Stuck in Paradise

Gili Trawangan's Sunset Hammock

As the last post alluded to, I am still on Gili Trawangan waiting for my cards to arrive.  Luckily, though, it's a really pretty island to be stuck on and I've been having a great time!  I've spent my time snorkeling, laying on the beach, and generally just relaxing.  Yesterday, a group of 11 of us got a private boat for $9 each to take us around for 4 hours and stop at several snorkel spots, while we hung out and had a few beers on the boat!  There are so many turtles, fish, and coral here!  I've met lots of awesome people here and was told that I hold the record for the longest anyone stayed at this hostel!  There is a night market full of little food carts where you can get a large plate of rice and meat/veggies for $1.50-$2.

Our private snorkel boat party

I also mentioned last time that obviously the culture in Asia was quite different.  The island I'm on now is Muslim and it is Ramadan, meaning they don't eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset.  I couldn't even imagine!  People are often begging you for everything, yelling "Yes Please" or "Buy Something" and sell anything from drugs to bracelets.  Also, you have to bargain everything.  For a bike rental they said 100,000idr ($10) for the day, but we ended up paying under $2!  Drivers are crazy as well, although apparently not as bad as other countries.  It seems like there are no rules.  At a 4 way intersection everyone just pulls in the middle and weaves in and out of each other.  Apparently if you honk you can do whatever you want, except everyone honks and does whatever they want!  While everything is cheap, you also have to pay for everything.  Going to see a waterfall cost $1 and using the toilet even costs 15 cents at tourist sites.  There septic systems are poor here, so they actually have little hose-like things in the toilets called "bum guns" that you use to clean, then dry with toilet paper, but put it in the rubbish, rather than toilet.  Indonesian food consists primarily of Nasi Goreng (fried rice), Mie Goreng (fried noodles), and Gado-Gado which is sauteed veges with peanut sauce and egg.  There are lots of fish around this island as well, but it's relatively expensive. Anyway, I think Indonesia is a good introduction to Asia, but I'll let ya know as I see more of it (not that I saw much of Indonesia...).  

On Tuesday I will have to head back to Bali and on Wednesday morning, fly to Bangkok!

Jumping in Head First

Gili T Sunset

Well, I'm in Asia now!  After spending 41 hours getting from Wanaka, NZ to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, I was exhausted.  I did get about 8 hours in downtown Syndey along the way though!
All I wanted to do was sleep.  However, I first needed to get cash from the ATM, which turned out to be a mission. None of the ATMs dispensed cash, but I found a taxi driver who was willing to take me to my bank's ATM in town before dropping me off at the hotel, so I was able to finally get cash.  Later, I found out that money was withdrawn from my account, so now I'm disputing the $300 I lost--yay!

Tegalalang Rice Terrace

Anyway, the next day I got to Ubud, which was a really nice town.  I stayed in a great, social hostel where I immediately made some friends  The next day, a group of 4 of us hired a taxi for the day (for $5 each for 5 hours!) and saw a few temples, rice terraces and a waterfall!  It was interesting as the taxi driver tried to take us all sorts of other places but we eventually convinced him to take us where we wanted!

The next morning, I got up at 0200 to go climb Mt Batur near Kintamani.  It was a beautiful sunset from the top overlooking several other volcanoes, a lake, and the ocean beyond!  There were monkeys on the way down, too, which I fed some bread (I know that's not environmentally friendly, but you have to do it once!)  That afternoon, I went to monkey forest, where there were soooo many monkeys!!!

Holy Spring Temple

The following day, a group of us took the boat to Gili Trawangan!  It is a beautiful little island, where we've relaxed on the beach, snorkeled, dove, and biked around the island.  There are so many turtles--we saw 5 diving, and 3 just while we were swimming!  The diving was incredible--so any fish! The night market is nice as well!  As many of you have heard, my wallet did get stolen here, but things are getting sorted and hopefully in a couple days I'll be all good again!  As Rocky Balboa said,  "it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!" So, I'm moving along and will still make the most of it!  

From Mt Batur, looking at Mt Agung/Lake Batur

Otherwise, Asia is really interesting.  Obviously quite different culturally, but so cheap!  On Gili T, Ramadan is now, which is a month of fasting basically.  Even when hiking Mt Batur, the guides had to stop and give an offering to the gods and say a prayer before walking.  Also, you can get a bed for $8/night, food for $3-5, water bottles are 50 cents  And you can bargain everything, which at first I hated, but is kind of fun now!  Anyway, I'm hoping to climb Mt Rinjani once I get my cards, then go back to Bali before flying off to Bangkok on July 1st! Hope you all are having a great summer.  It sounds almost as hot there as here!  Also, Happy Father's Day to all you dads reading this!