Now we know this is the end...

Hello hello

This may be my last update of our adventure in amazing South East Asia.

I will start again with the 27th of June, where i ended the last update.
We were in Ubud at the time, where we thought we would only spend one day, and then set off again for Mount Batur, the second highest volcanoe of Bali. Unfortunately, as we woke up early on the 28th, the rain was pouring down, and at 1.30pm, it was still going strong. Not really fancying a ride in the rain (the roads are dangerous enough as they are) we stayed one more day, and basically waited for the rain to stop. We went and found an indian restaurant, had some food, then around 3pm the rain finally stopped and we went for a ride on the bikes. That's when we took the pictures that i uploaded on my last update. The ones with the street decorations and the wet floor!

In the evening, we got tempted by one of the little spa salons next door to our hotel, and went for a full body massage, a body scrubb and a flower and stuff bath for... 100 000 ruppiah each. Conversion rate is around 15 000rp to the pound, you work it out. It was lush, especially after the wet and cold day we had had.

The next day the sun was back and we left Ubud for Mount Batur. As we were climbing the hill slowly, the temperatures dropped and we arrived at the top of the crater with a BIT of a chill. The village is, sorry, the villageS are built in the crater of the old volcanoe, which is enormous, and must be thousands of years old. But inside this crater also lives the new volcanoe, Batur, which is still VERY lively. We met a man at the top of the crater who told us he had a hotel down by the lake (enormous lake at the bottom) and we followed him down. We checked into a room for a few pounds that had an outside terrasse from which we had probably one of the best views around. The lake was 20 meters away, there were farmers in front guiding their buffaloes through the field, ploughing (i think that's what it's called and i think that's how it's spelled..) and a woman walked up and down from the hotel to the lake, morning and evening with a basket of offerings on top of her head, to make her prayers to the volcanoe god...

That afternoon we booked a treck for the next morning (who am i kidding, calling it morning. It started at 4am!!!!!) to go up to the top of Mount Batur, and watch the sunrise from there. It promised to be very nice.
After the arrangments made we took off on the bikes again and went for some lunch in a little restaurant that served us the most amazing grilled fresh water fish ever, cooked in a chilli sauce and just gorgeous. Then we started off on a tiny dusty road that took us all around the volcanoe, and from some angles we could actually see the smoke coming out of the side of it.. Whao... That's not something you see everyday! When i was little, i used to think the mountains behind our house in Sixt was a volcanoe, especially when the clouds were caught at their tops, and i got pretty scared all by myself in the fields thinking it was suddenly going to blow!!.. now i'm actually willingly wandering around one that last erupted only a few years ago!

In the evening we started hearing the same chanting as in the Gilly Islands, and went to see the ceremony. We stayed a good distance away as we didn't want the attention of the locals to leave their precious beliefs to come chat with the two tourists standing there curious, but we sat down and just enjoyed seeing and especially hearing what was going on. Accompagnying the singing and the story telling were instruments played by men sitting on the floor, in the middle of a crowd. Symbals, gongs, things that kind of sounded like kitchen utensils being banged together, but kept in a lovely little harmony that just took you away. The full moon was showing through the clouds just above the rim of the outside crater, it was dark everywhere apart from around the temple, and the sound of the voices and instruments echoed in the vast crater. You think this sounds peacefull? It's overwhelming when you're there, i'm doing my best to try and pass it on.

Next day, the climb:
Woke up (too) early and set off to the start of the walk with a couple of italian guys. There was quite a crowd there and we started up first, not to be in the middle of it, all the way up. It started very slowly to go up, and it was pleasant, and fresh! It was very dark, and even with the torchlights, the visibility was blurred by fog, and fog breaking, and it felt as if it was snowing tiny snowflakes, same as when you are driving in the snow and it all looks as if it's coming at you. We were walking fairly fast though so we didn't have time to get cold.

After an hour or so we started the real climb. The top is around 1700m above sea level, and the last bit was pretty hard on the legs, and the lungs!
We got to the top in the end, but actually had to ask confirmation from our guide about that. It was so foggy we could hardly see the tip of our noses! The guide told us: "Here is the crater!" and we said "right! We'll take your word for it!"

We all entered a little refuge (mountain chalet, can't think of the english name) and waited for our breakfast to be cooked by the guides. The more we waited, the more people arrived, and the little chalet got more and more crowded. We were all waiting for the sunrise, hoping the clouds would clear up then, but that didn't happen. We realized the sun was up as things were a little clearer, but we were still stuck in the fog, and it just wouldn't let go...

Our guide took us around the top of the crater for a bit, then to a new one forming on the side, and showed us some funny vents in the floor under our feet. There was heat coming out, and i mean serious heat, like you could hardly leave your hand there more than a few seconds, and there was a bit of smoke escaping from there. That's when we took in the reality of our position. We were on top of an active volcanoe! Whao again!

The clouds did not clear up until... we were well on our way down in the valley, and turned around, and saw the top where we had been only 30 minutes ago poke through the clouds and point at the blue sky above. Steve said something like "Let's go back up!" Which i ignored... Well i'm not so healthy so once is good, two... isn't! hehe

We were a bit guttered that the clouds went off just as we arrived back down, but when we turned around again 5 more minutes later, they were back again, and the top of the volcanoe had once again disappeared.

The walk was supposed to take 6 hours, but in about 4 we were done, because of the lack of visibility we didn't hang around in places as much as we would have on a clear day. We had to check out of our hotel around 11am and so we still had time to go back to sleep! lovely.

We left around 11 and headed back up the outside crater, and down onto stable ground... We followed the lonely planet's advice on some roads that were suposed to be fantastic, and they were pretty cool. We also realized that most of these roads we had been on before, when renting the bikes the first time a few weeks before. We obviously know how to find the nice stuff!

We were headed for an area on the north-Eastern coast of Bali called Amhed. To get there, we had to get to the regions' capital "Amlapura" and then we had the choice between a small print coastal road for 15 kms, or a highway through the land. We took the small one, and again, well done Steve and Jenny!

The road was tiny, and the villages bording it tinier. Every now and then we had to pass through a ford, the road just cutting through the creeks, and at every creek there were little kids playing around in the water shouting "hello hello!!" So many kids on that little road, and each shouted hello, and we replied to all of them, sometimes adding a high five from the bike... So sweet... The parents looked at us a bit curiously, and as we smiled carefully at them, they would reply to us too, with their faces lighting up... We know the trick now! Little nod of the head, a smile, and they'll adopt you!

After about 15kms of that little road up and down, inland and on the coast, we got to a place that had a few hotels, called Lipah. By the time we got there, we were dying for a drink, or more precisely, a Bintang, the local beer. We stopped and met Wayan, at Wayan's Cafe, and then we met Delta, and then... Oh dear i forgot his name... Started with a K...
Anyway, they took charge of us, and offered hotel, snorkelling kits, beers, food (when i say offered, don't take it litterally) but they told us where to find everything, and were really nice.

That evening we went back to Wayan's caf for a grilled Baracuda dinner, and then out for more drinks with Delta at the next bar where a band of locals where playing a lot of Rolling Stones covers. It was a fun night, and the fact that the place wasn't full of tourist was one of the highlights too. There were maybe 5 of us, and the rest of the bar was full of locals drinking arak, the coconut based alcohol...

The next day i paid a very high price on the fun night. I thought it was a hangover, but that idea was dropped after being sick for the 2nd time... I'll pass you the details, and will only say one thing. When we left to travel, i knew this would happen. It was bound to happen in India though. And after we left India, and nothing had happened, we both thought we were pretty much safe, although still carefull. What i didn't think was that it would happen during our last month!!! Anyway, i was sick for 2 days, full stop.

Steve had to call the bike rental place as we were supposed to bring them back that day, and there was no way i was even going to make it to the carpark! He made the phone call, and then had to ride 3 hours to Amlapura to withdraw some money that we had run out of. He then went snorkelling to an old japanese shipwreck of a nearby beach, and came back to tell me about it.

The next day i had breakfast and kept it... and i fancied seing that shipwreck too. I didn't have so much energy though, and the current was quite strong, so i didn't last long in the water. Still feeling pretty weak.

We left that afternoon anyway, and made it back to Kuta around 7pm. I pretty much went to bed straight away, and Steve went out to meet Wayan and Jab, and Nyoman and the rest of our friends here.

The next day i felt better finally, but it was Steve's turn to be hangovered... I went on Internet to update the blog a bit, then we went to the pool, then watched the new James Bond while having dinner (Excellent movie, plus eye candy for the girls!!) and then went to the Secret garden(where our friends always hang out) and spent the evening there, like so many other nights...

So Indonesia is a big place. Hundreds of islands, of which we only had time, or so we thought, to visit 2. So on the 4th of July, we decided to make enquiries about how to get to Java, next big island North. It turned out there weren't so many people going that way, and that we would have to take public transports, which was fine, or to rent a whole minivan... hum hum. We decided that afternoon we would take the public bus, and leave the next day. We had about 12 days left on our visa, and in Indonesia, they're not too funny with the visas, so we had to find a way back to Singapore for the 14th of july.

After some dinner and some Mojitos (which have been granted the prize of "Best Cocktails" by Me) we went back to the secret garden to tell the guys we were off the next day, and spent the evening there with them. But after 30 minutes or so of being there at the bar, i looked at Steve and asked him: "What about stopping the moving around? What about we enjoy the rest of our trip, our 12 days remaining in a place that we enjoy, and stop the travelling and transform it in a holiday?" Steve agreed and it was set. 10 seconds later we were telling Jab, Wayan, Nyoman and all, that we were not going anywhere the next day, and that we were staying on Bali! And it was a great decision. We realised that we were going home soon, that there would be no or little time to relax, and life is alway such a rush. And as much as we have tried to give each country enough time, a few of them have been rushed, and we have been rushed, and for once we met some really nice people that took us into their circle, not only to ask us where we were from, but to have talks, and laughs, and we got to know them quite well, and why go somewhere else at the end just to say that we've seen more places?

So there you go. Apart from Singapore, Bali was our last "escale?".

We did slow down a lot once we made this decision, and spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly around the town, renting dvds, going to the pool...

Our last adventure was when we were invited by our local friends to their village for the big ceremony on the weekend of the 7th of july. Their village is called Tygnia (something like that...) and is located in the North of Bali, about 30kms north of Amhed.
We rented some bikes and in a little convoy made our way there on saturday morning.
Steve and I were taken in by the grandparents of Wayan and Jablar. The village is along a fairly busy road, and all of the friends actually live across the road from each other, and everyone knows everyone. Everyone eats everywhere, and my, do they eat. We arrived and were offered Balinese coffee (that i stupidly forgot to buy a pack of) and some pastries and fruits. I think everything was in abundance that weekend because all the families prepared for the ceremony that was taking place, and making food offerings is a big part of the action. But they don't waste the food they offer, they get it back, and eat it. After a bite to eat, we crossed the road to Nyoman's house, and were asked if we were hungry there. We said no, and got offered some biscuits anyhow...
Indonesians are musicians, and in quite a few towns and villages, you could see a sign on the side of the road indicating a music studio. We found out what they called that that first afternoon. In a little room (7m sq) were 2 electric guitars, 1 bass, 1 drum kit, and a mic, and an amplifier for each obviously, set on the loudest possible vlolume! We walked in there as some of the boys were playing and our brain vibrated with the music... We had a little karakoke session, Steve tried himself on the Guns & Roses, but the guys were actually struggling a bit on the music, and it was all a bit of a mess, but funny anyway. We stayed there about an hour, and after that, Nyoman told us it was time for "exercise!!" So off we went 50 meters up the road (everyone on motorbikes obviously!) to a little sports ground. There we were asked if we wanted to play badmington or volley. By the time the decision was to be made, there were about 20 young guys from the village around, and we thought volleyball to be more appropriate. I've never thought sharing a racket of Badmington was a great idea.

And so for the next 1.30 hour we were playing, and i mean, those guys look relaxed and everything, but they knew their volleyball, and what they also knew, was that each player had put around10000 rp in a box, and that the winning team would split that, and that somehow made them pretty vicious players (not mean, just pretty damn good!)

Well after that it was time to check out the beach, with Wayan. When we got there, it turned out to be pretty windy, and the waves were quite enormous. I'm not a great fan of the washing machine effect, and so i let Steve go by himself and splash about. Just keeping an eye out, cause they really were big waves. After 20 minutes, one landed on top of him carrying a few stones and things, and he figured it was time to give it a rest. He came out of the water with loads of little grazes all over... Not what you want for a nice relaxed swim!

We had to get ready and find some sarongs before going to the temple. One of the man of the family where we were staying helped Steve with his (Steve in a skirt... lovely) and a woman came and helped me with mine. No idea how to attach these things... like a shower towel maybe??... Well she turned around me a few times, and when i could only walk around in the penguin fashion, it was done! The next thing i knew though, the same woman was passing a hair comb to me. I got the message, i looked like a witch, and wasn't presentable to their gods! Fair enough.

We then got onto the bike, and i say The Bike with no s this time. Well with my penguin fashion, i could hardly get on there, and manage the gears could I?! So Steve did the work, and i sat as an "Amazone" behind, like a real lady!

We got to the temple, and manage to find a parking place. It was chaos in the parking lot (well, the spot of land next to the temple) honks going, people trying to take charge... funny anyway.
When we got into the temple enclosure, we found that the people, and children, sitting around on the ground were playing games that wouldn't really be considered holly... Adults in their corner, children in their own, all were gambling!!! Well this was the outside area in front of the temple where everyone was smoking, eating, drinking, and of course gambling!. The rules were pretty much the same for adults as for children. A long piece of material spread on the floor, with squares representing different things: for adults, coloured triangles, squares, numbers...; for children, spiderman, teletubbies... stuff like that.
Then there is a ball rolling on a platter that is not entirely flat. There are little curves inside for the ball to stop onto. And there you go. You place you money on your chosen figure, the man rolls the ball, and it looks a lot like roulette! I guess everybody there played their game before going inside the temple so that during the ceremony they would be blessed and forgiven of their sins! Well, is gambling a sin in hinduism? I should think so, the indians wouldn't gamble, or would hide to do so. Here it all seemed very natural, with the kids ready to take over when they'd come of age!...

There was the same music playing there as in Mount Batur, the funny symbals, gongs, and cooking utensils... I was able this time to go and see the musicians closer this time, and they looked entranced and happy, smiling away in their crazy rythmic...

It was soon time for the prayer, Steve and I were invited to join in. It started with holy water sprayed all over the crowd, everyone sitting cross legged on the ground, little children giggling at the two westerner trying to keep up, and hide the fact that we were not drinking the lovely holy water that was beeing poured on our hands.. Sticking the rice to our foreheads, throats, attaching flowers behind our ears and at the top of our heads... Did we feel changed at the end? Not really, but i don't think any of our group really did, they were too busy checking we were doing things right and laughing...

After that, there was the run for the chaotic carpark again. Trying not to get ran over by the cars, and bikes rushing out.
The rush was to go to the next temple, where we were supposed to spend the night at, drinking arak... That was the plan as far as we were told. It changed along the way though, and we ended up with our little group from Kuta, (Wayan, Nyoman, Jablar and the two of us) at nyoman's place, still drinking arak and teaching them blackjack at 4.30 in the morning. Apparently the boys made it to the temple early in the morning. They didn't bother to come and wake us up, or maybe we just didn't hear them...

The next day we took very slowly. The boys wanted to organise a barbecue, and when Steve got taken away by Nyoman on the bike, he didn't know what his mission would be... It turned out he came back with two chicken attached by their legs and that his mission was to hold them on the scooter all the way back... Did i mention the chickens were alive? Nop. Well, i'll have to pass on what happened next as i actually got on a bike, and went to read my book far away for the next two hours. Never wanted to work in a slaughter house!!

When i came back the chickens had been barbequed, and also made in a stew. That's all i need to know!

After that we hung around the rest of the day, and went back finally to our house in the village and watched some tv with Jab.

The next day, monday, Steve Wayan and I were going back to Kuta, giving Wayan a lift. We spent the morning chatting and drinking coffee outside the house. They have little platforms that are basically like a living room in the center of the houses. There are usually a few houses together, for the different parts of the family. One for the grands, one for uncle and aunt etc... and in the middle outside are those little platforms. It's hard to explain how it looks, but it's nice and open and a nice place to sit around and chat. We left the village around 2pm and got back to Kuta around 6.30.
It was hard thanking the family for taking us in, as no one there spoke any english, and our indonesian is pretty inexistent. We said thank you as many times as we could, and told ourselves we would get something in Kuta and give it to one of the boys before we left so they could bring it back to the family for us.

The next few days were spent in Kuta, most of the time very quietly during the day, going out in the evenings to meet the guys, we also met an other of their westerner friends, Nina, who was good fun, and ended up spending pretty much all her nights there too.

On thursday, the day before our last, we set out to do our final bits of shopping. As we were walking i pulled Steve into a piercing studio. I had a nose ring for a long time in London and on a drunken night, lost it, and never replaced it. I thought Bali could be a good place to do it again, and so checked the price. The man told me the price, and i said i'd think about it and was ready to go, when i saw Steve looking at some Tatoo designs on the wall. And heard him ask.."how much would something like this cost?" And like that, out of nowhere, Steve set his mind on having a barong on his back for the rest of his life... Barong... One of the most important god in the bali hinduism. There is a photo of one a bit further down, from my last update.
It's a really nice tatoo, it's just the head of the barong, between steve's shoulder blades, in black and shades of grey.. We'll remember Bali forever!
I say We, because later that evening, Nina told me she had always been keen on getting her nose pierced, and so off we went holding hands for courage to the piercing place, and i have a brand new titanium ring planted in my nose!! (that sounds great doesn't it)

Well that was our last night, and we celebrated at the secret garden, with a lot of Bintang, and a lot of Arak. We played some pool, and ended the night at 8am the next morning.
Our flight was at 10.15pm, so we had plenty of time to recuperate.

We booked a car for 7.30 - 8pm for the airport, and when we were set to go, all the guys were there again, in the secret garden, to say goodbye. Well, we met plenty of people during our whole trip, and we left plenty of places, to be honest, that became our job, packing our bags, and turning our backs.

But we had never had to hold off the tears. As we looked around the secret garden one last time, we just hoped we'll be able to come back, and see those same faces with their guitars and drums, their plastic water bottles full of head spinning arak, and this same friendliness.
Don't get put off by what the government says about travelling to Indonesia. It has it's risks yes, we've all heard the news, but it is a beautiful place that needs the tourism badly, and that needs to be seen.


We arrived in Singapore on the 14th of July, around 1am. We are staying in a hotel where rooms are rented by the hour. There aren't many cheap places around. We getting a taste of home prices, without the home comforts. The money goes fast, and it's time to go home.

We'll see you very soon
Love from Jenny & Steve, hope you enjoyed the read
xxx