Bali and Gili Trawangan

The third leg of our trip took us to Bali. I remember being at home in 2002 when I heard about the nightclub bomb in Bali. It was sad, sad news but I remember the feeling I had of Bali being so, so far away and almost inaccessible to some 18 year old from Barnsley. 12 years later, with nothing but a backpack and a small Chinese girl, I landed in Denpasar. We were met at the hotel by a driver from our hotel holding a sign for 'Ms Adam Fletcher' which I thought was quaint but Winnie thought it was hilarious... cue the Snapchats!! After allowing us to get a smoothie, we sat back for a scenic drive from the island's capital Denpasar, to the small mountain town of Ubud, where our hotel was.

Statue in Denpasar

Up until now, we had been staying in hostels to enable us to save money and explore the cities. We decided that in Bali, we'd treat ourselves. We booked a 'wooden room' at the Tegal Sari, Ubud and we were very glad we did. Set back from the road, amongst peaceful rice fields, our room was in a shack suspended on poles and overlooking the crops. The room was wonderful, 4 poster bed with white linen and a reclining bed on the balcony. I don't want to turn this into a hotel review, but the Tegal Sari was wonderful. I also have to mention that the staff in this hotel, particularly Wayan (?) wonderful and beyond helpful .

Winnie on the walkway towards reception

Our bedroom

View from the balcony



We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and walking around the area. We ate at the hotel's restaurant at the other side of the field. It was very nice. I had a steak and beer for about $5. We'd told ourselves that this part of our travels will be the relaxation and recuperation, however we are both very similar in that we can't sit still for long. We both woke at 6am the next morning to catch the sunrise over the rice paddys, then ordered breakfast to our room. We decided that we wanted to explore this wonderful island in the short time we had there, so we booked the hotel driver to take us to Mount Batur, an active volcano with a lake beside it. I would have liked to hike it at sunrise, which is a popular thing to do, but we were trying (and failing) to relax.

Breakfast, delivered to the room

Our morning view

 At this time, early August, the weather in Korea is sweltering. Daegu is known in Korea as being the hottest city due to the surrounding mountains forming a stifling basin of heat. The climate in Bali was cooler and temperate, which Winnie and I both welcomed. The hotel had assigned a driver named Putu to us for the trip to Mt. Batur. He spoke good English and was young and recently married. He asked us if he can recommend some places to visit along the way, and we were more than delighted to accept. First he took us to Turta Empel, a Hindu water temple set in the forest. The architecture was beautiful, lots of dark red bricks and grey stone carving and ornate doorways. These were built around various pools of water, some clean and some containing fish. We happened to be there on an important day of the religious calendar (I forget what), so we were able to witness many people bathing in the water. The procession of people would get into the water, offer spices, petals and incense to the gods, then proceed to wash themselves under running water, cleansing their bodies and soul. This was humbling to witness. I even tried it, without getting my rented sarong wet, of course.



Me and Winnie being all spiritual haha



One of the pools

People preparing to wash in the water

Washing away his troubles

My turn

Children wait while their elders pray

Some random sweet kid

 Onward to Mt. Batur. The next stop that Putu suggested was at a coffee plantation. There, I was able to grind my own coffee beans and we both took turns roasting them. We were told of the Luwak coffee, which uses beans that have gone through the digestion system of some Asian cat (palm civet)... yes... we're basically drinking poo!! We went on to a balcony which overlooked a wonderful valley of tea fields and offered some different varieties of coffee. Winnie isn't a big coffee fan, but we tried them all. I also opted to pay extra for some Luwak coffee and it was actually very good!! 

Cheers!



Winnie waiting to drink poo ;)



Coffee tasting overlooking the valley

When we reached Mt. Batur we stopped near a look-out point and headed to the rails to take in the view. To the left, you could see the volcanic form, contrasting against the midday sky and to the right Lake Batur, sitting still surrounded by the green and grey hills. We bought some postcards off the locals and had some pictures with Putu. I found it hilarious that the women balancing 15 t-shirts on their heads would not let Winnie move. She somehow got out of the situation without buying a t-shirt or funding child labour, so we were pleased about that!

Mt. Batur

Winnie being hounded...hahaha



The mountain and the lake

 On our way back, we stopped at some rice terraces and at in a restaurant on the hillside. We invited Putu to join us and paid for his meal. He was very humble about it and initially refused. He seemed to be so thankful that he took pictures of us with his phone so he could show his wife. He later stopped at a stall in the middle of nowhere to buy us some fruits, most I'd never seen before. He also wouldn't let us pay for them. That night we treated ourselves to 1 hour:$5 massage and pedicure (Winnie).

Putu and I eating lunch

Rice Terraces

Fruit

More fruit

It just so happened that a group of girls from Korea were staying in a homestay in Ubud this night too, so we arranged to meet them for food and drinks. We had a wonderful meal followed by beers, cocktails, hooka dodgy photographs!

Grace and Meabh

Grace's drunken idea for a pose

The king of the table and the girls :)

The next day we woke early and left to catch the boat to Gili Trawangan, one of the 3 Gili islands off the coast of Lombok. These islands are said to be relatively undamaged as there are no motor vehicles allowed. This makes these islands quieter than usual and was another welcome change from the other places we'd been this trip. The boat we got was the Marina Srikandi. We were seated inside which was pretty hot and nauseating with the movement of the vessel. After the 2 hours, I was glad to get off. Gili T looked great, a peaceful sandy beach greeted us, after we'd stepped through the clear blue water.

Stepping off the boat

Beach on Gili T

The Main street on Gili T


Our hotel was close to the beach. It was recommended on most of the websites I'd seen for Gili T, however I found it was more interested in being a diving school than a hotel and the pool was almost always being used for dive tuition.The room was nice though. We chilled out in Gili, had some food and went to the gorgeous beach. Winnie then found a yoga studio and did some yoga while I went for a nap, being the old man that I am. I was, however, up for having a massage after our dinner.

Our Hotel room

The highlight of the trip to Gili for me, was an Indonesian Cooking class that we did. We'd signed up the first day and did it the second. We made about 5 dishes. There was Winnie and I, a Canadian Mother and Daughter, and an Aussie guy who was dating the daughter. We got along really well so it was a really nice atmosphere. The class was fantastic and I'd really recommend doing it if you visit. It's on the main strip and it called 'GIli Cooking Classes'. Most of the food is laid out for you, you only have to cook and present it. Then later, we all went upstairs and all 5 of us enjoyed our fresh food together. The highlight of the day was discovering that Winnie knew what a pan, knife and kitchen was. haha. 

Proud of our efforts.

He's obviously impressed!

Breakfast

We chilled in the afternoon and booked our speedboat back for the following day. The only one available was 7am so we were a little bummed about that. That night we had some food in a beautiful restaurant then bumped into our friend Kaleena. We sat around drinking and eating some pancakes in the bar/market area before going to bed. The next morning was an early start. So early in fact, that there was no-one on reception at the hotel to take our payment! So I guess we got the 2nd night free (despite me joking here, we did try to find someone to pay). The speedboat back to Bali was much better than the one we took to get there, we could sit on the deck and enjoy the breeze.

The beach just before sunset

Speedboat back to Bali

Once back in Bali, we were driven back to Ubud. We had a day to kill as we didn't fly out of Bali until around 5am the following morning. So we decided to head back to the hotel we'd stayed in. We asked if we could use their pool and shower there that day. They were happy to oblige. We went for a walk around the markets and then into the monkey forest, where we were both bitten (mine drew blood). I was convinced that I would die of rabies, but thankfully I'm still here to tell the tale. We also bumped into our friends from Korea, Emily, Linh, Tessie and Carlos in a temple in the forest. Small world huh? Arriving back at the hotel, little did we know that they were going to go above and beyond our expectations. Not only did they allow us to use the pool, towels, showers and restaurant, the receptionist (Wayan?) said that he'd arrange for us to be driven to the airport at 3am by the hotel's driver AND he made a bed of cushions in the library above the reception so we could sleep there, for free, for a few hours before we flew. I had never been so thankful and humbled by a person's service before. 

Temple in Monkey Forest

So cliché!!

Not-so awesome

The day's damage

Once we were clean, we took the shuttle to see a traditional and colourful Balinese dance performance, then had a wonderful italian meal. Back at the hotel, despite Winnie being feasted on by mosquitos, we had a decent rest and left Bali with wonderful memories of great food, rich culture, beautiful landscape and generous people.

Traditional Balinese dance

Balinese instrument (Gamelan)

Those eyes!!!

Next stop - Yogyakarta (Java). 

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Koh Phangan - Thailand

This was the day that I was to discover that everything you're told in Thailand may not necessarily be the truth. Some of it may be a version of the truth. Some of it, will be a lie.

We were told that we would be picked up around 8:30 am outside the hotel and taken in a comfortable air-conditioned minibus to Surat Thani port, where we would catch a 2 hour ferry to Koh Phangan. We were indeed met almost on-time, and the minibus was nice and cool. This is where the truth ended. The journey lasted about 10 minutes, as we were taken to a car park and huddled off the minibus like cattle and squeezed onto a bigger bus (like, 44 seats) with other travelers. This bus was hot, smelly and not strictly human-exclusive. By that, I mean there was probably 3 mosquitos for every 2 passengers! I was lucky enough to get a seat near the front. The bus had around 44 seats, yet we crammed about 49 passengers on it, stowing the excess luggage in the aisle of the bus. This meant that people had to sit ON the luggage, or stand at the front for the journey that lasted about 3-4 hours.

After listening to some music, and raising my mosquito-kill count to around 5, I managed a little nap. When we got to Surat Thani, we were then, again like cattle, herded off the big bus and told to wait for another bus. The only thing good about this was that we got off the sweaty, flea-ridden bus and Cindy bought me an ice-cream! After we'd just got settled, the Thai pseudo-farmer blew her whistle and us cattle were bundled onto an even smaller bus, which looked older than Fred Flintstone's car, which was to take us to the ferry port. We were told this journey was to take 45 minutes. 1 hour and 15 minutes later, we arrived...

I'm getting annoyed just writing this, so I'll summarise. We got to the port, ate, got the ferry, passed out, woke up, off the ferry, taxi to hotel.

The rooms were nice, basic but clean and cute. I liked that the room came with a padlock to lock the door?!?!... whatever. We changed, then caught a tuk-tuk into the town area to find food. We found a restaurant and had some much-needed grub. In the middle of eating, Roger began to shout "Ryan.... RYAN" and to our amazement, walking past the restaurant, semi-dancing, was Ryan Lilly (our friend from Korea)! Small world eh?

Ryan persuaded us to finish our meal then join him and some random Kiwis in going to a Jungle Party. After getting a cocktail in a bucket (standard) we got a mad tuk-tuk to this party. Here, in the middle of the jungle, were about 2000 drunken foreigners, dancing to

(in my opinion crappy) music, drinking and having a great time! The party was fun and I was feeling happy to not be on that damn bus. Roger was almost passing out tired though, so to wake him up and avoid getting bitten by jungle mosquitoes (they're harder to kill than bus mosquitoes, i figured) we went to a pool party. This was just what it sounded like. So, we shrugged our shoulders, stripped to our underwear and jumped in the pool! This was so much fun, drinking and dancing and splashing. The vibe was good and we were beside the beach, at last, I was happy again!

The next day was to be the day of the Full Mon Party. I wasn't sure how I was feeling about this party. From what had started out as a small party in 1985 for a few tourists, the FMP now attracted HUGE crowds, thousands of foreigners. And we all know how drunken foreigners act... We were also finally joined by Mina who had had to work an extra week. We all started this day by taking a tuk-tuk to Koh Ma Beach (we smirked at the name) which was amazingly beautiful. The sand was white and the sea turquoise. A few hundred metres from the shore was a small island, and between this beach and the island, was a sandy walkway where we could walk 'through the sea' to the island. It made some amazing pictures. 

Koh Ma

I was feeling like I deserved some TLC after yesterday, so after Roger and Cindy, I went to the beach huts and asked one of the beautiful Thai ladies for an coconut oil massage. I listened to my iPod music as her warm hands soothed my aching back and neck and I was totally relaxed... As she moved onto my legs, I suddenly noticed how large her hands were, and come to notice it... her shoulders were quite wide too for a wo..... oh.....eeeek! 
I'll give her her due though, she was a good masseuse!! :P

After the relaxing massage and a refreshing swim, we headed back to rest for the FMP. We all bought custom

FMP vests/tshirts and crashed. The hotel provided free transport to Haad Rin (beach of the FMP) and we were dropped off close. We went to a meeting point to try and meet up with the girls from Korea (we'd pre-arranged this). This wasn't to be though, as we were a tad late but we partied on late into the night. We got body paint on our arms and faces and drunk a fair amount of beer. Some of us tried laughing gas, which Roger, Cindy and Sam thought was terrible, but Winnie and I were too busy laughing to complain! 

The Full Moon Party certainly was an experience. Can I say I enjoyed it? no, sadly I can't. Again, I felt that what had been a cool hippy-style party back in the day, had been too over-customised for us westerners. The music wasn't to my liking and I was just having one of those nights. You know those, right? Those nights when you're just not feeling it, you drink, but it has no effect. You smile on the outside but the inside yawns... So thanks body, thanks a lot for choosing this night of all nights to be stubborn.

We did manage to bump into the girls though, which was great. Some of them felt sick from some food they ate but they seemed to be having fun. It was really good to think 6 months ago, I knew none of these people, we've become close friends through our shared experiences and now we were again meeting in another country on the same beach. Madness! 

Winnie and Cindy also bumped into Ryan again. I'd already decided that the FMP wasn't for me, and gone home. It was actually one of the saddest nights of the trip for me, it was only the second time since leaving the UK that I'd felt isolated and lonely, despite there being 20,000 people around me. I guess it's just my age and the aforementioned body-alcohol resistance :(

Upon reflection, I am glad that I went. Was it crazy? Yeah, I guess it was in parts. Was it fun? To me, no. But others seemed to have a decent time. Would I go again? no, been there, done that, got the purple vest....

We all woke up at a fairly decent time to say we all got back between 3-5am. We went the port area to rent some scooters so that we could spend the rest of the time exploring this gorgeous island. First we bought the Ferry tickets, as we needed to get to Surat Thani airport the following night, to catch the flight to Bangkok. The tickets allowed us to board the 12:30 ferry to the mainland, then catch the provided luxury bus and get us to the airport for 4pm. Our flight was at 8:20pm so we\'d have some time to kill but it was better than rushing, we thought. We spent the rest of the day riding round the island, taking pictures and eating ice-cream and other foods on offer. This is the day I took the magical picture sitting on the palm tree hovering over the ocean. Simply beautiful. We ended the night be going around a local market, sampling various street food and looking at souvenirs. I also bought more Imodium... ahem.

The final day, we woke early and I had breakfast with Winnie. I also heard another hotel guest talk and said to Winnie "he sounds like me", turns out he was from Leeds. Was nice to hear a Yorkshire accent this far afield! Cindy joined us and we went out on the scooters to visit the full moon beach and take some pictures on the sand. Roger slept in and Sam and Mina had left for their ferry to Koh Samui. We met back at the hotel and then rode together to return the bikes and catch the ferry. It was then to be confirmed that traveling within Thailand is NOT something I enjoy doing. We boarded the 12:30 ferry at 1:10 and were herded into a downstairs room with only white walls and a blank tv to stare at. 

Thankfully we slept the whole journey and after waiting 40 minutes to get off the boat, we got on the promised luxury bus to the airport. The luxury bus was the only truth in the promised journey. We moved on and stopped at a place where we were told to get off the bus, which we did. We we then told to get back ON the bus again. Whilst grumbling, I got back on the bus which took us to the airport, via the train station. Promised time of arrival, 4pm. Actual time of arrival, 6:10 pm! Magic Thailand, magic!

Back to the scene of the party the morning after, beautiful

We ate in the airport then boarded our flight to Bangkok, which left on-time at 8:20pm....