our final couple days we thought about diving and snorkelling and surfing and boat rides, but decided to just take it easy. Sound familiar? We actually were planning to surf but given it was full moon the waves were a little much for us. It was nice watching surfers tackle the giants as we watched from our pool. We also walked to secluded areas of the island. Every hotel/resort we visited had no customers for days. It was unbelievable how pristine and new each and every accommodation was, but were completely empty. We enjoyed Ceningan fully knowing in a short time the island will be full with tourists and won't be the same. Thanks Shelly and Asif for the recommendation.
Seminyak, Bali
Unfortunately, we had to eventually leave and decided to spend a night in Seminyak before flying back early to Bangkok. We didn't want to visit the touristy places of Bali, but we were pleasantly surprised with Seminyak. Maybe it was the fact that we had just spent 6 days relaxing and we were in such a good mood or that it was only 1 night, but it was great. We finally decided to shop and picked up a few small souvenirs to stuff in our backpacks. We also had dinner at a restaurant that served us a Balinese taster platter that had 20 different items on it. It all came on a massive platter at least 20" in diameter. Needless to say, we didn't finish!!
We are soooo glad that we decided to extend our trip to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. We could have stayed for a year as there are just so many amazing beautiful and adventurous places to visit.
Not looking forward to Bangkok as it is a sign of the end of our trip. At least we have Tish's birthday to celebrate and pad thai of course.