The last leg of our Indonesian adventure was incredible. After a long day of travel and hassles from Danu Toba to Medan, we arrived in Bukit Lawang. We decided to follow a delightful man named Amri into town by becak (a motor cycle with a tiny side car meant for two Indonesians or 1 and 1/2 Westerners). We checked into the fist place we saw (always a mistake...this one lacked a toilet seat and housed giant cockroaches), eager to eat and enjoy a cold Bintang. We spent the evening talking to Amri and opted to do a 2 day and 1 night trek into the jungle with him.
Some advice for choosing a jungle guide: Never choose anyone who pressures you, and make sure they have a sense of humor. If they invite you to their home to meet their wife and kids, you can probably trust them. Choose older individuals who appear to be in great shape (this usually means they've been trekking for a long time and still trek fairly often...they will most likely put you to shame as they race up the mountains at 41 years old and you huff and puff at 25). Choose someone born in the area you will be trekking; the longer they've lived in the area the more informed they are and chance are they care deeply for the place they live.
We spent the next day exploring the village. A rather small village, Bukit Lawang is surrounded by the Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser (national park), and rubber tree plantations. The village is cut in half by a river and connected by 2 swinging cable bridges ( ones seems much much sturdier than the other). We walked though the jungle trying to locate a place to use the internet. Not 6 meters into the trees, we were approached by a group of Macaques who stared for a second and got back to wrestling and grooming each other. The internet place was located in a childrens home, a place built to help support children who were effected by the massive flood that destroyed Bukit Lawang in 2003 killing more than 200 people. The internet wasn't working (due to lack of electricity, not at all uncommon) so we trekked onto the bat caves. We had to wake up the little 90 year- old- looking man to pay him and entrance fee and descended into a musty dark cave using old ladders and without a flash light. Exciting, but we couldn't see much due to our being unprepared without a torch.
That afternoon we headed to the orangutang feeding center. To cross the river, you squat in a tiny canoe and the locals just push you to the other side. While waiting for the park ranger, two orangs showed up by the river side to drink! They seemed unafraid of the people who were really close. I was standing on the opposite bank grumbling to myself that I couldn't be as close as those other people when a little organg came plodding out of the forest and walked right by me. I could have reached down my hand and pet his head. He sat about 1 meter away posing for pictures as he ate a whole rack of bananas. For the formal feeding, you hike up a steep hill to a platform. We hiked up with 2 other couples and while we were there, two orangs showed up to drink the milk and eat the bananas provided by the rangers. The orangs that come to the feedings are being rehabilitated back into the wild. Many come to the park as orphans who's mother was killed or as animals rescued from trade. Seeing them up close was amazing and got us very excited for the trek the next day. We reunited that night with our fantastic dutch friends Rose and Peter, enjoyed some cold beers, and called it a night to prepare for the morning.
Our trek into the jungle was amazing. Amri our guide was funny, knowledgeable, and respectful. We spent the day exploring the jungle. Unlike climbing up a volcano, in the jungle you go up very steep hills follow the ridges descend back to the river only to head right back up again. We saw another band of Macaques, and possibly the back side of a Thomas Leaf Monkey. Amri showed us how rubber was harvested, found clove trees for us to smell, fed us delicious rambutons, mangosteens, passion fruit, and tricked us into eating "jungle ice cream" which is really a bark that tastes like quinine (a natural remedy against malaria). All in all, we spotted 7 orangs. They are amazing to watch move through the trees. In fact, they get really close to you though they never touch the ground. We even got to see a mother with her little tiny baby. Seeing the little baby reminds you of how closely apes are related to human.
We ended our sweaty 7 hour trek on the bank of a refreshing river. The guides carried all our stuff across as we all jumped in and played in the water like little kids for the next hour. The dinner we had that night was incredible. Curried veggies, sweet chicken, potato cakes, and tea. The five star jungle hotel wasn't too shabby. A lean-to made of a stick frame and black tarps with one side completely open so you could see the fire flies at night. For fun, Amri challenged us with some riddles and introduced some new games that we can't wait to play late night in Bellingham. Sneak Preview: "This is a cup" "A what?"" A cup" "A what?" "A cup" "Oh, a cup" :)
We slept like orang babies that night (well, leon and I did) and woke to egg sandwichs and tea. The morning trek was a bit more difficult. It involved leeches, bush whacking, and a steep slippery slope. Our reward: floating back along the river in giant inner tubes. You sit in giant tubes with netted centers all tied together with your guides at the front and back navigating with long sticks so you don't crash into the rocky banks. It was the perfect way to end a sweaty jungle adventure. We arrived into Bukit Lawang, cleaned ourselves up, and watched a monsoon roll into town. Electricity went in and out that night so we said our goodbyes to our friends and went to bed early.
Caught the bus the Medan the next morning, but as exhausted as we were, we spent the day hiding from the noisy city in our expensive air conditioned hotel room. The next day we caught a ferry to Penang. It was perhaps the most frightening ferry ride I've ever had in my life. Thankfully there were not many people on board so we could lay down as the boat bounced along the choppy waters. My stomach felt like we were on a never ending roller coaster ride. If Penang wasn't so beautiful and delicious, that ferry ride would have left us miserable. So, here we sit in hot Malaysia trying to decide when to hit the beaches in southern Thailand....soon, I hope!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sumatra Pt. 1
Ok, folks its time for the run down on Sumatra!!! Oh, where to start, well we flew into Padang, where we randomly saw a friend from Bali. His name is Opi, and he taught me how to surf. Opi also introduced to us to some of his family who were SOOOO sweet and nice and it was an awesome experience. Well the next day we saw him and he gave a personal tour of Padang and the outlaying areas. We went on a very hot and cramped van ride to a waterfall outside of the city. I am not kidding when I say that there were 20 adults and 3 children in one of the opelets (public transport). Imagine a VW vanagon with 3 rows of bench seating, and filled to the brim with people. The waterfall was great and there was a group of locals who showed us to the top, it was very fun. After the trek to the waterfall we spent a couple of hours swimming in one of the pools to cool ourselves off. After another hot, but less cramped ride back to town we ate some delicious food and headed off to "Padang Festival". This was a small festival with vendors and different performances on different stages. Being the rock stars that we are, or should I say, being the rock star that Jessie is, she got invited on stage to introduce herself and do a little dance with one of the performers. Don't worry I got photographic evidence to prove it!
After Padang we left for Danu (Lake) Maninjau. We took a slightly less cramped public bus to Bukitingi and then caught a "chicken bus" to Lake M. On the way there you come down 44 hair pin turns, where macaques lined the roads, and motorcycles passed daringly around blind corners. However, Lake M. was great because it was not at all like Padang. We stayed at an incredibly nice homestay called Arlen, where we made some fantastic new friends and relaxed. The staff at Arlen were so great and really made us feel like family for the few days we were there. In Lake M. we also rented a scooter and rode all around the lake, which was formed by a crater many, many years ago. We ate lots of great food and enjoyed a few Bintangs (Indonesias best beer!) read books and swam, it was the ideal place to wash off the craziness of Padang. While in Lake M. we made two really awesome friends, Peter and Rose and we decided to take the trip to Danu Toba together.
Oh, the trip to Lake Toba will forever be in my memory as one of the worst rides ever. The trip was doomed from the start when only a half hour in, on of the bags that was poorly secured to the roof of the vehicle flew off and hit another car going the opposite direction. This truly was an omen of how the trip was going to be. After a lot of discussion we all decided to stick with the mini van and continue to Lake Toba. All of the gear, except Jessie's bag and mine went inside the vehicle, while I made sure that our stuff was not going to go flying off in the middle of night while we were asleep. Well, little did we know, there was going to absolutely no sleeping on this trip. The roads in Sumatra vary from really nice smooth two lane roads, to super bumpy gravel roads in the middle of the jungle. Not too mention that we had 3 people in the back and the middle seats of the mini van, so our legs were perpetually cramped. Mini vans in Indonesia are meant to fit Indonesians who are for the most part not as tall as Westerners, so we all cozyied up with one another and toughed it out. And this is not an exaggeration, there were parts of the road that had been destroyed by a landslide a few years ago, and they still have not been repaired. Some of the roads in the jungle are one lane, one and a half at best, but vehicles come from both directions. We had a couple of late night close calls, and no one was able to sleep. Finally around dawn the next day, as our driver was falling asleep at the wheel, the roads got better and running on a fumes we arrived in Parapat to head off to Samosir Island, aka Lake Toba.
Lake Toba was our reward for the horrendous 15 hour ride. We took a slow ferry to a very cheap guesthouse and again relaxed for 4 days. Samosir Island, which is surrounded by Lake Toba is the largest island on an island in the world. The lake was created by, and I am paraphrasing here, "the largest volcanic explosion in history". Whether this is true or not I am not sure, but its a little tidbit that I read on the back of a menu at a restaurant. With that said, Lake Toba was by far my most favorite place in Sumatra. The accomodation was very, very cheap and there were so many cafes and restaurants that you could eat 3 meals a day a different places for a week or more!! Often our food cost as much as our room, which was only like 50,000 rupiah (about 5$ US). Our room had a fantastic view of the lake and we were only 50 feet from the water. We spent afternoons reading on the balcony, swimming when we finally got too hot and drinking ice cold Bintangs before dinner. We also went on a fantastic bike ride, and would have ventured further but our bike seats were extremely uncomfortable (probably due to our nice cushy bike seats back in B'ham). We stopped at some stone ruins and replied "halo" to nearly every child that said "halo mister!". After a few fantastic and unforgettable days on Lake Toba, we finally decided to move on to Bukit Luwang....
Jessie will update you on this part of our adventure....
A few funny observations about Sumatra:
1. The buses seem to comprise of father son teams. The father drives while the son hollers at people on the street telling them where the bus goes. The son also collects money from people on the bus and calls out the father when they need to stop and let some one off. The also make sure that the buses are completely full and by full I mean absolutely no room left for people to even stand.
2. The music. Now this one gets two sub-catagories:
a. Karoke is huge on the buses. They play music videos with the lyrics on the screen like
they do at Karoke nights. This is the point in the trip where I put on the head phones and
listen to the ipod.
b. Teenage singers. This consists of 1-3 young adolescent boys coming on to your bus and
and singing songs for the people sitting down. I have no idea what they were singing, but
people like it enough and give usually give them some rupiah. They get on the bus for a few
kilometers and then get off, or they come on when the bus stops somewhere to pick up
more passengers. Again, I usually put on the head phones.
3. Indonesians drive like madmen! They are constantly beeping at other drivers, bikers and
pedestrians. Drivers are on the horn as much as the gas.
After Padang we left for Danu (Lake) Maninjau. We took a slightly less cramped public bus to Bukitingi and then caught a "chicken bus" to Lake M. On the way there you come down 44 hair pin turns, where macaques lined the roads, and motorcycles passed daringly around blind corners. However, Lake M. was great because it was not at all like Padang. We stayed at an incredibly nice homestay called Arlen, where we made some fantastic new friends and relaxed. The staff at Arlen were so great and really made us feel like family for the few days we were there. In Lake M. we also rented a scooter and rode all around the lake, which was formed by a crater many, many years ago. We ate lots of great food and enjoyed a few Bintangs (Indonesias best beer!) read books and swam, it was the ideal place to wash off the craziness of Padang. While in Lake M. we made two really awesome friends, Peter and Rose and we decided to take the trip to Danu Toba together.
Oh, the trip to Lake Toba will forever be in my memory as one of the worst rides ever. The trip was doomed from the start when only a half hour in, on of the bags that was poorly secured to the roof of the vehicle flew off and hit another car going the opposite direction. This truly was an omen of how the trip was going to be. After a lot of discussion we all decided to stick with the mini van and continue to Lake Toba. All of the gear, except Jessie's bag and mine went inside the vehicle, while I made sure that our stuff was not going to go flying off in the middle of night while we were asleep. Well, little did we know, there was going to absolutely no sleeping on this trip. The roads in Sumatra vary from really nice smooth two lane roads, to super bumpy gravel roads in the middle of the jungle. Not too mention that we had 3 people in the back and the middle seats of the mini van, so our legs were perpetually cramped. Mini vans in Indonesia are meant to fit Indonesians who are for the most part not as tall as Westerners, so we all cozyied up with one another and toughed it out. And this is not an exaggeration, there were parts of the road that had been destroyed by a landslide a few years ago, and they still have not been repaired. Some of the roads in the jungle are one lane, one and a half at best, but vehicles come from both directions. We had a couple of late night close calls, and no one was able to sleep. Finally around dawn the next day, as our driver was falling asleep at the wheel, the roads got better and running on a fumes we arrived in Parapat to head off to Samosir Island, aka Lake Toba.
Lake Toba was our reward for the horrendous 15 hour ride. We took a slow ferry to a very cheap guesthouse and again relaxed for 4 days. Samosir Island, which is surrounded by Lake Toba is the largest island on an island in the world. The lake was created by, and I am paraphrasing here, "the largest volcanic explosion in history". Whether this is true or not I am not sure, but its a little tidbit that I read on the back of a menu at a restaurant. With that said, Lake Toba was by far my most favorite place in Sumatra. The accomodation was very, very cheap and there were so many cafes and restaurants that you could eat 3 meals a day a different places for a week or more!! Often our food cost as much as our room, which was only like 50,000 rupiah (about 5$ US). Our room had a fantastic view of the lake and we were only 50 feet from the water. We spent afternoons reading on the balcony, swimming when we finally got too hot and drinking ice cold Bintangs before dinner. We also went on a fantastic bike ride, and would have ventured further but our bike seats were extremely uncomfortable (probably due to our nice cushy bike seats back in B'ham). We stopped at some stone ruins and replied "halo" to nearly every child that said "halo mister!". After a few fantastic and unforgettable days on Lake Toba, we finally decided to move on to Bukit Luwang....
Jessie will update you on this part of our adventure....
A few funny observations about Sumatra:
1. The buses seem to comprise of father son teams. The father drives while the son hollers at people on the street telling them where the bus goes. The son also collects money from people on the bus and calls out the father when they need to stop and let some one off. The also make sure that the buses are completely full and by full I mean absolutely no room left for people to even stand.
2. The music. Now this one gets two sub-catagories:
a. Karoke is huge on the buses. They play music videos with the lyrics on the screen like
they do at Karoke nights. This is the point in the trip where I put on the head phones and
listen to the ipod.
b. Teenage singers. This consists of 1-3 young adolescent boys coming on to your bus and
and singing songs for the people sitting down. I have no idea what they were singing, but
people like it enough and give usually give them some rupiah. They get on the bus for a few
kilometers and then get off, or they come on when the bus stops somewhere to pick up
more passengers. Again, I usually put on the head phones.
3. Indonesians drive like madmen! They are constantly beeping at other drivers, bikers and
pedestrians. Drivers are on the horn as much as the gas.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Lombok
We find ourselves back in Bali today preparing for our morning flight to Padang Sumatra tomorrow morning. We arrived yesterday exhausted from a 5 hour ludicrous ferry ride (looking back, I'm pretty sure the ferry driver was trying to do donuts in the sea) and should-have-been-1-hr-turned-into-4 bus ride. Our amazing days on the island ofLombok heavily out weigh the pain of leaving.
We left the Gili Islands by a long boat ferry ride into Bangsal harbor. Public transportation in Indoesia is always exciting. We usually make a couple friends, hear some good stories, suffer a bit of mortion sickness, and frequently unload from the boats shin deep in water with our bags held high over our head. We hoped into the first Bemo ( atansport van) after a bit of haggling and settled in for the couple hour ride into Senaru. We traveld up the coast and into the interior of the island. Rice paddies, tobacco plants, grey macaques, and little shops selling petrol and snacks line the roads. People stare and smile as you go by and the little kids always yell "HALO!!" We arrived in one piece to Emys home stay ( I say one piece because driving in Indonesia is a skill and an art involving small lanes, a million scooters, and a 'might-is-right' right of way). We were greeted by Hardy, a middle aged Lombok man in a fancy clean hat who speaks a couple of key phrases in many languages. We spent that day exploring the waterfalls in Senaru with a group of French, Canadian, and Danish people. The first waterfall was beautiful, but the second looked like a scene from a movie.
To get there you need a guide (non english speaking of course) to lead you along the irrigation channel, bring you over the railingless bridge with foot wide gaps and cross the river a couple of times. As you approach the waterfall, you carefully navigate your bare feet along slippery rocks. You can hear the roar of the water from away back and the air is full of the mist spraying out of the outfall pool. the waterfall comes pouring out of the forest 80 feet overhead. we stored our stuff in a little alcove or rocks and swam through the crystal clear waterfall pool. The water is sofresh that you can open your eyes under water and see pretty clearly. It was breath taking.
That night we arranged for our trekk upMt. Rinjani. We stared around 10 am the next morning running a bit late as all the porters and guides had to vote in the preseidential election before we left. We spent the next 7 hours climbing straight up. I'm not joking. When you hike up a volcanoe there is no other direction than up. You feel like a huge wuss when you are dripping with sweat, out of breath, and your barefoot porter is carrying all of your food and camping equipment, chain smoking ciggerettes, and grinning fromear to ear. Luckily, we made it to the top in time for the sunset over the Gili islands. You are currently only allowed to climb to the crator rim because the volcanoe inside the crator is active and the gases coming from it are dangerous. At night, you can see lava glowing and creeping down the sides. We spent a very sleepless night on the rim of the volcanoe. Not only is the volcanoe rumbling and grumbling like a thunderstorm, but the wind was literaly blowing the tent so that the side of the wall could hit our noses as we braced ourselves against the ground. At one point, the rain fly was ripped off completly by the wind which allowed us to watch the moon travel across the sky making room for the sun. We would be hiking down the next morning on maybe one hour of sleep. Luckily, working with gravity takes less energy than working against it. We walk, ran, raced, jumped, and slipped down the mountain in about 3.5 hours, and took our first chance to hop on a bus for the beach.
We arrived on Kuta, Lombok ( much different than Kuta on Bali), showered, ate, and went to sleep. We we woke up the next morning after 12 slid hours of rest, neither of us could walk properly. It felt like we had alternated between hour long wall sits and hour long horse back rides for a day. We did nothing but lay around on the completely deserted beach and play rummy. We did manage to move ourselves to eat lunch with our super cool friend Dana who was also sore as she had climbed the mountain as well. The next couple days were spent recooperating and exploring Kuta by scooter. For all the hotels being completely booked, we were pretty much the only foreigners on any of the beaches. The water was beautiful emerald green and the landscape was interesting with karst formations and mangrove like trees gowing out of the sea. Unfortunetly, we had to leave to return to the crazy Kuta on Bali. Now, we are going to go enjoy some ice cold Bin Tang and say good bye to Bali.
A little side note: the supposedly "water proof" camera that leon bought before we left turned out not to be "sea proof". Luckliy, the nice folks we hiked with said they would send us their pics of rinjani. So, we broke down and bought a cheap digital camera today. All in all, this means we should have pictures coming!
We left the Gili Islands by a long boat ferry ride into Bangsal harbor. Public transportation in Indoesia is always exciting. We usually make a couple friends, hear some good stories, suffer a bit of mortion sickness, and frequently unload from the boats shin deep in water with our bags held high over our head. We hoped into the first Bemo ( atansport van) after a bit of haggling and settled in for the couple hour ride into Senaru. We traveld up the coast and into the interior of the island. Rice paddies, tobacco plants, grey macaques, and little shops selling petrol and snacks line the roads. People stare and smile as you go by and the little kids always yell "HALO!!" We arrived in one piece to Emys home stay ( I say one piece because driving in Indonesia is a skill and an art involving small lanes, a million scooters, and a 'might-is-right' right of way). We were greeted by Hardy, a middle aged Lombok man in a fancy clean hat who speaks a couple of key phrases in many languages. We spent that day exploring the waterfalls in Senaru with a group of French, Canadian, and Danish people. The first waterfall was beautiful, but the second looked like a scene from a movie.
To get there you need a guide (non english speaking of course) to lead you along the irrigation channel, bring you over the railingless bridge with foot wide gaps and cross the river a couple of times. As you approach the waterfall, you carefully navigate your bare feet along slippery rocks. You can hear the roar of the water from away back and the air is full of the mist spraying out of the outfall pool. the waterfall comes pouring out of the forest 80 feet overhead. we stored our stuff in a little alcove or rocks and swam through the crystal clear waterfall pool. The water is sofresh that you can open your eyes under water and see pretty clearly. It was breath taking.
That night we arranged for our trekk upMt. Rinjani. We stared around 10 am the next morning running a bit late as all the porters and guides had to vote in the preseidential election before we left. We spent the next 7 hours climbing straight up. I'm not joking. When you hike up a volcanoe there is no other direction than up. You feel like a huge wuss when you are dripping with sweat, out of breath, and your barefoot porter is carrying all of your food and camping equipment, chain smoking ciggerettes, and grinning fromear to ear. Luckily, we made it to the top in time for the sunset over the Gili islands. You are currently only allowed to climb to the crator rim because the volcanoe inside the crator is active and the gases coming from it are dangerous. At night, you can see lava glowing and creeping down the sides. We spent a very sleepless night on the rim of the volcanoe. Not only is the volcanoe rumbling and grumbling like a thunderstorm, but the wind was literaly blowing the tent so that the side of the wall could hit our noses as we braced ourselves against the ground. At one point, the rain fly was ripped off completly by the wind which allowed us to watch the moon travel across the sky making room for the sun. We would be hiking down the next morning on maybe one hour of sleep. Luckily, working with gravity takes less energy than working against it. We walk, ran, raced, jumped, and slipped down the mountain in about 3.5 hours, and took our first chance to hop on a bus for the beach.
We arrived on Kuta, Lombok ( much different than Kuta on Bali), showered, ate, and went to sleep. We we woke up the next morning after 12 slid hours of rest, neither of us could walk properly. It felt like we had alternated between hour long wall sits and hour long horse back rides for a day. We did nothing but lay around on the completely deserted beach and play rummy. We did manage to move ourselves to eat lunch with our super cool friend Dana who was also sore as she had climbed the mountain as well. The next couple days were spent recooperating and exploring Kuta by scooter. For all the hotels being completely booked, we were pretty much the only foreigners on any of the beaches. The water was beautiful emerald green and the landscape was interesting with karst formations and mangrove like trees gowing out of the sea. Unfortunetly, we had to leave to return to the crazy Kuta on Bali. Now, we are going to go enjoy some ice cold Bin Tang and say good bye to Bali.
A little side note: the supposedly "water proof" camera that leon bought before we left turned out not to be "sea proof". Luckliy, the nice folks we hiked with said they would send us their pics of rinjani. So, we broke down and bought a cheap digital camera today. All in all, this means we should have pictures coming!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Leaving The Gili Islands
So we have been hanging out on Gili Trawangan for the last 5 days or so. To say the least it has been really awesome!! Our Indonesia leg of the trip began in Bali, in the party town of Kuta, where I learned to surf and Jessie caught sunshine all day. Kuta was great fun, but very busy. Not nearly as busy as Bangkok though. The beach looked like it went on forever, and the food was good. We splurged for 3 days on a hotel, which had its own pool and served a light breakfast every morning. After 3 days in Kuta we decided to split and head for the Gilis. The Gilis are a set of 3 tiny islands off the northwest of another island called Lombok.
The Gilis are super cool and you can walk around Gili "T", the largest one, in about 1 1/2 hours. We know that because we did it! The water off the beach ranges from beautiful turquoise to emerald green and is perfect for swimming in all day. The snorkeling here has also been fantastic. I don't know where else you can do this, but we got to see sea turtles in the water just doing their thing!! Really, really epic. I should also mention that the coral gardens and various tropical fish are abundant and breathtakingly beautiful but the turtle are by far the coolest thing. The food and accommodations here are relatively cheap and the people are great. We noticed that for the first part of our trip things have been getting more and more relaxed. For example, we flew into Bangkok and hung out there for about 5 days. Bangkok is a crazy city with crazy drivers and lots and lots of people everywhere all the time. Then we got to Kuta in Bali and things slowed down a lot. Still lots of people, but not on the scale that there was in Bangkok. Instead of navigating a giant city we walked to the beach every single day, and drank Bintangs (the beer in Indonesia) at night. But after dealing with the party town of Kuta we decided to head out and go to the Gili Islands.
Gili T was our destination and we got here by boat. The ride from Pandang Bai was 3.5 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. We got to watch the sun disappear into the horizon right next to a giant mountain on Bali! It was spectacular!! Then right around dusk we arrived at Gili T. The motto here on Gili T is, "No cars, no bikes, no dogs, no worries" and that is really the truth!! Gili T has been awesome and we are sad to have to leave. But the time has come for us to move on. Tomorrow in the early morning we will catch a boat to Lombok where more adventures await.
Til next time,
L & J
The Gilis are super cool and you can walk around Gili "T", the largest one, in about 1 1/2 hours. We know that because we did it! The water off the beach ranges from beautiful turquoise to emerald green and is perfect for swimming in all day. The snorkeling here has also been fantastic. I don't know where else you can do this, but we got to see sea turtles in the water just doing their thing!! Really, really epic. I should also mention that the coral gardens and various tropical fish are abundant and breathtakingly beautiful but the turtle are by far the coolest thing. The food and accommodations here are relatively cheap and the people are great. We noticed that for the first part of our trip things have been getting more and more relaxed. For example, we flew into Bangkok and hung out there for about 5 days. Bangkok is a crazy city with crazy drivers and lots and lots of people everywhere all the time. Then we got to Kuta in Bali and things slowed down a lot. Still lots of people, but not on the scale that there was in Bangkok. Instead of navigating a giant city we walked to the beach every single day, and drank Bintangs (the beer in Indonesia) at night. But after dealing with the party town of Kuta we decided to head out and go to the Gili Islands.
Gili T was our destination and we got here by boat. The ride from Pandang Bai was 3.5 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. We got to watch the sun disappear into the horizon right next to a giant mountain on Bali! It was spectacular!! Then right around dusk we arrived at Gili T. The motto here on Gili T is, "No cars, no bikes, no dogs, no worries" and that is really the truth!! Gili T has been awesome and we are sad to have to leave. But the time has come for us to move on. Tomorrow in the early morning we will catch a boat to Lombok where more adventures await.
Til next time,
L & J
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
