Monday 16th February
Travelling time again, first we caught the public
boat to Bangsal Harbour on Lombok. Just as the boat touched the beach the
locals rushed off it, we took our time and geared up with all our bags, Iben
let a “helpsome” local carry her big bag off the boat, he was already halfway
on the beach before Erik realized it and told Iben that it was a bad idea to
get help, because the guy would expect some money for helping out.
Luckily Iben
has already toughened a bit up, so when she handed the guy 700 Idr. (roughly 40
danish øre) he got so disappointed, that she got her backpack AND her money
back, he was asking for 10.000 Idr. (5 Dkr) - maybe it was a bit rude and
insulting, because it’s the way those people make their income, helping loading
and unloading the passengers luggage, but it’s also rude to assume that
everybody will pay for getting into their trap.
Next experience was kinda the same, just the
other way around, we still had an hour drive to our destination Senggigi, but
we first had to find a taxi to take us there, we knew that the price should be
around 80-100.000 Idr. So we started walking towards the bus station, where the
Bluebird taxi’s are located.
On our way, we got asked a hundred times by local
drivers: Transport, transport, at the same time they hold there hands like
they’re holding on to a steering wheel. Of cause they offered to drive us
there, but for a larger amount of money. So we told them that we already knew
the price, and that we were going to take a bluebird cab.
Eventually a guy in a
minibus said: Okay, okay 80.000 Idr. Perfect! We jumped in and drove for 2
minutes, he stopped and said, he just had to give his daughter some money,
after 5 minutes he was back, and we left Bangsal. Sadly the drive didn’t turn
out as we expected, after 10 minutes he stopped another car, a old truck, with
wooden seats in the back, a so called bemo. He told us, that his left front
tyre was flat, so we had to do the rest of the journey with his brother.
We got
very annoyed, because we knew this was a trick, first you agree on a certain
price, but the price you agree on, is for the new nice car, with
air-conditioning and good comfort, and then when they have taken you too far
enough out of town, to find another transportation option, they stop the car
(which has had the flat tyre all the time), and then they make you drive in the
old shitty car, for the same price, and if you resist it, they leave you out
there in the middle of nowhere.
Luckily for us, the price we agreed on, was the
same it would have costed for the bemo to start with, so no extra costs for us,
just worse comfort.
But before we totally agreed to jump in the other car, the
first driver got very angry with us, because we didn’t believe him, and in the
end of our discussion he ended his sentence with; “This is my country, I can
kill you here!” This definitely was a clear call, but it was easy to tell that
he was just upset, and he did not at all look like a guy with the balls to do
what he said. It still made the situation a bit more intense, especially when
Erik tried to bargain the price down from 80.000 to 60.000 because of the lower
comfort level. He didn’t succeed, but we carried on anyway with the original
price, and in the old truck. We were concerned if our new driver would make any
troubles on the way to Senggigi, but he had a much nicer personality.
In the
township of Senggigi we checked in at Oz Stay Hostel, a huge but almost empty
hostel with good facilities. Erik and I planned to do some special dives on the
southern part of Lombok, near Belongas Bay. The dives are known to have a lot
of current involved, and only experienced divers with at least 50 dives are
allowed to dive there. Scuba Froggy are currently the only dive company diving
there, and they have an office in Senggigi where we would arrange our dives
from.
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| Our bemo after we got "kicked" off our minibus |
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| Oz stay in Senggigi |
After staying up late the night before, Erik and
I slept in. Meanwhile Iben went on a scooter trip to see some waterfalls and
rice fields in the north of Lombok. Our day went by with working on the blog,
and arranging the last details for our dive excursion the next day.
Iben got
home totally soaked in the afternoon, they had been unlucky with the weather,
as soon as they reached the waterfalls, it had started raining, so she had a long
warm shower before we all ventured out to try the local food market. It was
undoubtedly one of the worst food experiences, the food tasted awful, and the
small chickens that both Erik and Iben ordered looked like newborn chicks,
there were absolutely no meat on them, but they were served as whole chickens -
still with the heads on and everything... Very bad experience, but again it was
an experience... Especially for Iben, as she couldn’t get herself to pull the
head of the chicken, and Erik refused to help her, so she had to eat the
chicken with the head looking at her...
Ha ha, well she is definitely getting
more and more use to the way of living around here.
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| Worst food experience so far! |
Wednesday 18th February
The transfer bus from Scuba Froggy picked us up
early in the morning, Iben wasn’t diving with them but they allowed her to pay
a little fee for the transfer to Kuta beach.
The outrigger boat seemed
vulnerable on the open ocean which this day offered severe swells. I was a bit
nervous if the small boat would survive the long journey or not.
When we
spotted dolphins the captain stopped the boat for a moment, and it made me calm
to feel the swells, without the engine running. As mentioned before the dives
can be a bit dangerous due to the strong currents going in all possible
directions. We were one on one with an instructor each, which also gave us a
hint about the severity of the dives.
At the first dive site called: The
Magnet, which is a big rock with a lighthouse on top, I jumped in the water
with my instructor, Tomas. The plan was that all four of us should go down on
the same time, but while we were hanging on the side of the boat the swells and
currents made it impossible for us to hold on any longer. We let go of the boat
and I got caught in the waves rolling towards the rock. The waves were huge and
when they were on their highest they almost covered the rock, there was about
3-4 meters difference from highest to lowest. I was getting quite nervous for a
moment there, so Tomas told me to go down. It was easy as the current was down
going and within seconds we were on 23 meters depth. But unfortunately we
didn’t get down to the right spot on the rock wall, so we had to surface and
try again. I actually didn’t know what was going on when this happend as I
didn’t check my dive computer at all. Thomas grabbed me and fully inflated my
BCD, this will usually send you straight to the surface, and is something you
NEVER do as a diver, but we were still stable on 20 meters. That’s how strong
the down current were.
We got out of the current and went back on the boat to
try again. Meanwhile Erik had jumped in with his instructor Sascha, they had
been more lucky to get on the right side of the rock where there was less
current, all though they still had a strong down going current. Within seconds
they had reached 41 meters depth, and within the next 5 minutes they saw a
eagle ray, a turtle, many reef sharks, very big schools of Trevallys, hammerhead
sharks circling above them and the largest school of Barracudas Erik has ever
seen. When we met them underwater at our second dive attempt, they both showed
off by signaling the dive sign for hammerheads while dancing around in the
water.
I was so happy for Erik, as that was his biggest wish to experience -
but I couldn’t help giving him the international finger sign for “screw you”,
anyway.
Back on the boat they were so overwhelmed by happiness, it was great...
For them!
Apart from Tomas getting caught in the currents again, the next dive
at: The Cathedral, was more successful.
I jumped in with Erik and Sascha, and he
kept banging his tank until Tomas had found us underwater. We had two olive sea
snakes following us, they are listed as the most venomous of all snakes.
Obviously we didn’t enjoy that, they swam in between my legs and at one point I
hit one of them in the head with my fin. Luckily the hit didn’t upset it, but
it wasn’t enjoyable to have them this close to us.
I was relieved when we reached the surface again, and I just wanted to get away from there.
Both of our dives were
short, because they were deep dives, but also because we used our air so
quickly from working against the currents all the time. It was definitely a big
experience and challenge to dive in so strong currents.
Back in Kuta Iben had
arranged a shared room for us on Banana Homestay. This was a place filled with
Scandinavian and north European people, which were practising their surf skills
on the surrounding beaches each day and drinking Bintang’s every night.
We were
too tired to socialize this day, so we went out for dinner by ourselves and went
to bed early. Iben met some other solo travellers and spend the night with
them.
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| Hammerhead shark |
Diving @ Belongas Bay
Thursday 19th February
We rented a
motorbike and drove to Mawun beach with Iben, a guy named Razhid and a girl that Iben had met - both
Germans. It was just a lazy day on the beach. Razhid was a nice bloke with his
heart and head in the right place, the girl on the other hand was annoying. We lost it
completely when she started telling us that she became a vegetarian, because
her sister got cancer, and to support her sister she stopped eating meat,
because it’s bad for the body, but she continued smoking, drinking and riding
motorbikes WITHOUT a helmet. Very clever girl! We did our best to put up with
her throughout the day, and we even arranged to watch the sunset together on a
nearby hill, together with other sunset junkies.
Kuta on Lombok attracts a lot
of young people, as it’s all about catching waves and getting drunk. It’s a
small town but it’s got a reputation of a lot of crime. All the long-terms we
talked to on Banana Homestay are very cautions about going out at night, and
specially driving out of town at night. There should be some strange natives
around.
Personally I don’t understand why so many people are staying here
long-term as it seems like everybody is afraid of going out. This is also the
reason why we left the hill and the sunset before it got dark. Back at Banana
we squeezed in on one of the small porches in front of a room and one Bintang
took over the other, while we shared stories with strangers from around the
world.
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| BINTANG TIME!!! |
Kuta (Lombok)
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