So many places, so much to say...

Yeah, yeah, its been a while since my last post. So what? Its not like you've all been banging down my door about it. Alas, i've finally decided to get out and write a few so here goes. Well, actually, its more like i can't surf today (shoulder is killing me!) so i have nothing better to do.

Looks like i last left off with Bukit Lawang. What have i done between there and here? Feels like a lifetime ago. Actually, its more like 1 visa ago but still, feels like a long time. Lets see. Took the hellish overnight from Medan (Bukit Lawag to Medan, 2 hrs local transport) to Bukittinggi which was by far the worst bus ride of them all. Then, jumped onto another local bus (1.5 hrs) to Danue Maninjau. Of course no one on the bus spoke English so when i asked them to drop me off close to a place to sleep, they pretty much just stopped the bus and kicked me out. I was really wondering about what i was going to do that night for accommodations while standing at the side of the road with my bags all over. I popped open the Rough Guides and looked for a place to stay. To my surprise, right behind me was one of the places recommended! Lucky me! I still don't know if they dropped me off on purpose there or if they just wanted to get rid of me but either way, i didn't care.

Silly cow

Long story short, I met a wonderful Kiwi which owned the guesthouse. Got a chance to listen to some of her music which she was making on a very spiffy I-Mac, chillout next to a huge crater lake, and eat some great local Indonesian dishes. It was pretty much here that i decided that i'm gonna fly from now on throughout Indonesia. The buses are just too hard and too expensive compared to flying. So I booked a flight from Padang to Jakarta in the coming few days.

A view of the lake. Can't take the whole thing because of
the smog from Pekanbaru but its still a lovely place.

My favorite memory of the place by far was listening to the local musicians. Because Maninjau was so quiet, i spent a lot of time there reading. One afternoon, i went to the sitting area and ordered some lunch. Normally its really quiet, so i just sit there and read. But today, there were 4 Indonesian guys hanging around. There were 2 guitars, one set of drums (not sure what type, bongos?) and all 4 of them singing together. At first i tried to ignore them and read my book (at first it wasn't that hard b/c they were singing in Indonesian). But after about 5 min, i couldn't help but listen to them sing. They were 'starving artists' who knew the owner and were all part of a band. Its nice to listen to live music, but when you listen to them play, just for the sake of playing, its a completely different experience. Bagus bagus!

I left only 2 nights after i arrived because i needed to get to Jakarta for the weekend. So i jumped onto another local bus and headed for Padang. I only spent one night in Padang which was unfortunate as i would have liked to explore more of the city. Food was cheap, that's for sure. Spent the whole night eating street food. Fried bananas, fried chicken, fried rice, etc. All good and cheap!

Next morning, hopped onto my first Air Asia flight. Padang airport was by far the smallest airport i have ever seen. 2 docking thingys for airplanes, a runway, and like 3 shops. On top of that, they took my large can of mossy spray! Those punks! Its not like it was in my carry on. I carried that stupid thing for the last 5 months and now they're going to throw it away!? Damn, i was annoyed. Getting onto my flight was no picnic either. Indonesians have no idea what queuing is and Air Asia does not provide food for the flight either. I had to buy my peanuts and instant noodle lunch! Ah, whatever, it cost me $30 to take a plane for 1 hr. The bus ride would have been 35 hrs and cost me roughly $20.

Anyways, I arrive in the big beautiful city of Jakarta after about 1 hr. I have to admit, no matter how many times I go into a new place, big cities always make me nervous. I guess its always the build up that gets you going. Either way, I make it through the barrage of taxi touts and hop onto the bus and head to the local tourist district. I’ve come to Jakarta specifically on a weekend to party. Why? Because Sumatra has been sooooo slow. And with so few tourists its hard to get a group together to go out and play. I had BIG hopes for Jakarta.

Things were definitely not as expected. The tourist district was nothing like I hoped for. Hostels with dorm rooms were very rare. There were few foreigners walking around, most of them old. So I pretty much settled down and took a quick nap. Lucky for me, after I woke up, I met one of those amazing travelers that everyone talks about. You know, the charismatic, interesting, hilarious, adventurous type of guys that have seen it all.

Its hard to remember everything that we sat down and talked about because we did so much of it. Basically, it was wake up, eat, talk, talk, talk (the porcelain tooth story), walk around, eat, talk, talk, talk (adventures in Laos), drink, talk, talk, talk (poop story), sleep. An amazing Swedish fireman who is in love with a very beautiful (and I should add, lucky) Russian photographer. Wake up woman! Marry this man! Hahhaa. I’m just kidding. But he was a very cool dude who has inspired me to buy my own hammock. I’ll let you know for what some other time!

Moments to remember. The last day we hung out we finally decided we needed to go out and see the attractions. We headed off to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. This is a park which was designed to show Indonesia’s cultural stuff all in one place. Knowing what I did about Indonesia’s government run facilities, I had very little expectations. Entrance fee was about $0.90 which was a killer deal.

Yep, its a dong pic, i'm definitely not above these.

We got in and started looking around. Everything around was in Indonesian. I saw a sign for an aquarium, so we decided to head that way. After getting lost in about 2 min, we decided we better get ourselves a map. This took a while but we finally found a tourist office. We felt like the only people who’ve ever asked for a map before. Taking a look, we discovered the park was quite large. In the center, there was a large pond with a map of Indonesia in it (very cool). Took a few pics and started walking around. Its so cool to look at it because I can name so many of the islands!

Beautiful carvings on the side of the houses in Kalimantan, Borneo

But the true bonus of the park was the little cultural displays they had. There were different houses from each region of Indonesia. Almost every island had unique heritage, culture, language, and architecture. Having traveled through Sumatra already, I could easily identify each house from the region. Its so impressive that each island has its own unique culture (some of the bigger islands have multiple!). I was truly amazed. I was so excited to discover what else there was to see in Indonesia.

Of course, there was the usual tourist stuff. Gondolas, monorail, train ride, kid’s park, a castle, etc. But the great thing was there were so few foreign tourists around. Only my Swedish friend and I were foreign. It feels great sometimes when its like that.

We found ourselves a reptile exhibit as well. 5000 rp entrance which was very acceptable for us. They had the usual snakes, turtles, crocs, blah blah blah. But the winner of the show was definitely the komodo dragon! That thing was huge! I’m so disappointed that I can’t see one with my own eyes on this trip (more on that later). The very close second place finisher of the show was a large boa constrictor. Nothing really that special about it, except it was in the middle of eating a small chicken! Fantastic I thought! Lots of blood, teeth and, of course, constricting. Hahhaa. Got lots of it on video. Unfortunately, I’ve lost some of the pics (technical difficulties, stupid camera!) but suffice to say, it was cool.

I guess my other favorite moment of that night would have to be my trip through the posh neighbor hood of Jakarta. After doing some shopping for a mosquito net (god it took so long, and I still never got one! One person was like 1st floor, then 2nd floor, then 3rd floor, etc. Finally, we knew it would never work when they started to send us back down the floors or back across the street where we came from!). Either way, on our journey to find a pharmacy and bookstore, we came across the high end malls. We poked around for a little bit and guess what I found, a Krispy Kreme! Perfect I thought! Right after I goto the bookstore I’m getting one! I grabbed my book (Guns, germs, and steel. Excellent read!) and headed straight there. To my disappointment they stopped making the fresh ones and so I had to go for one from the display. Not as good but a nice taste of home.

But that was only the beginning. Across from the bookstore was one of those bakeries that sell all types of goodies. My Swedish friend was really eyeing them for a long time (he’s a pretty fit guy, lots of trekking and walking) and I was like, what the hell, lets go for it! Took about 30 sec of convincing, but after that it was a complete free-for-all. With about 6 items each, we headed to the counter, excited as little school girls waiting to see N’sync.

With no where to sit down in the mall, we headed to the local coffee shop, ordered some coffee, and of course, some more cake! After it arrived, it was pure carnage. We split up most of the stuff we bought for a taste test, but really, it was all about just having as much sweets as we could. Didn’t take long for us to feel gorged, but it was well worth it.

Anyways, it was sad to say bye but unfortunately, we were going separate ways. After 3 nights of Bintang and Marb menthol lights (lots of them), I headed off to KL to do a visa run. Nothing special happened in KL. At least not that I could remember. I had some jackfruit finally. And some Chinese and Indian food. Mmmmm. Its been a while. And met a really cool Korean guy, hope he’s still there when I get back.

beach. Its the world famous site of the infamous bombing, known for its hordes of tourists, and generally filled with plenty of drunken idiots. But no worries, i could always explore the rest of the island, which i heard was beautiful. In the end however, My next stop was off to Bali! I know prior to my arrival, i did not have very high hopes for KutaKuta was pretty much the only thing I know about Bali. I spent the next 3 days surfing in Kuta with Pro Surf School (recommended by my Acehenes instructor) and on my own. Its just too much fun to surf! Only problem, there is so much garbage in the water. Quite literally, there is garbage in the water. Everywhere you look there's a plastic bag, old chocolate bar wrapper, etc. I found it hard at first, with all these strange things touching my legs and hands when i was waiting on my board, but you get used to it. That and i was extremely focused on catching the next wave all the time.

Bali from the air

Of course focus can only get you so far. The first day of classes, for some reason there were tonnes of dead fish in the water. And not just dead, but 1/2 eaten and rotten as well. If the putrid smell of dead rotting fish isn't enough to turn you off, imagine learning to surf in it. Learning is the key word here. In the context of someone not knowing how to surf and spends a large amount of time in the water, and often surfaces with dead fish in his hair.

Surfing Ronald? Thats how big surfing is out here!

Regardless, i had such a fun time in Kuta beach (drinking with Jimmy the last night was good fun as well, I had no idea Koreans were so strange!). Even with the high number of drunken aussies at night, shirtless and red old men during the day, it was still a fun place to be. Not the easiest place to meet people mind you. There are so few backpacker places here and i STILL haven't been able to walk into a bar on my own. However, just the sheer number of beautiful women (i'm talking all of them, locals and foreigners) has brought me back.

Anyways, moving along again. I booked an afternoon bus to Padang Bai which i got completely ripped off on. However, i consider it a write off as i got the chance to meet one of the cutest, most beautiful japanese girls i have ever seen. But, alas, her destination was not the same as mine. It probably was for the best anyways. Things never would have worked out in the end. She was a sweet, wonderful, innocent girl, while i'm just a pig. HAHAHA!

Padang Bai was a cool place. There was a big Hindu or Balinese festival happening that evening which I happen to come across. It was quite cool as there were tonnes of ppl all dressed up in their traditional style clothes. Went to one of them temples but they wouldn't let me in b/c i wasn't wearing the proper atire. Needed a dress thingy. Oh well.

I went out instead with the guy that was taking me around (worked for the guesthouse i was staying at). Popped into their restaurant and had myself some excellent Balinese style Gado Gado (salad with peanut sauce). I didn't know they made it that differently everywhere. I'll have to try some more when i come back to indonesia!

That night i had the opportunity to try some Balinese wine. This has to be the strangest non-alcoholic drink i've ever had. Why? Because it tastes like alcohol! I was sure the hotel guy was just screwing with my head. Up until i found out he was muslim and forbidden to drink. I asked him how he got this stuff. It comes from the palm tree and it sounds like they ferment and distill it. Sure as hell sounded like alcohol to me. Tastes and smells also fit the profile. So what was this stuff? I have no idea, but i didn't even feel a buzz after 4 shots of this stuff. FYI, it tastes like 30ish% alcohol.

The next morning, bright and early, i headed out for some quick snorkeling before heading off to the Gili Islands. I was out on the water before sun up getting ready to jump in. The sunrise was a magical sight, but right behind me, was something completely unreal. Off in the distance, i could see the silhouette of the volcano that created Bali. As the sun came up, the face started to glow a beautiful orange hue which my pic cannot do justice. Amazing sight, amazing scenery, and then i jumped in the water.

I think this is my first sunrise photo

Magical

Snorkeling was excellent. The fish were plentiful and the coral in decent condition. Only problem, the water was so freaking cold! I thought it wouldn't matter if the sun was out or not, boy was i wrong! Took less than 3 min before i started to get cold. I swam around for only 10 min (feeding fish and poking into holes) before i needed to get back out. I sat on the boat for the next 30 min trying to warm up in the newly risen sun. Took a while but eventually i was persuaded to go back in. Unfortunately, the water temp still was too much for me and i wasn't able to enjoy it as much as i had hoped. But no worries, i was off to the Gili Islands. With world famous snorkeling and diving, what could be better? I was soon to find out.

Fishies!

And more fishies!

And even more fishies!

Off to Gili Trawangan, the party island of the Gili islands. The Gili islands are composed of 3 separate islands. Its said that one is for couples, the other for retirees, of course the one i went to, for young ppl. Famous for its beautiful coral reefs, turtles and laid back atmosphere, i had great expectations for this place. On the ferry over to Gili T, i met a cool german (cool german? Isn't that an oxymoron? Hhahaha!) and English dude. For the purposes of this blog, they will be known as Harold from Harold and Kumar (also Aragon from Rohan, or Lord of the golden ring (PS, i still think you're an idiot for buying that stupid ring, hhahahahaahha!)) and She-Ra, Princess of Power.

Gasp! Princess?

We ended up hanging out for the next 7-10ish days over in Gili, Lombok and back in Bali. A couple of hilarious guys who when i first met them, seemed like an adorable couple. They loved to make fun of eachother's nationality all the time. How cute! AHhahahaaaa! Anyways, prior to meeting these two, i have never, ever, in my life seen people get sun burned so easily. Its astonishing how fast someone can turn red with only having been in the water for 10 min, with a t-shirt on!

She-Ra and I discussing the intracasies of snorkling

Without much to do on the islands but chill on the beach, snorkel, eat and watch movies, we did little else. I had the great opportunity to see sea turtles up close for the first time when i was snorkeling. They are actually faster than i expected as i startled one of them when i got too close. Who knew? I really wanted to ride one but that is just poor taste. Hhaah. But i would love to if i got the chance! That basically became the theme for me. I wanted to ride the horse that pulled our horse and carriage (i think its my first ever horse and carriage ride), a manta ray, a whale shark, and of course, a person! I wonder how much it would cost to have someone carry me around? Hahahaha, j/k!

Just look at that sexy snorkel

Snorkeling has provided me a whole new perspective on underwater life. When diving, you're always concerned how much air you have, how deep you are, what else is there to see, etc. But when you're snorkeling, you can just sit there on the surface and watch everything around you. I could spend hours floating around out there! But my next challenge, is to free dive with some weights so i can actually stay under without effort and just chillout and enjoy my surroundings. Didn't really get to see much fish close to Gili. So besides the turtles, only got to see a beautiful mantis shrimp.

So besides watching She-Ra and Harold burn on the beach, we went out and watched movies during the evenings (before partying). I have to admit, Old man without a country (the oscar film) was very, very weird. I hate artsy movies. But i am willing to watch it again though. I really need to pause it and listen to them talk because last time was just too fast for me. Damn American accents.

We also watched a lot of Ben Stiller movies as well as Nacho Libre. New catch phase, "Do it!" Oh and Nacho is the new title for fat, annoying people. Like the fat ass hotel guy on Gili that harassed us everyday to buy something. And of course, one of the mornings (the previous evening, i had either some bad chicken, popcorn, icecream or a combination of them all, caused me to puke in the bathroom) he came in, and tried to convince me to go on the snorkeling trip the rest of the guys were going on. He kept jumping up and down saying Do it, do it, do it! Then he started singing, "No woman no cry, no mushroom no fly!" I wanted to punch that fat fucker in the face for being so annoying. When you've been puking all night, you have a pretty low tolerance for annoying things.

Anyways, the glass bottom boat ride and snorkeling trip was pretty over-rated. Just like the 2 dives i did as well. All the coral out there is dead. I find it very depressing when all you see is nothing but dead coral in every direction. Doesn't matter if you're at 2 m or 20 m. Its all dead. Fortunately, its not all from the dynamite fishing, but apparently El Nino came through and heated the water up too much and killed all the coral.

But my dives were not all at a loss. I got a chance to see my first 2 white tipped sharks! At roughly 2 m long each, they were just resting on the bottom while we cruised up to them. They are so much bolder than black tips. They did swim away when we got close, but for a while, they just sat there while we came in for a closer look. Absolutely amazing. After that, i got my first chance to see a cuttle fish. At first i thought the divemaster was signaling an octopus, which i've seen enough of in Pulau Weh. So I just hung out above them, letting the other people get a look. I could see the other divers getting excited as they approached. Hey, wait a min, i better go in for a closer look too! As i approached, i soon realized that they weren't looking into a crack or nething, but they were looking at what i thought was just a large black rock.

It was the biggest cuttle fish i have ever seen! I didn't even know they got that big! It looked like the size of a rugby ball! I was astonished to see a mollusk of that size. I guess i should have known they can get that big, we had pretty large cuttle bones back at Pet Habitat. But still, it was a very nice surprise. The best part though, besides coming across another one, was that they were both so calm. They just hovered there while we approached. We even surrounded one and the instructor tried to play with it. All it did was sit there and change color. And the colors and speed at which they change, brilliant!

But even with the cool things from the first dive, the second dive was just sooo disappointing, that i decided to only do 2 instead of 4 total dives. It just wasn't worth it. i'll save my money for somewhere else.

At night we usually went off to one of the local bars or clubs. Maybe because its low season right now, but most of the time, things were pretty dead. The onlyone notable thing worth mentioning. We were sitting on the patio of one of the night clubs, having a beer (and redbull). Harold, then an empty seat, then a small gap for a light, then me, were just chilling out and watching the scene. Up walks this Indonesian guy. Right up to the gap between me and the next seat (probably about 0.5m wide) and just stands there. A first i thought he was on his fone. Then i thought he was just admiring the view while having his cigarette. Soon after he walked off and Harold noticed he zipped up his pants. I looked at the ground and there was a small puddle on the floor. Jesus! this guy took a piss right next to me while i was sitting there! And i didn't even notice! WTF is up with that? Hahaha.

Some girls playing on the beach

As for my overall impression of Gili T? Maybe b/c its the off season, there just weren't that many ppl there. And probably b/c its an island and the locals have nothing better to do, i got harassed constantly (i'd say even more than in Kuta). Maybe its b/c i'm with other foreigners, or b/c they all think i'm Japanese (my name was Yoshi by the way). Or, most likely, its because i didn't partake in the most famous extra-curricular activities. The Gili Islands are also famous for drugs. Anywhere, anytime, anything.

Whee!

Again, moving on. After having enough of the Gilis, we hopped a boat over to Senggigi in Lombok. A nice quiet toursit town on the west coast. There was really nothing to do here except eat. And eat we did! We went to Pizza Hut 2x because it was so damn good and cheap! We were also lucky to catch a big festival over in Mataram (about 20 min away) where the Balinese new year festival was taking place.

That's one big spliff

Aaaaah!

It was a very hot afternoon but we slugged it out on the side of the road as the parade was just too cool not to watch. There were these huge paper mache monsters being paraded up and down the street. They were being carried around by large groups of mostly young men. They ran around with the floats, spun around, shook them violently, and just plain had a good time. It was a blast to watch.

On a scooter?

But besides the parade, there wasn't really much happening out in Lombok. I was quite disappointed that there was no jackfruit to be seen. I did also try my first reef break while surfing. Not a very good idea. You have to do so much paddling to get out to the waves, they form so fast, and rocks can really mess you up! I think i caught a grand total of 1 wave that hour. It was just too hard for me. And i got a scraped up knee as a bonus while i was trying to get back out of the water. I'll have to leave the reefs up to the pros for now.

So besides the general fun of hanging out wiht She-Ra and Harold, the funniest moments have got to be She-Ra complaining about the constant Eric Clapton music, and Harry's donut fiasco. Harold is a big donut lover (told him to try KKs) and one afternoon we came across a nice looking bakery. Inside of course he saw 3 different types of donuts. We decided that we would pop into the beach and then come back for a coffee and snack later. Of course, the entire time on the beach, all he could talk about was the donuts and how good they looked. When we went back to the bakery, in front of us, was an Indonesian girl buying some goods. And of coures what does she get? All of the last remaining chocolate dipped and another type of donut! hahaha! The look on his face was priceless! The only dounts left did not look appetizing at all to make matters worse. We poked Harry about it all through the snack and even into dinner. He was definitely not impressed and did not see the humor of the situation for a good long time. I'll still bug him about it when i see him again. I think we finally convinced him that it wasn't all that bad. It was pretty damn funny.

Scratchings on the wall

Email me with what you see. I had trouble sleeping that night. Thanks Harold!

From Senggigi, we headed back to Padang Bai, Bali. I have to admit that at this point i felt pretty depressed. I was planning to head to Flores, Komodo, Rinca, and Sumba for some off the beaten track surfing and diving. However, due to time and money restrictions, i had to turn back. Its just so hard to travel out here. Boats are slow, expensive and unreliable. Planes are nice and cheap but still a little outside my budget. And bus-boat combinations were just too much of a nightmare for me to deal with. I didn't fancy the idea of 6 full days of traveling (day and night) to have only 5 days to see 4 islands. So backwards i went.

Rice farmer

Don't get me wrong. I still had a great time. The ferry from Mataram to Padang Bai was probably the most intense one i've ever had. Nothing to do with rough seas. It was all about waiting for the ferry to leave. There were so many sellers on the boat which were so aggressive, i could hear other toursits getting angry. They were relentless! I never gave in, but harold couldn't take it nemore and had to buy something.

Wicked rice paddies

Back in Padang bai, things were quite normal. Nothign special happened. Except while we were eating in one of the local tourists places. There was a small commotion just outside where we were eating. So of course, i decided to pop out and take a look. On the ground, was the largest fish i have ever seen up close. Is was a 30 kg Jack just caught from the ocean! What must this thing have looked like alive in the water. Just imagine a school of them swiming around! Incredible.

Just look at the size of that thing!

The next morning we headed back to Kuta. I decided on my way back that it was time for a little personal chillout time from travelling. I was jsut going to sit here and relax, surf, explore and enjoy Bali. We checked into a hotel that She-Ra previously stayed in. For 6 USD, we got our own rooms and a pool to use. It was living in luxury for us as we were all backpackers. I haven't been in a pool since Nha Trang and it honestly felt kinda odd. After battling waves and swiming in the ocean for so long now, a pool feels so pathetically safe, small and boring. But of course, like always, we still had a great time.

Harold with some balance issuesMy wonderful toilet......Has a Garden!

Which probably let in whatever left this on my bed! Good thing i didn't go home drunk and sleep in it! Or, wake up and then think it was mine! HAHhaahaa

The boys left after about 2 days to continue their own journeys (She-Ra was off the see the rest of Java, and Harold was off to see the F1 in Melbourne) leaving me here to make new friends on my own. We finish off our travels in style together. A nice seafood beach front meal in south bali, then off to the clubs for a final few drinks. She-Ra, you've come a long way, keep up the great job you're doing, and i want my t-shirt! Harold, Lord of the golden ring, its time to move forward.

She-Ra and Harold @ Paddy'sOur beach view while eating

Whinnie the Pooh drink glasses?

I've been in Kuta for 10 days now and i'm on my way out tomorrow. I've been surfing, surfing, and more surfing. Tomorrow morning is my last chance to ride a wave. Lets see if i can get it done!

You know that white strip on my black shirt?

I thought it wouldn't make a difference, but apparently it does! Hahhaaha

-bk