indonesia

Last Day On Bali

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 10:25:00 +0100

I have spent a few days on Bali, but I haven't been able to see anything except the main city of Denpasar and the airport. The 2 days I was here earlier I spent trying to get to Komodo and resting because I was sick. Yesterday I got back to Bali from my Komodo trip, but again spent the day resting and getting cleaned up. Tomorrow I leave for Krabi, Thailand back to my favorite hotel (Krabi Tropical Beach Resort). I will be there for 1 whole month before going back to Penang, Malaysia to visit with my friends one last time before heading home on November 10th. So that only leaves today to explore as much of Bali as I can. Now you might be thinking well why are you leaving Bali so soon and spending a whole month in a place you have already been to. Well Bali is not cheap. It is cheap compared to America, but it is out of my budget for this trip. It is not that expensive here I just don't want to spend the amount of money required to stay here. After all I have been traveling for 2 months and I still have 1 month left. So my budget is smaller than what one needs for Bali. There are not really that many cheap hotels and the island is big with all the attractions spread out across it. So you have to take taxis everywhere and it really can add up. So today I hired a car for the day and went to Ubud, which is the artsy area of Bali and not too far from my hotel. Along the way I saw many, many temples. The temples are not huge, but they are everywhere. Here is a typical looking Balinese temple.

Once I got to Ubud the first thing I did was walk the main market. This is the place to go to find all kinds of fruits, foods, herbs, and souvenirs.

The market was 2 stories and packed with vendors all over the place. It was early in the morning when I got there so not all the stalls were open yet and most of the vendors were still setting up their stalls. After the market I looked at a few of the temples nearby and then I continued onto Goa Gajah, also known as Elephant Cave. Goa Gajah is located 10 minutes from the market in Ubud. Here is an overview of the Goa Gajah complex.

The complex consisted of a temple, many shrines, a sacred bathing pool, and of course the cave. Here is a picture of the temple.

Here is the sacred bathing pool.

Here is the entrance to the cave. The stone carving was truly amazing.

The inside of the cave was not huge. Basically you have a "T" shaped corridor inside with a few shrines at the end of each corridor. One shrine was of Ganesh the Hindu elephant god and here was another one of the shrines.

The best thing about Goa Gajah, which most people probably miss out on because it is hidden and relatively unknown, is this.

If you can't figure it out the sign is pointing in the direction of the jungle temple. I saw this sign in the back of the complex off to the side of a walkway. It was kind of hidden and no one really noticed it. I decided to I would go see the jungle temple. The path started off very beautiful with a nice wide trail clearly showing the way through the jungle.

Then things started to get wet, slippery, muddy, and steep. In otherwords the path became a bit dangerous. To my disadvantage I am walking around with my small backpack that is loaded with all of my valuables that I did not want to leave at the hotel (like my computer, camera, passports, etc.). The bag is actually pretty heavy and in the heat of the day with the humidity carrying this bag makes you sweat even more. On top of carrying the bag I am in sandals, holding my camera with one hand, and wearing a sarong (traditional Balinese attire that is required to enter almost all temples if not all temples in Bali). Luckily there is an old man who acts as a trail guide for a small fee and he will walk you down to the jungle temple. Here is my guide and the beginning of the real trek to the jungle temple.

You can see in th picture that I am looking down at him and we are climbing down the rocky mountain. All the rocks and floor you see is wet and muddy. At times, like right here, my guide offered me a hand to make sure I did not fall. I was very cautious because I did not want to fall on my bag and break my computer or fall and drop my camera. Plus I just didn't fell like getting all muddy and having to return to the taxi man like that. He probably would have left me there. Also parts of the trek were very steep and most of it was along a cliff with a long ways down. Anyways, we continued trekking down the mountain to the river and had to cross the river using a bamboo bridge. Here I am crossing the bridge wearing the traditional sarong.

I got to tell you that wearing that sarong did not help my trekking abilities. I was constantly stepping on it and trying not to get it dirty. Besides I am not accustomed to wearing what is basically like a dress, but if you want to see temples in Bali you have to wear it. It would be disrespectful to not wear it. In fact they wouldn't let you in. It is part of the adventure I guess. After crossing the river I had to walk through some large boulders along the river to final reach the jungle temple.

The temple reminded me of something I would see in Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones. The river flows right through the temple so you can't go in it, but it was quite amazing to see. Here I am sitting on a rock with an old traditional Balinese man admiring a hidden jungle temple that requires a semi-dangerous jungle trek to get to it all while waering a sarong, sandals, and trying not to kill myself or break my valuables. It was quite an adventure and I sure was glad when I made it back safe and without breaking anything. Although I did break a major sweat. Right away I ran and got a nice refreshing coconut to drink. After the coconut I went back to the hotel and cleaned up. Then I enjoyed a nice meal of chicken fried rice and a local Bintang beer. The food and beer were both delicious.

Bali seems like a very interesting island. One I would like to explore more of one day when I have the money to do so. Actually I would like to explore more of Indonesia as a whole.

Lasting Impressions

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:04:38 +0100

After having done the most adventurous thing I have ever done in my life these are the impressions I am left with. Indonesia is filled with many, many islands, The color of the water is absolutely beautiful. I saw colors that cannot be reproduced. Colors that can only be seen in nature. I saw the komodo dragon in it's home. This was a great feeling for me as this has always been a dream of mine. The boat trip was perfect. I was so lucky to have the boat all to myself. The food onboard was so good. The staff was very nice (I just wish they didn't chain smoke the entire time). Labuan Bajo sucks. When I was buying my ticket back to Bali they asked me when I wanted to fly and I basically said how soon can I leave. If I ever do this trip again I will pay for a nice hotel in Labuan Bajo (there is only a couple) and I will probably charter a bigger, nicer boat with a cabin. I have the experience of roughing it and I will never forget it, but I don't need to do it like that again. I didn't shower for about 3 or 4 days. That was gross. Now I know a little more about how a homeless person feels. I felt like a greasy, smelly, dirty person. I was one. It felt so good to finally shower in Bali. The boat trip made me feel like I was in the middle of nowhere and then I kept going to the end of the earth. I swear I expected to see dinosaurs at one point. The scenery reminded me of Jurassic Park. I thought I was going to come across a valley filled with dinosaurs or see a pterodactyl fly overhead. The journey was definitely part of the adventure and memories I created. I have never felt so far from everything. It was like being in a whole other world. But my limited time in Bali has also showed me that not all of Indonesia is like this. The more populated islands are more like what we are used to. I think if you want to experience some of the real Indonesia you need to go to some of the smaller islands off the beaten track and I wasn't even that far off the beaten track. Imagine what other wonders wait out there in Indonesia.

Komodo National Park

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 07:47:23 +0100

Since I didn't sleep too much last night I was able to get up early and enjoy the sunrise and I got to see the flying foxes return from their night out. I felt so blessed for just being there and witnessing the wonders of nature. This was truly one of those moments I will never forget. Before we headed to Komodo I enjoyed a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes and banana fritters.

After breakfast it was about 1 hour to Komodo National Park.

I took another 1 hour trek with a park ranger who happened to be a young teenage boy. He showed me all kinds of plants. I found a particular type of palm tree to be very interesting. I only lives for 3 months, produces fruit, drops the fruit, then dies, and falls over. That is its entire lifecycle.

You can see the whole it leaves behind when it falls. The roots are very small on this tree. After trekking about 10 minutes we came across this female resting.

I was told that they are very lazy animals unless you get too close and then they become very aggressive or if they are hungry. Here is a close-up of her face. She must like getting her picture taken because as I moved around her she kept looking right at me, but only when I was taking a picture.

We also spotted this deer along the way.

The poor thing lost one of its antlers, but I was told they shed them once a year. Still I didn't like seeing the poor thing all bloody from losing it. I showed you a friendlier picture of the deer. By the way this would be a perfect meal for a dragon. They will bite their prey in the rear and then let it go. They will let the poison do its work and they will follow the blood trail later to find the dead animal to eat. Here is what dragon poop looks like.

It is white from the calcium in the bones of the animals they eat. The dragons can't fully digest bone, but they eat animals whole. So they poop out white because they are getting rid of the undigested bone material (calcium). You also see hair balls in their poop too. Hair can't really be digested either. After the trek I was taken to the kitchen of the rangers village again and there was 2 male dragons laying around. Just as I was about to leave one of the dragons got up and started walking straight towards me. My ranger jumped in front of me just in case, but the dragon went and laid down next to the other dragon. Apparently the other dragon didn't like that becasue it got up and started breathing real heavy. It sounded like someone was turning a leaf blower on and off. I got a great video of this. It was soooooooooo cool to witness. Eventually the other dragon laid back down. The ranger told me that the dragons don't really fight because they are too lazy. What a show it was though. Here are the 2 dragons. You can see the one on the back is the dragon that was upset. See how big it's throat is. It is filled with air to make the loud noise it was making.

After another great trek in Komodo National Park I headed back to the boat. We went to another snorkel spot, but I didn't want to snorkel as I didn't feel that great. I did jump in the water to rinse off though. After all I hadn't showered in a couple days now. (Gross I know.) As soon as I hit the water I couldn't breath. The water was colder than I expected and my throat was really sore. So the combination made it hard for me to breath in the water. Under normal circumstances the water would have been fine. A lot warmer than San Diego that's for sure. After my rinse I took a nap for awhile as we headed back to Labuan Bajo on Flores. Waking from my nap I was served lunch. It was the usual sweet and sour fish, veggies, etc. Here is a typical meal on the board.

Here is the fresh sweet and sour fish.

Here is the veggies.

The meals onboard were just outstanding. Towards the end of the return trip we ran into a little rain.

You can see the haze up ahead. That means rain. So we knew it was coming, but we didn't know how bad. Luckily it was not too bad. We made it through the rain with no problems and back to Labuan Bajo.

Unfortunately my trip was over and it was too late to fly back to Bali today so I was stuck in Labuan Bajo for another night. This meant to sleep tonight and no shower again. I thought I would at least get dinner. Oh and my throat was the worst it has been so far so I am coughing like crazy. At that moment I was wishing I was anywhere, but there. I shoulc have paid the $150 for the fancy hotel, but I couldn't do it. I figured I would suffer for one more night and be in Bali tomorrow. Actually I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get a ticket to Bali until the following day trapping me here for an extra day. Anyways, back to dinner. I went to get dinner at the hotel thinking the slow service was just from the big party. However, I quickly learned otherwise. After sitting for 10 minutes I got up and asked for a menu. After another 15 waiting I went up to them to order. Then after 45 mintues of waiting for my food (keep in mind the restaurant is nearly empty and I only ordered scrambled eggs and toast) I got up and told them to cancel my order. I had already spent over an hour coughing in the cool air all the while getting bitten by mosquitos. In fact one mosquito bite was so bad that I could feel my toe throbbing. I finally had enough and didn't want to wait any longer. I wasn't even all the hungry to begin with. So I went back to my dirty bungalow and coughed myself to sleep fo maybe an hour before the 4:30am prayer song came balring through the town. I don't know if I mentioned it but Indonesia is a Muslim country and so towns are rigged with loudspeakers for the daily prayer songs. You hear the songs go off all day long. I respect everyone and their beliefs, but I wanted to run around town and cut down all the speakers. 4:30am. Really? You need to get up that early to pray? Is anyone even awake yet? All I can tell you is that I am glad to back to Bali now.

Next Stop Komodo Dragons

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:08:43 +0100

Today was the day. Today was the day I departed for the Komodo dragons. I have always wanted to see them and this trip is a life long dream for me. So yesterday I paid for a 2 day/1 night boat tour and I thought I was going to be one of several or many guests. To my surprise I chartered this boat all for myself over the next 2 days.

Getting to the boat was a little challenging. The dock was in need of some slight repairs.

Yes. I actually had to cross that dock with all my bags to board the boat. The beginning of the dock is slanted sideways quite a bit. Then you get to the above section where you have to walk across planks that feel like they are going to break. Especially with the weight of myself and the bags. Then you have to climb the dock like a ladder. Somehow I managed to get on the boat without getting wet or losing my bags. Komodo dragons are found on 3 islands in Indonesia. I will be seeing 2 of the 3 islands. Today we are going to Rinca's Komodo National Park. The trip should take about 3 hours from Labuan Bajo to Rinca. Along the way I was treated to many gorgeous views. I saw too many islands to count and tons of pretty coastline. I was basically floating down the sea surrounded by islands at all times and the water was many different beautiful shades of blue with green shades near the beaches. The terrain can range from green with forests to rocky and barren. Here is a typical patch of land.

A few of the islands had villages on the coast. Now these people live in about a remote place as possible.

There are no roads or cars on some of these islands. They use boats to get around. In fact I was told that there is a bus boat. It goes from the small villages to a nearby larger town. After a few wonderful hours I finally made it to Rinca.

I went on a 1 hour trek with a park ranger. This is a nest used by dragons to lay eggs.

The ranger told me that adults dragons will eat anything including other smaller dragons or even their own eggs. Then we came upon this dragon digging up a nest hoping to find some eggs.

Unfortunately this would be the only dragon I saw out on the trek. You can't predict or control nature and I knew this. So I was just glad to have seen a dragon at all. However I did get to see a few more dragons at the rangers village. The rangers have a little village where they live and they have a common kitchen. A group of dragons like to hangout under the kitchen because they can smell the food. They are still wild animals, but it not quite the same as seeing them in nature. So I was really glad when I same the dragon digging up the nest. Not only was it in the wild, but it was active.

I was told they stopped feeding the dragons in 1995 because they feared they would get dependent on humans for food and not know how to hunt to survive. Here is a close-up of the kitchen group.

Aren't they just adorable? It took all of my might to not just walk up and hug one. Dogs, cats, and pandas are all cute, but I love reptiles. If these guys weren't poisonous I would love to be lying there with them. Resting my head on one of them like it was a pillow. As I was leaving the park I ran into a few more dragons resting under other buildings, but I also found this little one.

Apparently the younger dragons spend a lot of time in the trees to avoid being eaten by the adult dragons which are now too heavy to climb trees. This is why they tell you to always check the trees as you walk around the park. This little one climbed all around the tree then came down and ran off.

What a great day and it is not even over yet. Next we headed to Kalong to see the flying foxes come out at dusk. Along the way we stopped at a beach, but because I was a little sick from the cold AC on the train to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I decided not to swim. I didn't want to get sicker especially since I was going to be sleeping on the deck of the boat. While waiting at the beach a short rain came by and left us a present.

I was also treated to a beautiful sunset.

As soon as the sun went behind the mountains the flying foxes came out. Here is a swarm of them flying around.

Flying foxes are basically bats. They live in the trees pictures during the day. You can hear them making noise all day long. Then at dusk they leave the trees to go eat and they come back at dawn. It was amazing to sit there with a hot tea just enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. I ate lunch and dinner on the boat today. We had fresh catch fish that was fried and prepared with a sweet and sour sauce. We also had veggies, noodles, rice, eggs, cucumbers, and pineapple. They were both quite a feast. These meals were better than many meals I have had traveling. After dinner it was bed time. Here is my spot on deck.

Having the boat to myself I didn't have to share the deck with anyone. It was perfect. Luckily they put up the tarps at night because it rained heavily for about 5 minutes and I could feel the water lightly hitting me on the head. Good thing it stopped after a few minutes. Last thing I needed was to be hit by rain all night. I was already coughing a good amount. I have to admit I didn't sleep very well, if at all. The captain and his mate chain smoked the entire trip so once they put the tarps up I could smell the smoke a little bit. They also talked very loudly for many hours after lights out. Also I don't think the sheets or pillow have ever been washed before. You know you are in trouble when the person preparing your bed has to smell things 2 or 3 times. The bedding smelled a little stale and old. It was also kind of sticky, but that might have just been me because with the humidity I am basically just a ball of grease at all times. In the end that was just a small price to pay for one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I still have one more day.

Labuan Bajo

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 06:00:35 +0100

Today I boarded a flight to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores. Labuan Bajo is a small town which is one of two starting points for all boat trips to Komodo and Rinca Islands. I knew I was in for an adventure when I boarded a small plane right on the tarmac.

During the flight I was treated to some spectacular views from up above. I saw tons of islands all over the place. I like these because they remind me of the layout of Hawaii.

I also saw a few volcanoes. If you look closely you can see the cinder cone still and this one had a lake inside it.

After flying for about an hour we all of a sudden land in the middle of a empty field with nothing but trees. This is Komodo airport in Flores. It serves about 10 flights a day at most. The only thing they do to planes here is load and unload them. There is no fuel or food for the planes. It is a small 2 room airport.

I now knew I was definitely in for an adventure. Luckily I had done some research before I came so I knew the names of a few hotels I wanted to check out. My biggest goal for today was to first get a place to stay and second book a trip to see the Komodo dragons. So I went to one hotel, but unfortunately they were out of rooms. Then I started to think this town is tiny what if there are no rooms available anywhere or only expensive rooms. Luckily I found a room at the next hotel I went to. So it was no big deal after all. I actually got a bungalow. It looks decent.

But this was by far the worse place I had stayed for so many reasons which I will get to throughout the next few blogs. Upon inspecting my bed I found gecko poop all over it. They didn't provide towels which is not that big a deal since I have my own towel, but because of the humidity here nothing ever dries. So I didn't want to get my towel all wet and then have to travel with a wet towel. I had booked a 2 day/1 night boat tour to Rinca and Komodo so I figured I could live without showering one day. Although I did my best to clean up in the sink and used deodorant. Labuan Bajo is a very small town. There is nothing to do here. Basically you come here just to board a boat to leave.

This is downtown Labuan Bajo. Unfortunately I arrived about 10am and boats leave at 8am so I was stuck here for the day. I walked the town and there was nothing of interest. Although I did book my tour for a couple hundred dollars cheaper than online or in Bali. If you ever plan to see the dragons fly to Labuan Bajo and book your tour there, but limit the amount of time you actually have to be in Labuan Bajo. Anyways, after booking my tour and walking the town I still had most of the day left. There was no accessible beach nearby so I was stuck. It was a very boring afternoon. I spent part of the day watching movies on my laptop. I have never been so happy to have that thing with me. It is a pain in the butt to carry around, but it was well worth it for times likes these. Plus I can blog and email easier. So the sun finally started to set and I caught this amazing view from the hotel restaurant.

After snapping this picture I decided to sit down for some dinner. Little did I know it was going to take over 1 hour to get my food. I thought it was because of the big group (20+ people) that sat right before me, but I learned later that the service just sucks at that hotel. Eventually I was able to eat and then I went off to bed to prepare for an early start tomorrow.

Komodo Here I Come

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:21:08 +0100

I just booked a flight to the island of Flores for tomorrow morning. From there I can get to Komodo and Rinca islands to see the komodo dragons. I don't know how well the internet will be over there or how long I will be there so I will do my best to keep up with the blog. Today I am not doing much in Bali. I don't feel too good and all I wanted to do is figure out how to get to the dragons. So now I have my flight and some information to use once I get to Flores. Now I will rest for tomorrow.

Bali At Last

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:30:16 +0100

I finally made it to Bali after a long freezing journey. Flying over Java I could tell it was a huge island. There were also a lot of buildings on Java so I can see why it is so crowded there. I was also lucky enough to see some jungle and 2 volcanoes on Java. At least one of the volcanoes is still active as there was some smoke coming out a couple of the vents in the ground. Once I got off the plane in Bali I headed straight to my hotel. Along the way I exchanged some money and became a millionaire again. I exchanged about $287 and got about 2.5 million Rupiah. Unfortunately the exchange rate is about 9000 Rupiah to $1. So it is not gonna last long. The taxi to my hotel was 70,000 Rupiah. Easy come, easy go I guess. My plan here over the next day and a half is to book a tour to see the komodo dragons which are about 2 or 3 islands away from here. Then I will come back to Bali to enjoy what the island has to offer, which apparently is not this hotel room. My room smells like pee, it's dirty, no electrical plugs, and I could probably keep going on but you get the idea. I will definitely not be staying here when I come back. Although the people here are very nice.