Indonesia Wrap-up

Well, our 6 weeks in Indonesia have come to an end and we are home.  We spent the last week back in Ubud, which like for many others, had become our home away from home in Bali. We were able to reconnect with our Irish/German friend Julia, relax, swim in the pool and generally soak up some final Bali time. Not to mention getting our shopping done. Telling everyone I would buy them gifts for Christmas seemed such a good idea in December. But not as much so when I had to cram all the shopping into 1 day. Oh well, my bargaining skills are now razor sharp.

We really enjoyed experiencing a few of the many sides of Indonesia including the hectic Muslim island of Java, the touristy Hindu Bali, the remote and not touristy more rural Lombok and finally the laidback islands of the Gilis.

Trip Highlights:

• New friends including Ross and Jake (Canadian/American english teachers in Japan), Joyce and Iain w/ Xavier and Tess (Australian family), Leah and Luke (Australians), Ale and Javi (Chilean/Kiwi/Aussie single mom and daughter), Julia (Irish/German on a RTW trip), and Alex (American footballer).

Julia with Jasmine

Javi and Ale

• Seeing old friends who live oh so far away: Ali from Beijing



•  Food: We especially like the Mie Gorung (fried noodles) Mie Kuah (noodle soup), banana pancakes, and all the glorious fish we got in Lombok.

Typical fish dinner, note best eaten with a large Bintang beer

Banana pancake, really more of a crepe, with honey on the side.

Front of a typical Warung (small restaurant)

• Natural wonders of Indonesia including active volcanoes: Mount Bromo and Mount Batur

• Finally the temples and other cultural stuff added to our understanding of Indonesian culture

So with sadness at leaving mixed with the joy of heading home we said goodbye to Indonesia:

Sunset over Bali

Galungan: celebrating a Hindu ceremony in Bali

Occurring once in every 210 days in the pawukon (Balinese cycle of days), Galungan marks the beginning of the most important recurring religious ceremony that is celebrated by all Balinese. During the Galungan period the deified ancestors of the family descend to their former homes. They must be suitably entertained and welcomed, and prayers and offerings must be made for them. Those families who have ancestors that have not yet been cremated, but are still buried in the village cemetery, must make offerings at the graves.

pouring rain

This is one of the major balinese hindi holidays and we got to observe while here. It was pretty neat to experience the celebration at the guest house we are staying at through our guesthouse family here in Ubud. The day before they decorated their penjor (a tall bamboo pole that they place in front of the home). The family also spent hours decorating the family temple and preparing offerings.

Family temple all decorated for Galungan

We dressed in sarongs and sashes and watched all the people walk around delivering their offerings to the different temples. All in all it was a really fun day.

penjor and decorated shrine in front of a house on the street I am staying

penjors galore

Base of the penjors and the women making offerings

At the temple praying after making offerings

What the offerings look like

The family dressed in their Galungan best (with Jasmine)

In search of a good Beach

We spent a very busy week with Alison visiting a few new places around Bali including the east coast area of Amed. This is a relatively isolated area of coastline with gorgeous black sand beaches. Unfortunately we landed there during a 3 days of extreme stormy weather and the wind and waves were big almost the whole time we were there. We did get one day of not bad weather, but they lost power on the whole coast the day we arrived and never got it back. I had sorta planned on staying there for a couple of days after Alison left but with high winds, big waves and no power, it was just too hard for us. So we moved on to calmer pastures... Sanur.

Black sand beach in Amed

Before coming to Bali I had this impression that it was the land of gorgeous beaches. But in reality the beaches here have been pretty sucky. Even in places where we had fun, like the Gilis, the beaches have been coarse broken up pieces of coral and really shallow water or dirty with huge waves (both Kutas and Lovina). No fine sand beaches with clean swimmable ocean. Amed had the beaches but the weather was so bad we couldn't really enjoy it.

more black sand beaches

The gorgeous Amed coast

But finally in Sanur we found a nice clean beach, with easy access and a swimmable ocean, even if most of the tourists there were in there 50s and 60s. But it took us visiting 6 different towns to fine a halfway okay beach. I guess now I know, you don't visit Bali looking for world class beaches. Not that we didn't enjoy all of our ocean experience (after all it doesn't take much for someone from Montana to get their ocean fix on). But definitely different than expected.

fishing boats in Amed

yes, she gets to drink soda here

Seems only fair since I get to drink yummy microbrews

Ubud: otherwise known as the Love in "Eat,Pray,Love"

After a rough couple of days spent in Kuta, the armpit of Bali, trying to get our visa extension we finally landed in Ubud. Ubud is located in central Bali and it is a very relaxing place with lots of pretty rice terraces and amazing shopping. And for those of you who know me, you know the shopping has to be great for me to like it. Cuz I hate shopping generally.

My guide book said that it was a simple one day at the immigration office to get our visa extensions. They give you a 30 day one on arrival, but we are here longer so had to extend. Well, it turns out that you have to go back 2 more times, which would have meant us losing 2 more days of our trip, not to mention having to pay to go back to Kuta so I finally had to pay an agency $150 to do it for us. 

Kuta is a loud touristy town with a dirty, crowded beach and really aggressive touts. Along the beach are such classy restaurants as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks and other American pollution. Our first hotel had bedbugs and every street has hundreds of crappy teeshirt shops. Apparently 18yo Aussies love it, but for me it is my idea of hell.

Classic rice terrace

One of the attractions here is a temple in a forest inhabited by hordes of aggressive monkeys. They steal, they bite and generally are mean. So they are fun to see but we had to be pretty vigilant in keeping them off of Jasmine. Another nice thing about Ubud is the hundreds of cheap Spas here. I got a 1 hour massage and half hour body scrub for about $11. Oh so nice, I could get use to that everyday, though I have only had 2 since I've been here.

Hordes of Monkeys

Baby monkey

My friend Alison has joined us for a week and we went and did some of the touristy stuff around Ubud. We visited a couple of temples and another volcano. Man I love all the cool geology here!

The Dragon Alison brought Jas in celebration of the Year of the Dragon

Mt Batur, with the 1994 lava flow in the front.

Temple

This is generally how we get around. Me doing all the work and Jas watching the scenery

We have had a relaxing week here in Ubud, but it is time to see something new. We are going to the beach to spend some more relaxing time. It's a hard life we are living!

Random Pictures from the Gili Islands

Mt Rinjani in the clouds, a big volcano

No dogs on the islands but tons of feral cats.

Perfect day to swim in the ocean

Horse cart, the only transport on the islands

Looking towards Lombok



Ending the day with a Bintang Beer at the beach



Sunset over Bali

Sunny in Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan is the most populated and touristy of the 3 Gili Islands. We are spending a couple of days here before catching our "fast boat" back to Bali. Frankly it has been a little bit of a shock to the system to be here after the mellow, laid back vibe of Gili Air. Also everything is more expensive here. We are staying at a place in the village (a homestay) that is pretty far off the beach for about $15USD/night. Everywhere else we have been this would have gotten us wifi and a pool. But on Gili T this gets us a clean room 5 minutes from the beach with aircon. But it is nice to do some people watching.

But to cut our costs we have started eating more street food. Though I had two of the Big Bintangs beers tonight (At Rp30,000ish/$3ishUSD each) so I guess that negates the cheapo dinner.

In our new place we ended up with some great neighbors, one is even an American (only our 3rd encounter of the trip). We chatted at breakfast and then all went on a snorkel trip for most the day together. Julia is a German living in Ireland with the best, most unique accent ever. And Alex is the Cleveland Browns center travelling in the off season (here out of respect of our new friend I refrain from any digs at the Browns).

Snorkel trip with Julia & Alex

At this point I want to say HELL YA PATRIOTS. No one else on this side of the world really gets why it was so awesome of the Pats to smash Tebow into ground. Though from Alex I get the impression he didn't really want to talk shop with me about how great the Patriots are, not that I blame him much since he is on vaca.

Not to jinx us, but the weather seems to finally have shifted a little to a more enjoyable sunny realm. I can live with some sun, some cloudy and some rain. But the pouring down rain of the last couple of weeks was beginning to wear. Keep your fingers crossed for us the weather is improving. We have had 3 days in a row of nice weather.

baby turtle conservation project on Gili T

Jas goes snorkeling in the Gili Islands

We arrived in Gili Air, one of a small group of islands north of Lombok a couple of days ago. So far we have found the best weather of our trip here. Yesterday it was sunny ALL day long. Yeah you heard that, no rain all day. Which I guess I could have predicted since I finally got us rain ponchos and a solid umbrella that morning. Murphy's Law, if I had known it was that easy to get a super duper nice day I would have done it long ago.


Boat to the Gilis

 The downside to a hot sunny day... my back and shoulders would fit in nicely in a burn ward. I even used sunscreen, I guess just not enough or frequent enough. Oh well, it should cool to a nice tan in a couple of days.

But it was so nice to finally have a full on hot sunny beach, swim in the ocean day. Since traveling with Jas I have had to exist at a slower pace and so we swam in the ocean, build sand castles, swam in the pool and spent the afternoon watching Dora the Explorer.


Breakfast on the beach



I should probably take this moment to wax poetic about Dora the Explorer. After considering many options back at home (and asking Jas what she wanted to watch) I ended up downloading a season of Dora the Explorer on iTunes, since my netbook doesn't have a dvd drive. I know that there are better ways to do it but it was easy for my techo-challenged brain to figure out. And it has been the best thing ever. The hour or two each afternoon that Jas watches Dora is the only quiet alone time I get each day. I go for a walk or take a nap in absolute SILENCE. So much so that when I met another single mom traveling with a 4 y.o. I let her copy it and she as so grateful, because she knew it mean some alone time.

Today I got to go diving. It was pouring rain with alot of wind when we got on the boat so I almost canceled. I am so glad I didn't. Jas stayed on the boat while I dived in the morning and fell asleep due to the rocking waves.

Ready to snorkel w/ our awesome Divemaster, Chloe.

Then in the afternoon we went snorkeling together in a place with no waves and the weather improved alot. And it was AWESOME. Jasmine loved it. She couldn't really fit the mask but I would hold it to her head and she would look at the fish in the water. We even saw a turtle (a big one). Finally I was cold and asked her if she wanted to get out and she said "No, I want to see more fish". That child is a waterbaby through and through! Not bad for not yet being 4 years old.

End of the day "OKAY" w/ Mt Rinjani in background