Sunday 8th
February
In the morning Iben started
her open water certificate with Dice Concept, which would take three whole days. Erik and I aimed
to do some diving, so we went for a browse around the different diveshops on the
island. Along Jungutbatu beach there’s only one road, which makes it easy to
navigate around. We simply love the island atmosphere and realized how much we
had missed the local villages and the always smiling locals.
We discovered that
Dive Concept actually were one of the cheapest dive companies around, which is
also why we went back there to book our dives for the next day. By doing that
we would also get on the same boat as Iben, when she was going out for her
first ever dives - it would make her more comfortable and less nervous as
well... So it was by far the best option!
We hung around the pool and enjoyed
our stunning surroundings during the day, and at night we had arranged to eat
seafood barbeque with a Danish girl (Naja) and her Dutch friend (Sharon)... We
all waited for Iben to be done with her pool session, but apparently that took
longer than expected.
We left a note for her and went out. The seafood barbeque
wasn’t actually a barbeque, so we agreed to leave the restaurant again to find
something cheaper. The second place we went had a 10% service charge and
11% government tax on top of the displayed prices... We left again! It started
to get embarrassing so we made a plan to check the menu card before seating in
the third restaurant. Luckily the prices were reasonable so finally we could
order our dinner.
Afterwards we talked to Iben back at the hotel and she had
had a difficult time in the pool, practising her diving skills... But after a
long time she had passed all the tests, and came back extremely exhausted after
a long day. She was insecure whether she would try again or give up the next
day. We ensured her that it’s totally normal to be afraid and nervous the first
couple of times, and I think that helped her a bit.
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| A different way to cut grass... |
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| All ages can ride a motorbike here. |
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| A contrast photo.. Dirty shop with poor locals, next to a great beach and a rich round-eyed |
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| Jungutbatu beach |
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| Sweet as view.. Sunset from our guesthouse
Monday 9th
February
As organized we went to Dive
Concept at 7.45am. The low tide made our diving delayed, so we had time for
breakfast, before entering the boat an hour later than planned.
The water was
calm and nice, and we were looking forward to do some tropical diving again. We
were in a small group consisting of Erik, myself and our divemaster Jack, a
local guy who was bad at English but awesome at finding the small things and
showing them to us. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t communicate above water
as communication underneath are international and more important in this case.
On our first dive at Santal we had a strong current at one point, it was
uncomfortable as our breathing got really heavy. Jack showed us to grab onto
one of the hard corals and then we hung there until the current took off and we
could continue our dive. It was sweet as to dive in the tropics again, and the
visibility was about 20m, which we consider as pretty good. We saw orangutan
crabs for the first time.
Back on the surface, the water had become more
choppy. Iben, her instructor Roman and another newbie diver (Julia) had a hard
time getting back in the small boat, the waves and current were making it
difficult, not to mention the extremely horrible “captain”. He kept the waves
on the side of the boat, which made it sway a lot.
The newbies dive had been
a totally disaster, first of all a trigger fish had attacked Julia, both Iben
and her had paniced but continued their dive anyway, then a dive boat didn’t
see their dive flag as they were surfacing, so it sailed right above them almost
hitting them. And on top of that they came up to the choppy sea and struggled to
get on the boat again. No wonder they were nervous and scared when they finally
got back on board. Obviously they had tried a lot already, after only one dive
in the ocean.
Second dive at Pura Ped was freaking fantastic, a drift dive
along a wall and it was so beautiful and the fact that we could see so far was
just awesome. We saw a few turtles, clown and titan triggerfish, a huge
scorpionfish, a huge conch alive, and Erik by himself found another orangutan
crab - which by the way looks totally like a orangutan, but tiny and nothing
like a crab, and of cause all the normal tropical fish such as angelfish,
butterflyfish, anemone fish, etc. Iben had a much better dive the second time
and she seemed much more confident afterwards.
On solid ground we went home
to have a rest after lunch, and Iben had to study all night at the shop. We
found it odd that the dive instructor made her study in the late hours, she was
tired after the diving and couldn’t concentrate. They should have finished the
studies in the morning and dived in the afternoon, as diving really is tiring.
It didn’t seem like Roman planned it very good for their benefit. We definitely
got confirmed that our open water course on Koh Tao was very well organized and
planned. It might be a big factory there, but they really know what they are
doing.
Anyhow Erik and I were in for a treat and a big surprise, as we ordered
dinner in the theatre’s restaurant. Erik ordered tuna steak with coleslaw and homemade fries, and I had chicken breast. It sounds really casual but all the sides
and extra things on the plates really gave it a gourmet touch. It was soooo
good. It wasn’t the last time we would dine there, that was certain.
 
Turtle Selfie
Underwater Selfie
Tuesday 10th February
Erik and me went for a jog
in the morning, we thought i would be a 5-6 km jog, but the tour around the
mangrove forest was 8,5 km in total. We were proud when we returned to our
starting point, as these warm conditions normally doesn’t allow us to run that
far... Usually I get a headache after 4 km and it’s just too freaking warm to
run longer than 5 k's. Before scuba diving we enjoyed breakfast at the theatre, we
loved it there.
Fortunately the boat was bigger this day, but it was still the
horrible captain, who actually seemed like he had more control over the big
boat, than the small boat from yesterday. First stop was at Crystal Bay, we
descended to a sandy bottom and swam towards the blue. We didn’t see a lot of
marine life until our divemaster started to point out the macro stuff and all
the camouflaged flounders around. We saw a cool harlequin crab, a leaf
scorpionfish, hermit crabs and a frogfish. All stuff that is really hard to
spot.
Iben was doing very good with her instructor in another part of the same
bay, and finally she seemed excited about the diving, instead of being nervous.
One more dive and then she just had to pass the theoretical test, to become a
open water diver. We were excited for her.
We spotted dolphins in front of the boat
and they even swam into the bay, I jumped in to see if I was lucky to see them
under water. But no, only one of the divemasters got to see them swimming.
Next
dive at Manta Bay was the highlight of the day, obviously we hoped to see manta
rays. Unfortunately after 65 minutes of diving we only saw one, and that was
right before our safety stop. It was a bit sad, as there should be plenty
around. We saw blue spotted sting rays though, they’re quite cool as well. We
were seriously dehydrated after the two dives and the morning jog... We had
forgotten to drink heaps of water, and now we were paying the price. While Iben
had to study again we went back to our room and felt sorry for ourselves. It
was late before she got back, and announced that she passed the final test.
We
wanted to celebrate her but we all had a huge headache that didn’t seem to go
away no matter how much we drank, so we postponed the celebration. Erik and I
later decided to see if a beer would help on our headache... And for the record: It worked! We were feeling much better... Homer Simpson is right; Alcohol is
the cause of - and solution of all life’s problems. Instead of leaving the
following day we decided to stay another night.
Morning Usfie
Practising bouyancy
 
Low tide
Nusa Lembongan Dive
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Wednesday 11th
February
Until now we had stayed in
two separated rooms, at Ketut Losmen, but to save money Iben checked out from
her room and moved down to us. The massive bed in our room could easily fit all
of us without any problem. We planned to see Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan
on a motorbike trip. Iben was too tired to join us, so we went by ourselves.
We
had breakfast near the mangrove forest in the north, which by the way was timed
perfectly, just as we were finish a whole bus of Chinese tourists arrived. We
started driving up the climbing road to Panorama point, it gave us a brilliant
view over Jungutbatu beach, we then followed the road leading to the suspension
bridge and Nusa Ceningan. By bumby and winding roads we visited seaweed farms,
a blue lagoon, small remote villages, resorts with infinity pools and incredibly
cozy beaches, Secret beach being one of the favourites.
On Lembongan we
witnessed a traditional cockfight. Hundreds of locals were gathering around an
enclosure getting their cocks ready for fighting, by attaching a huge knife-looking thing to the cocks foot. We came just before the action took
place and watched the locals gambling their money away on their favourite cocks.
It was again timed perfectly when we later arrived in Mushroom bay and enjoyed the best pizza in ages, in shelter from the only rain that came down from the sky this day. As
we finished our lunch the rain stopped and we continued exploring. We watched
the amazing rock formations of Devil’s Tear where serious wave power and action
took place. The nearby Dream beach took our breath away.
All in all this day
had been very satisfying, and we found it incredible what those two small
islands has so much unique scenery to offer. We felt so lucky and spoiled... And at the
same time we felt sorry for Iben, for not experiencing all of this. It was a big shame!
Anyway in the late afternoon we returned to our gem of a hotel, opened
the days first beer and watched the sunset from the sunbeds facing the sea
together with Iben. We got a bit drunk this night, so we tried in vain to find
a party somewhere. We hung out at Mickey’s bar for a while but then decided to
go home to bed as the possibilities for a party happening there was close to
zero. To our luck, or unluck, a whole group of Canadians were having a beach
party when we returned, so we quickly decided to join them.
Erik went to get
beers while Iben and I joined the party. A while after, Erik still hadn’t come
back, so we started to get worried and I went out looking for him. He was
nowhere to find. We started to get other people to look for him as well, and
started to get really worried. After what seems like forever Erik eventually
came driving towards us on a motorbike. He had been on the beer-buying-mission,
but apparently the bar was far away and when he had returned to the beach with
the beers, and we weren’t there, he had taken the motorbike to go and look for
us. It was a mess and we were all in a verbal fight. Looking back at it is
quite funny and stupid... Just a misunderstanding from all parts!
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| Seaweed farms and Mt. Agung on Bali in the back |
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| Secret beach |
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| The blue lagoon.. |
..Blue lagoon
Cock fight...
And the winner is... The guy in the red suit...
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Mushroom Bay Devil's Tear |
Dream beach..
Leave only footprints!
View from Panorama Point (Jungutbatu beach & village, and Mt. Agung on Bali)
Another and more noisy way to transport reinforcement steel..
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| Rain is coming |
Cockfight
Scooter trip
Thursday 12th February
Despite that we all felt
like a train crash going horrible wrong, we got up in the morning and packed
our stuff to get ready for the truck picking us up from the main road at 9am.
The truck took us to the harbour office near the suspension bridge, a boat from
there sailed us out to a bigger boat that took us safe and sound to Gili
Trawangan, within 3 hours. We hadn’t seen this many western people since we
left Auckland.
Gili T. was packed with tourists, just as we remembered it -but
for some reason we love it anyway. Maybe because the only transportation is
horse carts and push bikes and a lot of the bars and restaurants are located
right on the beach with a very chilled-out atmosphere and easy going locals.
On
the harbour we were met by the mandatory guys offering accommodation. We chose
to follow one of them as we didn’t want to end up the same place as last time
we visited. We wanted to try something new. Already at this time we were
shocked to see how much the island had developed within the last 10 months.
There are ridiculously many newly opened shops, restaurants and diveshops. This island is
spoiled and ruined very soon, if not already! It’s far out to see how fast a
bounty island like this can be ruined by tourists. Advice; go now,
not later! Gili Air and Gili Meno is undoubtedly better options if your looking
for a more romantic or quiet place. All though, Gili Air is also said to be
developing quickly. God, I feel lucky to have seen this before it turns into
disaster!
Well, while Iben and I were “looking looking” for a place to stay,
Erik sat in one of the bars with his best friend, a cold Bintang, and waited
for us to decide on accommodation. Sandy Beach Cottage, just 100m from the main
road was dirt cheap and a good value for 50.000 rupiah (25kr) each per night incl. breakfast.
Our host had a warm welcoming humour and a adorable daughter that Iben and I
fell in love with immediately, so we went back to get Erik and checked in.
Lunch was consumed on the nearby ‘Green Cafe’ which served some delicious
western food. Fried rice or fried noodles is awesome, but we’re not interested
in eating it three times a day. We browsed around a good amount of spa shops,
before we finally picked the cheapest one. Sadly they couldn’t fit us all,
which is why Erik surrendered and went to another one, then Iben and I were in
for a little lady time. The massage was on the top 5, of good massages we have
had. It was so enjoyable. As if we weren’t exhausted enough after last nights
party the massage definitely didn’t do it any better. We were all so natural
tired, that we didn’t even bother going out for dinner.. Our bed was much more
appreciated at this time.
Friday 13th February
We decided to sweat the last alcohol out of our bodies by
jogging around the island, a 7km run with a unique sunrise behind Mt. Rinjani
(the volcano we climbed last time we were in Indonesia).
This day was from our
point of view dedicated to our blog. Iben aimed to try some snorkeling off the
beach. We had lunch on one of the the countless restaurants fronting the beach,
and apart from a few dips in the water from time to time we spend most of the
day working.
Another countless thing on the island is all the diveshops, every third or forth
house is a diveshop slash restaurant. The one closest to our homestay; Dive
Central Gili had advertised about a beach cleaning project starting at 5pm. We wanted to support this project,
mostly because of the eco-friendly part of it, and because we saw it as a good
opportunity to meet some fellow travellers, and less because of the free beer
we got in trade for our participation. Of cause the beer was just a bonus for
us, but also a good way for the diveshop to catch peoples attention.
We picked
up rubbish for about 15-20min, and just as we were on our way back with our
bags filled with rubbish the rain came pouring down - luckily only for 10 min.
then it cleared up again. In the diveshop we had our beer and found out that
all the diveshops on the island take turns each week to clean the beach. It’s
really nice, since there otherwise would be packed with rubbish on the beaches,
leftovers from stupid Chinese people not to mention all the young stupid
round-eyed who thinks it cool to throw rubbish in the nature. We chatted to one
of the managers of the diveshop, she was really cool so we arranged to go diving
with them the following day.
At night we had dinner on a restaurant which
offered pasta dishes for 20.000 rupiah (10kr) including salat buffet, bread and
tomato soup. All right maybe we have tried better pastas and better soups, but
compared to the price it was freaking awesome.
3 million rupiah....
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| Sandy Cottages
Saturday 14th February
They make a big deal out of Valentine’s day here,
aswell as they do at home, but we couldn’t care less about this day. We went
diving with the professional managers from Dive Central Gili on the divesite
called Turtle Heaven. Due to the turtle conservation happening on the island,
there’s a fairly big amount of turtles around in the sea. The conservation raises
the turtles for the first 12 months of their lifes, and then releases them into the
sea with a traditional ceremony, including local dance and music.
Anyway, it
was Iben’s first fundive, so she was really excited in a nervous kind of way,
but she was in good hands and was taken very good care of. We saw a lot of
turtles in different sizes - it was great. One of them came cruising underneath
me while I was getting close to another turtle, they are harmless creatures but
it scared me for a second there. The dive were a shallow dive so it allowed us
to stay down for a long time, so far it has been our longest dive, 68min. Iben
finished before that.
In the diveshop later on, we splashed around in the pool
and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Gili T. has turned into a party island and on
the southern and northeastern part where we stayed, it’s basically only
backpackers and party people visiting, the western part has some expensive
resorts and a mush quieter atmosphere, but only flashpackers, honeymoon'ers and families go
there.
We visited the local food market, where we amongst small dirty food
stalls, smoke from the barbeques and many other travelers seeking for cheap
food, met up with a Canadian guy that we met on Nusa Lembongan. We all quickly
realized that the beers tasted like more this night, many more! The canadian
guy Cole, invited us to come and join him and the rest of his “crew”, he was
travelling with a Canadian tour company, so everything was arranged on their
trip - for a whole month. Almost every night went by with drinking, as the main
part of the group was between 18-22 years... In fact they were only 2 guys, and
then the rest 10-12 people were young girls... We had a good night with all of
them anyway, and played some drinking games, as you do around that age. Later
we went to a bar called Sama-Sama, they had live music and a very big party. We
all got separated from each other, but met up again several times doing the
night. When the bar closed Erik and I continued partying in the streets with
a bunch of local guys. Apparently we didn’t get home before after 5.30am.
Turtle Heaven
Turtle selfie
Sunday 15th February
Needless to say we had some evil hangovers when
we woke up. We were meant to leave to Lombok, but that quickly got postponed a
day. Iben was alive before us and she went out. I felt horrible but couldn’t
sleep any longer, so I packed my bag with my laptop, money, sunscreen and a
towel and were off to get some food and enjoy the beach. Erik was almost dead
and couldn’t get out of bed.
By coincidence I meet Iben on the street and
we spend the day relaxing on the beach. We returned to the spa place where we
went two days ago, the massage was fantastic there, so we were happy to do it
again. Sadly not all the therapist had been to the same school. My therapist
did a lot of uncomfortable and painful stuff to me... She squeezed my ears
several times, pulled in my hair, buried her knuckles into my spine and kept
hitting my head with her big tummy..! It was a nightmare of a massage! Probably
the worst ever! I found it odd that you can go to the same place and get two so
different experiences. The manager didn’t take our words seriously when we
tried to explain our frustration to him.
In the late afternoon when we returned to our
cottage Erik was finally out of bed and ready to watch the sunset. Instead of
taking the normal road around the island we decided to cross the island, via
the small walkways and villages inland. This proved to be a longer walk than
assumed, we asked for directions several
times, slowly realizing that we weren’t gonna make it to the beach in time. The
sun was setting while we reached an open field with a single horse cart and a
bunch of cows. The sunset was even more outstanding from here, and definitely
more unique with all the cows and palms. We continued walking towards the sun
as we knew we eventually would reach the beach then, and we made it to the road
just before it got dark. We decided to take a horse cart back, not
that it was that far away, but because we wanted to try it before leaving Gili
T.
Erik's Angels
Sunset
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