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Ok so we have been in Bali for over 1 week doing an assortment of different things, so let me just do a quick rundown of our activities.
Feb 26 - Hung out at hotel for morning and caught up on sleep, in the afternoon walked along beach and organized Ally's surfing lesson for the next day.
Feb 27 - Ally did her lesson whilst I sat on the beach and watched. Forgot to bring sunny lotion so got burned to a crisp. I was pretty nervous about my knee messing me up and didn't wanna push it, but later that day I got a boogie board and that was a lot of fun.
Feb 28 - Spent the day organizing and planning our trip, as well as organizing our vaccines. We needed a few shots before heading to India, and so we found a local clinic that could do them, although it was super pricey! I never knew how expensive vaccines were, no wonder the WHO doesn't hand them out as liberally as the rest of us might want.
Mar 1 - Another day of organizing, although the internet was down! So very frustrating. We ended up walking around to a couple different places and buying a small item to eat while using their wifi. Also went to the beach in the afternoon and got another boogie board, which was fun. Decided to stay in Bali until we flew out to go surfing in Raja Ampat.
Mar 2 - Two big things accomplished today, the first was getting our not cheap flights from Bali to Sorong, which is where we would take the ferry to meet up with our dive boat. We couldn't book online cause none of the carriers would accept our CC's, so we had to pay extra to get them booked through a ticket agency. Then, we rented a scooter for three days and took it on a cruise to a place called Uluwatu Temple, which was south of us on the outcrop of land called South Kuta. The driving wasn't that bad, a bit hectic but relatively safe, and the views at the temple were pretty awesome. Afterwards we came back to the hotel and then went to the beach and got a surfboard for the afternoon, and lo and behold my knee held out just fine, so that was good.
Mar 3 - Today we left early and went for a long cruise northwards towards the town/region of Ubud. There we saw three temples, The Monkey Shrine, the Elephant Temple, and Ganung Temple. They were all interesting and unique in their own way, but my favorite was the last one. It was late in the day so no other tourists, and we ended up walking down a not very worn path which led us to a bunch of temples literally carved out of the rock wall, which looked awesome. It felt like I was Indiana Jones exploring some new temple, very cool. On the ride back it started raining on us, which wasn't particularly enjoyable, but we made it home in one piece.
Mar 4 - So again today was a longer bike ride day, we left early and went to a temple called Tanah Lot, which is a picturesque temple on a small island about 3m off the coast. It was crowded with tourists, but still cool and as we were there the tide went out far enough for people to start walking across and getting a quick blessing from the temple dudes, which we did of course. From there we cruised north about 35miles to a region high up in the mountains called Danua Beratan, which was a huge volcanic lake surrounded by a small settlement. There was a very nice temple there as well so we walked around for a bit and soaked in the views. On the drive back we actually ran out of gas, but luckily were on the downhill section so we ghosted along until we came to one of the numerous stalls on the side of the road that sell gas. Crisis adverted. From there we drove back to Kuta beach in the dark and in the rain, and apart from the sketchy driving it was an uneventful trip all in all. Back at Kuta we rolled into our hostel relatively late so we had a quick dinner and then crawled into bed.
So on a side note, just a quick comment / vent about Indonesia so far. The country overall has been an OK experience, notice how I did not say "amazing" or "wonderful" because frankly theres quite a lot about this country that have really made the entire experience quite sour. The first and biggest issue has been the people, and as I think about it this is probably the main issue from which everything else revolves. The people that we have mostly dealt with here in Sumatra, Java, and now Bali, have all been involved in tourism and transportation, and it feels like each and every single one of them is trying to pull the wool over our eyes and screw us out of our money. Every single thing that we buy, whether it's a bus ticket, taxi, tshirt, or hostel, we are being overcharged because we are travelers. Now OK, I get it, most of the people who visit this country are from developed countries and obviously have the income to travel abroad, and thus can probably afford to pay extra. But when we are boarded on a crappy, run down, smelly bus, crammed in with locals left and right, with our bags in our laps and a crate of chickens in the seat across from us, and as a result we CLEARLY do not fit into the aforementioned category, maybe the bus driver and his side kick dudes might charge us the actual fare, and not 3x or maybe 4x the price??? After a while it just starts to wear you down, and we have been getting really frustrated with many of these people as a result, which then makes me feel that much worse cause in the long run they are just trying to do their jobs and make a living. This very attitude, though, could be the reason why so many travelers love going to Thailand and have migrated over the past years away from Indonesia. When the people are this rude and always lying to you eventually you will get fed up and wanna leave.
Another thing that was difficult to deal with in Indonesia is the amount of garbage that is literally everywhere, but no place was worse than Kuta beach in Bali. There were parts of the beach where you could literally not walk on the sand due to the amount of garbage spread across. And the water was even worse in places, and it made the entire experience of sitting on the beach and surfing that much worse. To be fair, on the last day we were there we were on the beach and experienced all of the locals who run the surf shops and massages and offer stuff for sale along the beach all come down and pitch in to collect all the garbage into piles. We asked one guy what they were doing and they said once per week they all pitch in and then a big truck comes at night and clears all the rubbish piles away. So that was great and encouraging to see, but then you turn around and in the street the cops are eating some treat and dropping the wrappers on the ground, so its like they are making some progress but not really doing anything to educate the general population, let alone government employees.
Ok well that's enough ranting for now, time to relax. We are at the airport waiting for a flight to Sorong, where we have a 3 day diving trip planned in Raja Ampat. We had a bit of a scare upon getting to the airport, as the booking agent we had booked our flights 4 days ago had failed to notify us that our flight had been moved forward by 6 hours. The guy at the ticket counter was pretty helpful though, and after a bit of a delay he was able to reroute us from Bali-Jakarta-Ambon-Sorong, so no harm no foul. Note to readers: when you book a flight through an agent Bali, make sure to give them ALL of your information and so they can contact you and INSIST that your email is put as the contact one while booking the flight.
Alright, adios for now, next stop, diving with turtles and whale sharks in Raja Ampat!
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