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Indonesia

June - July 2022
A 29-day adventure by Reagan Read more
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  • TravelerIndonesia
    Day 18

    Day 18: First day on Gilli T

    July 16, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Arriving on Gili T signified the start of the relaxing bit of our holiday! After a lie in and breakfast at the hotel, our morning was spent at the gym which was a surprisingly decent set up. It was then time for lunch where we headed to a cafe called Coffee and Thyme which looked out over the beach - an excellent people watching spot.

    We spent the afternoon sussing out diving/good food spots/shops etc. Time in the shops led to us buying ourselves a snorkel which we then took to the north of the island, supposedly to where the turtles were 🐢 Sadly there were no turtles, however we did see a good amount of fish and I managed to kick some coral, so came out of the sea looking like I had been bitten by a shark, which made me feel pretty epic.

    Continuing with the chill out the theme, we headed to watch the new top gun movie at the beach cinema this evening and had dinner whilst we watched - I had pumpkin soup (again) and Sam had Mie Goreng (also again).

    Another early night as we were wiped from all out travels!    Read more

  • TravelerIndonesia
    Day 17

    Day 17: Nusa Penida -> Gili T

    July 15, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Another day on the move. We were up early to catch the 7:30am boat back to Bali. The sea was in a much calmer state today, so the crossing was fairly smooth…for Bali standards. We met the driver at the port to collect our luggage we had stored. Not having any cash on us we were loaded into the back of his car and driven to a cash point. However…roughly 2 minutes after he had left, a worried “where is the paddle?” was aired from Sam. Somehow it was now my responsibility to look after it and I had obviously left it in the man’s car…classic Reagan. We headed back to the port walking 20m apart, as Sam could no longer look me in the eye 💔 All of a sudden I heard someone shouting “Mr, Mr” - they call me Mr a-lot here…still not sure how to take it. I turned around and there was the driver extremely out of breath, having run all the way down the road to us with the paddle! Day saved and Sam was now willing to walk next to me.

    We finally met our next driver who was taking us to the port in Padangbai to catch the boat to Gili T. It was a 1hr 30min transfer and an interesting standard of driving - straddling 2 lanes was his go to position. We did however make it, and killed the next hour at a cafe getting some much needed breakfast! Back at the office we were directed down to the harbor where we then had to pay a fee to use the port to get on the boat…the boat we had already paid for! Just as the boat started to board, there was another panicked “where is the paddle!?”. At this point, Sam was ready to abandon it however, I had been through too much slogging it around on the back of the scooter for the past 3 days so took the risk and sprinted back to the office. There it was chilling against the wall, not a care in the world. I grabbed it and ran back dodging people on their way to prayer like a mad woman. I made it. Hallelujah. Meanwhile, Sam was abandoned in the blazing sun with all the bags, so the two of us had become a sweaty mess in the space of 10 minutes.

    The boat to Gili T was around 2.5hrs, stopping at Lombok on the way. Back on land, we got a horse cart to take us to our hotel which we didn’t feel the most comfortable about but there are no motorized vehicles on the Gili islands. We later found out that there has been a lot of work on educating the drivers on caring for their horses etc m, so this made us feel slightly better. 100m down the road, our driver spotted some horse poo on the road. He casually jumped out, and scooped it up with his flip flops!

    We checked in at the coconut garden and this was the first time the man at reception laid his eyes on Sam 😍 - the start of a blossoming relationship. We spent the evening having a wonder around the island to get our bearings, and had dinner at a place called Skinny Dip.

    Early night after a busy old day!    Read more

  • TravelerIndonesia
    Day 16

    Day 16: Final day on Nusa Penida

    July 14, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We woke up this morning and I was feeling back to my normal self, yippee! After breakfast we packed up and headed back down the single track lane for the final time, as we began the 20 minute scoot to the Tembeling Springs and Beach Forest. Our first hurdle was the steep decent to the parking area. This ended up being being 15 minutes of almost full breaks while navigating the “road”. I use this term loosely as it was closer to a green lane on the IOM…at best.

    From the parking area it was then another 15 minute trek down more stairs. We had a swing on the swings, attempted to control when the waves splashed against the rocks and I had a dip in the spring - It was freshwater so super refreshing. The journey back up the hill on the moped was easier, however, we did have to lean everything forward to keep the front wheel on the ground!

    The next stop was Broken beach and Angels Billabong, another 20 mins away. These were both heavily touristy but we still made the most of it and had a fly of the drone. Sam also claims he had the best smoothie bowl of his life at the warung we stopped at for lunch so was worth the visit!

    Finally we headed to Klingking viewpoint to see ‘Dinosaur Rock’ that features in all the photos online. Unsurprisingly it was another tourist hotspot and we even witnessed a gay Chinese man holding up a que of 10 people whilst he did a photo shoot with his selfie stick…the rock wasn’t even in the background! You could go down to the beach which looked amazing however, at this point we had had enough of trekking up and down hundreds of stairs to beaches, so decided to fly the drone down instead…lazy I know but the cliff side magnum was more appealing at the time.

    We eventually made it to our bamboo treehouse that we were staying in for the night and Sam had a dip in the plunge pool. For dinner we headed up the road to a local Warung called Oregano. Everywhere was empty so we were unsure what to expect. Having said this, we must have attracted everyone else, as soon the place was full of ‘tourists’ as we are called over here…the power of the bandwagon effect! The food in the end was great and we had another nice evening attempting to sleep over the broadcasted prayer/cows mooing/roosters roosting.    Read more

  • TravelerIndonesia
    1
    Day 15

    Day 15: Nusa Penida Day 2

    July 13, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Sam was awake early as he had found a gym in a nearby village so headed there first thing. He arrived to find the gym open with no one inside and a ceremony going on next door. It was a basic “spit and sawdust” kind of set up with everything you would need (minus some air con). Before starting his session he decided to go outside and watch some theatrical “samurai” looking dances and listen to the local music (AKA chaotic drumming).

    However he soon realised he was the only foreigner around and there were a lot of eyes fixed firmly on him. Unsure if there was any local etiquette he returned to the gym to train till someone either arrived or told him to leave! After about half an hour (chaotic drumming still going on in full force) someone arrived to quickly say “sorry sorry, in the ceremony, sorry sorry, you pay now yes?” He paid his £1.40 and was then left alone to train as the locals transported their song and dance in the back of pick up trucks to the temple down the road.

    Back at the hotel he returned to find me in my all too familiar position - on the toilet. My prayers for a 24hr bug were not heard! After a quick breakfast in the restaurant we headed on our scooter to Diamond Beach. The beach was beautiful but it was another tourist heavy destination. Luck was partly on our side as the tide had just started to go out and therefore no one had ventured down to the beach, so we pretty much had it all to ourselves! The trek down was extremely steep and there were tactically placed ropes to cling on to to stop you falling over the edge. Almost immediately Sam spotted a washed up paddle and became extremely attached to it. Of course this paddle was then my responsibility to hold on to whilst trying not to be sick and also not fall off the back of the scooter!

    We then headed to our next accommodation which was an amazing hut on the edge of a cliff with a very cool garden setup. It was extremely exposed to the wind and had a toilet with a view. The entrance to it however consisted of a very narrow 700m single track concrete path, which took Sam a lot of effort to not fall off the edge of. His CBT will be a breeze after this trip!

    After some lunch and another stop on the toilet, we headed to the thousand island view point. More steps and more turmoil for my stomach. But a very nice view nonetheless - and this time all to ourselves! After a few pictures and a fly of the drone we called it a day and headed back for dinner. I had toast and “butter” which certainly didn’t taste like butter and Sam had an Indonesian feast which he was very pleased with. We attempted to set up the outdoor cinema but sadly failed, so resorted to watching the Umbrella Academy on Sams phone.

    10 minutes after lights out, we were startled to what sounded like an old woman chanting behind our hut! Upon further exploration it seemed it was of course the local ceremony blowing in the wind, not wanting us to miss out. Still only half convinced we weren’t about to be sacrificed my the local tribe, we attempted to go back to sleep ready for another day of action.    Read more

  • TravelerIndonesia
    Day 14

    Day: 14 Nusa Penida

    July 12, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    So today began with myself on the toilet. That funny feeling from the night before had sadly not disappeared over night. Nonetheless we were up and out for breakfast at another eco cafe before check out at 10am. Sam had a seaweed smoothie bowl 🤢 and I had a berries one - seems this was not the best decision for my stomach! The cafe was cool, doing lots of work with recycling on the island and also neutering/medical care for strays.

    Back at the villa things took a turn for the worst and I was dragged back to the loo. We checked out and had to retreat to the beach for my stomach to settle before the day could continue! As a loo was no longer within reach, Sam bought a coffee at the cafe next to us so I could use theirs. An hour later I was good to go and we headed to Mushroom Bay. The roads on Nusa Lebongan are certainly not flat and this 10 minute journey was enough to send my stomach back into haywire.

    We found another cafe were I lay down and Sam brought another coffee 😅🚽 Another hour later I muscled up the energy to continue on and we headed across the bridge to Nusa Cennigan - The blue lagoon. It truly was a very blue lagoon!

    It was then time to head back as we had a arranged a private boat transfer to Nusa Penida through the guys from the hotel as the price was the equivalent of £2.50 more expensive than the public boat - or so they told us. Wondering what kind of boat we were rocking up to we were pleasantly surprised that it seemed to be in good nick - despite no signs of a life jacket anywhere! The journey was only 10 minutes and went surprisingly smoothly.

    Once on Penida we hired our moped (the best one yet with ALL working parts) and headed for our hotel. We ate lunch down at the restaurant - I had the most amazing pumpkin soup and Sam had banana shoot soup, all made with homegrown produce. We then headed to Sekartaji Cliff point to watch the sunset and have a fly of the drone.

    As the afternoon had gone so well I assumed my stomach was through the worst of it, however that sadly did not prove to be true. The evening was spent back on the 🚽 and room service was the only option for dinner - not that I ate much as plain food in Indonesia is hard to come by!    Read more

  • TravelerIndonesia
    Day 13

    Day 13: Sams Birthday

    July 11, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Our planning hadn’t been the best moving location on poor Sams birthday as the day was a bit all over the place. The morning was full of putting luggage into storage and hanging around playing pool/table tennis waiting to be picked up at 12pm for our boat.

    We were eventually collected and made the 1.5hr transfer to Sanur harbour. With another hour to kill, we thought at this point we would should grab some lunch as we were unsurprisingly starving again! We ended up in a place called Beer Brothers - I ordered nachos and Sam ordered a noodle omelette. 40 minutes later still no food and we were due back to catch the bus to the port!

    I decided to check the status of the bus and headed down the road where I witnessed the last few people boarding! I then ran frantically back to Sam to tell him and we had to abandon our food which was heartbreaking to our starving stomachs. We waved down the bus as it pulled out the driveway but it was now full so we were instructed to wait for another driver. In hope of his noddle omelette, Sam ran back to the restaurant to see if the food was ready…which it still was not…apparently 1 minute away! Back he came again in anticipation of the driver who had now arrived. However, another couple were joining us and were in the process of loading all their luggage…which was a lot! So back to the restaurant Sam went with me screaming RUN at him across the road! Just as the driver was about to leave Sam returned with only the nachos as the omelette was still not done 1 hour after we had ordered it!! At least we had something to keep us going 🤷🏼‍♀️

    Now suitably stressed, we were transferred to the beach to board the boat. This involves timing your approach to avoid the waves as you wade through knee high water. Sadly my timing was extremely off and I thus had to endure the rest of the journey with wet knickers and a soaked skirt. The journey itself was what I would refer to as interesting…if that is what you can call whiplash and a near death experience. BIG SWELLS. The escape routes and life jackets were well noted and my fight or flight was activated for the full 40 minute trip (Sam says I am being overly dramatic here but I fail to believe that).

    Thankfully we did make it to Nusa Lebongan and were pleasantly surprised to arrive to turquoise waters and white sandy beaches…which we again waded through to reach land. We were met by 3 crazy ‘lads’ who chucked us on the back of mopeds and delivered us to our villa which was in a great location.

    We headed straight out for some food at the Thai restaurant a 1 minute walk from our door, that looked out over the bay. I ordered a green curry and sam had chicken satay…but what he did not realise was that the chicken satay was a starter and thus he was left starving…again! Luckily for him however, I never finish my food so my leftovers were enough to keep him going.

    We then jumped on the moped and headed to the devils tears 😈 were we watched some big waves splash against some rocks and had a go with the drone. Next up was crazy golf…I was winning up to the 9th hole and then had 2 shockers in a row and Sam took the lead. This did not go down well and I decided crazy golf was a rubbish game anyway and i was so only there for the mojito…it was mojito Monday after all. And also as it was his birthday so I guess I had to let him win.

    We then headed to a beach club for dinner but at this point we had crashed and we’re both ready for a sleep. I had also started to develop a strange feeling that something wasn’t quite right within me. Back at the villa Sam had a second wind and fancied one last drink, so we headed to a bar called the Howff which was a funky little “underground” bar with one side completely open to the sea. We had the “Lad and Lassie” cocktails which came as a pair and were dark rum based…of which we both remembered we didn’t like after drinking the first sip!

    What a day!    Read more

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