A taxi pulled over and he was willing to drive us to Kuta beach for the right price, 50.000 rupiah (23 kr). We booked a place for 3 nights since we arrived in the late evening. We like to walk around and find the best room options, but when we're arriving to our destination late, it's nice to have a room booked in advance. Suparta homestay was hidden in a small street away from all the traffic noise. It was cosy and homely, we got our own little porch facing the garden.
We were a bit knackered so we didn't bother going for a stroll around the area. Erik went for a jog and didn't feel well after, so we just had a quiet one.
Wednesday 16th April
I did a morning jog and went straight to bed after. We were suppose to get up a bit early so we could catch the nice and calm waves of surfing in the morning, but unfortunately we didn't get to the beach before noon.
We rented a surfboard on the beach for 3 hours, and swapped turns. I had a lot of problems with getting up on the board, couldn't remember the technique, and I got really annoyed. For Erik it went fine. When he showed me his technics, I realized that I didn't have my feets on the board, so no wonder it was hard to pull myself up with those weak grandmom arms I'm carring around.
Things went smoother after this. The waves were quite big and powerful, so we only catched the white ones, the current was getting strong in the afternoon and after only 3 hours af sharing a board, we were absolutely knackered. Crawling up on the board had caused us some bruises.
Erik thought he got a sunburn on his chest, but it was the board that caused him the troubles, and I had bleeding wounds on my thighs from sliding my body over the board. I must say it's a hard and tough job to be a wannabe surfer.
We used most of the night on looking for some prober surf wear to buy for our future adventure in the waves. We found some nice stuff, but wouldn't buy it before next day, where we had more time to look around.
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| Horse carriage in Kuta |
Thursday 17th April
Another day with surf intentions. We rented a shared board again, and managed to be on the beach early enough for the long and steady waves. They were still quite powerful though and it was a hard job to get through the white waves and get to where they started breaking. It was really exhausting, because we used so much energy on paddeling just to get out there, and then as soon as we catched a wave, it only took seconds to be in the shallow water again.
A lot of the times we only got up on our knees, everything went so fast, and keeping the right balance on the board when the waves kicks in from the back, was a big challenge.
I wouldn't say it was great beginner waves, but we weren't the only beginners there, in fact there was lot of wannabes in the water. Frankly I would say surfing takes too much effort compared to what you get out of it, you struggle and paddle for quite a while, and then the fun is over within seconds. At last it took some encouragement to go and fight against the waves again. We were running out of energy and it didn't help with the painful saltwater in our wounds all the time.
We delievered the board back after a few hours, and agreed that surfing maybe isn't as fun as we thought. It was our maindrag to visit Indonesia, and we've been dreaming about surfing for a long time, but frankly it dosen't speak to us that much anymore. To much work for the short fun you get out of it.. Naah I think we will stick to snowboarding, powder, lamumba and glühwein!
The rest of the day we were lazy, and spoiled ourselves with body treatments. I got my ears cleaned with ear candles, it creates vacuum and takes all the dirt out - and feels really odd, but nice afterwards, and then a pedicure. Erik got a haircut and a face treatment and felt like a new born child afterwards.. It all only costed us 145000 rupiah (73kr)
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| Some religious morning ritual.. Happening everwhere around Kuta beach |
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Wannabe
Temptations on the beachfront...
Surfing on Bali |
Erik got up early and started to do a little research about Sanur. We thought we saw enough of the beach area around Kuta, so we payed the bill at the homestay, and left with a taxi to Sanur (apparently the only transportation option we had).
We didn't check anything about accomodation in Sanur, but our taxidriver dropped us off in a area with some homestays. It's not homestays like the ones we had in Sapa (Vietnam) or Maasin (Philippines), I guess they just use the name cause it sounds cosy and homely.
While Erik was resting in the shadow with all our stuff, I walked around in the freakin hot weather and looked for a place to stay for us. I finally found a nice place that I bargained down, to a reasonable price. I went back to get Erik, who in the meantime had got really annoyed over all the taxi's tooting their horns and pulling over to ask if he needed a ride. He was relieved to get out of there.
We used some time on the internet, actually most of the day went by with our laptops. We strolled to the beach in the afternoon, but only to realize that there was a big black cloud hanging over us, and sooner or later it would be pissing down rain. We quickly returned back into our shelter, and just as assumed rain was pouring down just a few minutes after. A good excuse to stay in and getting some blog done.
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| So long Kuta |
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| On our way to the laundry service |
Saturday 19th April
A working day for us... The day went by with writing and making videos for our blog. We were far behind, and we needed to be up to date, before meeting up with our traveller buddies on Gili Trawangan the next day.
Erik was dying to see the F1 Grand Prix from Shanghai, and that was pretty much our only break away from the blog, apart from when we had lunch, dinner and our seperated jogging tours.
We booked a round trip for next day, to Gili Islands for 475.000 rupiah each (224kr).
We got picked up by a minibus, that miscalculated the people, shocking.. So all bags had to be rearranged to make sure we all could fit in there. It brought us to the ferry at Padang Bai, where we used the waiting time on enjoying danish can liverpate on our self-brought warm buns. The place was packed with young tourists/travellers, we got a bit concerned if we would be able to find a available room on Gili Trawangan.. But as always we didn't need to worry, there was plenty of guys trying to sell rooms when we arrived on the beach at Gili T, probably all with a provision.
We got a bit stubborn and thought if there was this many places available, then we could probably find a better deal if we walked around the island by ourselves. I'm still asking myself why we choose to do this to ourselves... We were soaked in sweat and we didn't find a better deal, honestly we were also quite demanding... We wanted a cheap room, close to the beach and a good wifi connection, specially the last thing is difficult to find.
Most of the people lie about their wifi connections, so they're dragging tourist to their hotel and wishing that it's not an issue if the wifi dosen't work anyway. But we're not that easy to fool... We checked the wifi in all of the places, and needless to say it didn't work probably. We're not asking for a western working wifi connection, but just a normal asian standard connection.
After being dragged around to different places by different locals, we decided to go back to the beach and find some of the guys that sold cheap rooms. Luckily we found the exact guy that we were looking for, we already bargained the price, so there wasn't any hassle when we saw him again. He took us straight to the room... Actually a really nice room for 150.000 rupiah (70 kr), 2 min walk to the busy beach and wifi was standard - We were satisfied!
I needed to cool down after all the stress, and after a quick dip we strolled to a sportsbar, where Erik could watch Formula 1. Since I didn't socialize he was happy to have some company from Australia to watch the race with.
Eventhough Gili T. is packed with tourists it's still maintaining a very autentic and charming atmosphere, there's no motorised traffic, the only transportation opportunity, except for renting bikes, is taxi horse carriages.. And the locals are more than happy to bring you around the island in their colourful carriages.
We met up with our traveller buddies at night.. Lluis (fifth time we're meeting him), Lucy and Tara (second meeting). We celebrated Lluis 36 years birthday with some delicious food, cheap drinks and of course catched up with stories and experiences from our travels in Southeast Asia.
Erik and I went home quite early, didn't feel like partying all night.. And we weren't even the oldest ones, this time...!
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| That's a whole lot of engines |
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| Inappropriate Indonesian guy |
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| The cutest little child |
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| The cheapest burger on the Island 20000 rupiah (10kr) |
We met up with the guys later in the night, they had all had a blast the night before, and was still suffering from hangovers and too little sleep. We felt great, but got tired after just one beer. We seperated and went straight to bed again.
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| Just behind our guestroom |
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| No doubt where we come from.. |
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| Erik, Tara, Lucy and Lluis |
We got up and walked to some af the diveshops along the beach. We found one with space for us, on the morning dive at 9am, at shark point. Perfect - that's exactly what we wanted.
Due to all the western people working there, it felt like a well organized company, they sat up our gear and everything was under control. Diving is the best reason to get wet, but unfortunately we only saw two small sleeping sharks on our dive, the current was strong so we didn't stay around them for very long.. Since we didn't have much luck at shark point our divemaster then decided to take us to a divesite called turtle city, there we had more luck with spotting the fascinating turtles sleeping and feeding of the corals. Nice morning dive and a great way to start another beautiful day.
After seeing the other side of the island on our jogging tour the day before, we decided to rent bikes and bike the 7 km around the island. The north of the island only has sandy trails, so we started to drag our bikes through the deep and heavy sand, until we hit the concrete road in the northwest.
We passed some outstanding - spectacular beaches on the way, most of the western side is filled with big expensive resorts, all with their own beach and restaurant. This is where all families and normal tourists hang out. The eastern side is more like a backpacker mekka.
We managed to find a remote little spot on one of the beaches, we dragged our bikes through a little green area and hided them, so people on the road wouldn't see either us or our bikes. Just wanted to be alone and not being interrupted by anyone. There we were, pulling out our big danish flag again and resting on the beach for a while. Sooner or later some surfers was walking on the beach, searching for the right spot to go and catch the big and powerful afternoon waves. We found it very entertaining to look at, talk about and cheer on, but less entertaining to practise.
When we got hungry we headed back to the eastside where food and drinks are less expensive. Erik went for another jog, the whole way around the island, while I went to a yoga class, which was very demanding and relaxing at the same time. We met up at Lluis and Lucy's place for beers later and had a blast and a perfect last night with L & L.
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| Biking trip around Gili T |
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| Small shop/house |
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| Ready for party with Lucy and Tara |
Gili Video
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| Transportation from Gili T. to Bangsal, Lombok. |
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