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Hi guys,
It's been a busy couple of weeks travelling long distances in Indonesia, hence it's taken a while for me to post on here.
I'm currently in Luaban Bajo on the island of Flores. Since my last post I travelled to Yogyakarta on the train, which was fun and surprisingly comfortable, even though I stood for a lot of the way! As I got closer to Yogyakarta you could see and taste the ash from the Merapi volcano, that's been erupting the last few weeks,
During my stay in Yogyakarta I went to see Merapi, but from quite a distance, it was still blowing out loads of smoke, and I did a bit of sight seeing. The people are really friendly in Yogyakarta and they kept warning me of some Batik art mafia that's around there, so I stayed clear on their advice.
From there I went to see Bromo, which is a massive volcano crater that has a mountain next to it. This involved a day of travelling in a boiling hot minibus and then getting up at 3.30am the next day to make it to the viewpoint for sunrise, which was well worth it. For the first time since leaving the UK I actually felt really cold too, which was a nice feeling. Bromo is amazing at sunrise, it changes from being blue, to green, to a red/brown colour.
After seeing Bromo, we got on what was supposed to be an air con shuttle bus to Bali, but the air con bus lasted 2 hours before we had to change buses. We had been lied to, and now we had to travel on a local bus, which was old and had no fan or air con. At first it didn't seem so bad as it was empty so I thought I would sleep loads but the bus went round the bus station a few times (not sure why exactly) before leaving, and from there it went about 50m before it stopped for ages, and a load of people got on. This is one thing I still don't understand, why don't these peole just go to the bus station across the road!!
The bus kept stopping to pick up more people every few minutes and before I knew it, it was full, and so full that people were sitting in the aisle. It kept stopping for everyone, and it felt like we were going round in circles rather than towards our destination. To make matters worse I had my big rucksack at my feet so couldn't stretch my legs and frequently guitarists would get on the bus and sing songs. The first few were fine and I gave money but by the time the 6th one came on I stopped. Now I like guitars and respect people who play, but the singing left a lot to be desired and they were playing excessively loud, so much so I could hear them even when I had my iPod on full blast, it was a bit of overkill.
The journey was so uncomfortable, and what should have been a 9 hour journey became a 17 hour one. I can look back on it and laugh but it definitely ranks as one of my worst journeys ever.
The next day, well actually the same day, after some sleep, I went to the airport with the 2 women I was travelling with, they are both nurses from London. We decided to fly to Flores in the east of Indonesia but after being unsuccessful we took a flight to Lombok, which is the next island east of Bali. The flight was short and when we arrived we had trouble finding somewhere to stay in the area of Sengiggi where we went to after landing, but in the end a local guy helped us find a room in a guys house, which was really nice. We had access to a kitchen and a proper bathroom which was excellent. We spent 3 nights in Sengiggi, I hired a motorbike and whizzed around the coastal road, which is amazingly smooth, and stunningly beautiful.
We decided to go to the Gili islands after Sengiggi, which required getting a boat from the port of Bangsal. Now this place, for those people who have seen Star Wars, reminded me so much of the Mos Eisley cantina. It was full of stange people offering tickets to boats that I'm not sure even existed. There were just people who seemed to spend their days just hanging around there, and it's not even a nice place. It seemed like everyone was in on one big scam but we managed to find a way round it, and I have to say i was relieved to get away from there.
We went to Gili Trewangan. When I first arrived it was a shock, as there were so many tourists. I hadn't seen so many for ages as Indonesia doesn't have an area with so many tourists, except for Bali. We found a really nice family run place with great rooms, and then got used to the tourists. The food was great on the island. The 2nd day on the island I did 2 dives, and they were spectacular. The visibility was amazing, and the amount of marine life was astounding. The coral isn't the best but the fish are great and I saw a turtle, 3 in fact which is what I wanted to see. It was so cool, and easily the est thing I've seen in the water, and can probably only be topped by seeing a shark.
That night I ended up watching Barcelona v Real Madrid with some locals in a bar, we had some good banter and it continued the next day, although I was shattered as the game started at 4am! I wore my Barca top before the game and everyone would shout out "barcelona!". One street seller even said to me "maybe when you leave you give me this", as in my barca top. I was like, no chance mate!
We ended up staying on Gili Trewangan, we didn't make it to Gili Air or Gili Meno, and from there we got the boat back to Mos Eisley/Bangsal, an then a minibus that took us to our bus. The bus was going to take us to Flores, which is 2 islands east of Lombok. The journey took 31 hours, a new record! The bus had air con, but they like over filling them in Indonesia. I've seen scooters on top of buses but never witnessed one put in the aisle inside. There's always a first time! Thankfully I was to one side so it didn't affect me too much.
I arrived in Luaban Bajo yesterday, and today I went to the island of Rinca, to see Komodo dragons. I had to get a boat and it felt like I was going to Jurassic Park or the island that King Kong lived on. I was surprised to find that the dragons have free rein of the island, so even round the visitor centre there were dragons lying around, mainly by the kitchen. They are huge creatures and I saw first hand how fast they can move, so I stayed well clear.
I then did a trek through a narrow jungle path, where my guide told me to be careful of snakes, he meant cobras and rattle snakes. I thought to myself great, I can't really be careful as I'm stuck on a narrow path, and I wasn't sure if I should be more afraid of the Komodo dragons or the snakes. Thankfully I made it out alive although my guide insisted on me having loads of photos taking with the dragons, which involved me crouching down, and with my back to them not too far away. To say I was nervous would be an understatement, especially as one turned to look at me right in the eye, I stared back not sure what else to do, but thankfully he was in a lazy mood and didn't attack, so I can boast that I looked a Komodo dragon in the eye and survived! These things are huge though, they can grow to 3 metres long so you don't want to mess with them. THey have bacteria in their saliva, which is what will kill you, but they have powerful tails and move at 18km/h, so I would advise to steer clear if you ever come across one.
I'm planning to go to Ende tomorrow, and then to Kelimutu, where there is a volcano and 3 lakes that change colour. From there I will travel to Maumere in north Flores, which is where I fly from to Bali next Wednesday. I then have a week in Bali before flying to Australia, to what I expect more hot weather.
I hear it's snowing in England. If it's any consolation it's really hot here, almost so hot that it's unbearable, but not quite! I'm guessing tv is clogged with cheesy Xmas adverts, and it seems that all everyone is talking about is X-Factor and I'm a Celeb, so I'll happy put up with the mossies to avoid that lol!
Until next time, stay safe and keep away from Komodo dragons....
- comments
Trident hater Barca are sh1t - end of!!!! Come back in 12 years when you win more la ligas than Real Madrid
Suki It all sounds amazing. Looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks. Post some pics if you can.
Sanj Trident Hater aka Kev, 5-0 proves barca are good, and please don't bring my blog down with derogatory remarks!! Internet is slow in Indonesia and the last place didn't have cd drives so couldn't put photos up but will try this week as i'm in bali for a week
Trident Hater is really Mourinho Sanjeev you may think you won 1 big match but there are several more - my team will always be better than yours for the next 12 years at least so let's see how great your team is. Remember we have won more la ligas and euro cups - muhahahaha. Until the next time, I will have the last laugh like I did this year whilst dancing under those sprinklers in the Pou Camp