IndonesiaProvinsi Nusa Tenggara TimurDesa Pasirpanjang8°43’58” S 119°39’41” E
21 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
IndonesiaProvinsi Nusa Tenggara TimurCempaBukit Firdaus8°29’23” S 119°52’43” E 20 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 28 °C
Yesterday I left Gili air early in the morning. I had asked many salesmen if it was possible for me to leave in the morning and get to the airport in time for my 2pm flight, as in would it 100% be possible. To which they told me yes, the journey takes 2.5 hours and the boat goes at 8.30am. So I chose to stay the extra night on Gili Air and I enjoyed a night out with an old Australian hippy I had met diving. Then I got up early and went to the ferry port.....8.30 came and went and the guy started making announcements in Indonesian. Then I noticed a sign that says the boat goes only once 40 passengers are ready, so obviously all the locals strole along whenever it suits them as they know the boat won't have left on time.....so I just patiently thinking I had plenty of time, even if the boat was late. Eventually at 9.30 the boat has enough passengers and we took the 15 minute journey to Lombok mainland. From there I had been told to walk to the office to get the bus to the airport, but a guy on a bike insisted on taking me there. When I arrived the guy in the office was annoyed at me for being late and said the bus had left already. I told him it was beyond my control and explained all the conversations I had had with ticketsalesmen who told me I would definitely have enough time for the journey. He was stressing because the journey from there to airport was apparently 2.5 hours. In the end he took me on his bike to meet a minibus and the minibus dropped me at the airport. I got there in plenty of time and never really felt any stress myself from the experience, but learnt not to take salesmen's word in future! Anyway I arrived in Komodo on time and was glad for those people that helped me get here. Of course they tried to cheat me for extra money, but I told them no chance. And that was that.
I have come to Komodo to do a live aboard dive trip with one of the girls I met in Bali back in January. She flies in from Australia tomorrow morning, having been back home for work.
I have wanted to come to Komodo for a long time, to see the dragon. But now I am a diver it is even more appealing. Known to be one the best places in Indonesia for diving, with strong currents that bring in big sharks and manta rays for feeding, amongst other things. I expect some challenging dives but brilliant visibility and amazing things to see. I have chosen a reputable company who take divers in very small groups so that current dives can be safe, and take divers to different entrance points for dives depending on their experience. I have also managed to wangle a 250euro discount.
The boat sleeps 10 guests. We will do up to 13 dives over 4 days. We also visit an island to trek where many Komodo dragons are and another island for a sunset trek. The food on the boat looks incredible. It is going to be another indulgent experience.
I probably won't be able to use internet until off the boat on 24th, so don't worry if I haven't updated this.Leggi altro
IndonesiaWest Nusa TenggaraGili Air8°21’42” S 116°5’0” E
17 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
I am living the most perfect existence on this island. The days starts early for diving and I take a nice walk on the quiet streets (that have no vehicles other than the occasional bike or horse drawn carriage) to my dive shop, which is on the east of the island and has a great view of Lombok and Rinjani Volcano.
Then I go diving, for the past two days I have done two dives in the morning. The coral isn't amazing, a lot of it has died unfortunately, but still there is a lot to see and the dive sites are very easy so it is incredibly peaceful. Yesterday in the first dive I saw three white tip shark, one juvenile chilling out under a coral bomb and a couple of turtles and a beautiful scorpian fish-these are fish that have incredible camouflage into their surroundings and are always a delight to see because you feel like you have caught then out. This dive was on a purposefully sank boat that is becoming a living reef.
The next dive had some purposefully sank bikes that are becoming living reefs and we saw some cuttlefish-these are beautiful to see as they charge electricity through themselves somehow so that they light up.
Then today we have seen loads of turtles, that let us get so close to them you can watch fish clean their shells, more scorpion fish and a frogfish. Frogfish are incredibly wierd looking and blend so well with their surroundings I have no idea how anyone ever spots them. We saw some school of great travelli and some huge tuna like fish, of the Benali family. There are always many other fish around, but I just mention the ones that were a particular treat to see. There are always trigger fish, angel fish, anemone fish (Nemo), surgeon fish, sweetlips, grouse-we float around surrounded by the world's biggest aquarium!
After diving I take a walk and find a quiet spot on the beach (which isn't hard) and read my book for a couple of hours. It's still wet season, so the sky isn't always clear. But it is warm and very pleasant to lie in, without ever feeling like the heat might suffocate me. Then I do some yoga in my very well air conditioned room, before taking a walk to a beach on the west of the island for a sunset beer. Unfortunately the clouds prevent the most beautiful sunset, but it is relaxing all the same. I take a walk and find dinner and then go to bed....to do it all again next day. I'm not sure life gets better than this.
I have written this in a restaurant in the dark because we had a powercut. It happens, so I have learnt. And it just makes you live even more simply than this quiet island already demands. Candlelit dinner, tasting the flavours without being entirely sure what is on the plate. And no internet, the final cut off to the outside world. Bliss. (Obviously I am posting once the power returned, WiFi is necessary for some things!)Leggi altro
IndonesiaBaliToyapakehTukad Banjarnyuh8°40’38” S 115°29’19” E 15 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ 🌫 30 °C
After leaving the retreat I took a taxi to Sanur, which is a town on the seafront near to the airport, but not as near as the awful place Kuta-which is the part of Bali most heavily populated with drunk Aussies and trashy bars and clubs. Sanur is still very touristy, but having spent just an evening in both places it is definitely my preferred location. There is a long seafront of almost 10km and the whole thing is lined with restaurants, bars, hotels and stalls. I spent the evening walking along it and I treated myself to a beer on the beach at sunset. Then I had some delicious local food in the night market. My favourite dish here is gado gado-a salad of green beans, bean sprouts, tofu, Tempe and a spicy peanut sauce.
I stayed at Sanur so I could take the boat to Nusa Penida in the morning, an island I was told to go to by Marla to visit her friend in her dive shop. It is quite a big Island within eyesite of Bali. I just took a flying visit through as my next destination is somewhere I want to relax for a few days. The main reason for me to come here was because supposedly you can dive with manta rays, every single day they are at a site where they clean themselves on the coral. I've seen a lot of sealife, but have never seen manta rays and so it was something I was quite excited about.
We left for the dive in the morning, the site was on the southern part of the island and the journey took about 40minutes. The view of the island was impressive,-jurassic looking with steep cliffs and trees miraculously growing out of rock. The waves were crashing at some places and the resulting erosion caused some serious carvings and impressive rock sculptures. The waves on the sea were fairly big as well and the boat was rocking a lot. When we got to manta point, which is a large rock off the southern point of the island, we entered the water with backrolls into the sea. We went down and had a disappointing dive. The visibility was very poor, the waves were stirring up the sand and it meant in some places we couldn't see more than 2meters away. The swell of the waves was also quite strong, so we had less control on our movement which restricted where we could go. The main cleaning station was in the shallows and my guide was not comfortable to go there in these conditions. We spent 50minutes down at about 16-18ma, hoping the mantas would come and surprise us at any moment. Instead we saw lots of blue spotted stingrays, many of which were mating, and a school of catfish. But it was nothing as exciting as what I hoped. When we came up everyone was saying how unlucky we were because in recent days the visibility had been great. A few people saw about 5 manta rays at the cleaning station, but they said it was a poor sighting because the visibility was so bad. I was disappointed, but accepted this was the beauty of nature-it is unpredictable, sometimes it brings surprises that are like a gift and sometimes it doesn't. The excitement of it is that whatever happens it is real nature, not a man made or manipulated environment. So on this occasion I took the bad, for I have and my fair share of good dives recently!
After lunch we stopped at a bay on the way back to the dive shop to dive a site called crystal bay. This was a completely different experience. The visibility was brilliant-we could see 20-30m and there were thousands of fish everywhere. There was a lot of coral, but some of it had been damaged by a big storm last year. We could see where it had been knocked down by falling rocks, causing it to break. We saw many types of fish and coral, some of which I had not seen before. Some cornetfish (very long, thin silver fish with pointed noses and big eyes) were glowing with electricity, lighting up in a shiny blue. It just amazes me what happens down there! Then the finale to complete the dive was a sighting of a common seahorse. I am always amazed when someone finds something like this because they blend in with their environment and hardly move. The swell was moving it with the wave movements and it was clinging with its tail to a piece of coral. The second dive made up for the first dive and concluded the day with positivity.
I spend the rest of the day in the pool at the dive shop, which was in front of the beach and had a view of Bali. It was a fine location, I could see why Lauren had opened a shop here!
Now I am waiting for the boat which will take me to Gilli Air. There are three Gilli islands and I am going to the quiet one that has no motor vehicles and is walkable. One of the islands is known as party Isla d and the other is a resort island. I'm going to Gilli air for more diving and to do some yoga. I will send 3-4 nights there.Leggi altro
IndonesiaBaliToyapakehTukad Banjarnyuh8°40’44” S 115°29’16” E
13 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Whilst at the yoga retreat the other guests requested to visit the Shaman, which is not something I really wanted to do, but as it was cheap and new experience I thought 'why not?'. I had heard from another traveler I read a bizarre but enlightening experience.
A Shaman is a man that Balinese people believe is in touch with the spiritual world, he can communicate with spirits and read people's auras. To become a Shaman you visit a Shaman and they help it happen, but I haven't been able to get any clear answer as to how or why this happens really. With his gift he helps people in their life with physical, health and practical support. In Bali 50% of people will chose to visit a Shaman instead of a doctor, but this is perhaps because he is cheaper and they have to pay for all healthcare services.
I entered the experience with an open mind, but am perfectly happy with my life and have nothing I need him to cure or give me guidance with. So perhaps this was part of the problem.
For the experience we had to wear local clothing, which was a long skirt and lace top and a scarf around our waist. Then we were taken to the Shamans property. It was a typical Balinese building, within nice gardens and with many bird cages all around. They collect birds and on Sundays they have competitions to see whose bird makes the best song. The Shaman had some lovely birds, including a little owl. I couldn't help but pity them, a creature with the ultimate freedom-the gift of flight, restricted to a small cage for its' whole life.
We sat for a long time on the floor outside the Shamans room whilst he pottered around the property blessing various things. Then eventually we were blessed by his assistant, which involved having water put on our hands, in our hair and we were to to drink it three times from our hands. The lady was putting it onto us with a lotus flower. I pretended to drink it as it felt like asking for gut trouble otherwise! Finally we were blessed with water on our foreheads and we had to put rice onto it. We then had to meditate whilst holding onto incense in front of our chest. It wasn't a nice experience because the incense was burning right into our noses and the ash dropping on our legs. But it meant we were blessed!
After the blessing we entered the Shamans room individually and a man from our retreat sat in with us to translate. The room was small, had incense in it and lots of random statues, one of which was a scary looking pig. The Shaman sat on the floor and we sat in front of him. The Shaman blessed us and gave us a bracelet for our right hand and instructed us to wipe our bottom with our left hand because now our right hand was holy and in touch with the gods. He then put his thumb against ours and muttered some stuff, held the elbow tightly whilst still muttering and then did the same at our shoulder and head. From this he had sensed our aura. He told me that I still had good energy. Given how sceptical I am and how hungry I was after waiting so long for him I wouldn't have been surprised if my energy was bad to him! (he told Brooke she had bad energy, so he wasn't just being nice to us all.) Then I was to ask his a question. Thankfully as I was last I had been prepared for this, had I gone first I would have had no idea what to say because I have nothing I expect him to help me with and nothing in my life that needs to change. However with a stretch of imagination I told him I would like a partner to share my life with. He then did more of the holding arm and muttering stuff and then he replied telling me that I should use my god's as my support and guidance and speak with them. I told him I don't believe in any god's! So then he told me that in Balinese culture they believe everyone has four brothers on the earth who they can rely on and speak with and that I should use my brother's for guidance and support. So I said 'right, so I'm meant to live a lonely life but speak to my brothers more?!', 'yes' was my reply. I asked if he meant my actual brothers, because it was not really very clear from his lar-dee-dah description of brothers and guidance, and he said yes. He told me to ask my brother for guidance and advice and I told him my brother wants different things for my life than what I do, to which he had no reply. Then he asked what other questions I had and I told him I was perfectly happy with my life and had nothing else to ask him....so I left his room thinking what a waste of time it was. I am sure he probably now felt I had bad energy, as I did not believe in the same things as him!
After all our meetings with him we had a final blessing and then he came outside of his room. We were told that he loses his power once he outside of the rooms and so now he is a normal person, and did we want a photo with him?! I couldn't help thinking what a scam the whole thing was, and how they wanted to promote it with photos of him being taken. The other women were far less sinical so I kept my views to myself and went along with it.
Kathy was told she had good energy and she was given advice about her career and her personal life and Brooke was told she has bad energy and then received advice about many parts of her life. I think my encounter was the shortest and by the sounds of it I got the most wishy washy reply, but perhaps this is because I didn't really expect anything of him and even though there some truth that I would like a partner I certainly don't expect that meeting an old man in Bali is going to make this happen! So maybe he really can read people's auras and knew not to waste his time on me, as a non believer.....or maybe it was just an imaginative and bizarre performance that had no real insight into my future, but was weird and wonderful enough to make someone believe. I'll let you decide.
I don't doubt that for some people the Shaman can help them in their life, but I do doubt I need him to help mine. As a positive and secure person I have all I need. Personally I think people with less confidence and who have experienced a hard time in life they are looking for something to give them positivity. The Shaman could be this for them and once they believe they have been helped they then make more confident choices in life, which coincidentally helps to solve the problems they initially had. So whether he is in touch with another spiritual world or not, his contribution to those who believe is worthwhile and harmlessly makes a difference.
I am glad to have the experience, it is fascinating to see how different our beliefs can be when we all live on the same planet and have the same basic needs. But as you can probably tell my life hasn't been changed and I certainly haven't given up hope in meeting someone, just because an old man in Bali told me it won't happen!Leggi altro
IndonesiaBaliSesandan Kangin8°27’33” S 115°3’45” E
11 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
I am currently at a yoga retreat in a remote part of Bali, surrounded by beautiful rice fields and palm trees. It is not quite what I expected as I thought I was staying in a local persons home. In fact I have my own room at the yoga centre, so it's a bit nicer than I expected! There are two other women here at the moment, a 51 year old Aussie and a 34 year American girl. Other people from local resorts come into our yoga classes as well.
I did not sleep on the train to get here overnight so I arrived exhausted and took an early night soon after dinner, but had time for a massage beforehand! There is not a lot to do in the evening anyway.
Next morning I woke up and realised it is my birthday! Obviously I knew it was coming, but when not with friends or family it could easily just pass by without being noticed. However I had told everyone here so I did receive some greetings. We had a yoga class and then went to a lovely waterfall and relaxed there for the morning. After lunch and the afternoon yoga class we were 'Trash Heroes', which is rubbish pickers. I thought it was quite funny I was basically doing community service on my birthday, but it was wholesome and felt good to be helping the locals look after their environment....just a shame they litter the place in the first place! The walk ended at a shop where we could buy beer, so the birthday 'celebrations' began. We had a few more beers with dinner and before dinner the staff blessed me for my birthday. I had to wear local clothes and they used a lotus flower dipped in water to put water on me and then bless me by sticking rice to the water. Meanwhile they were wishing good things for me . They presented me with a basket of blessings, including a boiled egg, some cooked rice, bananas, fruits and many different local made sweets. And they made a local drink which was coconut water with sugar, salt and chilli-surprisinglt good. They told me to eat it all, but considering I was about to have dinner I told them I couldn't. It was nice to see their way of doing things and to have had something special done for me.
One of the men who works here has a 4 year old son, his mother passed away 3 years ago and he has no grandparents. The little boy, Billy is craving love and tries to cuddle us all. His dad is great with him, but he obviously just wants a Mum. Last night I started playing with him and now he has taken a liking to me and sits on my knee and cuddles me all the time, it is very cute, but a little heartbreaking. Last night he fell asleep in my arms as I sang him a lullaby and then when his dad took him to bed he cried hysterically. I had to tell myself all kids cry when they get woken to go to bed.....shortly later when I went to the shop for more beer with his dad he was awake again and wanted to come with me, by my side the whole time. I have asked his dad if it is ok and he says it is fine. I suppose he is used to propel coming and going all the time.
The yoga here is a different style to my usual practice, it is more spiritual and involves some chanting to hindu gods. It is a very calming experience and fascinating to learn the traditional philosophy of it. I cannot say I believe in what it is supposed to do, but it certainly helps to get into a meditative state. The physical part of the classes involves a slightly different variation of the main series of poses that is used in all yoga- sun salutations, and we are also doing moon salutations. As well as that we have been holding poses, some of which are new to me. Although the classes are slower paced than I am used to I can feel in all of my muscles that I have been working hard, especially in my arms. It is a good feeling, especially after having such a lazy time recently. This place is just what I need!Leggi altro
IndonesiaProvinsi Jawa TengahBanjarsariStasiun Solo Balangan7°33’25” S 110°49’19” E
8 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
On Tuesday morning I continued travelling solo and boarded a train to Yogyakarta ,a city 8 hours to the east of Jakarta that was recommended to me because of it's temples. I knew nothing else to expect and hoped for it to be less busy, dirty and loud than Jakarta. The journey was quite scenic and at time very beautiful, passing rice fields and volcanoes. It rained for pretty much the entire time, as it started during the bug storm in Jakarta it seemed perhaps my train was traveling with the storm! When I finally arrived the heavens truly opened and the streets were flooding-it doesn't take long when the water falls in sheets like this. My taxi journey increased in price in seconds and in the short walk to get to the car I was soaked right through. (I have a local simcard so that I can use apps to book transport like a local, therefore getting fair prices without negotiation.)
The continued into the night but I had eaten nothing that resembled food all day-the train station and train having poor provisions, so I made a dash out to dinner at a restaurant recommended by my host because it and vegetarian food and vegetables. However it also had lots of meat and my difficulty was defining which option on the menu was meat and which was vegetarian. I spent a long while googling the menu options to make my choice! Without Marla for translation local food proved quite difficult. But I managed it and ended up with a delicious dish of tofu in spicy peanut sauce, served with solid rice cubes and cabbage and a side dish of garlic chilli spinach.
The next day I went on a wander to explore the city, my hostel being in walking distance of all the main attractions. There is an old area with small pedestrian streets lined with art galleries and shops. Many of the walls have street art on in batik style-the location art and textile fashion. It was a great place to get lost and found myself beginning to enjoy the city. I visited the water temple, which is a beautiful building that an ancient king built for bathing and leisure. Then I continued to walk through backstreets to find my way to the bus stop. The walk was really enjoyable, many of the streets are lined with plants that they have grown out of all sorts of random containers-a good example of recycling. And stalls selling tempting food dotted along the way, but I was saving myself for hopes of a sit-down lunch to break up my walking.
I then took a bus to one of the famous temples-Perambanan, the largest Hindu temple in the world. It is 17km out of the city and can be accessed on public bus. The journey there took me 45 minutes and I arrived at 1.50pm, after a short walk to the temple I arrived at around 1.58pm, paid for my entrance, walked through the gates and at around 2.02pm thunder broke and the heavens opened. When I say heavens opened it was more like all the world's oceans had been picked up and dropped upon the temple and were going to continue falling until they were back in the ocean.....it was the wettest storm I have ever experienced. And I was supposed to be viewing an outdoor temple! People were rushing out as I rushed in to find some place of vague shelter, but as it was so clear that the skies weren't going to clear any time soon I figured I was going to get soaked at some point, so I may as well just get wet and see what I can. The temple consisted of many buildings with shrines to various god's in. I visited 2 of them whilst the place was flooding....so I soon surrendered and waded through the water to find my way back. I eventually got back to the bustop dripping wet. No waterproof would be capable of defending skin from that water, I was completely saturated. Then I got on the bus back to town, disappointed at having spent money and time on something I head heard wonderful things about but could not see.....it went downhill from there. The bus was heavily air conditioned, I was already cold and now I was freezing. My hands and feet turned white and were painful with the chill and as I had not yet had lunch I was getting angry. The journey took twice as long to get back, I eventually made it back 2 hours later at 5pm. It was the lowlight of my trip so far, I was far from happy. Some local people tried to chat to me on the bus and a times I did my best to be friendly, at others I just scowled. A journey best forgotten!
The rain was relentless and when I got off the bus I decided I should just carry on in it, I was booked into a yoga class 3km away but I didn't see the point in drying off to get there because there was no way to stay dry in this weather. So I walked to the yoga class and by the time I was there I could feel my fingers and toes again, the motion had warmed them up. I had some dry clothes tied in a plastic bag within my backpack so I could do the class in something dry at least. The class ended at 8pm and the rain was still going and I needed dinner because I had only snacked all day. So I got a taxi to the place near my hostel, but had to wear my wet clothes because my yoga clothes would not respect Muslim culture. After another successful delicious vegetarian meal I walked back to my hostel. As I entered the owners told me I looked very sad and tired, so I grumbled about my day, took a shower and went to bed! This was 9pm, so for 7 hours now I had been soaking wet.
I had arranged to go to the other famous temple for sunrise, but when I woke at 3.45am it was still raining! So I told the guy who was taking me we should go back to bed and go later in the day. It was a good decision because when I woke a few hours later the rain had finally stopped and we took the 1.5hour journey on his scooter in dry conditions. The temple is Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple. It was a nice journey there, last rice fields and volcanoes. The temple was worth the journey and finally I understood why people come to Yogyakarta. The views were spectacular as the temple involved walking up many steps and it was surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. It was very busy and I was a bit of a celebrity-peoole asking for selfies with me and school children wanting to practice their English. I entertained it for a while but soon got fed up of conversations that could go no further than 'how are you?'. In Asia sometimes a safe white person you just have to be impolite otherwise you would never get anywhere, they are too interested in you. I stayed at the temple about an hour enjoying the views and the sculptures built into the wall, but I was nervous about getting wet on the way home and so didn't stay as long as I would have otherwise. Thankfully though we made it back completely dry and for the rest of the day there was only a few drops of rain. I was beginning to have a little bit of hope I would not have to stay in after 2pm everyday.
I then took a walk through the market and ate far too much street food. I just wanted to taste a bit of everything! I had stringy fried egg on sticks, Tempe and vegetable salad, chili tempe and spinach and some soy dumpling dessert. I was totally stuffed! I walked it off around the textile market which was colourful, but so compact it was impossible to view anything properly. They had crammed as many stalls as possible pretty much on top of each other, I've never seen somewhere so tightly packed. I continued walking all the way to my yoga class and then after yoga I walked to a road that comes to life at night. There is a grassy square lined by a road and the road is filled with converted VW vehicles that have be adorned with lights and play awful children's music or pop music. The cars have been converted to run on peddles, so people peddle laps of the square in these bizarre vehicles. There is also lots of food stalls, it a place of much activity. I'm glad to have seen it and mostly glad that finally it was not raining in the evening. By the time I got home I had walked 15km, I was tired by happy this time after a good day out.
This morning I woke up late and missed my chance to view the palace, the last thing I wanted to see in the city. It closes early because it is friday- Allah day. Instead I met a guy from couch surfing who took me out of the city to a beautiful viewpoint, called Jurang Tembelan that overlooks a valley in the forest. We sat at the viewpoint chatting off a couple of hours and then went for lunch, but unfortunately he took me somewhere western because he didn't seem to take me seriously when I said I love local food and the spicy stuff. But I had my first salad for ages and did quite enjoy the fact is as eating vegetables that aren't fried. He was a very interesting guy, 28 year old who was looking to change career and move to Bali. He is brought up Muslim but lost his faith many years ago, but still has to pretend or else his parents would be devastated. It was very interesting hearing his experience and he taught me a lot about Java and Yogyakarta. It was a great final day and unlifted my whole experience here. I had been wondering why I was staying so long, but now it was worth it.
I am now on a train that travels overnight to Bunyawangi, which is on the far Eastern coast of Java. In the morning I will take a boat to Bali and here I have booked a 4 day yoga retreat, as a great for my birthday. It is in a very remote part of the island, within a village. The retreat focuses on yoga and cultural experience, so we stay with a local family and get fed local vegetarian food. We do a yoga class in the morning and the evening and then in the day there are cultural experiences, which I expect to be crafts and music as they are commonly practiced in Bali. I have told the retreat owners it is my birthday and they have given me a small discount and told me they will help me celebrate. But mainly it is my treat to myself to not have to think about anything for a few days, to be absorbed in nature and to practice yoga.Leggi altro
IndonesiaDaerah Istimewa YogyakartaSleman7°42’54” S 110°21’34” E 7 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Sunday morning we were woken ridiculously early by a sound that I thought was afterparty of the jazz festival- loud music and many people were outside our accomodation. When I looked outside at 5am I saw the road was closed and a stage and been put up, on which people were dancing in aerobic fashion. The place was jumping with activity and hundreds of scooters lined the street-what they had all arrived on. It turns out that Sunday is a big day in this city and that the locals all take the opportunity to get their exercise in the early hours. That night the streets transformed again and a market arose, with children's rides and all sorts of bizarre stalls amongst the usual clothes and foods. It was quite surreal that our residential area could become something so spectacular within hours.
Other than having no sleep because of Allah calls and the exercise performance. During the day on Sunday we met up with some of Marla's boyfriends friends- he used to live here so he put us in touch with some people. It was our last night together and the guys were quite hilarious company, so we ended up drinking at our place into the evening and impressing each other with ridiculous dance moves.
Then we had the next day to enjoy together before Marla flew home on Monday evening and I spent the night in a hostel near to the train station. It was a heartfelt goodbye, having spent every minute together for over a month it feels weird when someone will not be by your side. Even the past couple of nights when we have had our own rooms to sleep in we have found it weird waking up alone......but we are planning the next reunion and my adventure continues alone. I am looking forward to having some time alone to relax, reflect and be healthy.
That night a huge storm broke out and it sounded so fierce I thought it was a tsunami or an earthquake about to happen. I had to remind myself I was in inland and that it wasn't actually a Tsunami! It basically then rained until I arrived in Yogyakarta, and for several hours after that- about 20 hours! But I've save details of that for another entry!Leggi altro
2 marzo 2019, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We are staying in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia for a few days because it is hosting a huge Jazz Festival. It is a big event that brings in artists from all over the world. The city is big, hot, humid and polluted, so it is a bit of an attack to the senses. But it is worth it, for the music. We are staying in an apartment near to the festival and spending our days relaxing in air conditioning, because it is a Muslim country and the pool at our place does not welcome bikini clad beer drinkers. Then we head into the festival in the evening.
Last night I danced like I had never danced before, it felt amazing to hear awesome music and be able to enjoy the sounds around me at long last. I think the deprivation of good music for the last month made it 100s time more enjoyable and therefore I danced myself so sweaty with such intense enthusiasm that I ended up having multiple people film me. If I can ever find the footage I am sure it will make me laugh, but the moment was so good I just did not care what a spectacle I was, my eyes were closed and I lost myself entirely to the music. We have another 2 nights to go! I think in three days at this festival I will make up for the month of being idol in Philippines, because this dancing exercise is the best work out I have had in ages!
The festival is at an exhibition center and has 11 main stages and multiple stalls with smaller acts. There are grand pianos, trombones, drums, trumpets, clarinets, saxophones- I am in my element!
At the end of the festival we have a day together and then Marla flies home in the evening and I will spend one night in a hostel before taking an 8 hour train to Yogykarta-a city in Eastern Java that is recommended due to its temples and natural surroundings.Leggi altro
28 febbraio 2019, Filippine ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Last post I made we were in El Nido. We have had a pretty cruisy, relaxing time since then so I haven't got that much to say. We spent a day diving in El Nido and had 3 varied dives. The second was beautiful, we saw huge schools of yellow fish above a field of cabbage coral. We also saw sea turtle, although not such close encounters as previously, and some really cool pipe fish that. Pipe fish are in the sea horse family and these ones looked much like sea horses, they were cleverly camouflaged to look just like the coral they were floating next to. And we saw a huge crocodile fish, which I have never seen before. So all in all a pretty good days diving, although I didn't feel as comfortable as usual-the equipment wasn't as comfortable as I had on the live aboard.
After that we took a bus to an apartment 40km north of Puerto Princessa. Marla had it booked as a birthday treat from her parents, and it certainly was a treat. We each had our own double bed, it had air conditioning and hot high pressure water. The water in El Nido smelt disgusting and was a dribble and we have never had hot water, so this felt like heaven! The place had a swimming pool and was within the countryside in a peaceful spot that tourists don't usually stay in. We spent a day relaxing, it was bliss. Every now and again when traveling you just need to stop and recharge, because it can become exhausting have fun packed days every day!
Then the next day we took a tour to the world's longest navigatable underground river. Thankfully our accommodation was quite near to it, because the tours normally leave Puerto Princessa and take a whole day because of the journey. There was a lot of waiting around and being queued up with hundreds of other tourists,because it is the main attraction of the area. The tour of the river itself lasted about 45 minutes and was on a small boat, rowed by a local. It was meant to be a silent tour, we each had an audioguide to listen to as we passed through the caves so that they could preserve the natural environment as much as possible. However our boat guide decided to talk through a lot of it, so the peace was distorted and it was quite frustrating. The river is under a limestone mountain and meets the sea. As we traveled through we saw hundreds of bats and birds and heard about the marine life that lives there. There were also many stalagmite and stalatmites that had formed over years and the commentary pointed out how some of them resembled biblical scenes, animals, fruits and vegetables and other various things. It was quite a beautiful journey and the commentary made it more interesting.
We enjoyed our last evening relaxing at the pool in our accommodation and then the next day began the journey to Jakarta, Indonesia-Marlas final destination with me.
We have spent a whole month in the Philippines and were sad to leave, but also had some things to look forward to. The music in the Philippines is absolutely atrocious- offensively cheesy and romantic, high pitched and poorly written. Yet the locals seem to enjoy it so much that they sing along or perform karaoke throughout the day,making it even more painful to hear. I can honestly say I have never been less inspired by music ever. And we were leaving to form to Jakarta Jazz Festival, so we had good music to look forward to at last. Also the local food has been less than tempting and we have hardly eaten any philipino cuisine because it is all meat based deep fried rubbish served with a mountain of rice. Although we have seen a lot of evidence of vegetables growing we are left wondering for that purpose, because the Philippine diet ommits anything of any colour or nutritional value. So we were looking forward to arriving in Indonesia where it is easy to be vegetarian and possible to eat things that aren't deep fried. Finally the airport's within the country are an absolute joke and have the most ridiculous system that would test Mother Theresa's patience. I don't want to do into detail, because I would rather forget my time spent in airports than relive the torture.....but it was another reason to be glad to leave.
Otherwise the country has been a treat, naturally incredible beautiful and the locals care about their environment and the wider world's environmental issues. Therefore it was clean, recycling was highly encouraged, food waste discouraged,, water was always available to fill bottles to reduce plastic use and many areas were protected with restrictions to maintain their natural state. It is a really refreshing experience to travel in Asia and feel that the environment is a priority, this is the first place I have been that seems to care as much as the more developed world does. This is a country that should remain beautiful for years to come. We have seen just a few of the 7000+ islands that make up the Philippines and they were all incredibly beautiful and had unique features within their landscape. The waters here are pristine with an array of beautiful colours and the marine life is addictive. So despite the negative aspects of the country I would return time and again and recommend the country for a visit.Leggi altro
