South-East Asia 2016

June - December 2016
A 181-day adventure by Joel
  • 182footprints
  • 11countries
  • 181days
  • 499photos
  • 0videos
  • 38.0kkilometers
  • 26.3kkilometers
  • Day 1

    Day 1: Potato Head Beach Club

    June 16, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Late arrival in Bali last night so we were a bit slow to get moving this morning. Opted for a hotel breakfast which was surprisingly decent, then headed to nearby Potato Head Beach Club at around 10am.

    Potato Head is a large restaurant/bar area with a whole bunch of sun lounges for hire as well. But since it's right on the beach and has a large infinity pool adjacent, it's extremely popular and fills up very quickly - hence arriving at 10am when it opened! Managed to snag ourselves a four-person day bed which we occupied for most of the day by snoozing, swimming, eating and drinking. And of course a bit of internet catching-up-on as well!

    It's such a beautiful place and mostly filled with beautiful people (a cheaper version of Ivy Pool I guess), I felt a little out of place. But whatevs. We had to vacate our bed at 3:30pm when they turn everything over (it faces westwards so I guess they can charge another 6 hours rental for the sunset), but at this point the weather was starting to turn so we weren't overly disappointed.

    Headed back to our quirky though slightly dark room at Dash Hotel and relaxed for a bit, before heading to the hotel's rooftop bar for a 2-for-1 sundowner. By this point the weather had well and truly turned, and immense tropical thunderstorms surrounded us on all points of the compass. Distant rainshowers, constant lightning and booming thunder, the awesome grandeur of nature on full display. After surrounding us, the storms quickly enveloped us and since there wasn't much shelter on the rooftop we retreated downstairs.

    After about 20 minutes I got fed up of waiting and suggested we go out for dinner despite the rain and Shandos agreed it was a better option than just sitting around the hotel endlessly. So off we headed bravely into the tropical downpour, which probably wasn't the best idea. The rain was still teeming, and Bali footpaths being what they are we were pretty soon sodden. Eventually we made it to our destination - a Mexican restaurant we'd seen on the drive from the airport the night before that looked nice and lively.

    It was a great choice - the food was excellent and the staff great fun too. We had a seat facing the central courtyard which was gradually filling up with rainwater - the drainage system left something to be desired! One poor staff member had the unenviable job of continually pushing water into the single drain in the corner while the rain was still hammering down - it rather reminded me of the story of King Canute and the tides. Eventually the rain eased and we beat a hasty retreat to Dash Hotel.

    Small postscript to the evening - our hotel has a large sports bar downstairs and since England were playing Wales in the Euros at 9pm, I decided to join the fun. Quite an experience, surrounded by a bunch of fat tattooed English geezers and one poor lone Welsh guy who copped a bit of good-natured stick. Daniel Sturridge scored the winner deep into injury time and the place absolutely erupted, most of the older blokes running around with their shirts off and so on. Interesting times!
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  • Day 2

    Day 2: Shopping in Seminyak

    June 17, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After spending up big yesterday at both Potato Head and at dinner, we were determined that today would be a little cheaper. Seminyak is known generally as the fancier tourist area in Bali, with more upmarket shops and hotels than the seediness of Kuta and Denpasar. So today we set about verifying this by looking through the various shops and market stalls, and I can confirm that yes, everything is more expensive than you might expect! Boardshorts for $50, t-shirts for $35, that sort of thing. I didn't come to the cheap clothing capital of the world to pay Sydney prices for clothing!!

    We looked in a lot of nice shops, but bought very little. Shandos bought a nice dress, and I bought an Indonesian SIM card with 1.5gb prepaid data, so I can use Foursquare/Facebook etc on occasion and have an emergency/local contact eg with drivers and stuff like that.

    Also had a nice back massage from a bustling massage parlour for just $8 each which was a pretty good deal! As we were emerging from the massage parlour and thinking about heading back to the hotel for happy hour cocktails, a man offered us his car for taxi services so we agreed to a lift back to the hotel. He was actually a genuine driver and offerred to take us out to Tanah Lot temple about 40 minutes north of Seminyak for the sunset (and his price was lower than the touts who ask you constantly), so we agreed.

    Tanah Lot is an interesting place - it's a large Hindu temple built onto a huge rock just off-shore - the rock is probably 10-15m high and about 50m offshore. Waves crash into it constantly and there's a few trees/jungle vines growing over the temple, so it's a pretty sight. The sunsets here are purportedly beautiful, but unfortunately I can't confirm that because it was pretty cloudy and we didn't get that magic dusk lighting.

    It was also a little off-putting as the site itself is very heavily touristed. Obviously it's a bit hypocritical for me to complain about tourists when I'm one myself, but I like to think we're a different type. Here there were very few Western tourists, mostly Indian, Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesia, and annoyingly most of them seemed more interested in taking pouty-face selfies than actually looking at and appreciating the reason for visiting the area.

    Retreated to a bar on a cliff top overlooking the temple for a drink and to escape the phalanx of selfie stick wielders. Got a bit too comfortable and ending up having a little difficulty finding our driver in the dark! But we managed, and drove back to Seminyak without incident. No football tonight as the bar was occupied by bogans watching Collingwood vs Hawthorn, so we had a quick dinner downstairs and headed up to bed. Last night in Seminyak already!
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  • Day 3

    Day 3: Seminyak to Ubud

    June 18, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Time for us to leave the salubrious surrounds of Seminyak and head for somewhere a little quieter and more reserved. Prior to this point, we'd pre-booked our accomodation - our Darwin hotel, our campervan and the hotel in Seminyak had all been booked before we left Sydney. But today was the first day we had no plans! After a bit of Shandos research in the morning, we settled on a place in Ubud and texted our driver Putu who we'd grown quite friendly with.

    Ubud is about an hour north of the beach areas around Denpasar/Kuta/Seminyak, and obviously much more rural. It's still well on the tourist trail (the Pray chapters of Eat Pray Love were set here), but it's definitely quieter and more laid back than Seminyak. We'd opted for a hotel about 10 minutes out of town with a nice pool and surrounded by rice paddies - somewhere quiet that Shandos could catch up on writing and I could start having a crack at editing together a solid video of our Darwin road trip.

    We met Putu at the hotel at 11, and he drove us first to a coffee plantation in the hills near Ubud where they produce Luwak coffee (also known to Westerns as Civet coffee). Essentially they grow the coffee beans and this large cat/sloth type creature picks and eats the beans. Because their diet is mostly fruit and they don't chew the beans, they poo out the coffee beans intact (and still with a skin on), but the sugary fruit in their stomach has fermented the beans. After washing, peeling and grinding, the beans are made into coffee which is surprisingly sweet. We had a nice look around the plantation and farm, then had a tasting platter of the 8 different coffees and 6 different teas they produced. Coconut cream coffee was my favourite, but they also had a mangosteen tea which we liked enough to buy a packet of. Most rooms have kettles so we should be able to enjoy it over the next few weeks.

    We arrived at our hotel around 1:30, had a late lunch in the hotel restaurant of Indonesian food, then relaxed and swam in the pool for a couple of hours. Headed into Ubud proper at 5pm and wandered around the market stalls and little shops. Not as expensive as down in Ubud, but still clearly aimed at the Western dollar. Decided to skip on the monkey temple here as we did it last time and weren't hugely impressed (the monkeys are surprisingly aggressive!!).

    Dinner and a couple of happy hour cocktails at a local restaurant before catching the 7:30pm shuttle bus back to the hotel - one of the issues with staying slightly out of town means you're on their schedule not yours, or you're paying for a taxi I guess. Early to bed because that's what you do in rural surrounds!
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  • Day 4

    Day 4: Ubud

    June 19, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Not a whole lot to report today. After so much business we decided it was finally time to have a total day off and do some work. We parked ourselves in a couple of comfy chairs in the shade by the swimming pool and opened our laptops. I spent a couple of hours catching up on my diary, while Shandos did some writing for her blog. She also started on a big article for Britz campervans that she'd promised them.

    Wandered out of the hotel for lunch and found a decent bakery about 10 minutes walk up the road. Chilled out there for a while and almost made it to the centre of Ubud, but turned back as neither of us particularly wanted to go into town.

    Back at the hotel we opened our laptops again and kept going with our tasks. I started editing together a video of GoPro footage from our Top End trip, and Shandos kept tapping away with her writing. Had a swim in the pool a bit later and mostly finished our stuff, before a quiet dinner in the hotel.

    The restaurant here is okay, the food's decent but it's very very slow.
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  • Day 5

    Day 5: Ubud Rice Paddies

    June 20, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Again, a day where we had no plans. I'd finally finished editing together the Northern Territory video, and Shandos had finished her blogging (including editing a video of her own), so we were pretty keen to find somewhere with decent Wifi to upload - our hotel's wifi is pretty spotty at best.

    So after a long-ish breakfast we got the 11am shuttle bus into Ubud and wandered for a little while, eventually settling on a large "international restaurant" which had dishes described in six languages and big pictures of everything. Lots of burgers and pizzas, precious little Indonesian fare - yes, we'd stumbled into a ridiculous tourist trap, but at least the wifi was decent. We grabbed some chicken satay skewers and a couple of fruit juices and set about uploading. After an hour or so we were done, and wandered away feeling slightly guilty, but at least we'd gotten done what we needed to.

    When we'd gotten out of the shuttle bus which drops you at a cross-roads, I'd suggested to Shandos that we head west which was the only direction we hadn't explored (including our previous visit here in 2014). And now we had our best unplanned moment so far - Shandos spotted a sign that said "rice paddies 50m -->", down a tiny little alleyway lined with concrete. Keen on exploring, we headed down to see what was up.

    And we were well rewarded, after a rough stumble through some alleyways and a couple of backyards, we emerged blinking into a series of enormous rice paddies bathed in brilliant sunshine. Today was so far the clearest day we'd had (heavy rain overnight had pushed away a lot of the smoke), and the view was just incredible. The fields are so ridiculously green, with a brilliant blue sky, some coconut palms and a few little Indonesian houses dotted around. It's so different here, the way that every house, shop and building is constructed as close to the road as possible, and once you venture more than about 50 metres through the buildings you're just in open fields.

    And indeed that was where we now found ourselves - open fields in front, buildings and urban headaches behind. We pressed on, and soon came across a tiny restaurant in essentially an oversized gazebo or hut. Even though we'd already had a snack we decided it was lunchtime, so settled in for the duration. It was reasonably busy with other tourists, as it seems like there are quite a few homestays and guest houses out in amongst the fields.

    After lunch we followed the trail further and further along, meandering this way and that. Sometimes nearer the river, sometimes further. Occasionally you'd have to dodge a local on a moped but otherwise it was pretty much just us - though we'd continually encounter friendly local farmers as well. After turning off the main road in Ubud just on a whim to follow a small sign, we spent probably 3 hours wandering around out in the fields, and only made it back to town by around 4:30pm (after stopping of course at another farmhouse for a fruit juice!).

    Shandos did a little shopping in town as her sandals were basically worn out already - H&M cheapies aren't really up to the rigours of daily walking, and her canvas bag was absolutely filthy so that got replaced for $2.

    A little more bar hopping and a visit to another Indonesian restaurant for dinner took us through to 7:30pm when we hopped on the shuttle bus back to the hotel for our last night. Ended up staying up much later than intended after downloading the latest Game of Thrones episode on hotel wifi at an excruciating pace. And of course you can't download and not watch, so I didn't end up sleeping until nearly 11:30!

    Probably the most surprising day we've had so far, and definitely one of the best.
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  • Day 6

    Day 6: Ubud to Gili T

    June 21, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Time to leave our room at Sapulidi Resort. It's a nice little spot, and I would come back, although the restaurant is pretty average and the wifi in our room didn't work (had to go out to the pool area which could be worse I suppose). The day before in Ubud we had booked ferry tickets for Gili Trawangan, a small island just off the coast of Lombok (about 50km east of Bali).

    Our shuttle arrived promptly at 11am, we crammed into the back of the van and set off for the port at Padung Bai. The drive was a bit over an hour and was pretty uncomfortable since I couldn't move - jammed between Shandos, the window and the seat in front, but on the plus side if we'd crashed it wouldn't have mattered that I wasn't wearing a seatbelt - I couldn't go anywhere.

    Waited around for about 90 minutes at the port since departure was 1:30, not 12:30 that the salesman had told us, but alas. The boat was away pretty quickly at 1:30 and everyone migrated immediately from the hold to the open top deck where speakers blasted an unusual mix of late 90s Eurodance (Vengaboys, Aqua etc) and classic rock (Beatles, Creedence etc).

    Gili T is pretty well known on the backpacker circuit as a party island, and we both noted that almost everyone else aboard the ferry was under 25. Felt a little conspicuous as they were mostly Europeans as well - again I'm going to mention that I've been surprised how many Euros there are here. Seems like the Australians mainly just stick to Kuta and Denpasar in Bali and don't venture much further.

    After a couple of stops on Lombok and Gili Air we arrived at Gili T around 4pm. This island is absolutely tiny - before commercialism happened there were only about 700 locals and you can walk the entire coastline in about 90 minutes. And as an added bonus, there are no motor vehicles here, just bicycles and horse-drawn carts (!!). Plus a couple of electric scooters, but so far mopeds or cars. We walked the 10 minutes up the coast to our hotel, checked in and took our requisite dip in the pool and a spot of afternoon tea, before freshening up and wandering back down to the main township.

    Lots of bars that were mostly empty when we went past at 7pm - still a bit early for the party set. Had dinner in a large market square where vendors barbecue meats and fish right in front of you, (hopefully) today's catch served with noodles, rice etc. Felt a bit guilty eating since the sun had only just gone down and it was still Ramadan (there's a mosque on the island and the muezzin was still singing out the call to prayer while we were eating), but I think a lot of the workers are probably Hindus from Bali rather than local Muslims.

    Had an amusing time eating at a communal bench - the local feral cat population were very interested in the seafood skewers and kept jumping up on the benches and tables next to us! A few shoves and hisses and they get the message, though it's always funny to see reactions of people from more uptight cultures than Australians.

    Wandered back to the hotel and had a drink along the way, as Shandos wanted to try some Balinese wine (they have a single vineyard and it's rare to find venues selling it by the glass). She had a rose that was unsweetened which I wouldn't drink twice, so I entertained myself with a 500ml Bintang instead. They're becoming a habit!
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  • Day 7

    Day 7: Relaxing in Gili T

    June 22, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today we decided to check out the rest of the island, so after a hotel breakfast we loaded up with two rental bikes, fins and snorkels and set off to ride around the perimeter of the island. Although still not very far, it was definitely further than either of us realised!

    First stop was a beach on the northern coast where we had a brief swim (not much happening here and got a few bites from sea lice), then continued on down the western coast and back up to the main town. Decided to just park ourselves on the beach chairs in front of our hotel and do some snorkeling. The water was super clear and with great visibility, lots of marine life though we didn't see any of the turtles which live nearby. Maybe tomorrow!

    Had lunch from the hotel restaurant who were happy to serve us out on the beach, and spent most of the day in and out of the water and watching the world go by. At 4pm Shandos said that she'd like to do the sunset yoga at a place back over on the western coast that we'd seen earlier in the day, so back on our bikes we got and rode back over to the sunset coast. Shandos did her yoga and I spent the hour watching the sun go down and checking that the nearby bar's Bintang supply was up to scratch. Happy to report that all was in order.

    Back to the main town area we rode, dodging pedestrians and horse carts all the while! Settled on a cheap place for dinner that Shandos had seen on one of our trips past - iced tea, beer, beef rendang and a spaghetti dish all for $11! Probably our cheapest meal so far. So we splurged on the way back and bought a freshly-made Nutella crepe from the vendor cart hanging around near the mosque.

    Last step before turning in was purchasing snorkel boat tickets for tomorrow - they do a three island trip as standard for $10/pp which takes most of the day to visit various sites around Gili T, Gili Meno and Gili Air. Looking forward to that!
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  • Day 8

    Day 8: Snorkelling on Gili T

    June 23, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Today was the day of our snorkelling trip! We had our hotel breakfast and I sorted out washing, then we headed off down the street to the jetty for the 10:30 launch time. We arrived with 5 minutes to spare, though I was a little dismayed to see how many people were being loaded on to the boat.

    It wasn't dangerously overcrowded or anything, just a lot of people to be hopping into the water with! We cruised out to a spot about halfway between Gili T and Gili Mano (there are three Gili islands of which Trawangan is the westernmost), stopped the boat and hopped out into moderately shallow water (probably 5 meters or so).

    Not a huge amount of coral but quite a few tropical fish around, some quite large. I'm absolutely hopeless with fish names but most of the tropical fish I recognised from places like Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef. Convictfish, yellow & white striped fish, some rainbow coloured ones etc.

    After about half an hour we got back in the boat (the process of clambering up the ladder one-by-one seemed to take more time than we were actually in the water) and motored off to the north of Gili Mano (the central island of the three), at a place called "Turtle Heaven".

    Here we all had to stick together following the guide, and it was a bit difficult as the group was probably 60-ish people with varying levels of swimming ability (and dare I say varying levels of water etiquette as well). The water here was very deep, probably at least 50m, but we very soon spotted a small turtle swimming lazily away from the group.

    Rather than follow we headed a different direction to some shallower water (probably closer to 15m), and sure enough the was a sandy bed where one turtle was resting and another swam up soon afterwards. Not too many decent photos unfortunately as they were quite deep and there was a group of scuba divers nearby, though I did manage to hurt my ears diving down for a better look!

    Drifting away again we found some quite shallow water, this time about 5 metres, and another turtle soon showed up! This guy was much closer and content to just swim around a little and then scrabble around the bottom, eating corals or whatever it is they do. Again the large group proved problematic as the turtle was constantly surrounded like an A-lister at a Hollywood function, and a couple of idiots reached out and gave it a pat!! I hate sounding like a grumpy old bastard, but when you're constantly being told "don't touch the turtles", it takes a serious amount of either arrogance or stupidity (or both I guess) to ignore them. I kind of wish those people had been bitten by the turtle - apparently their jaws are easily strong enough to sever a finger!

    Back to the boat for our last stop, in the channel to the south of Gili Air (the easternmost island). Fairly shallow water again and some nice coral, but I didn't think the marine life here was that great - especially after the high of seeing turtles at the previous stop. The water was also a bit choppier too which didn't help.

    Following this stop we had lunch at a beach restaurant on Gili Air, then a 30 minute bouncy boat ride back to Gili T. We took it pretty easy for the rest of the day - a lazy swim in the hotel pool, caught up on some internet over afternoon tea at the hotel's beach bar, dinner at a small place just down the street from our hotel. Once again the waiters offered me drugs (weed this time) and asked where we were partying tonight etc. The law has definitely taken a back seat here, some hotels even openly advertise mushrooms on their streetfront signage!

    Over dinner we decided to stay an extra night here which was a little more expensive but we think worth it. It's just such a chilled out place - no motorbikes or taxis honking, everywhere's within walking distance, and the beach is right out the front of our hotel. The only real noise is the clop-rumble of horse & carts, and from the mosque a few hundred metres away; the muezzin is belting out his songs as I type!
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  • Day 9

    Day 9: Relaxing on Gili T

    June 24, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Bit of a strange one today. I woke up feeling a bit under the weather - coming down with a cold unfortunately! I'd felt slightly off the night before but shrugged it off, though unfortunately it came on more overnight. Runny nose, blocked ears etc.

    Not much to do but wait it out and at least we have a great spot for doing that! After our breakfast we did a small walk down the road as Shandos wanted to try stand-up paddleboarding which she managed successfully! I wouldn't have minded trying, but my head just wasn't in the right place for it.

    Very chilled out for the rest of the day, relaxing on the beach in front of the hotel, alternating between reading shock Brexit news and listening to a bit of music.

    Ventured a bit down the road for dinner, and then pretty much straight back to the room. Not the most exciting of days but very relaxing!
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  • Day 10

    Day 10: Back to Ubud

    June 25, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today's the day we leave Gili T, which we've really enjoyed. It's so nice having a quiet, relaxed place with no cars beeping and motorbikes zooming past. The horses rumble a bit and the mosque makes a bit of noise but who can't live with that!

    Down to the marina to board our 11:30 boat which (as with the original boat here) actually left at 12pm! Not much to report from the crossing, we sat downstairs this time as I still wasn't feeling great and just listened to music. Thankfully no stops on the other islands this time, straight back to Padang Bai.

    Our shuttle back to Ubud took another couple of hours so we didn't arrive until nearly 4pm. The trip was shared with a young British couple on holidays here for a month between the end of uni and starting work. We definitely weren't the oldest people on Gili T but we would've been in the oldest 20% pretty easily I think! They were quite nice and worldly though, so we had a good chat. To their horror they realised that their Airbnb for the night was actually 20 *kilometers* from Ubud, not 20 *minutes walk*. Not sure how you make that mistake but alas!

    Settled into our home for the evening which was on the northern side of Ubud this time, not far from where we'd seen the rice paddies. We were on the third floor of the building so we had modest "district views" I guess, along with quite a nice pool downstairs. We had a brief dip before booking a hotel on the north coast for tomorrow night and heading into town for dinner.

    Took a recommendation from Foursquare to visit Casa Luna which turned out to be a hidden gem! Great food and very cheap prices, along with a lot of atmosphere too. I had a duck rendang curry while Shandos had braised pork in sweet soy sauce. We liked it so much we stuck around for dessert (the pastries were highly rated!) and I even ended up having a vegan coffee - iced matcha with coconut milk and salted caramel.

    Did a bit of housekeeping for the trip tomorrow but unfortunately my cold caught up with me and I had to crash pretty early.
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