Bali and Lombok

A worryingly bumpy flight to Bali (having read about the dangers of Indonesian transport) thankfully only took a couple of hours and we arrived excited about our ten days in Indonesia. Sanur was our first stop, with a lazy day on the beach where we realised how powerful the Bali sun can be, both looking rather red despite spending most of the day in the shade.
Having hired ourselves a driver for the following day, we made the most of him and explored as much of Southern Bali as possible. The small roads can't really cope with the volume of traffic, especially around the airport, but our time in the car gave us a chance to admire the wonderful scenery.













The temple of Ulluwatu was our first stop, set high on a cliff top with amazing views of the waves crashing in. Reminded us a bit of Cornwall, though with added aggressive monkeys which we'd happily have done without! Little did we know there were plenty more to come in Bali...

A surfer's hangout was our next stop, with Padang Padang beach. We could see why Bali is famous for its beaches! The water is warm and clear and the sand lovely and soft. No time to try surfing, maybe next time, though I think we'd have to work on the look a bit before we could blend in with them!
Tanah Lot was our final stop of the day, a temple build out to sea which is only accessible at low tide. Rather a lot of locals there as it was a national holiday, who seemed obsessed with endlessly posing for photographs on the rocks. We got away from the crowds a bit with a walk along the coast, as we weren't that impressed with the temple itself or its 'holy water'!

We ended the day in Ubud, a very picturesque town towards the centre of Bali and some lovely accommodation which felt a real treat. Lots of Frangipani trees, buzzing insects and a little swimming pool. The little frog in the bathroom was a bit random but it wasn't doing any harm...

 We happened upon this lovely view walking along a path which took us into the middle of rural Bali, complete with rice paddies, ducks and a very rustic little cafe. Even some thatched cottages which reminded us of home. We weren't, however, so successful when hiring bikes this time. Steve's chain snapped and we ended up pushing them back for a few miles which wasn't much fun in the heat! We did get to visit monkey forest though, which probably speaks for itself. We were expecting tame and inquisitive monkeys but got a little more than we bargained for when one spotted a couple of shells in the pocket of my rucksack and decided to climb up me to reach them! The people who bought bananas to feed them didn't get much choice over who, or when they got fed! We didn't like the look of their big teeth, especially the mothers protecting their babies, so we didn't stay long!

A very slow slowboat took us to the island of Lombok which we were very much looking forward to. It sounded like a less touristy version of Bali, though perhaps slightly less friendly. We met a few great locals, keen to talk about their country and practice their English with us. There were, however, just as many people wanting to sell us something, usually for a great deal more than the locals would pay. It is understandable though gets a bit tiring and tedious! We were very keen to go diving whilst in Lombok, having heard great things about it. The Gili islands sounded like the best place so we signed ourselves up for an all inclusive deal with Lombok dive and made our way there after a couple of nights in Sengiggi.

Having successfully avoided the endless scams, hassles and badgering at the harbour, we got onto the 'public boat' to the Gili islands. This involved wading into the sea with big rucksacks and clambering onto the boat (or being hauled on in my case). The boat designed for 18 people had quite a few more than that and sat rather low in the water at a worrying angle, but we were kept from thoughts of sinking by a local celebrity who happened to be on the boat. There's no accounting for taste, but I think it's fair to say his excessively camp persona wouldn't go down quite so well at home!

Gili Trawangan was our home for the next three nights. Wonderful to be somewhere with no cars or motorbikes, where people get around on bikes or in horse and cart! Our rustic accommodation had only a cold saltwater shower which somehow seemed quite appropriate. The garden was complete with hens, cats and the odd goat who wandered in from next door. Only a few km long, we cycled around it comfortably in a day, racing away from a huge thundercloud which surprisingly never ended up leaving Lombok.

The highlight for us was a wonderful day diving. We'd heard tales of sharks and sea turtles and were lucky enough to see both. The wonderful visibility came as a shock to us after Cambodia, where it was only a few metres on some dives. We're still laughing about the sea turtles, who just don't look like they belong in the sea, swimming up to the surface then back down again. The sharks turned out to be very small and not quite as scary as the 'Jaws' type we'd imagined!

Gili Trawangan on our last evening

If we have one regret from our time in Indonesia, it's not climbing the volcano in Lombok - Mount Rinjani. But two 8-hour days trecking to the summit seemed a bit ambitious for this time. Hopefully we'll be back with better shoes, warm clothes and a lot of determination.

Thailand and Malaysia

It's been a while since the last blog - problems finding reliable internet places again. We're in Little India in Singapore and not sure if that counts as reliable but fingers crossed...

Well a very brief stay in Bangkok was enough to remind us why we're not massive fans of the Khao San Road so we booked our bus ticket to Koh Tao as quickly as possible. Judged to avoid the hoards of people making their way to Koh Phangan to the full moon party (we decided we're too old or just not cool enough for that) we made our way to the bus stop looking forward to our bit of relaxation time. Amongst stiff competition from Vietnam, this may qualify as the worst journey yet! First, we were left at the side of the road for an hour and a half with only rats and cockroaches for company. But the bus, when it came, looked nice so no harm done we thought. At 3.00am we woke up to shouts of "Koh Tao, Koh Tao" so hastily got off the bus. Another wait at the side of the road where we witnessed some poor sod who mistook the stop for a toilet break and saw the bus leaving without him but with his bags! A pickup truck eventually came and took us to the harbour where a bench and extremely spicy pot noodle was all we had to keep us entertained for 2 hours until the boat came. But we made it to Koh Tao, phew, 14 hours after leaving Bangkok!

We stayed for 4 nights in a lovely hilltop villa, looking over Sairee beach, which was a lovely break from some of the less than luxurious places we've been staying in. This was taken at one of the beaches in Koh Tao, on a day when we hired ourselves a scooter to explore the island. Some amazing, remote places we'd love to come back to, especially shark bay. Our stay was slightly marred by the fact Steve started feeling ill, which we think turned out to be Dengue Fever, probably caught from a mosquito in Cambodia! High temperature, aches and pains and most worryingly for Steve, no appetite! Just as we started worrying enough to think about seeing a doctor he started feeling much better and apart from feeling a bit tired sometimes he's fine now.

We headed over to the Andaman coast next in search of better weather. This is one of the islands, Koh Hong, just off the coast from Krabi where we had a fantastic day snorkeling and relaxing. Steve didn't feel quite up to diving but the visibility even just snorkeling was amazing. We got quite excited spotting big tropical fish. No sea turtles yet, we've got fingers crossed for Indonesia...

Our first stop in Malaysia was the island of Penang - not quite the same as Koh Tao - it's like a city with a population of 1 million. We'd read it was a fantastic place for food and experiencing different cultures and it certainly turned out to be just that. 

This was a lunch stop in Little India where we had to do a lot of pointing and gesturing and somehow ended up with this great feast. They bring you a banana leaf and pile on rice, popadom...and that was the end of the things we recognised! Decided eating it with our hands as the locals do was a step too far, much more enjoyable with a fork! We made the most of our time in Penang, visiting lots of temples and the botanical gardens as well as treking in the national park. For me, I'll remember Penang for the heat, the hoards of monkeys and the excellent Chinese, Indian and Malay food. Though perhaps we missed out as we didn't feel the need to try fish head, bull testicles or frog curry! 

Running out of time now, we made our way to Kuala Lumpur for a 3 day flying visit. This is Batu Caves, which is also an Indian Shrine. Thankfully we visited the day before Deepavali when it apparently gets swamped with visitors, celebrating the new year.

Also managed to drag Steve around the bird park which turned out to be a great place. It's the largest free flight aviary in the world so you are surrounded with some very foreign looking birds as soon as you go in. A huge blue pigeon was our favourite but thought this picture was quite funny...

Perhaps our favourite day so far included a trip to the 86th floor of the Petronas towers, once the tallest building in the world. Amazing views over Kuala Lumpur... and quite hard to photograph as its so high!  

The Chinese Thaen Hou temple in the afternoon was a great place to escape the rain and read about characteristics of people born in the year of the rat and the tiger. The best part of the day was a meal in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Menara KL tower, another skyscraper. Wonderful buffet from oysters (which we weren't too keen on) to sea bass and chocolate brownies. The view kept changing as you rotate around and this was our favourite view of the Petronas Towers. 

We're now in Singapore for one night before catching our flight to Bali, where we have 10 days before coming back to see a bit more of Singapore. Hopefully won't be so long til the next blog :)