boltsintotheblue   Le mariage and beyond

So enough of lounging on beaches, it was time for us to actually get a bit of local culture and see what Bali was about. Seeing as we only had a couple of days, we didn’t manage to really get off the beaten track and instead headed to Ubud, that place made famous by the film “Eat, Pray, Love” starring she of the braying laugh and flapping nostrils, Julia Roberts. That one was for you Dad.

Of course we did what any good culture vultures would do when arriving at a place of such history, we headed to a darkened bar to watch the All Blacks vs France 🙂

Ubud was quite an assault on the senses after the quiet of the previous few days in Lombok and Gili T. There were other tourists everywhere, traffic snarled the roads, “Taxi, Taxi” was shouted at us at every other step, ticket sellers pressed leaflets into our hands, and there were shops, shops and more shops. Fortunately there were also ancient temples, luscious green rice paddies and stunning gorge views to be discovered. And of course there were a couple of lovely hotels that Clive had organised which were just the place to retreat to after a sweaty day of sightseeing. I liked the feel of Ubud, even though it’s the most touristy place that we’ve visited so far. Somehow the multiple outposts of Paul Smith shops and the like are balanced out by the more authentic Indonesian chaos that surrounds them and keeps Ubud just this side of cheesy.

One of the afternoons we decided to borrow some bikes from our hotel so that we could explore the surrounding area. I was imagining that we’d be given worthy steeds based on the type of hotel we were staying at, but no, I had to perch my unpadded buttocks on a rusting hard tail with a saddle I think a couple of the local dogs had fought over and attempt to slow any descent using V brakes! V brakes I say! The horror! Still, it allowed us to get up into the rice paddies outside the town, which were just stunning (pics below).

We also got out to see some of the local temples with a guide for day which was fascinating, though I have to confess we did get a little “temple apathy” after a while as they are all built on more or less the same layout so look increasingly familiar. We remarked to our guide that there were a lot of statues in the private gardens of houses but were told that these are actually family temples and pretty much every house has their own temple no matter how humble the dwelling which is remarkable when you consider how poor some of the people are. All the pavements were also always covered in small offerings of flowers and sweets in hand woven baskets with incence burning that families will spend up to a third of their income on along with other religious donations – another indication of how important religion is to the population that is 90% Hindu.

Our final stop on our day with the guide was to a local coffee plantation where we tried a number of local teas and coffees including one that is made from coffee beans that have been eaten by a Civet, an animal that looks a bit like a cat, digested, then, yep you guessed it, harvested from its poo. Mmmmmmmm delicious! I can report that it was very smooth 🙂 and if you don’t believe me, check out this link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak.

After a number of days of staying at hotels that were miles from anywhere and full of people on their honeymoon or other coupley holidays, it was pretty refreshing to hit the laid back surfy style island of Gili T and see other people and have options for restaurants and bars. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the lap of luxury 🙂 but it’s good to mix it up.

We were staying at the Gili Eco Villas, which on the map looked to be a long way from the harbour, so we snagged a horse drawn cart to take us to our hotel. Turns out nothing is far from anything on Gili T and even though it was on the other side of the island we were there in about 5 mins.

We had two full days on Gili T which was “suffering” very early season winds (they’re due in December) and the locals were bemoaning the terrible weather – it was still over 30 degrees and sunny. We spent one day exploring a bit on bikes and the other day we went scuba diving, which was a first for me. The Gilis are known for the diving and all of the companies are good and reputable and have fixed prices (not common in Indonesia) which was reassuring for a newbie. There’s also a load of conservation work going on there because the place was destroyed by a Tsunami a number of years ago so they’ve formed an Eco trust that has installed some artificial reef structures off the coast that have a current running through them which is supposed to stimulate coral growth. Each person diving has to contribute $6 to the trust which of course we were more than willing to do.

As for the dive, we did a morning of training in the pool which all went well and then the actual dive was later in the afternoon. We only went down to 12 metres, but that was good enough for me for my first dive and we saw loads of brightly coloured fish. Apart from a small panic as we were descending – my imagination getting the better of me for a moment – everything went swimmingly 😉

From the lap of luxury in Lombok we were delivered to the ferry terminal to make our way to the Gili Islands which are three small islands just off the coast, renowned for their diving and lack motorised vehicles.

Our taxi driver stopped at the terminus which the Lonely Planet had warned me was about 1km from the port and with it being over 30 degrees we didn’t feel like walking with all our gear, so a bribe of about 80p saw us further down the road closer to our destination. Here we were met by a number of men offering anything from the public boat which was about $1 to a chartered boat which was $20 each. And here folks was our first taster of being taken for a ride, Asian style. Long story short, they persuade us to take a charter then tried to keep us in the office for as long as possible selling us onward transport to Bali. I didn’t want to go with them until we’d seen what there was on Gili, but they just thought I was playing the tough one so they tried Clive to see if he proved a softer touch. I was so chuffed with myself for holding strong when their price kept coming down but little did I know they had already stiffed us.

When no more money was forthcoming they became very quickly disinterested in us and suddenly our boat was ready. One of the guys led us through a building yard of some sort and down on to a beach where numerous rickety wooden vessels were heaving with the waves. I turned round to ask our representative a question and he’d already disappeared leaving us with the boatmen. After much gesticulating we discovered that we were to be traveling on a 30ft long wooden craft that looked as though it was used for transporting building material, complete with tarp full of dirt in the bottom.

We set off with one guy behind the wheel and what looked like two small children to pull the anchor and generally snigger at my discomfort. It only took a couple of minutes for things to get really uncomfortable. Hitting the first broadside wave the gallons of water in the bottom made an appearance up the inside of the boat and I got my first face full (of many) of sea water. Things got worse as we pulled into the open channel with the boat being pitched sideways 45 degrees at times and everything, including us and our bags getting soaked with each wave and threatening to exit the boat. At one point I was practically lying down and holding on to the side with two white knuckled hands, seeing headlines flash through my mind, “Honeymooners lost at sea”, “Charter boat disaster claims two young lives” and quotes from family and friends, “They were such wonderful people and had their whole lives ahead of them” – well people have to be nice about you when you’re dead.

At one point right in the middle of the worst part of the trip, just as I admitted to Clive that I was seriously scared, the engine stopped and we were at the mercy of the swell, being thrown one way and then the other with nothing to stabilise the completely impractical long thin vessel. I have absolutely no idea what compelled the captain to turn off the engine, perhaps he just wanted to hear some colourful swearwords in English or see the look of abject terror on my face (he got both), but after a few seconds we were on our way again, still pitching one way and then the other. Then just to add insult to injury, the public boat ($1 remember) came past the other way with plastic sidings to prevent the passengers from getting wet. Passengers who were all wearing life jackets! Nothing so sensible for us!

Even the “docking” at Gili Trawangan involved us leaping from the boat during a low point between waves and our bags being thrown down onto the beach afterwards. Lesson learned me thinks – ask to see your charter vessel before handing over your cash.

Clive took charge of booking this leg of our travels and really wanted to make it the traditional honeymoon. This to me conjures up images of white sandy beaches, cocktails and sun worshipping – turns out we were on the same page 🙂
After much research and note taking on various scrap bits of paper that look like rubbish but have major significance (It would appear that my husband has some things in common with the Luddites) he settled on the Tugu hotels both in Bali and Lombok.
I can report that the bed in our Bali hotel was very comfortable seeing as we spent most of our 2 days there in it! Days of not really sleeping in the run up to the wedding and 30 hours of traveling pretty much wiped us out. The first day we didn’t get up until after 2pm!
The hotel in Lombok was probably the most incredible hotel I will ever stay in. Our room and bathroom was bigger than our whole apartment in Vancouver and we had a rain shower head that was about 2ft in diameter! Oh and did I mention the 9ft wide bed?!
There were only couples staying at the hotel who were content in each other’s company so there was a pervasive hush about the place that was just perfect after such a hectic few weeks. We slept and read and slept some more then occasionally ate and drank something – it was blissful.