I went to yoga after which I was greeted by Ryan, Andy and Nicky and a big old chocolate cake AND presents. We ate desert before dinner so that the ants wouldn’t get to it.
We finished out the day at Trawangan Dive’s Pub Quiz night, devouring proper Mexican food and winning the pub quiz. The pub quiz prize just about paid for our dinner.
The following day we (Ryan, Andy and me) caught the boat from Gili headed for Amed. It felt a little bit like we were out for a three-hour tour, if you catch my drift. But for puker’s little helper, it would have been a hurlfest. There was a very boisterous (drunk) American active military (stationed in Afghanistan) in his late 40s, early 50s with his Indo wife who looked to be all of about 14. They had just been married in January and he was all gooey gaga, talking about settling down in Indo and having a couple kids. I still don’t get it. Unfortunately this part of the world does seem to collect all the pedophiles.
We arrived in Tulamben just in time for an afternoon dive and a quick shower later we were reunited with Chris and Carolyn. Carolyn is lovely. Very down to earth and seems to be a good match for Chris so I’m very happy that he’s found himself a nice easy going gal.
Tulamben once again gave us some super diving, including the opportunity for some great shark pictures. Unfortunately Ryan caught a nasty cold and was out of commission after only three dives and then got to listen to tales of Napoleon Wrasses and Bumphead Parrotfish and other wonderful critters that hang out on that superb wreck.
Our two weeks in Bali turned into a whirlwind tour of the island. We gave up the quiet of Tulamben after only four days and started town hopping looking for the ultimate diving experience.
We first went to Amed, sleepy little town just 20 minutes south of Tulamben where the diving proved to be Meh. Since Ryan was getting over a cold and we wanted to pick up a rental car, we descended down to Ubud and spent three lovely days there. Ubud is a hippy dippy little town, but the cultural center of Bali. We spent all our time walking around exploring the town, the Sacred Monkey Forest, rice paddies and temples galore, oh my! And we attended a Balinese dance performance which we admired, but did not understand very well.
We left Ubud in our rental car packed with people and luggage without any extra room whatsoever and headed up north to Lovina in search of more diving, ultimately ending up in Pemuteran, which gave us access to the lovely little Menjangan Island where we booked ourselves for a three dive trip. It started as a lovely day on a little boat puttering over to a quite little island with great dropoffs covered in exceptional coral. The diversity of the marine life wasn’t any great shakes, but we did get to see a couple of nudis we hadn’t seen before, a beautiful rust colored frogfish and a pigmy seahorse that couldn’t’ve been more than ½ a centimeter long – impossible to photograph.
After three dives pushing the limits of our computers – Andy and I both went into deco multiple times – stupid Suunto – we returned back to Pemuteran in the classic tropical pissing down rain. Streets were flooded – mud rivers flowed freely. And then, maybe because the previous day I’d made a wise-ass comment, Shiva the destroyer raged vengeance on me. We’d erred into a little alleyway and kids were gawking at us and then an adult told us we were going the wrong way. Then I saw a goat and said, “oooh, look a goat.” Then I said, “See, now everyone’s happy, they (the kids) have seen white people and I’ve seen a goat.” For this comment, or maybe it’s just the Balinese obsession with building outdoor areas with bathroom tile, I slipped, feet came completely out from under me and I landed on my elbow. And then I cried. And then Ryan put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
It’s very frustrating being the clumsiest kid on the block.
Bali is probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The rice paddies surrounded by a variety of trees redefine the color green. The temples are reminiscent of Indiana Jones. The costumes of elaborately woven silk blare colors of reds and golds and greens and blues. The artwork is colorful and fun. Hinduism, which I’ve yet to read much about, has interesting deities and rituals (and is much less annoying than Islam with their Allah Akbars at 5:00 a.m.). And the volcanoes soar into the heavens, often obscured by low clouds, and reaching far into the Bali Sea with their black sands.
And I said, Bali would be a lovely place if it wasn’t for the people.
The presence of white people in these little villages means money and people are constantly harassing tourists and asking for money. We visited Gunung Kawi, a temple. In order to visit temples, it is required that you be wearing the proper dress of a sarong and sash. The street leading up to Gunung Kawi is lined with merchants who will pull you off the street and force merchandise into your hands. They do not accept the word “no” kindly and I somehow managed to offend one of them. However, I held strong and continued on down the street. When I purchased my ticket, the man at the counter told me there were sarongs inside that we could borrow (for a small donation of course, but up to us the donation). I then went to rescue Chris and Carolyn who were modeling sarongs that had been strewn on them and were in the midst of negotiations. Andy had already given in and was marching down the street looking very regal in his gold and blue sarong.
(What Andy looked like)
(What the rest of us looked like)
Towards the end of our trip when people would ask where I was from, I started to answer “Thailand.” That would confuse them to no end, but I was at a point where I did not even want people talking to me. The morning we woke up in Lovina, at a lovely homestay on the water, I went to take a look at the sea and was accosted by a couple of women who asked me name, where I was from, yadda, yadda. They asked how long we were staying and I told them we were checking out today. One of them said, “Oh, you check out today after you have massage.” I smiled and said “no massage today.” Then another said, “you buy sarong to have memory.” I pointed at my head and said, “This is where my memories are. “ This is constant and I was so annoyed that I couldn’t even just take in the early morning quiet of the water and it was after this that I started saying I was from Thailand.
My favorite tourist spot was Sacred Monkey Forest in the center of Ubud. For a minimal entry fee, you can go play with the monkeys. You can also purchase bananas to feed the monkeys for a whopping $2 per banana (that’s taking the piss), but all you have to do is sit down next to a monkey and he’ll come play with you. If you take stuff out of your bag they get very curious and you get very worried because that’s when we face the bite potential. You don’t want them to think you’re hiding food from them, but I had the pieces of my nice SLR camera in my dry bag and I wasn’t letting a monkey have a go at that. Also, as Andy discovered, when a monkey is standing on your lap, don’t blow up the monkey’s butt. That makes the monkey very mad.
After Pemuteran and my slip and slide accident, we hit the road for Kuta where we were to spend our last night together before Ryan and I left Indonesia. The country wanted us out by May 2 and as Ryan put it on Facebook, the Indonesian Experiment is over for now. The drive down to Pemuteran tested everyone’s patience. Carolyn was getting progressively sicker going from a stomach bug to a cold, Andy had to drive and listen to us all gripe, I was in the way back seat getting tossed around like a rag doll the day after suffering a nasty fall. Only Ryan seemed cool as a cucumber until we got to Kuta, the butt-crack of the world. Then he started swearing at buildings. But he did manage to find us a beautiful and expensive room to spend our final Balinese night. Unfortunately, after spending so much time in traffic getting through Denpasar and into Kuta, it was 9:00 p.m. by the time we were checked in and ready for dinner. With a 5:30 alarm clock looming, there would be no final disco disco night with our friends.
Last night we arrived in Semporna, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia after what seemed like interminable travel. This part of the world is bigger than it looks on the map!
Semporna is a port town – dirty, grungy, armpit sort of town. Today we’ve been very lazy (and it’s been very dreary out), but tomorrow we start looking for work.
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