Here we go, only two months late! Although it's taken me awhile to get this post together, it's been a treat going back through my pictures now that I'm well into another tree planting season. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Grab a snack before you begin, this is a long one..
After 5 months in New Zealand (and 7 for Antoine), we hopped through Australia over to Denpasar, in Bali. Bali is easily the most popular island to visit in Indonesia, which we noticed very quickly walking down the street to our hotel. The narrow roads are lined with shop after shop selling basically the exact same thing: knock-off everythings, and lots of them. It was quite the culture shock after New Zealand, a country not unlike our own. The heat and humidity hit us like a brick wall; New Zealand had been cool and windy when we left, and the 30 degrees and too-high humidity prompted my sweat glands to go into overdrive, where they stayed for the majority of our four weeks in the country.
We hung out in Kuta, near the airport, for a few nights. This is tourist central, but as it was our first time in the country, we were less annoyed and more amazed by the crowds and hawkers. These first few days were spent exploring the streets, surfing at famous Kuta Beach, enjoying super cheap delicious Indonesian food and Bintangs (beer) and cooling off in the pool at our home-stay (=small-scale inn). Paradise!
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| Antoine fresh off the waves, looking like a pro already! |
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| Nasi goreng (=fried rice). Probably the most popular dish here, for good reason. Simple but delicious! |
After a few days in Kuta, we spent a day traveling first by van then by boat to Gili Trawangan, a small island just off the coast of Lombok, Bali's neighbour to the east. Gili T is renowned for its snorkeling, diving, unreal sunsets and party scene. One can circumnavigate the island on foot in probably an hour.. it's that small! We stayed there for five nights, the first two of which were spent recovering from the sun and heat having taken their toll back in Kuta: the sunburns and fatigue were real. Oops.. But once we were alive again, we took full advantage of the local snorkeling spots, delicious food, and gorgeous sunsets.
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| Enjoying some nasi campur (=mixed rice), which is a scoop of rice alongside your choice of small dishes (meat, vegetables, soy products, etc). One of my favourites for sure! |
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| Snorkeling!!! Easily a highlight of the trip: we saw several turtles and all of the fish from Finding Nemo. They must have got the inspiration for that movie from the waters of Indonesia. The underworld is so cool! |
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| Dishes of food for nasi campur at a stand in the night market on Gili T. |
Following our time on Gili T, we spent two nights relaxing on the quieter Gili Air, just a short boat ride away, then hopped over to Lombok. This island is way less visited compared to neighbouring Bali, but has so much to offer. The landscape is stunning, from beach-lined coasts to rolling green hills to the massive Mount Rinjani, the second highest volcano in Indonesia at 3,726m. We spent about a week on Lombok, mostly in Kuta on the south coast. Exploring around via scooter was a major highlight, as was surfing.
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| Water buffalos, acting like they own the place. |
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| Suntans and smiles :) |
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| Mawi Beach, near Kuta. |
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| Cruising through the lush hills. |
After several days in Kuta, we scored a sweet deal through our home-stay owner for a ride to Mount Rinjani, accommodation there for a night, an everything-included overnight guided hiking trip up the volcano, AND a ride back to the port where a ferry would take us back to Bali. Proud to say my bargaining skills are pretty top notch!
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| So many stunning rice fields! |
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| Our warm-up for the hike was an easy walk the day before to two beautiful waterfalls, the second of which (this one, called Tiu Kelep) you could swim in! The torrent was too powerful to stand underneath, but getting close to the spray was exhilarating and I'd put this experience near the top of the 'coolest things I did while traveling' list for sure. |
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| A few local dogs joined us for the hike. They were so fun to have around! Also featured is one (and a half) of our three hiking companions: Nicolai, from Norway, and his girlfriend Agnes on the left. |
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| A monkey observing us eating lunch part way up. We started the hike at 3am, as it was 2000m vertical over 9km, and (we think) also to avoid the park ranger since apparently the hiking season wasn't exactly open yet... Hiking in the pitch black was an amazing experience, and avoiding most of the day's heat didn't hurt either. |
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| Another furry friend, this time with the summit of Rinjani peeking through the clouds. We weren't able to reach the summit as that part of the trail really wasn't open (it was the tail end of the rainy season so I think it was too muddy), but the view from the crater rim was spectacular enough! |
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| Sunset above the clouds |
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| The clouds completely obscured the caldera when we arrived at 1pm, but by the evening we had this view from our tents. Not too shabby! |
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| Such amazing colours in the sky |
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| Our crew! Two porters (who carried SUCH a heavy load in baskets on a bamboo pole on their shoulders and wore flip flops up the mountain.. such champs!), one guide, two Norwegians and a lovely lady from Montreal. |
Following our hike, we spent a night in Sengiggi on the west coast of Lombok shopping and sunbathing, then journeyed to Ubud, in central Bali. This is a really neat area of Bali, full to bursting of culture, delicious food, cool shops and stunning rice fields. A main attraction in Ubud is the Monkey Forest, a nature reserve with several hundred monkeys. They are so entertaining to observe!
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| Checking for fleas? |
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| This guy wanted to steal the button on top of my hat! Hold onto your belongings, people. |
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| Dual purpose water fountain. |
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| Gado gado, one of my favourite meals in Indonesia: veggies, tofu, tempeh and peanut sauce. |
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| To get a taste of Ubud culture, we took in a dance one evening in Ubud, accompanied by a Gamelan orchestra. Very interesting style, with lots of hand and finger movements. The music was mesmerizing, too. |
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| Even more rice fields |
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| The Balinese's offerings for good luck, which are placed outside the doorstep to the workplace or home several times throughout the day. They can contain almost everything, it seems, and this one caught my eye as it included money (= 5 cents) and a mini chocolate. |
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| Gorgeous sunsets while scootering around the rice fields near Ubud |
While in Ubud, we opted for a popular sunrise hike up nearby Mount Batur. I ended up not sleeping beforehand (we had to leave our hotel at 2am), so I was a bit of a zombie on the 2 hour hike, which was crowded with around 150 people ascending the volcano to watch the sunrise over Lombok. I wasn't a huge fan of the crowds but we met some cool people in our guided group, and the sunrise was amazing.
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| Pre-sun colours |
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| Good morning sun, with Mount Rinjani just to the right. |
After Ubud, our last big stop was Canggu, a popular surf spot on the south coast just 10km up the beach from bustling Kuta. This town has a low-key, laid back feel, with heaps of surfers, villas, healthy restaurants, and scooters whizzing by at top speeds. We got out on the waves a few times, even surfing in the middle of a downpour which was a cool experience. I'll definitely be back here someday, just loved it!
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| Couldn't make it through a blog post without a jump shot.. this is on the beach in Canggu, surfer's paradise! |
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| The route to the beach. If a car was coming the other way, you basically had to dive into the rice fields.. roads are not big here! |
We spent two nights relaxing in Uluwatu, south of Kuta, before heading home. Definitely got all the relaxing out of my system prior to returning to a busy summer of work... it was so chill hanging out by the pool, scooting around, filling up on nasi goreng, and enjoying more stunning sunsets.
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| Going to miss these sunsets! |
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| These displays confused me when we first arrived in Indonesia, but I soon figured out that the bottles are full of gasoline, for scooter drivers to fill up on. They are everywhere! 1 dollar per litre. I like the use of Absolut vodka bottles, it adds some class. |
And that's it! What an unreal six months it was. New Zealand was such a dream come true, and I can't wait to go back one day and make more of a dent in my hiking list. Indonesia was just a taste of South East Asia and leaves me wanting so much more.
I'm so thankful for everything I was able to do and everyone I met along the way: you made my trip as special as it was!
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| Such a welcome sight! Hello beautiful BC! |
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed following along on my travels! Until next trip...
Cheers,
Sonja
