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Where were we - a bit behind if you're tuning in
Christmas and New Year - Bali and Gilli Trawangan, Indonesia
The moment we left the departure lounge, through the doors to outside the airport, we were greeted with a torrential downpour of rain. Welcome to Bali! The taxi driver had to take a detour because the road to Kuta was partially flooded. It seemed we couldn't miss all of the rainy seasons on our travels, but hey better being in Bali for the rain than anywhere else.
We met up with our friend Joel from Manchester, who had also been out travelling and then we wondered around Kuta trying desperately to find somewhere decent to drink. Kuta was super touristy, packed with surfers and rows and rows of shops geared towards tourists, mainly selling really obscene bumper stickers, to obscene to even quote . Our quest for some good music ended in a bar called 'bounty' shaped like a huge pirate ship and full of topless teenage lads and girls (not topless) posing endlessly for photos in a human sized bird cage, cringe. The only other bar that played any decent music was full of prostitutes so all in all we failed and went home to have our own party.
Headed to Ubud, known as the cultural centre of Bali. Went for a walk in monkey forest and made the observation that any thing can be made 'monkey' themed by locals scattering down food on a regular basis until the monkeys come back so often that they can then sell the food to visiting tourists - very clever! Admired some impressive temple architecture and very provocative demon statues, so much so that some of them had been covered in clothing by the locals. Here in Ubud we decided to hire a jeep to explore the rest of Bali, discovering later that petrol was actually cheaper to buy than water.
So we hit the open road with Joel behind the wheel, me in charge of map reading and Ross, errr, making good company. It was a great good way of getting away from the tourist buzz and seeing what life was really like in Bali. Built up areas lined with trees and offerings dangled from Bamboo sticks; kids as young as 9 and 10 riding to school on scooters; rice paddy fields; lakes; valleys; hot springs and huge demon statues on every round about supposedly to scare off evil spirits. They are a very superstitious bunch.
Our first road trip was to Danau Batar, a large lake surrounded by a few volcanoes and stunning views. You could actually make out the previous eruptions black lava flow from the top of the volcano to the bottom. We decided to take a closer look and drove right down to the base of the volcano where we spotted a sulphur cloud emerging from near the top. It felt quite exhilarating
being at the bottom of an active volcano. The lava rocks were quite big, black and brittle and it looked like the whole area had been completely decimated by the last eruption.
Then we headed through the hills, past many locals waving at us in excitement, to Lovina, a laid back beach town in the North where we spent Christmas. On Christmas eve we visited the marine national park of Pulau Menjangan for some seriously amazing snorkeling. We saw all sorts: triggerfish, parrot fish, needle fish, sea stars, lobster Most impressive was firstly a puffer fish that our guide managed to catch and let us each have a turn holding, all puffed up, before it swam away from us deflating on its way down and secondly a sea cucumber, a rather disgusting looking sea grub that looked liked a giant maggot, or male genitalia if you think like Ross and Joel.
Christmas day was a laid back sunny affair, made even better with some Christmas drinks, Bintang beer, Hussar! I was on a major mission to 'swim in the sea on Christmas day'. Even though the beach was littered with plastic wrappers, a dead bloated rat and general debris, somehow I still wasn't put off and went for a swim. I Only lasted a couple of minutes when it finally dawned on me that I was swimming in a warm bath of rubbish. But hey, I 'swam in the sea on Christmas day' all the same (mmm?)!
Boxing day we piled back into our jeep for some more road tripping with my two favourite allies. Went to a beautiful waterfall, medium sized with a large bathing pool of turquoise water surrounded by lush jungle like vegetation. Spent some time cooling off, swimming, skimming rocks and having a jolly old time. Then headed to Bingam, wondering the beach at sunset walking amongst the tall cliff rocks with fireflies darting around us.
After our last few days in Bali we went to pick up Meg from the airport, back on her travels after recently recovering from dengue fever, and headed over the Gilli Trawangan for new year. The Gilli isles are a beautiful collection of islands in between Bali and Lombok, with white sands, turquoise water, and no motor vehicles in use (people get around by horse and cart)we even had to wade through the water after getting off the boat to get to shore. A seriously laid back
atmosphere. We spent our time there snorkeling off of the beach (seeing our first turtle!), cycling around the island (which only took 45 minutes) trying
out some locally grown mushrooms (legal!) and then spending a few hours giggling at faces we could see in the washed up coral, drinking, eating and soaking in the sun. The heavens opened on New years eve with electrical storms and some of the loudest thunder i've ever heard. We watched mother natures own fireworks lighting up the entire beach, truly bringing in the new year with a bang.
- comments
Joel God that sounds like it was fun!
Sarah Sounds like an amazing time! Can't wait for you to come home though Jess, miss you long time! xx