Monday 31 October 2011

Bali Mach #2

We made it back to Bali on Sunday night after completely uneventful Malaysia Airlines flight... Well, pretty much uneventful, although I did have to laugh when a woman who was traveling with an infant was asked to move out of the emergency exit row seat (that she had commandeered during the flight) for landing. The stewardess patiently and politely explained that she had to go back to her assigned seat for landing as it was a safety risk for her to sit blocking the emergency exit row.

Now usually, I'm pretty skeptical about all rules connected to supposed safety risks on planes... They're often complete bullshit excuses designed to keep all the passengers quiet and in line. However, in this instance it's pretty obvious why you need either a clear path to the emergency door, or a person sitting there capable of operating the door themselves.

This woman rolled her eyes so high I though they might disappear forever and made pointed gestures at her sleeping kid. "Like, he's sleeping, okay. This is nature's miracle, and it cannot be disturbed." Poor stewardess - they don't even have the luxury of being able to use sarcasm at idiot passengers :(

She did eventually move, but she huffed and puffed up a storm and took her sweet time about it. Lady, it's for your own safety!! Ahhh, entitled, but clueless parents, one of the joys of traveling!! I just don't get some people...

Rant over.

---

So not too much has been happening in the last few days. It's nice to be in Bali again. The rainy season has started, so it's really really humid during the day and then pours for a while and then the nights are really pleasant... Until it starts to get humid again. I don't mind the humidity, although it does give me giant, ridiculous hair... Phil, of course looks his usual calm, tanned, hair-appropriate self...

We're here for pretty much the whole of November, except for a short trip to Darwin in three weeks.

We don't really have any plans as such, but I do want to take a surfing lesson, or two. There are surf schools dotted all along the beach that offer a half day introductory course, which should be fairly silly. I went on a surfing camp in year 10 and could barely lug the board into the water. I think the surf schools offer a guarantee that you'll be standing by the end of the day... They might have to glue my feet to the bottom of the surfboard to make good on that one... We'll see. I did see a dog surfing the other day - not on a board with it's human, but by itself!! The owner got the dog to jump on the board, towed it to the waves and then let the board go. It looked amazing - I was too slow for a photo, but I'll try and hunt them down another day.

There's also a cooking class I'm keen to try, although it's very pork/ chicken based and both Phil and I have gone almost vegetarian. At least Phil has gone vegetarian and I think chicken is 99% a vegetable anyway. And smoked salmon obviously doesn't count...

----

Wow, all I wanted to do was write a short post to let y'all know we were safely back in town and it's turned into a rambling post about surfing dogs and chicken as a vegetable... Scary!

We're fine here. Have a great Cup Day holiday my Melbourne friends!



- Posted using vegetarian chicken labour

Friday 28 October 2011

Media, movies and storms, oh my!

So the media frenzy surrounding a certain traveling couple continued this week with this article appearing in The New Straits Times, which is the more serious Malaysian newspaper. We even got a full colour portrait of a handsome, smiling Phil, with quotes**:


(NB: there is a huge gap between the picture and the text because I am using a new app, the awesome powers of which will become apparent a bit further down.)

Ironically, while the tabloidy Star newspaper more or less quoted us accurately, the New Straits Times just made up some stuff and claimed I said it.

Apparently, I said:

"We heard about this event from friends and public messages... We are amazed by the racial unity here".

Huh???? It's not a quote that really flows off the tongue for a native English speaker now is it? And although I am genuinely amazed by the racial unity in Malaysia, I didn't say it. Mebbe they're psychic??

According to the article, we were also at a Deepavali open house last year... Which is impressive because this time last year we were somehow simultaneously in Germany... Spooky!!

Since we have been pretty low-key (read "lazy") over the last couple of days, there isn't much news to post. Unless you want to hear about Real Steel, the Hugh Jackman movie about fighting robots which are meant to have replaced human boxing because they provide more violence and carnage**, or my kleptomania when it comes to hotel-issued shower caps... No??? Didn't think so... Moving on

Tonight really should have yielded a bit of a story and a few photos - we arranged for dinner at the restaurant at the top of KL tower - a very tall sightseeing spot. Which houses not just a restaurant, but a revolving restaurant. I've always want to go to a revolving restaurant, so I was moderately psyched.

But at the exact moment we were set to leave... crash, boom... in the form of a massive electrical storm that lasted for hours.

Here is the storm from our room. This shot is actually mine. I got it on my second attempt - woo hoo... Of course Phil eventually got a bunch of awesome shots of lightning and I only got this one, which is pretty lame, but it does serve my blogging purposes...


(BTW, do you see the awesomeness of the new app?? I can write on the photo and stuff... Looking at it again now, I'm not at all sure that's how one spells lightning - oops. Ach, I cannae be bothered doing it again.)

The pouring rain alone would have made it difficult and very slow to get there in a taxi in the first place and I was also kind of reluctant to go to a tall lightening rod of a building during a massive electrical storm...




KL Tower

So we eventually conceded defeat and stayed in... For the hotel's Friday night BBQ buffet. And stayed so long using the wifi in the restaurant that the poor staff eventually had to ask us to get out.

Oh yeah, it's a spitfire pace we keep on the road.


- Posted using idleness even a sloth would envy


** in case you are burning to know whether robot fighting would be more entertaining to watch than regular boxing, it really, really wasn't. If a mischievious film projectionist had spliced in some real boxing matches, we all would have been vastly better entertained...

Location:Lorong 1/77a,Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Malaysia's media darlings

Yesterday was the most important day of Deepavali (the Hindu festival of lights) as it marked the new year on the Hindu calendar. A range of events were held across KL and we decided to start the day by going to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are these very dramatic cliffs about 13km outside the KL city centre which house a series of very old and important Hindu temples.




For most of the year, the site is frequented by Indian Hindus who holiday/ make a pilgrimage to the temples, which involves a flight to KL, taxi or train to the Batu Caves, a 271 step climb to the temples, a brief battle with the resident monkeys (who are big and not overly friendly) and you're there.



(The view from the top)

But yesterday the Malaysian Prime Minister decided to hold the official celebrations, or open house as they call it, at the Batu caves. So when we arrived, we found three huge tents filled with tables and lined with people cooking and serving amazing Indian food - roti, curries, dhal, noodles, sweet coconut milk and jelly desserts.




We had just missed the Prime Minister's official opening, but there was a band playing and a lot of people - mostly, but not exclusively, Malaysian Indians, the women in some very glam saris:




As far as I could see, the main purpose of the open house is to sit and eat. They had catered for a crowd of fifteen thousand over the course of the day - all the food and drink was free and there was a really nice festive atmosphere.

As Phil and I entered the first tent we were almost immediately met by a Malaysian newspaper journalist who asked if she could interview us for her paper... Ooookay, well we have just arrived and know next to nothing about the festival or the open house, but we said sure and said that although we just arrived, we had been interested to see Deepavali celebrations and thought the festival was beautiful etc, etc.

Her photographer asked to take a photo of us together. Sure, we said. Cheese!!

Then he asked us if we would like to see the Kolam (rice powder floor mural) with an Indian lady who could explain it to us. Sure, why not, sounds awesome.

So we head over to the Kolam, sort of squat down next to the Kolam with the nice and informative Indian lady... And suddenly there are about twenty photographers snapping away - yikes!!! The two television crews come over and want to interview us. Wow!! It was all a bit overwhelming, especially for poor Phil who despite working in public relations, was very reluctant to be the story. I figured this is not something that happens very often, so why not embrace it - and dragged Phil along for the ride.

It took us a little time to extricate ourselves from the journalists, but once we did, we wandered around the various tents, tried some fresh, homemade roti and climbed the 271 steps into the Batu Caves to watch the ceremonies.

It was a fun day - we saw the Malaysian deputy prime minister, mingled with the who's who of KL Indian society and enjoyed the rarest of travel experiences - a free lunch!! Later in the day we met up with Kenny, who is the brother of Phil's old friend Alex.

This morning, we had a paper delivered to our room. This picture was on page three:





Hehehehe.... I think it's absolutely hysterical (apart from the horrendously unflattering shot of me).

For a fleeting moment, we are page three news in Kuala Lumpur.

It's a weird world!!!


- Posted using the power of online media

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Malaysia, truly Asia

It was not to be (see previous post), and we landed in Malaysia at 10.30pm. Between getting off the first malfunctioning plane and onto the second, we only had enough time to procure a diet coke, small bag of peanuts and two pastries that were no doubt delightfully fresh sometime in August.

I was actually sitting on the plane on the way to KL reflecting that we are two months into mega-trip, spending virtually 24/7 together, and still talking... how well we must know each other now, I thought. And then Phil leans over while filling in my Malaysian immigration form and says, "you were born in Melbourne, weren't you?". Uh, yes, yes I was.

As if to punish me for my merciless teasing, the pen chose the very next moment to leak all over my hand as I signed the form.




The title of this post comes from a widespread and persistent TV tourism campaign by the Malaysian tourism board. I don't know exactly what "truly Asia" means - I pay special attention to the commercials though because Phil likes to sing along to the jingle. And it's a special, warbling experience...

Ahh Malaysia. The food is so good and there is so much English and roads without potholes and public transport. And it's so clean!!

Yeah, okay, the traffic is terrible:




And the shopping malls are really a touch too massive:




But people are also so helpful here in a purely nice, not-trying-to-sell-you-anything-way. I should emphasize that I don't mean polite, which is an important distinction. Look confused for even a moment and they will stop in the street and ask if you need directions, but get in the same queue and it's every man for himself. Today just as we were getting on an escalator, a guy came up from behind us, said excuse me and strode ahead of us. I literally had to jump back to let him through. And then he just stood two steps ahead of us the whole way down. Seriously guy??

We've spent more time in malls in the last 2 days than over the last two months in Bali. We've caught a movie and found the holy trinity of shops for Phil - Crumpler, Apple and cameras. One Crumpler backpack, an iPad2 and camera film later and Phil declared himself to be "in shopping heaven". Yup, he really did!

What pushed my buttons was finding decent coffee. Actually more than decent - almost Melbourne coffee (at Ben's at KLCC if you're ever in KL in need of a good roast).

This cafe featured a box on every table filled with cards with conversation starters on them:







Ooh, and also giant mutant prawns. I think KL is the only city in the world where you'd eat this from a food court:



And we squeezed in probably the dorkiest, but actually really fun, indoor activity in KL. Indoor archery:




Tomorrow is the most important day of the Hindu festival of Deepavali and the start of the Hindu new year. The hotels and malls around the city are all decorated with these murals made of coloured rice powder called Kolam.




It's a public holiday and the plan is to head to the Batu Caves which us the site of a Hindu temple about 45 minutes from the centre of KL. Apparently the official "open party" is being held there this year, whatever that means...

I'll let you know...

- Posted using... not a pen!

Sunday 23 October 2011

Come fly with me

Today we fly from Bali to Kula Lumpur, Malaysia. Primarily we're heading over to renew our Indonesian visas which were running out sooner than we thought, as it turned out.

I really enjoyed planning our six months' trip while we were still in Australia. I love researching places to go, where to stay and what we'll do when we get there. Often the plans are pretty loose. For example, the plan for our trip to KL, is hang out, eat good food, maybe watch a movie. But the anticipation of staying in a beautiful place that I have handpicked is a real part of the fun of travel for me. And unless I have either been to a place before, or heard that most people turn up without a booking, I would always prefer to book ahead. Just as a quiet aside, I am also pretty sure that I would stay in less-nice places if I followed the "we'll find something when we get there" approach, which may have something to do with my enthusiasm for hunting down 5 star bargains in advance!!

Phil prefers to make less plans and just go with the flow, but he rarely objects to my trip planning. I usually do a pretty good job of organizing our itinerary and booking awesome places to stay. Usually. In fact, ordinarily, I would say that I would find being a travel agent would be really fun. Ordinarily.

Not so much today when my inability to count to sixty propelled us into a smoke-choked, linoleum floored, very official Indonesian Imigrasi office. Where we were told we had overstayed our visas. By one day. Oh, fuc....Whoops! It turns out that you count the day you arrive as well as the day you leave as part of the sixty days in a 60 day visa. This is despite the fact that the stamp in my passport says I arrived on 25 August - which I did, about 2 minutes past midnight... The "system" apparently says I arrived on 24 August and therefore should have left the country yesterday. And poor Phil had 24 August stamped in his passport, so there was not even anything to argue about there.

As I thought back over the various factors that contributed to overstaying our visas, all fingers pointed to me (who booked the flights), me (who arranged the visas) and me (who created the itinerary). Damnit. Maybe I'm not travel agent material after all.

After a stern, but helpful young Imigrasi officer relieved us of a fine totaling Rp 400,000 or AUD$47 we were sent on our way with an assurance that we will be allowed back in the country next week. I hope so!! In any event, I was glad we were at Denpasar airport in Indonesia and not Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne - between customs, that border control TV show and immigration I suspect I would be begging for the ten minute delay we experienced in Indonesian immigration...

We are now sitting at our gate waiting for... a delayed Air Asia flight. What a surprise! I curse every stingy bone in my body each time I book a discount airline. It's never worth it. I only do it because they're so, so, well, so cheap! When Malaysia Airlines is double the price it's so hard not to choose the budget option. Grrr... Repeat after me - I will not skimp on air travel... Combine the delay with the fact that a week ago Air Asia moved our flight time from 8.30 am to 5.00pm (Thinking bubble: Why no, I didn't have a damn thing to do in KL today so it's nooo problem for us to arrive EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS later than planned...). These sort of shenanigans really get me going - Phil is all smiley and reading on his iPhone and I want to tear someone's head off... Fortunately I prepped for a stressful day by walking along the beach and getting a facial today. It was lovely.

This last week in Bali, in addition to a bit of gym, long walks on the beach, reading, eating and general faffing around, we had to deal with some other Indonesian bureaucracy. I had to get some documents for the bank here which first involved a visit to the Australian Consulate-General for notorisation of a few documents.

On our last European trip together, some lowlife fiend stole Phil's bag including his Australian passport, so we had to go to the Australian Embassy in the Hague. The way I remember it, we were greeted with a lovely warm bear hug from an official who gave us some milk and cookies and asked us what happened while giving a shoulder and neck massage**. It was a beautiful thing - we, as Australians, needed something and the Embassy couldn't have done more to help us.

At the Australian Consulate-General in Denpasar, they swabbed me for explosives. Then they swabbed my bag for explosives. Then they swabbed my camera for explosives. And then they confiscated my passport (my passport, wtf??) and Phil's Leica. Wow, I really didn't think he was going to let it go. He held onto it for a bit too long before passing it over with a laundry list of care instructions. He must have made an impression on the guard because at the end of our visit, rather than passing our confiscated items through the metal trapdoor, she came out and personally delivered them back to us.

Apparently the passport confiscation thing is standard, and (as recounted to us by a resident of our apartment block) rather inconvenient when the reason for your visit is to renew your passport. Anyway, in our case we just needed a couple of stamps and signatures and $32 later (remind me why I pay taxes??) we were on our way.

Not so smooth sailing at the bank... In addition to certified copies which were also notorized by the Australian Consulate-General, they wanted me to write a stat dec explaining the content of the documents and have that statement affirmed by the embassy. The lawyer in me giggled momentarily and then looked Mr Banker straight in the eye and said "you want... what???" So let me get this straight, I have all this official documentation certified, notorised, stamped, signed, sealed and delivered, but what is going to persuade you is my own declaration of what I want - stamped by the Australian embassy. Wow. I just said no. We'll see what happens... I'm not holding my breath. Bali is easy - Indonesia, and particularly bureaucracy in Indonesia is a little bit of a nightmare!

Oh goddammit!! Now I am typing this on the plane because some part of the plane (apparently an important part) is malfunctioning and we are waiting on the engineers to come and fix it. It's nice and cool on the plane and not too full and I'm looking at one of the most stunning sunsets I think I've ever seen:








You are looking at very poor photographic representations of it because, despite my pleadings for Phil to pull out his, or my, camera from his bag, the GOMP emerged and simply said "please don't make this any more irritating than it already is". Ouch!! I'm your wife buddy, that is what I am for...

Phil has returned and politely requested that I use my blogging powers for good rather than evil, so I won't post the truly terrible things he said about a poor helpless crying baby in the cabin. Partly because I said worse!!

It's now one and a half hours after the (re)scheduled take off time and TEN HOURS later than our original flight departure time. Where's my complimentary pacifying diet coke!!!!!?????

It occurs to me that if we have to change planes, it might be possible to simply re-enter Indonesia without ever having taken off - since we have officially departed through immigration... Now that would be awesome - to get through immigration, then board and unboard a plane and head straight back inside... Worst case scenario if we can't depart and re-enter on the same day, we could hang out in the airport until 12.30am and then cab back to the apartment.

I suspect that this is just a flight of fancy and that ultimately I will be posting this from Malaysia. But let me say now that if we get back into Indonesia today (or in the very early hours of tomorrow) I will consider it a moment of indescribable sweetness - a personal triumph over Indonesian bureaucracy.


- Posted using broken (plane) wings

** Phil's memory differs very slightly on this point
...

Thursday 20 October 2011

Random stuff

In addition to a great way to keep in touch with all our friends and family, I have tried to use this blog as a bit of a personal record of the trip for us. Whenever we travel, I keep notes of what we've done everyday, and there are photos of course, but this is a travel journal of a different scale. I'm devoting this post to random snippets which I'd like to remember and which may be of little interest to anyone else. Or you might find it fascinating. Who knows?

I think I forgot to mention that I saved a puppy on this trip! It was on the day of our big tour to the fish market in Lombok. We stopped to buy some homemade rice wine at a village that Awunk (our guide) had recommended. It looked kinda scary and we ultimately gifted it to Awunk. You may be wondering, as I did, why in a predominantly Muslim country, alcoholic rice wine is being produced in villages across the island. The answer, according to Awunk is that it is taken for "medicinal purposes". In my experience, substances that are for medicinal purposes are sold in medicine-sized containers, not wine bottles, but whatevs.**

Anyway, outside the village where we stopped was a litter of puppies so naturally I jumped out of the car to get a closer look. I was focussed on a little brown wrinkly puppy when a little white one strode past me towards Phil who was watching from the car window. This little white puppy then proceeded to cross the traffic-choked road, nearly getting taken out by several motorbikes in the process. Naturally I immediately ran straight into the traffic to rescue the puppy. I think this is what Phil means when he says I can't be trusted to make sensible decisions around traffic. That and the near-constant jaywalking I like to indulge in wherever we go...

Anyway, I snatched the terrified and whimpering puppy from under the wheels of a motorbike and clutched him tight making soothing noises. That is until I noticed that he was CRAWLING with fleas. Well-fed plump little fleas at that. I'd go so far as to say that the fleas had a dog, rather than the reverse. Well, the poor shivering puppy was quickly thrust forward about 30cm from my chest until we got back to safety. I put him in a deep ditch with the other puppies and realized that half the village had gathered to watch - and discuss the drama.

There was a cacophony of voices chattering away in Sasak (the local language). I was really worried they thought I'd scared the puppy into traffic and were angry with me. When I asked Awunk what they were saying, so I could explain myself (how hadn't chased him into traffic and had just been trying to help), he told me they said if I wanted to rescue it that much I could take the puppy!! Poor little thing. Even a total sucker like me held him afar at the first sign of a parasite and the village was happy to wave him goodbye.

Segueing into another animal-related story, The knockoff sunglasses I am currently wearing are not the same pair of knockoff sunglasses I started with. This is thanks to a thieving monkey at Uluwatu (the site of a beautiful cliffside temple in far south Bali) which actually leapt on my back, grabbed the sunglasses right of my face and bounded off with them all in about 2 seconds.

It was no big deal and I knowingly took the risk by wearing them in the first place. You can pay someone to get them back, but it's not worth it. It was actually quite entertaining to see what the monkey did with them. So we watched, and the first thing he did with the sunglasses was take them to a pond to wash them off!! How insulting is that?? He had to get off that nasty human smell, I guess. But even that wasn't enough. He then went and found a leaf and used it to scrub them clean!!! Hard not to take it to heart... Especially when, on the same visit, a baby monkey crawled over to Phil and sprawled out on his back in Phil's lap for ages - very cute. Apparently Phil smells ok to the monkeys.

I wrote a post a while ago about learning a lesson in early morning boat travel. Today I was reminded of one of the other key lessons I have learnt (but keep forgetting) here - DO NOT travel without a small packet of tissues. Anywhere, ever. Because despite the fact that the western style toilet is commonplace, it is far from ubiquitous. And whatever the precise design of the local facility, Indonesian style toilets do not come with toilet paper. Ever.

Feel free to look away if this is veering into the territory of oversharing; I will try and keep this, ahem, clean.... But I feel if I commit this to the bloggersphere, I might actually remember this fundamental rule of travel and help out a traveller-to-be. I am really not that precious about bathrooms and have used, on some occasions, facilities that were not the pristine white tiled mini-palaces one might dream of. If you can remember that scene in Trainspotting where Ewan McGregor walks into Scotland's worst toilet - I have seen worse. Sometimes you walk in, and just have to walk out.

One trick I have learned, and actively employed in such a situation, is to launch straight into some energetic walking directly under a hot sun to sweat out any fluids that might otherwise require expulsion... No, no, don't thank me now for this invaluable advice... it may well come in useful one day...

It turns out that I did semi-destroy Phil's ricoh camera. You might think I'd be a person who is careful with stuff - but I'm not. The camera still works but there is a weird and distracting pattern on the viewing screen. It is insured, but I don't know how easy it will be to get our hands on a replacement... And I am too nervous about the answer to ask... **

As Melbourne warms up, so does Bali. Since we've been here, our pool which is just heated by the atmosphere, has gone from pretty chilly to almost uncomfortably bath temperature warm in two short months. There is a rainy season just around the corner, but at the moment all we have is hair destroying humidity and some incredibly atmospheric evening skies.









I walked down the beach the other day and took shots which I'd carefully scoped out and planned. And some were nice, but nothing special. Then I saw a gorgeous boy playing in the sand and just lowered the camera to hip height (without seeing what I was shooting) to try and take a surreptitious shot without making him self-conscious.

And it turned out perfectly composed...





So much for my camera skills!!


- Posted using a stroke of good luck

** It was probably better we left it given that around the same time a nurse from Australia suffered possible brain damage from methanol in a dodgy rice wine spirit in Lombok - yikes.

** I was expecting some serious GOMP attitude, but Phil was so nice about it and did end up telling me that a new version is coming out soon...

Sunday 16 October 2011

Lazy days

It has been deliciously quiet in Legian since we returned on Wednesday - apart from the earthquake...

The crowds in south Bali have noticeably declined since we were last staying in Legian several weeks ago. And it's the difference between footpaths so crowded it was easier to walk on the road and barely spotting another person on the same street at the right time of day. It's tough on those Balinese who rely on tourism for a living, but not unexpected - it's the normal ebb and flow of tourism here which generally follows the Australian school holidays and European summer. The best surprise of our return was that the apartment block is quiet... I'm saying NOTHING about the joy a lack of bogans brings. All I'll say is aaaahhhhhh...

------

The tourists are catered to by the incredible selection of places to stay and things to do in Bali organised by enterprising Balinese and foreign investment. However, official tourism really is utterly hopeless in Indonesia.

The Kuta Karnival was held this weekend. I'd never heard of the Kuta Karnival before, but apparently it was established after the 2002 bombings as a memorial and a celebration of Kuta and is now in it's 9th year.

I was somewhat agitated to find out all the details because apparently the opening ceremony included the release of turtle hatchlings into the sea!! I could not imagine sitting by idly while somewhere nearby baby turtles are being released on mass into the water, so I scoured the interweb for details. The official site in English (kutakarnival.com) is still showing the publicity for the 2009 event. The site in Indonesian (kutakarnival.net) is showing the program for 2010 - argh!!!

I even went down to the main tents on the beach on Friday afternoon where all the local businesses have set up stalls including a mini (and rather late) Oktoberfest, but no luck. Not a program in sight. Not even one brochure. Unbelievable in a town where the women who braid hair on the beach have their own promotional flyers!!!

I eventually tracked down a possible starting time of 3pm on Friday and was resolutely determined to make it on time. But on Friday, I was also determined to go to the gym - which I did manage, for two hours - and then could not move any of my limbs. Freaking ouch. it felt like I had been hit with a bat. That's what you get for dogged gym avoidance for six months.

And on Saturday, Phil and I got distracted by the search for Mexican food which ended in amazing veggie burritos, but also took all day! I think the ultimate luxury of travel is the ability to take all day doing something trivial and/or pointless... But I digress.

So today was the last chance to visit the carnival. I was a bit skeptical - we had already missed the turtles and I was a little concerned that the carnival might be a concentration of Kuta, which can be some of the worst of Bali - loud, rude tourists interested mostly in boozing, and spending no cash, in that order. A bit like someone telling you that the whole population of Crown casino was going to be hanging out in, say, St Kilda - and then deliberately going there...

But it was the complete opposite. Instead of being populated mostly by tourists like us, most of the festival-goers were locals. And not just Indonesians, they were hipster Indonesians. Yes, skinny jean wearing, geek-chic spectacled, SLR carrying, tattoos from head to foot (including the girls) hipsters. There should seriously be some kind of award for a man who is so dedicated to fashion that he willing to wear jeans tight enough to sever circulation in the calves in 36 degree temperature.

The carnival itself was spread over a section of beach. There was a large stage for local bands and a stalls on the beach run by local restaurants and shops, as well a better-late-than-never Oktoberfest tent. A bit like a mini-melbourne show, minus the animals. We sat in the Oktoberfest beer tent for a couple of hours to watch the sunset and also the local hipster kids hanging out, laughing, joking with each other and drinking a few beers. It was a gorgeous way to spend a few hours on a Sunday, especially with some fireworks at the end.

I feel like we get the briefest glimpses into people's "real" personal lives here, beyond transactional interactions, like shopping, or taking a taxi. Walking through a village does give you a sense of how people spend their time at home, but it can feel a bit intrusive. So I absolutely love it when you unexpectedly catch people living their ordinary lives. Its a joy to watch the unguarded moments of someone's day when I momentarily become invisible, white noise in the background.

Earlier this week, while walking along the beach, there was what looked like surf lifesaver tryouts were being held. I cannot believe I didn't have a camera with me to capture dozens of super fit, super tanned Indonesian guys in speedos racing up and down the beach and performing coordinated calisthenics - think squats and lunges with some flailing arm movements. I haven't seen so many men in speedos since the Box Hill pool in 1986!!!

Afterwards, I got to the Kuta mall as it opened to pick up some new pink (fake) aviator raybans (yes, they are as awesome as they sound) to see the entire staff of the department store, Centro, starting their day by performing a mass choreographed dance!! Music is played over a PA system and a manager talks between songs to provide some inspirational messages too. The staff looked about as enthusiastic as kids on a school camp forced to sing the school song, but it was a highly entertaining spectacle to see the aisles of the store over three floors filled with people moving and whooping in unison. I did wonder if the Myer staff would be a bit more friendly and helpful if they started their work days with a good ass shaking... I'm guessing we'll never know.

We will be in Legian for another week and then heading to Kuala Lumpur. We have to leave Indonesia to get a new visa as our initial 60 day visa will expire. The plan had been to spend 3 days in KL, but our apartment block is fully booked out by guests for the 4 days after we were scheduled to return, so we might stay in KL for a week. It has been more than four years since we spent more than a couple of days in KL, so it might be fun to see the city properly - after all, it takes at least three days to cover the main shopping malls alone!

So this week should be pretty chilled out before more traveling adventures...

- Posted using methanol from rice wine (too soon??)


Location:Jalan Kunti,Kuta,Indonesia

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Earthquake!!!

After all my hoo ha about being back in Legian to take it easy and be super quiet and relaxed, we had a little earthquake today. The room shook a little and I was momentarily worried that the TV was done for, but no noticeable damage in the apartment block so far as I can tell, but I think a few nearby shops suffered some damage.

I've just seen in the Age that it was a big (6.3 on the richter scale) earthquake undersea. I don't think we need to worry here - we're back from the beach and this apartment block is the tallest structure around for a few blocks.

The excitement continues...



- Posted using the motion of the ocean

A lesson learned... And unlearned

Yesterday I learned a lesson in the value of getting up early and catching the early morning boat.

Instead of taking the 8.30am boat to Gili Trawangan (another of the three Gili islands), we loitered about this morning and caught the 3pm island hopping shuttle boat.

We spent our last hour on Gili Air having lunch at an organic restaurant on the beach munching on an absolutely delicious pear, walnut and blue cheese salad with a view to die for:




While the day started off calm and warm, by midday it was literally the windiest I've ever seen in Indonesia.

Ironically, we got up super early in the morning to watch our last sunrise on Gili Air and then walked around the whole island before breakfast which we ate at 7.15am. We just hadn't gotten around to booking the early boat until it was too late. It was worth the early rise. The mountain in the background is Mount Rinjani which has an active volcano and a huge crater.




Here's the sun poking out:





The plan was to get to Gili Trawangan today for our pick up (by boat, again) to Bali tomorrow morning. Since we hadn't seen Gili Trawangan, it made sense to come to Trawangan and stay overnight to be sure to make the 9am boat in the morning. In retrospect, buying the return ticket on the Gili Cat was a mistake as there are several boats that operate direct from Gili Air to Bali. Doubly inconvenient was that they were fully booked yesterday when we would have preferred to leave. Ah well, you live you learn - and it's always a bonus to see a new place, even if it's just for a short time.

We didn't book any accom on Trawangan because being low season, it's not too busy and there are plenty of spare rooms. It took us all of fifteen seconds to grab a lovely cheap room with fresh (c.f. salt) water showers and air con - yay! I felt properly clean for the first time in days.

Phil and I, feeling all refreshed and ready to head out and see the town, opened the door of our bungalow. Or rather we tried to open the door of our bungalow. It took a few tugs before we looked carefully through the glass door and realised that the staff had locked us in, leaving the key dangling in the door on the outside. Nice one!

There was no other way out of the bungalow, no phone in the room, no internet reception.**

We banged on the door for a while but no-one came past, nor were they likely to; our bungalow is slightly off the road down a long path with only one other bungalow further down. I thought we may be in there for the long haul - there were pringles and diet coke in the minibar, so there's the silver lining.

But I think it occurred to both Phil and I, without either of us daring to speak it aloud, that we could conceivably be stuck in there until after our boat left in the morning, meaning possibly another afternoon trip!!

So quick action was required and it was superman Phil to the rescue. Truly, because in addition to GOMP there is also SUMP, or SUperMan Phil.

Usually SUMP is out performing some extraordinary feat or other which I personally don't find terribly useful; like running 10km before we go on an all day walk which leaves me in agony, and then telling me that he could still do a bit more...

But today SUMP really outdid himself. Our bathroom here is open air which means there is a gap in the roof - which SUMP hoisted himself out of, leaping from the roof onto the ground (in a single bound) and unlocking the door. My hero!!

Meanwhile, I had prepared this sign to press up to the glass window for the benefit of any passersby, which I scrambled to flash at Phil as he walked over to unlock the door.







I'll be honest - I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to use the sign...

We went out for a walk, caught a spectacular sunset and a slightly less spectacular dinner. Since when can you pass off a cold fried egg in a bun as a vegeburger?? I knew I should have gone with the beef and onion.




So today we get up and out the door with no drama... Except it was EVEN windier than the day before!!! And instead of the big double deck catamaran we had travelled on from Bali, we had a boat about a third of the size. I nearly disembarked at Lombok to head to the airport and fly back and that was only 15 minutes into a 2 hour trip.

I knew I didn't like boats and now I remember why. I won't bang on about all the many and varied ways that the trip was unpleasant. I will say it wasn't a super fun trip. On the upside, we did briefly see a pod of dolphins swimming next to the boat, which was pretty awesome. Mostly because it meant you spent the rest of the trip looking for more dolphins rather than focussing on potential capsize followed by drowning! Hmm, they do say becoming a lawyer turns you into a worst case scenario obsessive.

So now we're back in the apartment in Legian for a little while. After a few quieter places, it's a shock to see all the traffic, but it's nice to be home!

Here are some pics from the Gili islands:




It takes a moment to make it out, but here is the cutest green starfish which was lying in a thimbleful of sea water.




This is the horse carriage or cidomo which is the major form of transport on the Gilis and also local transport in Lombok.




Some windswept coastline on Gili Air




A lone fishing boat at dawn




A little sand, a little sea, a little thatched roof shelter - Is this the ultimate tropical island photo??

It's been a long but fun trip since we left Legian - the central highlands, north Bali, Ubud, Lombok and the Gilis. Some of it planned, some not. I feel like I've seen and learned more about Bali than in my previous seven trips.

So, now no big plans for the next week and a bit. Guess we'll just take it as it comes...

**Phil thought my comments about his conduct on the boat were ungenerous and that he stoically suffered extreme hand squeezing in silence for me. Which is true. But he did also tell me to get a hold of myself, which I tactfully left out of the story... So I think it evens out.

**It actually took me right back to the last Landers retreat when I walked into my room to get a phone charger and had to lock myself in the bathroom because a giant freaking huntsman was sitting on top of the doorframe blocking my exit. There was no mobile reception, so I emailed Derek and Jacqui from inside the bathroom and they came to my rescue. It went something like: Hi Derek and Jacq. There's a spider in my room and I've locked myself in the bathroom. Please come and get me, Sus... It was pretty hilarious...

- Posted using more power than a locomotive

Sunday 9 October 2011

Still in the Gilis

Yesterday I embarked on an unsuccessful snorkel - having a low tolerance for jellyfish stings, it took two stings (not really painful, just like a big ant) and the sighting of a jellyfish headed right towards my face and I was swimming to shore faster than a motorboat.

The rest of the day was spent knocking off a couple of books. I counted up that I've read 16 books so far on this adventure. Which is not bad considering I wasted a lot of time on two massive and ultimately turgid tomes (Keith Richards' autobiog Life and some sort of sci-fi thing called The Passage which was over 1000 pages and just the first of a trilogy. If you can't get it all out in 1000 words there's an editing problem, my friend). Actually, I do have one thing to say about yesterday - for those always looking for book tips, read The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. An incredible debut.

We've been eating all our meals at the restaurant here at Juliantos by the sea. They do lots of Sasak (Lombok region) and Indonesian dishes as well as some western stuff like jaffles and spaghetti, which is great because after the food poisoning I've been wanting really plain bread/ pasta stuff. Being an island, there are a lot of fish here, but the running jokes about the freshness of the fish (one comment I read was it is considered fresh if caught this month) is kind of putting us off. So we haven't needed to venture out much. Normally, I would have at least walked a circuit of the island - which is about 4km once around, but I haven't even managed that! Phil has run around it a couple of times and tells me it's pretty much the same all round.

There is basically a path that rings the entire island right along the coast. I think i mentioned before, no motorized vehicles are allowed so it's walk, use a pushbike or take a cidomo - horse drawn carriage. All the accommodation - mostly bungalows - sit just behind a path maybe 20 metres from the beach. There are a couple of dive schools and a few bars and restaurants. In the middle of the island you can find the villages where the local fisherman live and I presume some the hotel staff. Although I got up this morning at 5.45am to watch the sunrise (unbelievable, i know) and came across the restaurant staff here sleeping on the floor outside the kitchen. At least it is warm:




You can see fantastic sunrises and sunsets from the island. On our first night I dragged GOMP out to a bar with a particularly good sunset view. He doesn't really like sunsets and isn't afraid to show it! This is what we went to see:




Just awful, isn't it? (cue extreme sarcasm).

If you look closely, you can see a shadow of a bump in the middle of the sunset which is Mount Agung, Bali's highest mountain.

You can see Bali from Lombok (and the Gili islands), but you can't see Lombok from Bali. This is despite Lombok's Mount Rinjani being more than half a kilometer taller than Agung. I heard a few people in Lombok say that - you can see Bali from Lombok, but not Lombok from Bali and I think it is used as much figuratively as literally. I am astounded by how little information there is about traveling to Lombok given how much there is to see and do there.

GOMP insisted this view (in the opposite direction) was more interesting:




Ummm, nice too, I guess. I think I'd rather the glowy orange sky. The beach bar we went to looked like this:




And this where we're staying:








It's got air con and a decent bathroom for Rp 550,000 or about $60. A bit more expensive than Bedugal or Lovina, but I was happy to pay the extra for air con and I'm glad I did cos it's super hot here.

The reason I picked this particular accom is because a couple of people on trip advisor said the snorkeling is amazing and you can swim with turtles right outside the door. And it's true!!

Today, armed with a long sleeved rash vest (purchased yesterday on the island) I gave snorkeling another try. As we headed towards the water, a French girl told us that there were turtles swimming just offshore and pointed to a spot. I did see a jellyfish on the way out, but almost immediately afterwards spotted a huge sea turtle just munching away on algae. Talk about a distraction! That jellyfish could have broken out into a terrifying Hakka and I would have pushed it out the way to follow the turtle.

Phil and I were able to follow the turtle for about half an hour - and we could have stayed longer. At one point our turtle met up with two others - another adult and a juvenile who ate together for a while. It was absolutely incredible. It was so close you could touch it (no exaggeration - Phil reached out and touched its shell for a second) and while it saw us, it obviously decided we were harmless enough and kept on doing its own thing.

Apart from the turtles, there were more varieties of colourful tropical fish than you could count as well as amazing blue coral and huge blue starfish clinging to rocks. I have wanted to try diving and I'm sure it's quite a different and awesome experience, but it's hard to imagine how to top swimming right next to a gorgeous, graceful sea turtle only about 50m from shore for as long as you please.

I haven't bought an underwater camera (yet) so I have poached an image from the Internet for you:




We've got a couple more days in the Gilis before heading back to Legian in Bali and hopefully there'll be more aquatic adventures...

- Posted using heroes in a halfshell... You know the rest.

Friday 7 October 2011

Gili Air

Our last day in Lombok was a quiet one - soaking up the last of the lovely views from our room, a little swimming, a little snoozing. We ventured out for dinner to a place we tried before and I was sucked in by the promise of very fresh grilled king prawns for dinner.

Yum. For a while. Cue horrible food poisoning about 5 hours later, yeah, like 1am. Stupid prawns. As I was laying on the bathroom floor in the middle if the night I questioned whether I would be up for a car and boat ride to the Gili islands, but was determined to make it. And despite feeling a bit green this morning, we left Lombok for Gili Air.

Gili just means small island and there are many gilis dotted around. When reading about the Gili islands, it usually means three islands just off Lombok - Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. This time we decided to go to Gili Air.

Gili Trawangan is the largest most developed island and the one famous for it's parties and drug culture. Apparently where Legian has signs outside restaurants claiming "Bloody good Tucker mate", Trawangan has "Bloody good 'shrooms". Not really enticing. Actually, we were offered various substances on Lombok. It was just like being in Amsterdam - a guy drives past on his motorbike and says, in a low murmur, "you want some marijuana". I just laughed. I couldn't help it. He was so offended, he turned around and rode up and asked why not. I said, "we're too old for marijuana, come on". He said "what are you seventy years old, come on". And there was a full on conversation about why we're too old to smoke dope in the middle of the street. He rode off totally disgusted with us - it was hilarious...

So we chose Gili Air because it has the most coral reef around it for snorkeling and lots of places to stay, eat etc without being a party island. And after arriving here, I think it was a good choice. We have a little bungalow overlooking the ocean, the people are friendly, you can hire all the snorkeling equipment here and best of all the minibar is stacked with cold canned nescafe and diet coke. And it's not $4.20 a can like our last place. The very definition of heaven!

And to the snorkeling. The best bit first - we swam with a sea turtle!!!! It was awesome. And there are so so so many fish and varieties of fish and beautiful starfish and coral. Amazing. Phil went out early without me (I was sleeping off the last of the food poisoning) and came back having swum with two sea turtles and a squid!!

The not so good bit - turns out I am hopeless with flippers, and when I am in pain, or fear, from sharp coral, or fish that are too close, or water than is too deep, I express that pain/ fear with a little noise. And it plays on Phil's nerves like nothing else!

He forgets that he is better at physical stuff than most people, and I am worse - so there is a fair gap between our abilities. It tends to bring out GOMP - for example, while walking out to the water on the sharp dead coral (yes, slowly) GOMP turns to me and says, can I give you a piggyback, it gets dark at 6 here. At 1pm. Rude! Still, he makes up for it by teaching me how to use the fins and then physically dragging me out to the turtle spotting area and making sure I got to swim with a turtle.

To be fair, I did put several bags (yes the ones with the iPad, iPhone and camera - not the good one - in it) in the boat and they got a bit wet, which awoke the GOMP in the first place**.

We have booked for two nights here so far, but I think we'll stay for at least three. There is a little info packet in our room about our accommodation (Juliantos by the sea) which says that the record for overstaying here was a family who booked for two nights and stayed for three weeks! It's easy to see how you could. It's quiet, peaceful, stunning and there are no cars here so all transport is pushbike or horse and carriage. Such a nice change.

The only thing that is a bit difficult is because of the paucity of fresh water on the island, the shower is salt water. There is both cold and hot salted water, but only a small container of cold freshwater provided so you can wash off a bit of the salt. I suspect in addition to my patchy tan, I will leave here with hair a few shades lighter from the sun and saltiness.

On the way from Lombok to the harbour, we met a guy from New York who is half Indonesian and here with his Indonesian dad to see family. He's never travelled here before and was telling us about the culture shock he's experienced seeing the way his uncles lived - particularly dealing with traditional toilets and showers, which are quite different (of course there are western toilets and showers pretty much anywhere you stay). It made me think about all the cultural shock I still experience here and how much there is to learn about people on a daily basis.

During our trip to the fishing village at Tanjung Luar, our guide (whose name is Awunk) told us that some of the fisherman catch shark in Australian waters and also 'help' people get to Australia (ie. People smuggling). Despite the risk of getting caught and facing pretty serious penalties, they think it's the best option for them. According to him, the Australian jails are ok because you get a salary and food. His friends have come out of a 6 month jail term in Australia and just go back to what they were doing before. They fear the Indonesian jails though. It's so nice to come to Lombok where the tourism is so mild and think that it's better not to overrun a lovely culture with tons of loud, inconsiderate people, but stories like that make you realise why people are so keen for tourism to improve so they have better opportunities for work and for their children.

In the last five years, Awunk had farmed tobacco, painted and tried to sell paintings on the beach, tried to open a small gallery, done construction work, travelled to Bali, Jakarta and Yogyakarta looking for work and been a tour guide when a friend passed on a job to him. He spent the previous seven years teaching himself English so he can find better opportunities. It is incredible how much hard work people are prepared to put in to better their situations...

A NOTE: About the grammar and spelling of this blog.

The blog is set to American spelling, which I don't know how to change. Also I don't proof read this that carefully because I usually have limited wifi access and I can't be bothered. If you're a person I work with or may work with some day, rest assured that I know where commas and apostrophes go. I guess what I'm saying is I cannae be bothered... If you're finding it annoying, well that's what the comments are for people. God knows I'd welcome ANY comments at this stage!!


**GOMP made me write that



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Tour de Lombok

At five o'clock yesterday morning, we hauled ourselves out of bed to a waiting car and an amazing breakfast box prepared by the manager/owner couple of our villa and headed out east on dark roads.

Destination: a small fishing village on the far east coast called Tanjung Luar where we had heard a great fish market runs daily. After a two hour drive during a gorgeous sunrise (which is the first I've seen in a while), we arrived at the very busy and crowded village and and were rewarded with a fish market like no other. I'll let the photos do the explaining:

There were bigger fish:




Smaller fish:




Tiny fish:



Sharks:



Sharks:





And more sharks:





Scary teeth:





Less scary without the head:




Manta rays:




Kids fresh from swimming in the sea:




And a few characters eager for a picture:








Yes, his hand is covered in blood because they gut and sell the fish right off the market floor. Not a lot of ice around... Although this guy had some:




There was just a huge amount of fish!!




Was it as awesome as it looked? Hell yes it was!! Definitely worth the trip if you're in Lombok and you don't mind a bit of fish stink and guts. It actually didn't smell too bad considering - you do have to watch your step unless you want to end up sliding through fish guts.

Next we headed to a village where the local women use traditional ancient looms to weave The most fabulously elaborate designs. One piece can take up to three months - what patience. While it is a tourist attraction, the women really do this all day and according our guide are not permitted to marry until they can show they are competent at weaving... Is that not the point when you think perhaps marriage is overrated?




The goods they produce are amazing and we left with a blue piece woven with gold thread.

Our next stop was a couple of adjoining waterfalls, which were a reasonable walk combined with a fair bit of scrambling over large hillsides, but totally worth the effort. This is the first one, which was completely deserted:




The second one was used as a giant bathing pool for local people to wash, swim and generally frolic around. From tiny kids to elderly women, the place was full of people in various states of undress having a really good scrub under the falls and in the water. It wasn't easy to avoid taking photos of all the nude people, but I think we're good with these shots:







It felt a little like intruding on people's bath time, so we didn't loiter too long.

Next stop was to look at Lombok's famous pearls which are harvested from both fresh water and sea water. Gorgeous... But a little too pricey for people on an extended trip!

Today is our last in Lombok - tomorrow morning we head out to the gili islands for a couple of days of concentrated snorkeling.

I hope we don't run into any sharks...

- Posted using ink from a manta ray's tentacle

Location:Jalan Raya Senggigi,Gunungsari,Indonesia