Days 131- 135: Labuan Bajo, Flores

Our 25 hour bus/bemo/ferry ride was so exhausting that the minute we arrived at our hotel (just four rooms 100 metres up an alley on the main road) we all plonked out for a nap. Marc was too tired to wake up for dinner so Rachel, Sanne and myself went for a delicious Italian meal down the road. If you had to ask me to describe Labuan Bajo in 3 words I would say a “shitty Little Italy”. Essentially, the town is a shit hole really: it is dirty, there are rats running around everywhere, the beaches are far away and not so nice anyway and there isn’t much to do either, apart from (and this is a major plus side) eating at one of the many delicious Italian restaurants. However, Labuan Bajo is the gateway to the Komodo National and Marine Park, a haven for scuba divers and wildlife enthusiasts and basically the only two reasons why we were there.

Labuan Bajo port.

Your standard two man fishing vessel.

The following morning, after booking our dive for the next day, we went in search of a nice beach. Turned out nice beaches aren’t easy to find in Labuan Bajo. Marc and Sanne went scouting the so-called beach (it was too narrow, dirty and stacked with fishermen boats to deserve to be called a beach) and they came across a fisherman and his wife. Through the two or three words of English they spoke, we arranged to pay 300,000 Rupiah between us for him to take us out on his little fishing boat for the afternoon. So he took us to a beautiful beach on Angel Island, a small island that just had one high class resort on it. On our way back, the fisherman was nice enough to stop near an island to watch sunset- and what a breathtaking sunset it was. The landscape around Labuan Bajo is absolutely beautiful. The islands, some of which make up the Komodo National Marine Park, are brown and green hilly, little islands, some of the larger ones are actually volcanoes and they are all scattered around the beautiful, blue and completely boat-less sea. Imagine all these islands and a fantastic orange and red sky and a descending sun as the backdrop. Can’t get any better, right? Wrong. It did get better when we spotted a pod of dolphins coming up for air in the distance. A sight that will remain in my mind forever.

Fishing boats tied up with Komodo in the distance.

The wife of our fisherman tour guide, always smiling!

All smiles after a nice day of chilling and seeing dolphins for sunset.

Sunset from the fishing boat.

Super chilled and a great guide, better than most of the licensed guides you’ll find around. Finding a local fisherman to take you around is highly recommended after this experience.

More smiles!

That evening we enjoyed another delicious Italian meal at La Cucina, so good that we ended up becoming regulars there.

On our third day in Labuan Bajo we went scuba diving. The day started off on a bad note, as the dive sites we had booked for were changed without our notice.(The dive site we had originally booked for is a world renowned site- Batu Belong- and so we were a bit pissed off we weren’t going there). Because of this, we ended up arguing with the dive master simply because we told them it was unprofessional to change our dive sites without informing us, and he, very typically Indonesian, acted like a little boy and got offended. Quite entertaining for the 8 or so people in the dive shop listening to our arguement. Anyway, the first dive site (which was the unplanned one) was alright, nothing out of this world but we did see some nice coral and a lot of small reef fish and a few sting rays. After lunch on the boat we headed to the second, more popular dive site know as Manta Point famous for the many manta rays that live in the area. The site is in a shallow sandy area, no more than 10 metres deep. As we were gearing up, we heard people shouting and pointing towards the water. In the water we saw three or four massive shadows, moving around. I couldn’t believe how big they looked! We hurried up and within seconds jumped in the water, forgetting about buddy checks and barely having time to put our masks on. As soon as the 5 of us of our group were in the water, we descended to around 6 or 7 metres. Suddenly these 3 massive mantra rays started swimming in our direction, one following the other, like some graceful underwater spaceships. If the leader turns around 360°, the others do exactly the same. They passed by right infront of us, so close that if I had stuck my hand out I probably would have touched one. That first encounter was by the far the best of the whole dive. It was a drift dive, so we just drifted along the bottom of the water, coming across a few mantas a couple of metres away and also a turtle. When we resurfaced I found out that Marc’s goPro wasn’t working. Because of the whole chaos to get in the water before the rays left, we accidentally closed the strap of the extra battery in the cover, and so the camera flooded. Quite a disappointment, especially since it had been such an amazing and unforgettable experience and we hadn’t managed to get any footage. But at least we have the memory in our heads that I am sure none of us will ever forget! That evening all the divers on our boat went for another fantastic meal at La Cucina.

The best way to explore the national park and most Indonesian islands.

Off we go to see some Manta Rays.

Ma baby getting super excited.

Lovely Argentinian couple who have been travelling around Asia for a couple of months.

Lets do this!

Our dive master. He got highly offended for being in the wrong, but all smiles in the end.

Just your standard afternoon walk.

Romantic set up for the evening 😉

High paying clients from a private yacht having their island of choice being set up for dinner.

Starting to feel the effects after a good day diving. Tiredness kicking in.

Sailing through Komodo National Park

Another gorgeous sunset at sea.

The following morning was a sad one as we said our goodbye to Rachel and Sanne, promising we would meet again but neither of us sure when or where it would be. They had decided to get a boat trip back to Lombok but Marc and I decided to stay on a bit longer as we had some more time on our hands than they had. We enjoyed our last day at a nice hotel called Silvia on a decent beach in Labuan Bajo, swimming, reading, and relaxing to a fantastic sunset.

The next day we headed off to a beautiful hidden gem of an island in the middle of the Komodo Marine Park.

 

-Vanessa-

Thought we’d spoil ourselves with a bit of luxury holiday living for a few nights.

Sunset from Labuan Bajo

A nice stretch is in order whilst enjoying sunset.

Not a bad way to end the day. This is what life should be all about.

Days 127-130: Lombok

We set off from our hotel in Bali at 6am and made our way to Padang Bai, a town in Easten Bali where the ferries to Lombok leave from. We waited an hour and hopped on to our boat, which was like a massive speed boat, one of the many leaving at the same time. The sea was flat and so we arrived in Sengigi at around 1pm. They started unloading the luggage, one after the other: big backpacks, small backpacks, blue backpacks, black backpacks, Marc’s backpack, but sure enough, not Vanessa’s backpack. Apparently, the crew informed me, my luggage must have been sent to the wrong island. After some phonecalls, they assured me that my luggage would be dropped off in Sengigi later that afternoon.

Waiting to be ferried across.

Off goes the luggage!

So I waited at the jetty with Marc’s backpack while he went in search of a hostel. I was in a bad mood because of my backpack issue and I was also a little wary because we had heard from many about the crime prevalent in Lombok. And there I was sitting at the jetty with all of Marc’s belongings including all his camera equipment. To make me even more wary, a group of perhaps 10 or more young local boys, all under the age of 14, were lingering around. When a young boy approached me with a group of boys behind him, asking if he can speak to me, I rudely said “No”, turned my face, clutched my bag closer to me and put my feet up on Marc’s camera bag. Certain that they were planning to rob the tourists in the area, I watched them as they went up to tourists asking to chat to them, expecting to see a crime right before my eyes. When nothing interesting happened, I started to wonder if I was being paranoid. Sure enough, a few minutes I heard a local man, with a T shirt of a language school, telling a tourist that these boys are his students and he brought them here to practise speaking English with foreigners. Haha, paranoid much?

Anyway, Marc returned, we checked into our guesthouse and went back to the jetty to wait for my backpack, which returned later in the afternoon, fully intact. The next day we ended up randomly hiring a driver with two Dutch girls- Rachel and Sanne- whom we had met at the guesthouse. We went round the hotspots of Lombok: a local village called Sasak (that we felt had become more of tourist attraction than a local authentic village), an even more commercialised weaving factory and a seasside village called Kuta. Kuta turned out to be the highlight of the day, the long stretch of white sand and beautiful beaches mixed with the rustic, surfing atmosphere was fantastic. While Marc was crossing the road he came face to face with a guy who he thought looked familiar and randomly started chatting to him. When the guy removed his sunglasses, Marc realised that he was chatting to one of the French guys we had met at Coconut Bar, on Koh Bulon (Thailand!!), three months earlier! What an unvelieably small world we live in. Anyway, we started chatting and the guy, Jeremy, convinced us to follow him to a more secluded but nicer beach a 10 minute drive away. So we followed them on their bikes, after convincing our very reluctant driver to take us there. The beach turned out to be in low tide so the reef was sticking out in many places, nonetheless is really was a beautiful beach. We chilled there with Jeremy and some of his friends before he decided he wanted to show us something cool. It turned out that this something cool was located in a dodgy area where people were known to get mugged and stabbed, so it took a lot of convincing to get the driver to take us there. We eventually stopped on a hill and asked a local man if we could pass through his land to get to a cave behind his bamboo house. Jeremey said the surprise will happen at exactly 5.50pm and sure enough, at 5.52pm, thousands and thousands of bats flew out of the cave above our heads and start swarming around and flying out to find their dinner for the night. The show lasted a few minutes and we hurried back into our taxi as we were a bit concerned that he would leave without us. The ride back was quick and uneventful as the driver was pretty pissed off at us for dragging his day on until 7pm.

Traditional pottery making.

I love this shot, this sweet mother and daughter giggle at the white boy.

Lombok life.

Our agitated driver, will he leave us!?

Buy me!

Intricate and elaborate designs go hand in hand with the stylish pottery making.

Mother and sun harvesting the seafood that grows in this area.

More shits and giggles.

Not an easy job, harvesting local seafood.

Anyway, the 4 of us had dinner at the hostel together and we told Rachel and Sanne about our plans to either climb Mount Rinjani or to go straight to Flores from there. They decided to join us on our travels, and to make the decision easier Rachel and Marc played rock, paper, scissors to decide our fate. Turned out Rachel won and so the next day we set off at 2pm for a 28 hours journey to Flores. We only made it as far as the bus station, a 20 minute Bemo ride out of Sengigi, and had to turn back, as we had been given the wrong information on the time of departure for the bus and had to wait until the following day. So, back to Sengigi we went, checked into a dorm in a different hostel, enjoyed some sangria and food before heading off to bed and being told off by an American girl in our dorm, to “shut the fuck up”. We did desrve it though as we had been talking and laughing forgetting there was someone else trying to sleep.

Village king.

The Queen and I.

3 months in and we meet again Jeremy!

Miss Malta and the Dutchees

One more!

Finally some lunch… I kind of don’t care what’s in it!

The beautiful Kuta found in Lombok.

Of course…. a shot with the white boy!

The following day we made our second attempt to get to Flores, this time succeeding. I won’t bore you with the details because yes it was a very long and boring journey, but in short, it involved a 3 hour bus ride, a one hour ferry, another 3 hour bus ride, a short stop over for a late dinner, then another 7 hour bus ride, a 2 hour bemo ride and finally an 8 hour ferry which arrived in Labuan Bajo at 5pm the following day.

-Vanessa-

Off to Labuan Bajo we go!

Look who escaped the gulleys.

It’s a long ride.

Looking into the distance.

No cause for concern…..

Final destination – Flores.

Some fresh fruit on sale.

We made it, Labuan Bajo and the infamous Komodo region.

There’s a gringo on board, “Gringo please take a photo of us!”

Days 122-126: Kawah Ijen Volcano, Java

We had decided to visit Ijen volcano in East Java, famous for it’s massive sulphuric crater lake, and we had decided to do it the local way. So we drove up from Denpasar to Gilimanut, an approximate 4 hour drive due to the amount of trucks and lorries we had to overtake on the way. In Gilimanut we boarded the public ferry to Ketapang, East Java. Boarding was easy. We got stopped by a policeman who wanted to see our license and we were probably close to having to pay the local bribe that most foreigners on vehicles in Bali are forced to pay- but luckily the queue started moving and we were blocking the entrance so the policeman let us go on our way.

The ferry took around 30 minutes and for me those 30 minutes were spent strategizing over how I would save myself if we had to sink (Indonesia isn’t known for it’s boat safety standards and this ferry wasn’t any exception). For some reason, the ferry spent around another 30 minutes hanging around the harbour before actually entering and letting everyone off. We had booked a room at a Homestay and the guy, Ganda, was nice enough to meet us at the ferry and show us the way to his house which was literally in the middle of a local village. It was a very basic house, with a squat toilet and a very bare kitchen. The bedroom was clean but small and the one thing that bothered me the most was that it had a window to the garage that had no glass and also a door to the attic that didn’t close. My paranoid mind and I immediately thought about all the insects or rodents that can enter our room at night. The fact that, 10 minutes later, I spotted a massive rat walking across the wooden panels in the kitchen towards our bedroom, didn’t help. From that point on, I knew I couldn’t stay in that room, and after a discussion with Marc I guiltily told Ganda about the rat and that I couldn’t sleep at his house. The fact that he was so understanding about it made me feel even more guilty. He even came with us and showed us the way to a nearby hotel.

By the time we arrived at a nearby hotel it was late so we just slept and the following morning we left early to another Homestay near the entrance to the trail up the volcano. We didn’t do much that day and the following day we set off to climb the volcano up to the crater rim at 2,386 metres high. It was a slow and gradual climb. We took almost 2 hours going up, stopping regularly to speak to people, or stopping at the request of locals who want to take a photo with us (as the locals were fascinated with the appearance of Caucaseans) stopping for a coffee and pot noodles at the cafe before the peak, and also chatting away to the many local miners who work arduously on the volcano.

The view at the crater rim looked like a picture from a postcard, it was so amazing. Imagine a 1km wide lake, the water a bright turqoise blue and at the edge the yellow solidified sulphur with the rising sulphuric gases that stank so much. We spent around 2 hours at the top, enjoying the view and taking photos. The most fascinating part of it was watching the miners at work. These men would walk the 3km up to the crater rim, walk down to the lake, collect the sulphur and place it in a basket on their back while inhaling all the harmful fumes, then start their journey back with anything between 70 and 100kg of sulphur on their backs. This meant carefully climbing the steep 800m climb up to the rim and descending 3km back down to the starting point. They do this twice a day, so each miner collects possibly 140 to 200 kg per day. And how much do they earn for their arduous work? A mere 800 rupiah (50c euro) for each kilo. Therefore a lot of these miners barely earn 15 Euro per day. Watching these men at work was an eye opening experience for me. The fact that men put their lives at risk for such a pittance of a wage really shows the desperation and poverty abundant in this region. The following day we returned to the peak in the early hours of the morning. Ganda joined us at 3am to begin the climb, but unfortunately, due to high sulphuric activity that week, we weren’t allowed to begin ascending until 4am. Since the climb is around an hour long for an averagely fit person, we realised that this would mean missing the “blue fire” phenomenon that Kawah Ijien was famous for (ignited sulphuric gas that creates blue flames up to 5 metres high and only visible at night). Obviously Marc wanted to try capture photos of this and so we decided that we should separate so that I can go at my relatively slow pace and Marc can go at a faster pace. He ended up almost running up the mountain, getting help from a miner on his way up who carried Marc’s heavy camera bag for the last kilometre or so. He made it up in 40 mins, just in time to see the last of the blue flames from a distance (just our luck, tourists weren’t even allowed to go down to the water because of the danger of the sulphuric acid that week- the furthest we could go was the crater rim).

Anyway, that day was spent lulling around, taking photos, speaking to the many miners who wanted to tell us all about their mining experience and enjoying coffee and biscuits at the shack on the volcano.

The next day we made our way back to Bali, stopping overnight at a surfing town called Medewi on the west coast of Bali, where we enjoyed a meal in a restaurant full of Australians and a good night’s sleep before continuing the following day to Denpasar. Denpasar was a short stop, we just stopped at Immigration to pick up our passports with our Visa Extension and then found a hotel where we chilled for most of the day, before strolling along Legian where we booked our boat to tne Gilis for the following day and stopped for lunch and a quick catch up with Tom and John. And that was the end of our Bali trip for the time being.

-Vanessa-

Days 117-121: Nusa Dua, Bali

Marc and I started our long journey back down from Lovina in the north to Nusa Dua in the south for one simple reason: we needed to get our visa extended. And so we left at noon and started heading south, on the way stopping at the largest waterfall in Bali: Git Git. After stopping at Git Git town instead of the waterfall thanks to Google Maps’ inaccuracy, we found our way, parked the jeep, refused the offers for a guide (which we find ourselves doing on a regular basis in Indonesia) and started the walk down the path to the waterfall. Walking through the path we passed by little shops selling beautiful souvenirs and also a guy selling Luwak coffee with the Civets cats that they use to process the coffee in a cage and their faeces with the digested coffee beans on display. After 10 minutes of walking we arrived in front of a beautiful, 35 metre high and powerful waterfall. Over the past 4 months of travelling we have seen many waterfalls, but this was by far the biggest and most breathtaking of them all. We enjoyed a swim in the pool under the waterfall and I tried to get as close to it as possible but the water was so powerful that there was a strong current, hurricane winds and water spraying everywhere. I managed to get within 2 metres before I had to stop for fear of my bikini top and pants being blown off me. Marc managed to dive under and surface behind the waterfall where he stayed for a minute or so before coming back.

Gitgit waterfall.

We spent around 3 hours at this waterfall swimming, enjoying the view, taking photos and having a drink nearby. After we left, we stopped for a late lunch at Lake Bratan and continued from there at around 5pm. What was (according to Google Maps) an hour and a half drive down to Nusa Dua, turned into a 4 hour drive because of traffic. The Indonesians are smart enough to do road works on a single carriageway (the most main road of all Bali) during peak hour.

Anyway, our stay in Nusa Dua was completely devoid of adventure. We made the trip to Denpasar to start our visa extension process and then returned the jeep for 3 days to save some cash and to get it serviced (our poor Jimmy had been pushed to his limits). So we had to hang around Nusa Dua for 3 days to wait until our visa was accepted and therefore we could pay for it. Since the public beaches in the area aren’t so great and the private ones are owned by massive 5 star resorts, we spent 3 days of luxury living, sneaking in hotels or going to beach clubs for lunch, and spending the day literally eating and chilling by their pools. It was a hard knock life.

The highlight of our 4 day stay here: we found out that two Maltese guys we know were on holiday in Bali and so we met up with them for some dinner and mohitos one night. It was fun catching up and it felt great being around Maltese again (apart from Maria in Ubud, they were the first Maltese we had met in 4 months).

On the last day we got the jeep back, paid our visa and headed for a short 3 day trip to Java to climb our first Indonesian volcano, which also happens to have an acid crater lake and is the only volcano in the world where you can witness sulphur mining. Stay tuned to hear all about it 🙂

-Vanessa-

Days 112-116: Lovina, Bali

Margarita, Victor, Eva, Marc and I (divided into our jeep and one motorbike) drove up to Lovina in the early afternoon. Having seen three foreigners in a jeep full of luggage, a local guy on a motorbike decided to seize the opportunity to promote his hostel. He drove up to the driver’s side of our jeep and, while both Marc and he were driving (on a main road, please note) he asked us where we were going, if we needed a hostel and gave us a card and brief explanation of where his hostel is. Only in Asia.

We ended up staying at another place called Mumbul, as we got a really good deal on Adoga (we paid around 3 euro each per night in a massive family room with a nice pool and breakfast included). As soon as we checked in two local guys approached us to sell diving, snorkelling and dolphin watching tours. After a little bit of haggling we managed to put the price of the dolphin trip down to almost half his original price and so we booked and paid a deposit for the following day. Note to self: don’t ever buy from local guys who show up at your hotel in Asia. Long story short, we discovered that if we went directly to the fishermen on the beach, the standard price was much less than what we had paid. To add on to that, Marc woke up unwell and so we asked if we could postpone mine and Marc’s trip, he said yes, and the following day we waited at 5am and no one showed up. We ended up going to the company his receipt claimed he worked for and they said that he is only supposed to be selling diving packages as they have nothing to do with dolphin watching. After trying to get a hold of him for a while, a “friend” of his said he will take us on the trip the following day without extra charge.

So Marc and I extended our stay in Lovina and we regretted it afterwards. The dolphin trip was a complete waste of time and money. I had never seen dolphins in the wild and I was pretty excited, but when I realised what I was witnessing that day, my excitement turned to complete sadness. First of all, there were around a hundred of these boats on the water. Secondly, the water was so filthy, plastic bags and bottles and just dirt everywhere it was disgusting to see and know that dolphins lived in this environment. Thirdly, these boats huddled close together until someone saw a few dolphin fins and then all hundred boats would start the race to get a closer look at these poor dolphins, who would disappear and then maybe show their fins again 5 minutes later. Definitely a very commercialised trip that has turned something natural and beautiful into something dirty and sad. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

To be quite honest, Lovina in general didn’t really impress me. The sea was dirty and murky, the sand was black with lava and most of the beach was part of a dirty local village with pigs and chickens running around freely.

In fact we spent a lot of our time here just relaxing by the pool at our hotel. The best part of the trip was probably when Eva, Marc and I went in search of a coffee plantation and ended up at a 5 star resort (that was surrounded by its own coffee plantation, so it was a semi-successful trip) on top of a mountain. We had a luxurious lunch overlooking the mountaineous scenery below us and afterwards managed to sneak into a jacuzzi and just chilled there for the day.

What made our stay in Lovina better, was the fact that we were around good company. Unfortunately though, the 5 of us had to part ways after Lovina and we hope that we will cross paths again in the future.

-Vanessa-

 

Fishing is what Lovina is known for amongst the locals, however once you get out on the water you cannot help but wonder what a dangerous cycle this is.

Is it a volcano or is it just a mountain with an awesome sunset setting?

Yet another beautiful rice paddy view.

Off to the dolphins we go.

We are definitely not alone. Poor dolphins is all we can think.

Killing his fresh catch of the day.

Always hard at work.

This man has had his years of hard labour, now it’s time to take it easy.

Your conventional Balinese pet.

Days 109-111: Jatiluwih and Lake Bratan

It is a sin to be in Bali and not visit some of the great rice paddies. Although the ones in and around Ubud are quite nice, our guidebook recommended a visit to Jatiluwih. And so we packed up our bags, threw everything in our little Jimmy jeep and headed further north. After an hour or so driving in the rain we arrived at our destination. Even in a storm, the immensity and magnificence of Jatiluwih still befell on us. Massive, lush rice paddies, terraced into different levels so that it looks like a green stairway to heaven, or perhaps to the beautiful mountains and volcanoes in the background. We decided to drive through a path literally through the fields that said “jogging track” and ended up at a beautiful and almost deserted temple in the middle of a paddy. After enjoying the splendor and taking some photos, we started our way back up the path, pushing our poor Jimmy to his limits and almost getting him jammed in mud on the way out.

We made it up to the street at the top of the hill overlooking these grand paddies, stopped for lunch and checked in to one of the two Homestays available there. The following morning Marc woke up to take some beautiful sunrise shots over the rice paddies and I joined him for breakfast after. That day we stayed walking through the paddies, enjoying our natural surroundings. We made friends with a Colombian girl Margarita, a Spanish guy Victor and a Russian girl Eva who were travelling together and staying at the same Homestay as us. In the evening, the five of us ended up following some local boys through some bumpy roads to hot springs, where we enjoyed a couple of hours in the boiling hot pools right by a river. When it got dark we were amazed at the spectacular sight in front of us: hundreds of fireflies shining through the night around the river while we were relaxing in it.

The following day we all made our way further up north to Lake Bratan, a crater lake famous for its temple on the lake: Ulun Danu. After checking into a Homestay close to the lake, Marc and I wanted to explore the area so we drove through a road which we thought would end up at the beginning of a path up the mountain. Instead, we ended up driving on a bumpy, narrow and muddy path through farm fields and ended up at the entrance to a completely abanded resort. We walked through this massive resort right on the lake, with beautiful huts scattered around, and we felt we were walking through a ghost town. The cobwebs, overgown pathways, but nonetheless furnished huts ready with fruit bowls and water inside, gave the impression that the place was in use not long ago and had been abondoned suddenly. It even had a wooden jetty that seemed to be falling apart, with two boats with engines on them that were clearly decaying. On our way out we met a local guy who said he was the caretaker and claimed that the resort was temporarily closed and was reopening the following weekend.

The next morning we all crawled out of bed at 5am and drove 3 minutes down the road to the famous Temple Ulun Danu. We watched sunrise on the lake and it was such a breathtaking sight. The beautiful temple, on the serene, misty lake, with a foresty mountain peak in the backdrop, and then the stunning red and orange rays spreading over the whole area: definitely worth the early morning wake up.

We ended up back at the Homestay where we had breakfast and half of us curled back in our beds for a nap while Eva and Marc went around with the jeep to a viewpoint where they came across a guy with exotic pets such a fruit bats, civet cats, a python and gibbons which they got to play with. Quite a random experience.

The little rascal. Grey haired Gibbon.

Anyway, after lunch we all continued on our way up north to Lovina bay, famous for its black sand beaches and dolphin watching.

Until next time 🙂

 

Bilit waterfall.

Days 105-109: Ubud, Bali

It is difficult to find the words to describe Ubud. Essentially, it is a small town comprised of a few streets lined with uniquely designed cafes, restaurants, art galleries and shops selling the coolest and most colourful clothes and bags ever. The town is actually surrounded by forest and so you will find yourself walking in streets with trees hanging low over your head, or walking over bridges above small ravines. The outskirts of Ubud is just beautiful, lush, green rice paddies. Scattered around everywhere you find simple yet beautiful Hindu temples and devout locals who give their daily offering- a banana leaf with flowers and incense- making the place even smell good. And that’s Ubud for you: green, healthy (everything seems to be organic), natural, chic, happy and hippyish.

We were mesmerized and infatuated with the place within a few hours. On our first day we went to visit Green School as we knew that a Maltese friend of ours, Maria, worked there. At the risk of sounding like a bimbo, discovering this school was a completely OMG moment. The school is literally like a campus made up of different buildings, built entirely out of bamboo. As the name implies, the school is completely environmentally friendly and this is evident not only in the architecture but also in the curriculum. Maria gave us a tour of this fascinating place and (never in my life did I think I would ever say this) we both ended up wishing we were kids again back at school- but only at this school.

When we got to our guesthouse, we discovered a little surprise in our bathroom. I opened the door to find a chicken on our toilet seat. No, that’s not a metaphor. Our bamboo bungalow was towards the back of the guesthouse and overlooked a rice paddy with lots of chicken. Since our bathroom window didn’t have glass covering it, the chicken manage to accidentally (or perhaps purposely) squeeze into the gap. Marc and the farmer from next door managed to catch and release it back into the field and only after did we realise that it had literally shat in our toilet. I doubt many people in the world get to say that a chicken crapped in their toilet, but I do.

Anyway, the next three days we enjoyed taking the beauty of Ubud all in, as well as enjoying some amazing fresh and healthy meals. We visited the famous Monkey forest, where Marc was befriended by a baby monkey who jumped on his shoulder and refused to jump off. On one of the evenings we met Maria at an event in which different groups of people spoke about environmental issues and what needs to be done about them. The most inspiring of all was actually given by two young girls, less than 13 years old both from Green School who started a campaign which aims to completely ban the use of plastic bags all over Bali.

A house in the middle of the lush rice paddies around Ubud

On the 3rd day we decided to do some sight seeing, mainly just visiting two famous temples in the area. So we set off for Kuil Gunung Kawi, a temple supposedly surrounded by rice paddies. After following google maps into some village road, we asked some locals where the temple was. They told us to park there and walk down the rice paddy to reach the temple. A group of around 6 local boys, no more than 12 years old, took on the role of guides for us and led us down through a passage way that led onto a very flooded rice paddy. We walked along the ledge as the pathway was actually flooded with water and had become a sort of river, and followed the boys for about 10 minutes down this ledge adjacent to the paddy, balancing ourselves carefully. After crossing through a muddy strip of rice paddy we eventually asked the boys how far away it was, making us realise that we had actually come the wrong way and had to cross through and jump down and over several layers of paddies to get to this temple. It seemed like quite a mission and so we turned back to the jeep and after a 5 minute drive we found ourselves in front of the actual entrance to the temple just 15 minutes before closing time.

We had almost made it. All we had to do was get out of the car, lock, walk to the entrance, pay for our ticket (some of the better known temples are quite commercial) and enter. We got as far as getting out of the car, and locking, but that’s it. We had gotten into the habit of locking the lazy way by just pushing down the lock and slamming the door. Nothing wrong with that, right? Wrong. You run the risk of accidentally leaving your keys in the car when you slam the door, therefore locking yours keys inside. I think you get where I’m going with this. Just to be clear, entirely Marc’s fault. He put his keys in his bag and then changed bag, forgetting to transfer the keys. He realised the second he slammed the door. As if just to tease us, my door hadn’t closed properly but was still locked, so we were trying to force it open when a local woman noticed what was going on and eventually we managed to call a “mechanic”. Just when we were about to try break in with a borrowed hanger, he arrived with the appropriate tools. By this time, 5pm had come and gone so our attempt to visit Gunung Kawi was officially a complete fail.

We still had about half an hour to visit another temple in the vicinity, Tirta Empul, and so we made our way there. This temple is famous for its holy springs, where the devout enter a pool and proceed towards a sort of personal cleansing ritual. This ritual includes 3 offerings, moving from stage to stage through the pool, washing their head and drinking from the holy water gushing into the pool. What Marc and I found so fascinating about this was that each statue in every stage had a Swastika sign, a symbol that for us Europeans is associated with Nazism. We realised that, just like many other things in the world, the original meaning of the Swastika must have been good and pure. We were proven right after asking a local who explained that it represents the creator god Brahma and symbolising a balanced life.

On our final day we decided to take it easy and went for a walk on a pathway through lush green rice paddies, enjoyed a healthy lunch at a popular cafe in the middle of these paddies then we got a Balinese massage to the sound of birds and nature and after enjoyed a bottle of Balinese wine at another open air cafe in the middle of the rice paddies. A perfect day. We ended it in style by meeting Maria at Bambu Indah, a beautiful, luxurious and fascinating hotel, owned by the same owner of Green School with the same concept: all rooms and huts completely built out of bamboo. Simply breathtaking. And the food was amazing too.

All in all, although we had been told from before that Ubud was the highlight of Bali, I must admit, it far exceeded our expectations. The whole place was just so lush, green, cultural, spiritual and relaxing. You must definitiely visit Ubud at least one time in your life.

-Vanessa-

Days 100-104: Kuta and Uluwatu, Bali

The excitement of Bali and also reuniting with my two University housemates after two years of absence- was so overpowering I couldn’t even sleep in the plane. I had had enough of leeches and insects and jungle, and couldn’t wait for some surfing, drinking, and whatever else you do in Bali. Little did I know of how much there actually is to see and do in Bali.

Marc and I arrived late at night and after being harrassed by several taxi drivers, we finally found our way to our pretty little guesthouse in Uluwatu in the south of Bali and immediately knocked out for the night. When we woke up the next morning we were stunned by the beauty that surrounded us. From our back balcony we had a view of a forest with a few typical Balinese roofs scattered around. From our front balcony a beautiful garden and pool in a sort of Greek style. I was already in love with Bali.

We rented a jeep and spent the day driving around the Southern part of Bali. If you thought people in Malta drive crazily, come to Bali. The roads are dominated by all the scooters that shoot past, either with foreigners carrying surfboards, or with local families squashed up onto one scooter (mum, dad and two kids), or driven by local kids no older than 13 going to and from school. I even stupidly managed to burn my leg against an exposed exhaust pipe when I was trying to sqeeze through some parked scooters. A part from all the scooters there are a good number of jeeps and cars also. As if the constant traffic weren’t enough, the scooters would overtake from either side of the car, sometimes even squeezing inbetween cars, and cross over from one lane to another without a care in the world. Oh, and the traffic lights might aswell be nonexistant because noone follows them anyway. Marc was driving most of the time and said he felt like he was playing some Super Mario game, dodging obstacles left, right and centre.

Besides our inital shock at the road chaos, we were amazed at how Uluwatu is literally all about surfing. All you see are surf shops, cafes with surf boards and tourists driving around on scooters with surfboards. Even our guesthouse had a room full of about 40 surfboards of guests or for rental. For breakfast the following day we went to the famous Uluwatu beach and realised why this area is all about the surfing. A cliff overlooking some massive surf and a beach that can only be reached by walking literally through a cave, this place was a haven for surf junkies. And definitely not a place for beginners.

In the afternoon we went up to the famous party area called Kuta to meet with my ex-Uni housemates Bex and Siobhan who were on a round the world trip. I hadn’t seen them in over 2 years so it was really great meeting up with them again. We spent the day chilling on Kuta beach, a massive stretch of golden sand full of tourists and surfers. Reminded me a bit of Golden Bay in Malta, except that the sea in Kuta was much more dirty.

The next 3 days were spent mostly in the Kuta region. We went out a couple of nights for some cocktails and dancing, spent a lot of time relaxing and swimming in Bex and Shiv’s hotel pool, ate a lot of good meals from the various restuarants around Kuta, went shopping and even went to the hairdresser so Shiv could get the side of her hair shaven off (and I spontaneously got some braides on one side too). We also visited Uluwatu temple, high up on a cliff, and watched some traditional Balinese dance which was actually quite weird and way too overcrowded with tourists so we left before it finished. On the final day, Shiv and I braved ourselves for a surfing lesson on the beach in Kuta. It was actually really fun, apart from all the water I swallowed and the various grazes I got from being unable to properly jump off the board. We both managed to stand up quite a few times and the guys teaching us made the hour even more fun by cheering us on.

Monday morning I bid my sad farewells to Bex and Shiv, promising that we would meet again before the end of the year, and I really hope we stick to those promises. Uluwatu and Kuta are surfing and partying meccas, and Marc and I were now ready to change the scene and indulge ourselves into the genuine Balinese culture which contrasts so blatantly with the culture in the south. So, we made our way to Ubud. If you have seen the film Eat, Pray, Love, you will understand why this place is so stunningly amazing and unique. But I will also explain soon 🙂

-Vanessa-

P.s. Have a look at my album of the trip here:

https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.azzopardi/media_set?set=a.10152349301442037.1073741834.621762036&type=3

Injured Osprey attempting to fly again.

Days 90 – 99 : Lahad Datu and Danum Valley

We had to drive across a part of Borneo for a good whole morning to get to Lahad Datu, the town gateway to the famous Danum Valley rainforest. It was a tiring journey to say the least. We ended up arriving at the park’s research office an hour too late on Friday and so we had to spend the weekend in this town. We decided to milk it and spent 2 euros more than usual on accommodation and got quite a comfortable place to sleep in, it was a gifted “time wasted in transit” moment. Plus Van got her pampering before roughing it up. We ended up spending 5 days in this local unexciting town as the next trip out to the Valley was the following Wednesday.

Valley upon valley, countryside across countryside and palm oil plantations are all I see nowadays outside cities across Indonesia and Malaysia. I can say with a breath of relief that going to Danum Valley was a breath of fresh air, literally. Before we even got to the park’s guarded entrance there was at least 10km of moderately dense rainforest. I had been waiting for a moment in this trip to truly feel like I am entering wild and uncontrolled terrain, and this was it. We saw a couple of Sambal Deer on the way there but the anxiousness and excitement came once we were told that there had been reports of elephants in the area in the past weeks, therefore our eyes were peeled the whole way until arriving at the research centre. Elephants were not seen though we did come across a lot of dung. We’re not ones to complain though as only a week ago we had come up close, like 1 metre close, to a herd of elephants along the river banks of the Kinabatagnan River.

We arrived late in the day and were briefed up by the park officials on the routines and rules of the centre. Once that was done they showed us to our lodging, being backpackers we obviously went for the most feasible but decent accommodation. Little did we know that over here they abided by certain Muslim laws and had separate huts for males and females….. Van’s face dropped and looked at me like a puppy that was taken away from its mother. I was obviously sad about that but it was pretty funny seeing her reaction. I did feel for her though as she was here because of me and the thought of her being surrounded by wild animals and bugs…many bugs, did make me try find ways to help her embrace the beautiful surroundings whilst not next to me hehe. This does not mean it worked, but that wasn’t my fault. She got unlucky.

Our first day here and we tried to trek around together and it started well up until I wanted to go deeper into the jungle and take heaps of photos. But before that happened we saw a female Orang-utan who came within 3 metres of us, but we kept our distance as we heard that this female is known to have attacked a woman in the past and she was hurt quite badly. However to be fair to the Orang-utan who has a massive tumour on her neck, it sounded like the woman who got attacked did not take the precautionary measures when being close to these amazing wild beings and it also sounded like she could have been the cause of the attack on herself. We didn’t get too far, the humidity and heat made sure of that. After maybe an hour of exploring we got back to camp and just chilled out and had a chat with some locals there. We thought it was best to acclimatise ourselves before taking on any more treks. I’d like to say it was a joint decision however Van seemed to have already taken a big liking to the camps resting area and was contemplating skipping the treks and instead making herself comfortable with her books and diary with a constant supply of tea/coffee and water whilst hearing the rainforest around her at a safe distance. Little did I know that this was a serious contemplation and I would be doing most treks alone.

We did make a good friend there through Mo Piercy, and I think he can back me up in saying that he found Van quite amusing on certain days. Especially with her obsession with leeches and constant questioning on whether or not she would get one stuck to her.

It felt like being at school again with the whole male and female separate quarters, bunking with dudes and sharing stories. Maybe minus the breaking stuff and playing tricks on one another, and sneaking into the girls quarters. One thing is for sure, it’s definitely a deep sleep you get into with all the peaceful sounds of the rainforest. I wish I could say the same for Van, she got a cockroach crawling on her one night and that didn’t give her much reason to sleep well that often.

Danum Valley itself is over 438km² and most of it is undisturbed. I only managed to scale the eastern area, through mapped paths or research paths which only led a few km’s into the rainforest. Most of the days I spent walking silently and at a slow but steady pace, just doing my best to get a glimpse of the wildlife that lives within this dense area. I mainly spent the treks foraging for big game such as monkeys, sun bear, civet cats, tarsier, elephants, deer and bearded pig. Stumbling on an Asian Pygmy Rhino would have been a dream, and a dream it will remain. With my gear at arm’s length, I did manage to get some shots of quite a few mammal species and more than a few bird species. One of the days I even spent about two hours up on a lookout tower with a family of big spiders and a hornets’ nest to keep me company as I wait patiently for some movement down below. One thing I learnt is that you have to be more than patient and a tad lucky to get a good glimpse of any big game, let alone capture some shots. Time has to be on your side, and I mean months. This is the wild, and that’s how it should be.

On one of my night walks with Ryan and a Scottish guy, we had our eyes peeled on every tree and moved like leopards on the hunt just trying to get a glimpse of a slow loris or a tarsier. Ever so elusive, the whole night walk search was in vain. It was awesome trekking through it at night though, the Rainforest can get extraordinary loud. We weren’t always this unlucky, on the third day here I went up on to the tree platform, which was about 7 stories high and overlooked the eastern part of the rainforest canopy and parts of the west. On the 5am start, Ryan and I witnessed a whole family of red leaf monkeys foraging through the tree tops and jumping from tree to tree, what a sight!

Then on our fourth day when we were on the way to a waterfall a few hours into the rainforest, we came upon a couple of Silvery Gibbons and guess what! Vanessa decided to join us for this one, knee high leech

socks and all. She wasn’t planning on having leeches on her…..hah yet she was the only one of us three who ended up getting one on her shoes, they didn’t get in thank god!

The trek to the waterfall was one of the best as it took us to some variable terrain and then the waterfall itself was pretty dreamy. A nice fresh water pool just below the main pool where the water fell. One metre up on the left lay another small jacuzzi-like pool, and that’s where we chilled for most of the time. It was perfect.

On the last day we enjoyed a drive to the top of a vantage point just before sunrise, and that’s when we saw an elusive civet cat just sprint from one side of the bush to another side. Too fast to get a shot but it was a cool sight. The Sunrise itself was amazing and mystic, it made the whole Danum Valley look like something out of a fantasy book with its jungle sounds and foggy outlook over the whole rainforest canopy. You would think that Dinosaurs lay waiting in that vast area of wilderness.

On our last days Vanessa kept on chilling at the camp or near our sleeping quarters and she did venture with me once or twice more, whilst I did my best to go on treks either alone or with Ryan and the two Jessica’s. I was pretty pleased with my photography on this expedition however I feel I will be back to try out a longer expedition, hopefully deeper into the jungle. Or maybe we will venture into the even wilder Maliau Basin, Ryan?

This was an awesome experience for the both of us in the end, Van may not go back into a Rainforest like this, but at least she knows what she will get into if she does and like that enjoy it even more.

Our roughing it up and wild adventures are over for now, off to magical Bali we go!

– Marc-