gili T and kuta

The whole time I was trekking on gunung rinjani, I was thinking of how good it was going to feel when I laid out on my next beach…all the tourist literature talks about the gili islands, just off the northwest coast of Lombok, and I figured I really ought to see at least one of them…there are three, and each is supposed to have it’s own personality…I went to the one that has the cheapest accommodation, gili trawangan…also known as gili T…it’s also known for partying, and while I don’t do that, I’m also pretty good at ignoring it anywho…

There are several ways of getting to the gilis…the first is by fastboat, directly from Bali…there are a number of companies offering this service now…I wanted to see more of Lombok than just the gilis, so this wasn’t an option for me…plus, it’s super expensive, at least relative to me…plus, there are no motorbikes allowed on the gilis, so if I’d taken one of those fastboats, I would’ve had to leave my motorbike on Bali, and that definitely wasn’t going to happen…the second option is by boat from senggigi, through a tourist company called perama…the third option is to take a shuttle bus to a village called bangsal, and take the public ferry from there…a lot of companies in senggigi offer the shuttle bus option…they put you on shuttle ferries, so you still aren’t with the locals…this third way is the cheapest option, so you’d think that’s what I did...i was worried about where to leave my bike, and wanted to leave it in senggigi…I don’t know why I didn’t think I could do that, even with this shuttle bus…anywho, I signed up for the second option, the boat by perama, direct from senggigi…the advantage to this was that it’s a faster boat, and you don’t have to take a bus first…the ride was under an hour…and I was the only customer on the boat…woo hoo!!

The boat landed on gili trawangan, as that’s where I’d said I wanted to go…there are two other gili islands, gili meno, and gili air…gili meno is the least populated, and has the least tourist infrastructure…gili air is in the middle in terms of people, infrastructure, etc…but it’s closest to Lombok geographically…from all three islands you can see gunung rinjani, if it’s clear…(which only seems to be early morning, when no one is awake…after that it clouds over, and you can see the rain clouds coming)…from all three islands you can see each of the other islands…the distance looked swimmable to me, but I’ve always been terrible about judging distance…plus, as I was to learn, the currents are crazy strong, the swim would be a challenge to say the least…

While in senggigi I’d talked to a couple that had just come from the gilis, they said it was expensive, and they’d spent more money there than they intended…this worried me a bit, even though I know I spend less than the great majourity of travelers…I suppose I could’ve looked around for accommodation, but I was satisfied with the price and condition of the first place I checked…the entrance was just outside the port area, but the room was a ways back, so it wasn’t terribly loud…plus, without the motorbikes, everything was a lot quieter…I talked to the couple in the room next to me, they had some suggestions about laundry, but the prices were crazy expensive…at least to me…I knew all my clothes from the rinjani trek were just gross, and really needed to be washed, but I guess this wasn’t the place to do it…I saw a lot of signs saying that laundry service was offered, but prices weren’t listed, so I knew I’d have to bargain, and I really don’t like bargaining…I had all the dirty clothes in a bag in my pack, so they weren’t polluting anything else in the pack…

When you are on any of the gili islands you have your choice of beach activities…sortof…all the scuba and diving you could want…a lot of the hotels/resorts offer PADI courses, most of them have their own pools in which they start the classes…it’s a bit odd to be walking along the street and realize that you’re walking by a pool with 6 people on the bottom, and they’re not coming up anytime soon…since I can’t dive, none of that meant anything to me…

I made my way to a beach, and soaked up more sun…I was dark enough that my skin colour doesn’t really change even when I’ve been out in the sun all day…hmmm…it started raining around 1500, but I’d seen the clouds forming for a while, so I wasn’t caught in the rain…even though I’d been able to see the gili islands from the top of gunung rinjani, I wasn’t able to see rinjani from gili T…

After the rains stopped I went for a walk along the main road that circles the island…there are a lot of cafes and places to stay along a good portion of one side of the island, then all of a sudden there is just nothing…very few people, and no buildings…and lots of mozzies…I walked for a while, but just wasn’t enjoying it much, especially as the light was quickly disappearing…I’m still not so comfortable being outside by myself after dark…

Somehow, during that evening, I knew I didn’t want to spend long on gili T…despite it’s similarity to a number of other beach places I’ve visited and enjoyed, I just didn’t like it…originally I’d been thinking as long as four nights…howeva, I knew I wanted to spend more than just one night, simply because I hate packing, and wanted to put it off as long as possible…

The next day I repeated my “schedule”…though I did get to a beach earlier in the morning, and got into the water several times…the water in between the gilis has a strong current, I was quite surprised…I’m  a strong swimmer, far stronger than the average tourist, and the current was pulling me down the beach rather quickly…but the temperature of the water was absolutely perfect…it felt wonderful…the clouds came over at the same time in the afternoon, leading me to think that the afternoon rain was a daily occurrence, even though it’s dry season…that evening instead of going for a walk, I took my laptop (I guess the proper name for it now is notebook?) to one of the cafes along the main street…the power kept going out, which meant the wifi connection, though speedy, kept going out, which was just annoying…i didn’t think I was online very long, but apparently my waiter did, as he prompted me to order something else after a while…I said no, since I didn’t want to spend more, and packed up…

The next morning I took a ferry back to Lombok, then a bus back to senggigi…I’d chosen to take the shorter ferry back to Lombok, rather than the hour boat straight to senggigi…there was a LOT of waiting in between the ferry and bus, I wasn’t thrilled…I don’t know what we were waiting for, that was never explained…anywho, once in senggigi I picked up my bike, posted a few things at the post office, and started making my way toward the southern end of Lombok…I was aiming for kuta…

The drive was around 2 hours, and much more confusing than I’d hoped…there were a few places more than usual where I had to make a turn, without the benefit of signage…fortunately, people on the side of the road were able to point me in the proper direction…at my last intersection of question, the guy I asked wanted to sign me up for accommodation, which I wasn’t keen to do…I said I just needed to go to the beach, and wasn’t worried about accommodation just yet…

kuta Lombok is completely different from kuta Bali…there are very few people in kuta Lombok…it’s such a small place that lonely planet doesn’t have a map of it in the Indonesia guidebook…which of course makes me nervous, as I’m a big fan of maps…I love being able to point to a map, and know where I am…kuta basically amounts to two roads, though I didn’t find the second one for a couple nights…I found the first place listed in the guidebook, but the price was a lot higher than what was listed…and the place was a lot nicer than I expected…I said I’d keep it in mind, but would keep looking…I kept driving down the road, and pretty soon realized I was out of the village already…I turned around, the first place I came back to was the royal bungalows…the price was listed on the board out front, and it included breakfast…woo hoo!! I turned in, and asked to see a room…there were 9 bungalows in the area, each had a lawn chair out front…the bathroom of the bungalow was significantly larger than anything else I’d seen in recent history, woo hoo…a shower, a sink, and a western style toilet, and plenty of natural light…amazing…the sleeping room of the bungalow had a huge mosquito net all around the mattresses (two of them pushed together to make what amounted to at least a queen size bed)…a small bedside table, a lamp, and a fan…I was sold immediately…there was a small porch on the front, and two chairs on the porch…

instead of finding a beach, I laid out on the chair in front of my bungalow…yay…a few hours later I went for a walk, just to see where things were in the village…I walked along the only road I could see, looking for laundry, internet, postcards, petrol, etc…I got back, just after darkness had fallen…

the next day I went to one of the beaches to lay out…it was deserted, I was the only one there…again, yayJ…howeva, after not too long, a couple local kids came up to me to try to sell me coconut juice…which doesn’t normally bother me, as I’m used to saying no…howeva, even when I said no, the kids stuck around…they simply sat down very close to me, and kept trying to get me to buy the coconut…they didn’t understand when I said that I wouldn’t be buying the coconut no matter what, as I don’t particularly like coconut…after a while they went away…after a little longer, other local kids came up and wanted me to buy bracelets…I have enough bracelets, thanks…I don’t need any more…these kids sat down close to me for a while as well…not particularly enjoyable for me…especially since the sand mites kept landing on me, so I kept fidgeting…I stayed on the beach as long as normal, but I didn’t enjoy it much, with the kids and the sand mites…

after packing up my malong and hat, and putting on my skirt and tank top, I walked along the beach, and over some of the rocks at one end…I could see locals out in the water, fishing…awesome…and I could see another beach, just around the corner…also deserted…

that night I went for a longer walk, walking along the main street from the day before, as well as a ways back up the road I’d driven into town…

the next two days were a repeat, though instead of going to the beach, I stayed on the chair in front of my bungalow…that way I still got sun time, but without the kids and sand mites…nice long walks in the evenings, and I was a happy camper…the morning of my fourth day I road my bike around the area, looking for a couple beaches mentioned in the guidebook…the roads were in horrible condition, but I tended to think that was a good thing, as it means there isn’t a whole lot of development going on…I found one beach that was quite crowded with locals…which was neat to see, as I haven’t seen many Indonesians on the beaches I’ve visited…it was beautiful, just like the other beaches I saw that morning…white sand, blue water, does it get any better?

The afternoon of my last day, I wanted to have a massage…the place I was staying had a full menu of spa options, but when I asked about a massage, they said no one was around…I was disappointed, to say the least…given the number of “employees” and massage rooms I’d been seeing over the past three days, I was surprised and disappointed that I wasn’t going to get a massage…but life goes on…

The next morning I got up early, paid my bill, and drove back to the port in lembar…the way back to the port was a lot easier, there was plenty of good signage…I didn’t get lost, and I didn’t have to ask anyone for directions…I felt like there must’ve been signs I missed on my way to kuta…I bought a ticket for the next ferry, back to padangbai, on Bali…

gunung rinjani

When I arrived in senggigi, I thought I’d be staying two nights, so that’s what i paid for at my hotel…it turned out that I signed up for a rinjani trek starting the next morning, so I arranged with the lady at the hotel for my payment to cover the night I came back from the trek…she also said she’d put some fruit in the fridge for me to grab in the morning, since breakfast isn’t served that early…YAY!!

0500 pickup…ugh…I wasn’t thrilled about that, to say the least…to make sure I was ready to go, I had my alarm set for 0400…I wasn’t going to be taking everything with me on the trek, so I needed a bit of time to separate things, and I never move fast at that hour, though I do function…the taxi (I was surprised it was a taxi) picked up another trekker just down the road, a British student named Richard…then it took us two hours to a village called senaru…senaru is where all the trekking companies have their offices, and it’s always the starting or ending point of treks up and down the volcano…

Richard and I had arranged to start our trek in a village called sembalun, off the western edge of the volcano…after leaving stuff behind, a ute took us to sembalun with our guide and porter, where we got our official national park entry tickets, and signed the book saying that we were trekking…(safety, I guess?)…this was when I found out Richard was only 20 years old!! He’s in Lombok and Bali for a couple weeks with his mom…then she goes back to the UK, and he travels overland up to Mongolia…

The first bit of the trek was through flattish ground…always aiming up a little, but nothing strenuous…everyone was sweating because the sun was behind us and quite strong, but it wasn’t hard…yet…we broke for lunch not long after the trail got steeper…it was still an easy path, just a bit more steep…I wondered why we needed a guide, because there seemed to be just one path, it wasn’t as if we could get lost…lunch was basically ramyeon, with rice as well…and pineapple and tea…most trekking companies break for meals at the same places along the trail, so we met several others who were doing the trek in the same direction we were walking…one American geologist couple who live on Sumatra, a Swedish/French couple…

After lunch we kept going, for another hour or so before taking a break…this was where the ground got steep, there were lots of roots and rocks to watch out for, climb over, etc…our guide told us it would be another three hours to the top…by that point we were all feeling it a bit, and well aware we’d be knackered when we got to the top…when the guide said three hours, I gave myself four hours in my head, as I know I’m slower than most trekkers…slow, but steady…I don’t like taking breaks, and apparently my guide and Richard did…at one point I stopped taking the breaks with them, I just kept going…I wanted to get to the top, and I knew that every time we stopped it got harder for me…it was hard going, and I wanted to be finished for the day…after not too long, we hiked into the clouds…clouds have a strange way of completely muffling sound, I couldn’t hear anything but my footsteps…

Surprisingly, three hours later I did get to the top…the crater rim, that is…I guess all the break taking slowed others down, though they were faster hikers than I was…just before reaching the top I broke through the clouds, so I could see where I was going, and I could see the peak we’d be going for the next morning…what I couldn’t see was anything down either side of the crater…I knew there was a lake in the crater, but I couldn’t see it at all…not surprisingly, our porter made it up before we did…I don’t know how they do it, carrying everything, and only wearing jandals…he had both of the tents set up, and had water heating to make tea…not only does everyone break for meals at the same place, just about everyone camps in the same area…some tents were definitely nicer than others…lol…people who’d signed up for the luxury treks had little stools on which to sit, the rest of us sat on the ground when we weren’t in our tents…I was rather surprised at the amount of trash on the ground, I guess porters don’t clean up all that well, which is really disappointing…that, and they use trees to make fires, instead of bringing stoves…I get the impression that environmentally, the ways the treks are being done right now won’t be sustainable for much longer…

About 45 minutes later Richard made it up, I was sitting in our tent, writing a letter…just as he got there, our porter brought us tea…yum…about an hour after that, dinner was served…fried rice with a fried egg on top…and a giant prawn cracker…and a piece of fried chicken…normally I like prawn crackers, but this one seemed particularly fishy tasting, so I only had a couple bites…and I’m not big on nasi goring (fried rice) so I only ate about half of that…Richard and I went to be almost as soon as we were done eating, I think most people did so as well…we knew we had to get up early (REALLY early,) and the hike had worn people out…plus, there was no view to enjoy, with the clouds covering everything…

0230 came pretty early…that’s when our guide woke us with tea (and coffee for Richard)…that and a few crackers was our predawn snack…at 0307, we were on our way…up…up…up…the idea was to go for the peak of the crater rim, which is at 3724m I think…3700m+, and I earned every one of them…almost from the beginning of this part of the trek, the path was made of soft sand/dirt/scree…there weren’t many strong footholds, so it took a lot more effort to make forward progress…plus, it was pitch black…I had my head torch so I could see where to put my feet, but I didn’t have any sense of where I was…challenging, to say the least…I had no idea where my guide was, again…somewhere in front of me, until he was taking a break and I kept going…I kept going slowly and steadily until I got to a really windy spot…REALLY WINDY…the kind of wind where you have to turn your head to the side, because you can’t see (if it was light anywho) or breath properly…the path was really challenging the entire way…I briefly stopped behind a rock, along with about 15 others…the rock blocked the wind very nicely, you didn’t notice how strong it was until you stood up again…I think people were waiting out the wind, or maybe waiting for sunrise…either way, I didn’t want to keep waiting…I knew the distance left wasn’t great, but it was only going to get harder, so I stepped into the wind, and started moving forward again…

Not long after that rock, the going got really really hard…I have no idea what distance I had left, but the path changed again, into even less sturdy stuff…the rocks were completely loose, there was no traction whatsoeva…combine that with the vertical aspect, and quite a few times I was essentially on a natural treadmill…taking steps, but not making any forward progress at all…at all…so frustrating…plus, the wind was still going strong, so I couldn’t stand up straight…each time I picked up my head to see where I needed to go (by this point the sun was starting to come up, I could see shadows) the wind would catch me and push me a bit…which wasn’t good, considering the path was fairly thin, and it would’ve been easy to fall over either side of the crater…I cried more than once, when I wasn’t making any progress…sometimes the wind got so strong I was sliding down the path without picking up my head at all…I was so unhappy…eventually, I made it…four hours after starting the hike, I made it to the peak…a ray of light shown on the peak, which was quite nice…the view from the peak wasn’t any better than what  I’d seen on the way up…I did it, and that’s about all I can say…it wasn’t worth the physical pain, the mental stress, or the views…it turned out that because of the crazy wind, not many people made it to the top…only 7 of us…no guides…I was number 4…a lot of people got to the rock I mentioned earlier, or just a bit farther before turning around, including Richard…about the only reason I made it to the top was because I didn’t want to say I didn’t make it…that’s a terrible way to find motivation, but that’s how it worked for me…

The way back down hurt…as tired as my legs were from going up, they weren’t ready for going down…the soft stuff was fun to go down, there was almost no impact…with each step I’d land on my heel, and sortof slide a bit…a few times my legs kindof gave out on me, so I fell/sat…surprisingly, my guide was waiting for me behind the rock, and came back down to camp with me…given how weak my legs felt at that point, it was probably a good thing he was there…the hardest point was right before reaching camp, as there were a number of actual steps down, and my legs weren’t supporting me very well…lots of falling on my arse…I was so tired…

Breakfast was tea again, (I only dumped 8lbs of sugar into itJ) and banana pancakes…sooo good…lots of sugar, which I sorely needed…after eating, I dumped out my shoes…there was an amazing amount of dirt/sand in them…I tried wiping off my backpack and coat, but that didn’t do much…I used two wet tissues to wipe off my face, they were both black when I was done with them…and I knew I had dirt in my nose…my nose always runs when I’m going up steeply, and all the wind had added a bunch of dirt…I had dirt coming out of my nose for the next two days!...

About 45 minutes later, we packed up, and started making our way down into the crater…my legs were not enjoying this down, it wasn’t s smooth path…every foot had to be placed, and it was a constant game of picking out the easiest way…and none of it was easy…my quads were screaming with every step down…after a little over an hour, the path evened out a bit…it was still going down, but not so steeply, and it was more of a dirt path, not rocks and roots everywhere…

Two hours and fifteen minutes total after breakfast, we got to the lake at the bottom of the crater…it felt like a lot longer than that, but that’s what my watch told me…the flatter parts of the path were surprisingly easy for me, but the steep, step picking parts were really hard…our guide showed us where we’d be eating lunch, then took us to some hot springs…the springs are right next to a lovely waterfall…the locals have built different pools, all of them rather small…people sit in them for as long as they like…Richard put on his togs, and hopped in…I had a bikini with me, but wasn’t completely comfortable putting that on, so I just stuck my feet in the hottest pool…it felt wonderful…putting my shoes and socks back on afterward didn’t feel so wonderful…

Lunch was the same as the day before, and I gobbled it up…

Our afternoon hike started along the edge of the lake, which was really nice…there is very little shoreline in some places between the lake and the crater wall going up…lots of locals fishing…In an area with more space between the lake and the crater wall, I saw a few fish being cooked over a fire…it looked sooo good…my guide said that the fish are sometimes sold to trekkers…too bad, we didn’t get any fish…eventually the guide started us on a path up…just like the second half of the day before…up…up…up…climbing up roots and rocks, very little flat area…lots of step picking…lots of using my hands as balance on various rocks…it would’ve been hard to begin with, but combined with what I’d done earlier in the day, and the day before made it even more difficult…fortunately, the guide had figured out that I go slowly, and steadily…he only took a couple breaks, during which I drank a whole lot of water…we never went fast, so my breathing never got crazy…more than once I hoped for a magic fairy to come and fly me to the top…thankfully, there were lots of great views over the lake, and the little volcano in the middle…

Two and a half hours later, we got back up to the crater rim…our camping spot was right on the edge of the rim…there was room for just two tents, and two more tents about 10m away…I didn’t know where others were camping, but it felt a lot more private this evening…dinner was again served at 1800, again preceeded by tea…and again Richard and I went to sleep almost as soon as we were done with eating…10.5 hours of hiking in one day…very little of it was “easy”…

Our third day was the easiest, but that’s just a relative term…we did get to sleep in, all the way to 0630…I could hear the guide and porter moving around at 0600…after breakfast, (banana pancakes and a sandwich made with white bread – the crusts were cut off) we started making our way down around 0730…the first two hours and some were steep…lots of steep, step picking…going over and around roots and rocks…where as my legs had been really tired, and not functioning so well the day before, they hadn’t been too painful…this third day every step hurt, and my feet hated me…I wonder if I’ll lose any toenails…after a couple hours of this steep stuff, we got a few patches of smoother trail, which felt like heaven…still going down, but I didn’t have to worry so much about falling down a mountain…

We passed numerous porters, guides and trekkers going the other way, and I was glad I wasn’t them…we stopped a couple times for water, and once for the last pineapple the porter was carrying…good, and I wasn’t keen to eat a full lunch anywho…

About 5 hours after starting, we got to the end of the trek…a van picked us up and took us back to where I’d left the rest of my stuff…then it took us back to senggigi…I’m amazed Richard could stand to be in the same van with me, I know I smelled disgusting…layers of sweat and dirt…yuck…he had a flight to catch that night with his mom to Bali…thankfully I didn’t have much to do, I didn’t need to worry about reorganizing my stuff so fast…

A shower has rarely felt that good!

back in indo...again

After a day and a half in kuta, I went back to amed for a couple days…it was really nice to pull into the place I’d stayed before, they recognized me and had huge smiles on their faces…the family is so nice…and they remembered what I wanted for dinner each night, including my love of their banana milkshakes…hee hee…

The second day in amed I drove around the peninsula, there are some great views…sometimes the road is great, sometimes not so much…lots of people on the streets said hello as I drove past, it was fun…I kept stopping to take photos, it’s all so beautiful…most of those stops were after nearly driving off the road after being distracted by the views…whoops…the map shows one road that goes around the peninsula, it seemed pretty easy, but of course there were plenty of places to make turns, and sometimes I had to guess where I should go…

I was aiming for a place called taman ujung…the water palace…it was labeled on the big road map I had of Bali, and labeled on the map in the guidebook, though there was no description given in the guidebook…I hate it when they put things on a map then don’t describe them…at some point I saw a postcard with this palace, and figured I might as well see what it was…

Eventually, I got there, though I drove by the carpark and had to turn around…it goes into the priciest attractions category, but I was still under budget for the day so I didn’t care much…upon entering, you can see the entire thing, there are no hidden areas to explore…but it’s full of water, and I love water, so I was happy…plus, it didn’t seem to be too crowded when I got there…(crowded in east Bali has a very different definition than crowded in south Bali)…the English on the brochure leaves something to desire, so I’ll try to translate what it says…in other words, I’m not sure about the accuracy of my information…

I think it says it was built by one of the final kings of the kingdom of karangasem…I think it was built just after his coronation in 1919…his name and title is ridiculously long, how does anyone remember? Ida Anak Agung Anglurah Agung Ketut Karangasem.  I wonder what he was called on a daily basis…if I had to use that entire name for someone I probably wouldn’t speak to them unless absolutely necessary!

My favourite part of the visit was watching the wedding photo session of a temple near the main gate…(which is not the gate through which visitors now enter the palace area)…a security guard told me the couple had come from Sumatra, so I’m guessing they had money…the photographer or his assistant was from Taiwan…she was quite pretty, and I liked her dress, the photos probably looked pretty awesome…there was a makeup chic there as well, who kept sponging the sweat off the bride’s face…I wonder how many places they had photos taken that day…and how many photos were taken in total…during a break I took a photos from that gate, trying to get panoramic shots of the entire palace area…who knows how well it worked…

I spent the afternoon on the beach…shocking, I know…

The next day I drove to padangbai…it’s not a place most people spend any time…there are two or three beaches, all quite small…and the waves are crazy…they’re not swimming beaches, and if the tide is up, there is little to no space to catch some rays…I laid out for a little while, watching the waves the whole time…normally I like to get in the water while I’m laying out, but the waves were big enough that I didn’t think that would be a good idea…not surprisingly, I also went to check out the temples in town…my favourite was a small one built into the side of a cliff…I was more fascinated to look out at the waves crashing into the cliff than I was to see the temple itself…sometimes the waves crashed into each other, which made for nice sprays of water…soooo pretty…I probably stood there for 30 minutes, just watching the water…awesome…

Padangbai is mainly the port for ferries going between Lombok and Bali, which go hourly, round the clock…these ferries take four hours or so, and go to a town called lembar…you can also catch fast boats which go directly to the gili islands, which are probably the most popular parts of Lombok to visit…howeva, those fast boats are a whole lot more expensive…and on the gilis, you’re not allowed to have motorbikes…I wanted to see more of Lombok than just the gilis, so I opted for the slower ferry, with my motorbike…as I was pulling into the ferry terminal the police officer waved me over and asked to see my license…

In Indonesia you’re not supposed to drive unless you have an international license…they’re not difficult to get in your home town, but I haven’t been in my hometown in over a year…and even if I’d gotten one before I left the states, it would’ve been expired by now, as they’re only good for a year…I knew this when I rented the motorbike, but it’s not an unusual situation…the people renting motorbikes don’t really care if you have the international license or not…the officer said that when Indonesians don’t have their license while driving, the bike is kept until they can produce the license…I said that would be a problem because my license was with my friend…(I wasn’t about to admit that I didn’t have the license, although I’m sure he figured that out)…then I asked what needed to be done, knowing full well the answer I was going to get…

My first official bribe!! I knew that’s what was coming, and I was asked for less than I expected…only 50,000 rupiah, about $6. Not bad, eh?? I was expecting three times that, so I was pretty happy…he let me go and I went on to get my ferry ticket…I was happy to see that he was checking licenses of locals as well, though I was obviously the only one who didn’t have what I was supposed to have…whoops…

Getting on the ferry was easy…I parked and took my stuff up to an upper deck…about 45 minutes later the ferry left…the ride was smooth, I was thankful…I’m sure at times there must be crazy waves, and since I get seasick pretty easily I was thankful the waves weren’t really around…at least, not this time…almost 5 hours later everyone disembarked in lembar…I had been worried about driving through town, and being able to find the main road out of town…but that wasn’t a problem either, there was plenty of signage…

I drove straight to the town of senggigi…along the way I passed a bunch of mosques…when you’re in Bali it’s easy to forget that Indonesia is the world’s most populated Islamic country, as Bali has remained Hindu…Lombok is definitely Muslim…I love the way mosques have so much variety…

there are a couple beaches in senggigi, though I arrived too late in the day for any sun worshipping…I checked email, since I hadn’t done so in padangbai, and found a job offer…yippee!!! To get the visa I need to send them scans of all the pages in my passport with stamps…hmmm…that’s a fair number of pages…it’s really really nice to have the job search stress over with…(not that I’m going to say where the job is until I get there and start working)

I also found a place that seemed decent for treks up and down gunung rinjani…a big volcano with a lake in the crater…you’re not allowed to trek independently, (not that I have the equipment to do so) so I needed to find a place to sign up for a trek…I signed up for a 3 day/2 night trek…if we trek as long as they say each day, it’ll actually be a fair number of hours of trekking…it’s expensive I guess, but we’ll have a guide, and a porter carrying the stuff like tents, stove, food, etc…plus they pick me up, and will bring me back afterward…

I also checked out a temple…it’s quite small, but offers great views of the sunset…when I got there, a lot of locals were there, worshipping…I didn’t get very close to the altar because that would’ve involved stepping over a lot of people, and I’m not so comfortable doing that…plus, I doubt the altar was much different from anything I’ve already seen in Indonesia…   the temple is on a cliff, right next to a beach…after looking at the temple, I watched local kids playing soccer on the beach…so cute…especially when one kid tried to kick the ball and ended up rolling over it, if that makes any sense…

Dinner was at a road side stand, and I got a local price…yippee!! (it should say something about how rarely that happens that I mention it)…and I got ice creams on the way back to the hotel…yes, I said ice creams…I figured I’d be burning plenty of calories over the next three days…

Again, I woke up early, so I could be ready for the 0500 pickup…ugh…

bali:amed

The drive from the batur area to amed was my longest drive yet…just over three hours…down the mountain on twisty, curvy roads, that were sometimes pretty steep…locals go zipping down those roads at speeds that would terrify me…I suppose if I knew the roads I’d be going a bit faster, but still…then along the coast with glimpses of the water peeking through trees from time to time…on the mountain I was cold…driving through a cloud and winds, I got so cold my teeth started chattering, and my body shaking…and I knew I had to keep going because the only way to warm up was to get down…amed is an area on the east coast of bali…it has only recently begun to develop, but it’s still nothing near the level of kuta/legian/seminyak…the sand is black, the beaches narrow, the water super clear…I’m glad it isn’t as developed, but it won’t stay this way for long…there is a lot of building going on, locals have realized the income possible if tourists come in larger numbers…

I found a place for a reasonable price…it’s smaller than my room in batur, but cheaper…and toilet paper and a towel are provided! After relaxing and settling in, I headed across the street to the beach…I followed a small path, and found the beach…NO ONE ELSE TO BE SEEN…that’s even better than the amazing west coast beaches in new Zealand…I did see and hear a couple goats, but that was it…the sand is black, the waves calm, the water the perfect temperature…I WAS THE ONLY PERSON ON THE BEACH!! At some point a jogger ran by me, and a lady walked past twice as she walked along the beach…but that was it…awesome…

Dinner that night was barracuda in some kind of sauce, with veggies and rice…and one of the best banana milkshakes I’ve ever had…followed by a two hour walk, again it seemed that every guy along the road wanted to offer me transport, diving tomorrow, etc…annoying, but I liked the walk anywho…

The next day about the only thing I did was go to the beach…and eat the same dinner…with two banana milkshakes this timeJ

The third day I got up a little earlier and after breakfast, hopped on the motorbike and drove to a place called tirta ganga…also called the water palace…the guy who built it was really into water, so there are pools all over the place…not surprisingly, after I parked (there was no parking fee, yippee!!) someone tried to attach themselves to me as a guide…I had to be direct, and tell him I wasn’t going to pay him anything…he said he just wanted to tell me some information, but I knew that if I let him continue walking with me he’d demand a “donation” when I left…I enjoy the beauty of places more than anything…I love history and culture too, but with all the temples and such I’ve seen here, I know there is no way I’d be able to keep things straight if I had a guide everywhere…

When I tried to pay the entrance fee (which was only for foreigners, there was no fee for locals) they didn’t have change for me…they told me to come back after I was finished and pay then…gotta love the honour system…I could’ve left w/out paying anything at all, but that would’ve been bad…I enjoyed walking around the area, though I’m not sure where the temple part was…there were stepping stones across one of the pools, and statues, so photos were fun…i’m glad I got there early, as about the time I left a lot more people were arriving…

on the way home i stopped a bunch of different times to take photos of the rice paddies i was seeting everywhere...they were amazing...so beautiful...at one point i got a bit distracted by the photo i was trying to take, and forgot to look at where my feet were...oops...i took a step forward, and before i knew it, was in a rice paddie...whoops...i'd taken a step when a step wasn't there...fortunately, the fall was only a couple feet, and there wasn't anything stick or rock like in the area where i fell...i laughed at myself, and was somewhat embarassed when i got back to my room with mud all over...the camera didn't get wet at all, and that was my first concern...lol...obviously, i had to wash off the seat and foot area of my bike...i have a gazillion photos of rice terraces, so i didn't need to be taking anymore, but there is just something about them that's so beautiful...

After the “temple” it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what I did with the rest of my day…go to the beach of course…followed by the same dinner and drink, and another walk…life is good…

bali:batur

As usual, the drive didn’t take as long as I expected…it ended up being about two and a half hours from lovina to toya bungkah…most of it involved driving up, or along mountain ridges…since I was going toward the middle of the island, and up, I was cold…even though it was sunny…when I got to penelokan, and was able to look out over danau batur (lake batur) and gunung batur (batur volcano) the view was fantastic…a blue, half moon shaped lake next to a volcano with at least two craters to be seen…

Toya bungkah is the starting point for most treks up batur…I didn’t really care to do the trek, I just liked being close to the volcano…and from what I’ve read and seen, there is a LOT of hassle when it comes to trekking in this area…there is one group (the name of which I don’t remember off the top of my head) that has a monopoly on guides for this climb…and  you have to take a guide when you go up the volcano, and it isn’t cheap…I do want to climb up a volcano in Indonesia, just not this one…this area is visited by day trippers from ubud quite a bit I think…

From the porch of my ridiculously HUGE room, with a king size bed, I look out over the lake…beautiful…

After checking in, I got back on my bike and started driving toward the town of tampaksiring…it’s halfway between toya bungkah and ubud…just north of tampaksiring were a couple temples I wanted to see…the first was called tirta empul…it’s one of the most important pilgrimage temples for the Balinese…the temple is situated right next to natural springs…people come and bath in the springs (a couple man made “pools” allow this) then visit the temple…the springs are outside, so everyone bathing is wearing a sarong, and it’s coed…there are spouts all along one edge, and people queue up in front of each one…it’s neat to see…there is even a little locker roomJ…the entrance fee for this temple has more than doubled since lonely planet did it’s research, booo…there is a holy pool (you’re not allowed to get into this one) in the temple itself, if you look at the right spot in the pool you can see water coming up into the pool…the temple itself is otherwise just like so many other temples I’ve seen on bali…just up the hill from the temple is the presidential palace, built by sukharno, (sp?) indonesia’s first president…despite him not being the best of guys, the palace is still used when high muckymucks from other countries visit…getting from the temple back out to the carpark involves going past a gbillion souvenir stalls, which is just plain annoying…

The second temple was called gunung kawi…it’s a candi, meaning there are different groups of altars within the temple complex…and the complex is spread over a small valley…the entrance fee for this one is also more than double what is in the guidebook…I wonder when the prices went up, and how much they were previously…since tampaksiring is relatively close to ubud, I wonder if it’s the eat, pray love factor…argh…and you have to pay for parking at this place too…argh…anywho, to get started, you walk down a whole bunch of steps, past a lot of souvenir stalls…I ignored the ladies telling me to just look, and thought about the fact that I’d have to come back up these steps to get back to my bike…exercise is good, right? What makes this temple unique is that much of it is carved into rock faces…awesome…it was fun wandering all over, hoping I’d seen all the different groupings…a lot of the holes in the rock no longer have anything in them, but they’re still neat to see…there were also some lovely views over rice paddies…coming back up the steps I was breathing hard and dripping sweat…eww…

On the way back to the lake I stopped at a roadside warung, and was actually charged the local price for lunch…woo hoo!! Not only did I get my plate of food, but I got a cup of soup and a glass of water…yay for yummy surprises! The not so good surprise on approaching the lake: having to pay a fee to enter the “tourist area” of gunung batur…nevermind that I’d already been in the area (I didn’t have to pay a fee earlier since I’d come from the other side) and I’m not just checking it out for the day…this is the first fee of that kind I’ve had to pay, and I don’t like it…

The rest of the day I spent camped out on my porch, looking out at the lake and reading…it was rather windy, so I was cold as, with chicken skin…but totally worth it…

My second day in the batur area dawned (yes, I was awake when the sun first came up) not nearly as beautifully…there was a rain cloud hanging over the mountain on the other side of the lake, and as I looked, much of gunung batur was covered as well…a good thing I hadn’t arranged for a trek of any kind, I wouldn’t have been able to see diddly squat…I sat around for a while, working on postcards and writing part of a couple letters, and having banana pancakes for breakfast…

Eventually I got on my bike and started driving up to the crater rim…driving through the clouds…not fun…at all…it wasn’t raining, but it was spitting, and my clothing was definitely not water resistant…there was an unmarked turn as I got to the top of the crater, thankfully someone was around so I could ask which way I needed to go…I was headed in the direction of pura besakih…another temple…this one translates to mother temple…it’s on the most holy mountain in bali, gunung agung…for whateva reason, gunung batur is a lot more popular for climbing…I’m guessing the view is probably better, or something like that…but you can climb agung, and from what I understand, it’s a lot less hassle…

Pura besakih is huge…it isn’t just one temple, it’s actually 22 interconnected temples…in terms of tourism though, it’s not much fun…it seemed like every local there was out to make money from the temple, and I didn’t like that…the entrance fee was the highest I’ve paid yet…at least I didn’t have to pay more for parking or a camera…I had a sarong, but was forced to rent a sash…I don’t think it was absolutely necessary, as I saw quite a few people w/ only a sarong, but they weren’t about to let me get away w/out spending something…

Then, at the counter where they were supposed to check my ticket, the guy took my ticket and set it aside…I reached and took it back…then he pushed a book at me and wanted me to sign…when I asked what it was for, he said it was the names of people who had visited, where they were from, and how much they’d donated…I signed, but left the donation space blank…after all, I’d just paid a large entrance fee…the guy didn’t like that, and said I had to donate, because the entrance fee goes to the government…I don’t know who gets the entrance fee, but some of the numbers I saw in that book were pretty large…sorry, but I have no desire to “donate” 5x (or even 20x!!!) the entrance fee…the guy tried to say that I had to give, that I had to have a local guide with me because there was a ceremony in the temple, and I couldn’t go by myself…

I already knew that if there was a real ceremony, the temple would be completely closed to visitors, and I wouldn’t be able to walk around at all, so that line was a lie…and they are temples, so locals are going to be praying at various times as I’m walking through…in that sense, these temples are like a giant church, when someone is sitting in a pew with their head down…I went back and forth with the guy, knowing that I didn’t have to have a guide, and him trying to tell me that I did, all the while a woman was trying to rent me an umbrella…the guy said people wouldn’t let me in if I was by myself, and I told him that if that happened, I’d come back…but of course it didn’t…and I didn’t rent the umbrella…I REALLY don’t like it when people lie about religious things…it taints what I’m seeing, if that makes any sense…even though I managed to get away from them w/out “donating” I still had to say no to every man I walked by on the way to the entrance of the area…

Finally I got to the entrance of the area…the temples go up the side of the mountain, I wasn’t exactly sure where to go…so I followed my eyes…if it looked to be of interest, I walked in that direction…in the end, there was only one temple I wanted to see that I wasn’t allowed to see…the guy outside that temple said I could take a photo from outside, but not inside…okay…keep in mind that none of these temples have roofs…they’re all outdoors…so with the crappy weather, all the normal colours of decorations weren’t as fun…I wonder how often they replace all those decorations? The only negative to wandering around were the two girls at the very top temple, one of whom kept bugging me to switch sarongs with her…I must’ve said no 10 times…continuing to hassle me does NOT make me likely to buy what you’re selling, or to do what you want…I wandered around the temples for an hour or two, and I would’ve stayed longer if the weather had been better…

On the way back, more ladies on the road tried to get me to stop for another blessing…argh…does it ever end? I got back to my hotel, and again camped out on the front porch…a bit before dark I went for a walk, just to use my legs since all I’d done was sit during the day…(except for wandering around the temples, but that wasn’t much)…as I was walking back from that nearly every guy on a motorbike stopped to offer transport…or trekking the next day…one guy even offered a free massage…now that was totally creeptastic…yuck…even though I liked the place I stayed, and the views of the lake/mountain, that was all I liked about the area…the rest of it was too much hassle, and I wouldn’t recommend it…

north coast of bali

It took me less than an hour to drive from munduk to an area called lovina…I don’t know why it’s called lovina, it’s actually a series of four villages on the north coast of bali…I stayed in kaliasem…I’d looked in the guidebook to see what type of accommodation I could expect to find, and I went for the cheapest listed…for the first time I can ever recall, the price listed in the book was the same price I paid…amazing…I was expecting it to have gone up a dollar or two, but I’m definitely not complaining…the room is as nice as what I had in munduk, and I’m paying a whole lot less…less than half, actually…and it still includes breakfast…what it does not include though, is hot water, a towel, or toilet paper…fortunately, I have something I can use as a towel, and I have toilet paper…(never ever travel in asia w/out toilet paper)…I wasn’t expecting to get here so fast, but as I continually learn, distances in bali just aren’t that big…

Lovina is a beach area…the beach is black sand, and fairly narrow…it’s not stunningly beautiful, but I still like it…(you’ll be hardpressed to find a beach I don’t like)…kalibukbuk is the main village of the bunch, that’s where most of the accommodation and food is found…how you know which village you’re in is beyond me, I never did find blank space in between the villages…anywho…before heading to the beach I went for a walk around the area, to get my bearings and see what I could see…not much…the area is just like kuta, only far less crazy, and far less crowded…there are touts on the beach, though far fewer of them…(far fewer people in general, which I love)…spas, shops, restaurants, accommodation…not much else…and just like kuta, I was able to ignore everything except the beach…

The first day I relaxed in my room, then went to the beach…then checked internet, then went home, then went to dinner…nothing terribly exciting…the next day I got up and had breakfast on the porch in front of my room…tea and a sandwich with fried eggs and tomatoes…when breakfast is included in the price it’s always interesting to see what breakfast is…then I hopped on my bike, and drove through the nearby town of singaraja…it’s the biggest town on the north coast, but there isn’t any real reason for tourists to go there…out the eastern side of town are a couple temples, and another one even farther east…even though I was expecting more of the same temples I’ve already seen, they still fascinate me…I’m weird, I know…

The first temple was the best of the three…soooo much carving…most temples in bali have a lot of carving, especially on the main entrance…but this one had a lot more…including human faces, not just the scary faces I’m used to…the shape of the temple was different as well, though I’d be hard pressed to explain how…it just was…to get to the second temple, I walked along a narrow path next to the first, and over a bridge, onto the next road over…about 200m up the road I could see the second temple…what I couldn’t do was go in this temple…all the gates were closed…argh…but I could still see some carvings on the outside, as well as tell that this temple was quite small…an informative local searching for snails in the rice paddies (to feed his lobsters, if I understood correctly) told me that this temple had all the carvings depicting where you go when you’re dead…hmmm…the way he said it was pretty humourous, I guess you had to be there…

The third temple involved more driving…as I was on my way there, I realized I was running really low on petrol…really really low…and then I saw a petrol station…phew…I pulled in, only to realize that it wasn’t open…eeek…so I kept driving, hoping I’d see another one soon…but I got to the next temple before I saw another petrol station…I parked, put on my sarong, and gave a donation…the guy was rather put out that I didn’t give a certain amount…he said all the tourists give more than I did…I didn’t say anything, but in my head I was thinking “if you want a certain amount from everyone who visits, you should just charge an entrance fee and call it what it is”…anywho…this temple wasn’t all that interesting, but there was a particular carving worth nothing…it’s a guy on a bicycle, and the wheels of the bicycle are made of flowers…I laughed…that’s definitely not something I would’ve expected to see anywhere in a Balinese temple…awesome…

After that temple, I started driving back…past the petrol station that wasn’t open…I pulled into the next one, only to be told that they didn’t have petrol for motorbikes…AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!...by this point, the needle on my bike was below E, and I was seriously concerned…but I kept driving…eventually, I saw another petrol station, with plenty of motorbikes pulled in to fill up…phew…it wouldn’t have been that hard to get help if I needed it, but it would’ve been embarrassing…lol…

The afternoon was spent at the beach, of course…at dinner the meal I ordered came with chili peppers on the side, in case I wanted it spicy…and I did…I put them all on the food…they’re spicy all right, and I was sweating while I was eating, but I loved it anywho…spicy food is awesome…

My last day in lovina was spent mostly on the beach…at some point while I was baking, there was a local ceremony of some kind on the beach…putting offerings in the water, chanting, etc…everyone in traditional attire…neat to see…