Indo - nesia: a contrast like no other

Sunset in Lombok, en route to Gilli

Introduction to Lombok: beautiful rice fields.

Well overall, Indonesia has been a roller coaster experience. We had a relaxing time at the islands and enjoyed the landscapes of the country in Lombok. Loved Ubud in Bali and Java has a wondrous area of green rolling hills hiding the surreal craters and volcanoes in Bromo.

BUT, when we are in any major town, the locals can be so pestering and insistent on what we know to be scams. Many are hassling us constantly to buy their goods or give them money for no reason. They have been scheming and aggressive at main attractions and at docks. Tried to trick us into taking their advice at a cost. etc. They have followed us after we get out of our minibus or local bus and blatantly try to rip us off when we actually need to buy something.

We really enjoyed our time at Gilli Air and the hours we spent on Gilli Meno.

One huge factor of having a great time was hanging out with 2 people we met on the adventure to the island. They were so similar in personality and sense of humor we spent almost every waking moment together. We then met a couple from Montana who were wildly entertaining and kind.

sunset on Gilli Air

our patio on Gilli Air at "Matahari"

So when it came time to leave Gilli Island it came to no surprise when the 4 of us decided to go together. From Gilli we took a horse carriage, to a boat "ferry", to a minibus to Senggigi, Lombok.

After looking at a guesthouse with awkward rooms that varied from a bed on the floor covered in mosquito net to hide the lack of space we left our bags with one person and set on foot to find a better hotel. Two nasty brothels later we took a bima (public truck for 3,000Rp/40cents) to the greater Senggigi area.

Exhausted, we took a break from looking at guesthouses and had lunch. We were oddly approached by a man who asked if we needed a place to stay. While waiting for our food Kevin and I looked at what he had to offer. The rooms at Astiti were acceptable but some smelled of mold.

We returned to the restaurant with neutral news.

After lunch we looked at Elen and it wasn't anything spectacular for the price. Aside from the nice fountain and coy pond the place was nothing special. We wandered back down the green alley passed Astiti to Raja's. A wonderful guesthouse with gardens surrounding everything. Our rooms were so nice, clean and decorated with nice art. Our bathroom was half outdoors and full of plants.

In Senggigi, we took a one day private car tour which was very reasonable for 4 people and 8 hours. We were taken to a Chinese cemetery, the local market which had no tourists.

Much of the day was spent getting to Tetebatu area where we went to a waterfall.

A beautiful walk to the waterfall with no split tracks as the locals insisted there were (to pressure us into getting a guide). We dipped our feet in the fresh freezing water, took photos and went back. Then, we stopped off at rice terraces and took more photos.

Mosques everywhere

cow in a Chinese Cemetery

rice fields in Lombok, more specifically, Senggigi

A woman at the local market

The side views of the market.

The inside of the market. Ladies shuffling rice.

A man packing bananas from the market.

Our warning before we enter. This sign is posted outside almost all Hindu Temples.

The interior views of the temple.

a temple we visited for a few minutes

A lady at her basket weaving shop

our stop at the rice terraces, we enjoyed a self tour.

People awaiting the wedding party parade.

a man walking to the local celebration of a teenager getting married.

these are the wedding party people.

the wedding

children walking to the open field to fly their homemade kite.

tobacco fields

our day ended with another beautiful sunset!

Senggigi Beach

After Senggigi, the four of us still couldn't part. We all went by minivan, to the ferry, after the 4 hour ferry we got on another minivan passed through Ubud in Bali and made our way to Denpasar. In Denpasar we looked around for a good deal on an overnight bus to Probolinggo in Java. We found a decent deal after haggling. At 10pm we left, without getting our promised free dinner we woke up to our surpirse free breakfast instead. We got to Probolinggo, Java at 7am.

There was one public minivan going to Bromo, but it was only going to leave when it had 14 passengers. We walked around trying to figure out if we were yet again being ripped off. This seemed reasonable and when the bus organizer found us at the station and told us there were already 4 other people ready to go and with the 4 of us we'd soon leave. We followed him back.

Took a ferry from Lombok to Bali before getting to Java

the ferry from Lombok to Bali.

A truck FULL of bananas on the ferry.

Got to JAVA:

more mosques with loud speakers in all.

We eventually made our way up the hill to Bromo. What was supposed to be a 1 hour ride turned into 2 hours with a bus filled with so many people I wasn't surprised when fumes of fish and stank filled the vehicle.

oh, smog.

Thankfully, I had a seat with a window, no coincidence after 9 months of traveling. I stuck my head out the window and took photos almost non-stop. Ducking my head in when another car passed, just saving my head from seemed like a close call of decapitation.

Bromo was breathtaking. We got dropped off on the top of the hill and again checked out 5 places in research of where to stay. The places were filthy and charging 10$ which was way too much for a shared bathroom, one room that only fit a bed and a window the size of your hand.

Eventually, we checked in to one of the cheapest and walked down the hill to take photos.

We randomly decided to get a ride to "Yoschi's" Guesthouse. This is when we realized we were staying in the wrong place. We negotiated with our private jeep driver and made a deal to get our stuff from the last place. Pay for the freezing ghetto shower we had and technically only storing our bags for a few hours. We got our way. Hot shower, nice breakfast, a wonderful place to stay with tons of character and cleanliness. Yoschi's is the way to go.

If the guidebook "The Lonely Planet" wasn't so inaccurate on the prices for Yoschi's we would have gone here first. Instead we walked in the rain in search of a cheap place, settled on a dirty one, paid for checking in, paid for private transport and made our way to the best option after all of that. Thanks for nothing Lonely Planet. haha

So we woke up at 3am for the sunrise tour of Bromo.

Went to the viewpoint then drove down to the crater. When we parked we took off by foot.

In the fog, there mystically appeared the crater temple. It was a nice surprise that seemed to sneak up on us behind the foggy morning. Then, this is where I rode a horse for the first time. up the crater hill.

beautiful sun rise rays across the sky.

walking and seeing the temple on the crater.

the same temple in the sun once the fog passed.

a peak inside the crater.

giddy- yup.

We walked up some 200 steps and got to look into the steaming crater. Out of this world.

The next day one of our "Cynical Four" took off to continue our trip. This left us with the Three Goofs. The next day we took off to Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta, interestingly enough, pronounced jog-jakarta was another busy town.

It was neat with art and color, but the busy life was a huge change coming from the green mountains of Bromo/Probolinggo. Yogyakarta was full of local batik, real and fake. Tons of scams to check out "art shows" after a stranger oddly instantly befriends you on the street. We avoided that at all costs and did some shopping in the mall. I found a nice shirt and pants for colder weather of New Zealand and hopefully for work in Australia.

We woke up at 4:30 and took a sunrise tour of Borobudur. An amazing temple where the pictures did it no justice. It was massive and full of buddha figures. Once to climb the tall steps to the top there were unique bell shaped structures with more Buddhas inside. Some bells with a checkered design of squares and others with a diamond shape.

The most memorable experience of Borobudur was being a Western Celebrity.

Apparently, this is the site where many school children take a school trip.

They say things like "May I introduce myself to you?" and "I am practicing my English, how do you do?" After some questions, where sometimes they write things down and sometimes they don't they may say something like "To prove I have done this assignment, my teacher requests I take a photo with you do you mind?"

The funny part is when you say "Sure, you can take a photo." A mob of children groups in behind you and photos are flashing like paparazzi only, with cell phone cameras. When you say "Bye" you hear what sounds like a stadium or assembly of children all at the same time "byeeeee!"

A family in our tour car from Holland joked about going to Borobudur when you are depressed or feeling sad about yourself. It sure is a self-esteem boost. Be a celebrity at Borobudur.

When the third of our group took off. It was just Kevin and I left and we took an overnight train to Jakarta. for 2 nights we will stay in a luxurious hotel for 40$ a night, with buffet breakfast, a/c and a shower head the size of, my head. nice.

We fly to New Zealand on May 26th and we are on to more adventures out of SouthEast Asia!

Yikes!

Gilli Gilli Gilli

What Gilli Air has to offer.

Only one dog on the entire island, but SO MANY cats and kittens!!

They call them the Gilli Islands but Gilli means 'island,' so that's just silly.
We are staying on Gilli Air and just visited Gilli Meno.

Very nice but there is so much coral on the beaches it is hard to walk around and go swimming.

We made it to Gilli Meno for a few hours today and found a beautiful beach but the wind was so violent the sand hits you while you are laying on the beach and the waves were too intense to swim.
The sand was nice but the weather did not let us relax as we would have liked.

UBUD to GILLI Islands

We are spending our last day in Ubud.

We took a one day tour which included astonishing views, unique Hindu temples (Including the largest temple in Bali), A forest temple and a frightening side of aggressive locals.

Besa Kih was a stunning complex of temples situated in a village called Besakih, east of Ubud in Bali.

We took a one day tour, but our driver did not enter the temples with us. When we arrived to our second to last site our guide gave us some tips. He warned us that inside the Besakih Temple complex there will be locals telling you "You must pay for a guide to enter the complex" "There is a ceremony here today and you have to pay for a guide."

Even with this warning it was hard to handle. One man took my tickets and I handed them over thinking he would rip them so we could enter. He used the fact that he had my tickets as leverage to try to convince me to get a guide. When I said "No thank you" and "I will skip the ceremony, I will just walk around" He said "No guide, no enter" Kevin couldn't easily graab the tickets from his hand. I realized we needed to get them and get out of here. I struggled to pull them out of his fingers and his finger grip slid against the shiny ticket, making a squeek.

Intense.

We walked away very upset and in some minor shock. The other two people we were on the tour with were just as frazzled and confused as us. There was no warning of this SPECIFIC scam in any guidebooks and our tour guide said word for word what they would tell us. Scarily, the guide also said "DO NOT TELL THEM I TOLD YOU, them them you read this in the guide book."

A woman came up to me and crazily asked "Are they charging you an extra $10 too?!"

I said "no, we aren't paying for a guide."

Then a French couple approached us after ANOTHER incident.

Incident #2. The local said. "You cannot go up to these temples without a guide."

Kevin and I walked passed and kept walking. He yelled "HEY, Excuse me, HEY!!"

We never turned back.

The French couple came up to us and said "Well done."

I would like to thing we have learned A LITTLE from traveling for nearly 9 months.

We did. A little.

The children in the complex tried to grab my scarf and aggressively begged us to buy postcards.

I imitated their pleas for "10,000 rupiahs" "Ma'am, postcards only 10,000 rupiahs" and tickled them to lighten the mood. It worked. Thank Goodness.

We only had one nice experience where a vendor explained in detail the Hindu calendar and the meaning of the different months and the meaning of their gods and demons. He did the typical questioning "where are you from... etc" and surprisingly did not ask us to buy anything.

We ended the day viewing nice rice terraces and the old fashion court justice.

Booked our tickets to the Gilli Islands and hopefully will be back to check email in a few days.

ooh oo ooo UBUD, The other side of Bali.

Well from the sound of it I thought the beach was where it was at, as far as Bali goes.

The talk about the surf and beach life.

BUT: We booked a bus ticket to Ubud a town north of Kuta.

The bus ride was too short. I actually enjoyed riding around. We went from the crazy beach town to a still sort of hectic place where it was significantly more lush and green.

The hectic part was the narrow road leading to the town Ubud. Feels like it is supposed to be a one way road and sometimes it is a one way road with two way traffic.

This town sort of reminds me of Pai the small town north of Chiang Mai in Thailand.

The arts are BOOMING here. Every shop is all organic cotton, fabric and homemade jewelery or soaps. It is such a nice place to be. There are vegan and RAW FOOD items on the menus around here and it makes me feel at home.

One thing Kevin and I noticed, all the kids love to fly kites here. There are always kites flying so so high in the sky. We passed by a rice terrace and found some kids running around happily flying giant kites. Precious.

Yesterday we walked up and down the streets just looking at all the shops.

Today we motorbiked around all day.

We first checked out the Puri Lukisan Museum which had beautiful Balinese artwork.

Much of it looks polynesian, yet they are art pieces about Hindu stories or Indonesian folklore.

Later, we biked to the mountain and visited the green rice terraces of the town Tegalalang.

This place was a valley of rice terraces wrapping around mountains and nestled around tall simplistic palm trees. It was so picturesque, we circled around many times. We were able to stop and take photos of people working on the fields.

Later in the afternoon, we searched for the Botanical Gardens and it was another nice surprise.

The 50,000 Rupiah entrance fee per person was too much for us. The woman working there who probably overlooked the whole place; offered us the local price 60,000 rupiah for both of us. (approximately USD $6.50).... We found it hard to part from the Orchid house. Such a large variety of orchids, different colors, shapes, sizes and patterns. When we did finally leave the orchid house I had three mosquito bites and had to "deet up." We got lost in the labyrinth and wandered to the different designated areas in the botanical gardens.

Another fun spot was the Pitcher plants section. This is "an insectivorous" plant. It looks like a little pitcher and flies fall in and they are eaten by the plant! We had a hard time spotting these pitcher plants but once we did we found larger and larger ones.

We went to the edge of the gardens into the jungle and decided to turn around. The nice cement path turned to dirt, mud and messy terrain. Once we got our helmets for our motorbike ride back to our home stay, it started to rain, hard. We waited it out and drove through the light rain. This town is beautiful rain or shine and I can't wait for our full day tour tomorrow.

Kuta Bali

Staying at Ethawan Guest House from a great recommendation.
$5 room which includes breakfast! ....and with the food at the right prices in Kuta, it is pretty affordable.

This town really reminds me of San Diego. Beaches packed with surfers.

Other than the beach, we have nothing to do ... This place is filled with tiny stalls selling imitation D&G, Coach, Chanel, Prada, Jimmy Choo, ETC wallets and purses. Of course since this is a surf place there are actual full sized stores with imitation billabong, roxy, volcom, quiksilver, and hurley clothes and so much more. They pull it off pretty well and I think everyone believes they are real.

The beach is nice, It kind of reminds me of Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro but the sand is finer and the water is cool and refreshing.


Looking forward to moving on up or down the coast. Then we fly out of Jakarta in 18 days.

Ok KL

No one let us get away with saying "Kuala Lumpur"
constantly corrected and taught they call the city "K.L."

We arrived at 5am by an overnight bus and I was sooo tired.
After 8 months of taking day and over night buses we now know what seats are ideal and less desirable. In this case we got the last 2 tickets from Kuala Besut (Perhentian Island dock town) to Kuala Lumpur and had NO CHOICE! We got the last seats on the bus and the seats did not recline! We didn't get sleep and took a taxi to Chinatown. After circling the town and ending up exactly where the taxi driver dropped us off we found the guest house that was recommended to us.
We walked all over town looking for it and it ended up being right where we were dropped off. so sad. Even more sad, it was full and the only room available when the guests checked out was too expensive. Next hotel: booked. Next hotel: Monkey Inn, available and the tiniest room I have ever seen. Almost no room for our backpacks and we are paying 55 ringgit. divide by 3.1 and you have the U.s. dollar value.

We napped and MISSED the free breakfast. Gotta choose sleep over food sometimes.