Friday 20th
February
It’s typical of us to drink the night before we are
travelling, it’s has almost become a tradition now. We did it before leaving
Nusa Lembongan, then Gili T. and now here. So stupid of us, as being tired is
not really making travelling easier...
Iben had decided to stay in Kuta Lombok
for some days and hopefully get more independent by being by herself for a
little while.
Erik & I got picked up from Banana’s Homestay at 7.30 am, we
then picked up 4 other passengers for the car that just fitted all 7 of us, but
on top of that came six large backpacks, six small backpacks, a couple of
plastic bags, camera bags and a surf board, so after spending 20 minutes on
strapping a lot of these items to the roof of the car, we finally hit the road.
We arrived at Bangsal harbour as planned, and booked our ticket to the public
boat going to Gili T. This actually wasn’t our destination, but because we
already knew the place, we had planned to break the trip up in two, before
reaching Amed on Bali the next day.
Just after we got our tickets, Erik started
talking to a local guy, that said he worked for the boat company to Amed, and
that he could sell us a ticket for 250.000 Idr. each. Erik knew that this was a
good price, the same as from Gili T. The friendly guy also offered to help us
get the ticket to Gili T. refounded, and we agreed to let him do so.
Bangsal
harbour has one of the worst reputations around Bali and Lombok, many people
get tricked to buy tickets for boats, that when it comes to it, aren’t valid.
So Erik was very sceptical with this young guy, but in the end he seemed honest
enough, to get Erik convinced of his good intentions.
The boat was suppose to
leave the harbour at 11am, but at 11.30 it still hadn’t arrived. So we both got
more and more afraid that we had been scammed even though we took all the
precautions we have learned... The guy was still around us, and insuring us
that the boat was on it’s way... Finally it also arrived, and we got on board
as the only passengers to Amed.
We quickly realized why the boat had been
delayed, the sea was the problem, BIG waves threw the big speedboat around like
it was an umbrella in a hurricane. This definitely was NOT the best way to
treat our hangovers, and on the open sea I watched the crew constantly, to see
how they reacted to this ride, most of them tried to sleep so I assumed that
this could be much worse, and when we were able to see land again, I calmed a
bit down.
The big waves disappeared, and only smaller ones and big swells was
left, this made the last part a whole lot better, as we could also see dolphins
jumping out of the waves on both sides of the boat. We never get tired of
watching those beautiful and always smiling creatures.
We made it to Amed on
Bali after one hour crazy boat trip!
In Amed we took the first homestay we came
across (Kubuku Homestay), and to our luck it was cheap, and very nice, by far
the nicest room we’ve had this time in Indonesia, and at the same time, also
the cheapest, 100.000 Idr. (50kr) pr. night incl. breakfast. We then had a good
and cheap homemade burger at a restaurant only 35000 Idr. (17,5kr) before
spending the rest of the day in our bed watching our rainy day/hangover
occupation, the series: Breaking Bad.
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| Waiting time in Bangsal |
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| Bangsal Harbour |
Saturday 21st
February
At times it can be really
difficult to be productive with writing blog, we have to be in a certain mood
to get it done.
To get some new and fresh energy we made up our minds about
renting a motorbike and get some diving arranged for the following day.
At
lunch time on a small, open and cosy restaurant we met a couple of Danish
girls, Pernille & Lonnie.
We quickly got along with them and when a
tremendous rainstorm started outside we agreed that it was Bintang time, we
couldn’t do anything else than wait for the storm to pass by anyway.
A power
cut ensured us that we made the right decision. A couple of natives started to
cut down a tree, in the pouring rain, it had become too alive and exciting in
the heavy wind. Meanwhile we were in shelter sharing beers, experiences and
best travel moments.
At sunset we jumped on the motorbike again and drove the
1½km back, we planned to take out money from the ATM, but obviously they didn’t
work before the power had returned.
We delivered the bike back, booked our
diving, and told our friendly host, that we were out of money until the missing
power was fixed. He ensured us that we could go out on any of the nearby
restaurants and get some dinner, and get them to make a bill for us to pay the
next day, we just had to mention where we stayed - then everything would be all
right. It was awesome as we on the other hand would have gone to bed hungry.
On
the local reggae bar ‘One Love’ we ordered our dinner and thanked them for
being so generous to us. After that we went straight to bed, our pick up for
the sunrise dive the next morning was at 5.15am so we needed a prober sleep.
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| Hubuku Homestay near Amed |
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| Views around Amed... |
Sunday 22nd
February
It was pitch black when our
driver picked us up, the electricity was back on again, so we could get money
out from the ATM to pay for our dives.
I wouldn’t in my wildest fantasy have
imagined that so many locals were awake already. We passed several villages on
our way to Tulamben and the activity in the streets surprised us.
In Tulamben
we geared up in the dark, as the power still wasn’t on back there, even though
it was only 25 min. drive from Amed.
All three dives were just of the beach,
and an easy 5 min. walk from Dive Concept.
We did the famous Liberty Wreck at
sunrise, where the fishes are more active - the school of bumphead parrotfish
hanging around the wreck was massive and so funny looking with their
horse-look-alike overbite. Coral Garden offered us so much new stuff to
explore, the underwater temple and buddha statues were amongst our favourite parts of the dive.They were all great dives
and we enjoyed during a bit of diving again.
We hardly ever meet French people
that we like, but the French girl that we dived with was outstanding from
normal French behaviour. We really connected with her throughout the day.
In the
late afternoon we returned to Amed and ate at ‘One Love’ reggae bar again -
just to thank them for letting us eat there the night before, when we didn’t
have any money. Around 10pm we got a clear sign from the staff about their
closing time, because we were using their wifi, and they just switched it off,
and in that way they got rid of us quickly. Easy that they didn’t have to
communicate with us!!
Diving in Tulamben
Monday 23nd February
Our friendly and helpful
host drove us to Ubud, for just 350.000 Idr. (175kr). On the way we got a good
insight in the Balinese living style and how a workday looks like for the
natives working in tourism.
A good paid waiter is normally getting 800.000
(421kr) Idr. per month. A divemaster or diveshop helper, either foreigner or
local, is paid 1,5 million Idr. (790kr) per month.
In the more touristed areas
the wage is a bit higher, but there it’s also more expensive to live. Our host also told us about how the locals import rice from Vietnam, as a lot of their
rice fields has been bought by the big resorts, so they don’t have enough rice
fields to support themselves any longer.
The trip to Ubud took us through a beautiful area with mountains, nature
and rice fields. We got dropped off on Monkey Forest Road, where we immediately
sat down on a restaurant to have our lunch.
Afterwards I went hotel hunting.
All the hotels or guesthouses looked similar, they all had the classic
Indonesian entry with elephant statues made out of rocks, they had small cosy
green areas in the back and swimming pools.
After I had seen 10-12 different
places I was a bit confused cause they all looked the same... But I picked my
favourites to show Erik. I went back to get him and all our stuff on the
restaurant.
Then we walked to my favourite place, but we only stayed there
shortly, as the bathroom was really dirty and Erik couldn’t put up with
showering in a bathtub, where you couldn’t detach the showerhead (this means
you have to shower with bended knees, if you’re taller than 1,6 meters).
On the
contrary the second pick went straight in ‘I love you’ with the boss, and my
choice was excepted. We got a nice big room, with a extra bed for Iben, and a
balcony with view over the pool.
Iben arrived later and we all went out to
explore the famous and charming town of Ubud. We quickly fell in love with it,
and loved all the special shops with all kinds of bits and pieces.
We sensed
that there was some innovative people in the town, as all shops DIDN’T sell the
same stuff.
The town is known for it’s brilliant handmade art and countless
amounts of galleries and exhibitions.
We only saw a small percentage of it this
night.
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| The Balinese people worship Buddha by putting these bamboo decorations everywhere. |
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| Stone carving is all around Ubud |
Tuesday 24th
February
We browsed around the small
streets and shops of Ubud. We visited the art market, where wood and stone
carving is displayed in almost every shop.
The shopping is amazing here and
it’s easy to spend money and several days just walking around and exploring.
The weather was warm and humid as always, so after some hours in the market
with zero fresh air we went back to cool down in the pool and relax for a bit.
We had bought tickets for a traditional dance show at night. It was held on the
palace and we made it up there seconds before a tremendous thunderstorm started
and the lightnings lighted up the sky for us.
The show started and we were impressed
by the way they danced with their eyes, all though it didn’t caught our
attention for very long, the movement quickly became monotonous to look at, and
the same music played over a long time also became annoying. 1½ hour was a long
time watching it, but it was an experience. Afterwards we went out for a few
drinks.
The thunder and rain didn’t stop at any stage, but we had a funny time with trying
to fit three people under my tiny umbrella, while we visited different bars and
eateries.
We stumbled across a dead snake on the road (a green viper), that
probably had been washed away by all the rain, and then hit by a car.
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| Living the luxurius life |
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| More fascinating stone carving |
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| Erik loves the shopping... |
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| A busy day at the workshop... |
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| These wood carvings is in every shop, and I wonder who buys them! |
Balinese Dance Show
Wednesday 25th
February
Erik felt lazy so he stayed
at the hotel and prepared some videos for the blog, meanwhile Iben and I went
out to look at more shops and do a bit of shopping.
We also went for a long walk to
the rice fields out of town. It was great to get out in the nature and it was
so peaceful and beautiful out there. Being away from all the chaotic traffic
and noisy motorbikes was much appreciated as well.
Iben had a couple of friends
that she met in Kuta Lombok by herself. They arrange to meet up for dinner
later, and invited us to join them. It’s was a brilliant initiative, we found a
cosy little restaurant with cheap food and drinks, and just as we were about to
order our food the power cut off... That gave us a limited menu card, as they
could only use the stove then. Most of us ended up eating in the dark before
the light was on again.
Unfortunately the evening ended a bit suddenly, as Erik and
the Canadian girl had strong, but disagreeing opinions about tipping rules in
Canada and the States. So she and her friend ended up leaving suddenly, when they got too tired of listening to Erik.
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| Leftovers from the worshipping of Buddha.. It gives the locals a bit of cleaning everyday! |
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| Ubud have countless beautiful stone carvings |
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| Visiting the rice fields |
Thursday 26th
February
We were useful with
preparing the next blog in the morning. Then we checked out, and was picked up
by our pre-arranged shuttle bus, which transferred us to Kuta beach, still on
Bali.
We choose to have a night there, because we wanted to be close to the
airport for the next day, as you can never depend on transportation times, so
better be safe than sorry.
We didn’t have time or
energy for being piggy about a place to crash, as we only stayed for one night
and we wouldn’t spend time in our room anyway.
Erik and I had made plans to
meet up with the Danish girls Lonnie and Pernille, who we met a couple of days
before in Amed. We invited Iben to join us and thought it was obvious
possibility for her to talk with other travellers, and maybe even travel with
Pernille on to the Philippines later on. Sadly Iben rejected the offer and went
home instead.
We, on the other hand, met up with the girls and had a lot of
fun. We ended in Bali´s biggest nightlife area, a building with 8 different
clubs, called Sky Garden. We had a blast in there, and Erik was, by a lot of boys, considered very
lucky to have three girls dancing around him all night.
We didn’t want to leave the party
as early as we did, we were having too much fun, but we knew we had to be the
party killers, because we had a long travel day ahead of us, and it could end
up being even longer if we woke up with hangovers. So we took the wise decision
to get something to eat and find our beds around 2am.
Lovely Indonesia
