Day 9: Gili Air

Another lazy snorkeling day on Gili Air. Only this time we finally got a good price for our snorkels & fins, and went out for two amazing snorkels. Our first snorkel was in deeper water with rich coloured big fish. Every time I go snorkeling in tropical waters I always think back to playing the kids travel version of ‘Go Fish’ – the ones with Angel Fish, Clown fish, etc. And that, my friends, is my reference for fish identification. Not some sort of Audubon’s guide to fish of the sea. Nope. Kids Large Card Go Fish. What else do you need really?

Okay, maybe a proper guide that says don’t touch these fish or those fish. But those are minor details. I’m scared enough of fish as it is. I’m not about to go up and touch one, especially after hearing the sound of the largest smorgasbord of fish dining on coral while in the water. It was like being at a table with people talking all with their mouth full – only with fish.

The second snorkel we saw our sea turtle! Despite much sputtering, slight drowning, and many bad photo attempts made by me, the sea turtle couldn’t have cared less about us.

It did care, however, about trying to snack on as much coral as it could. We again ran into a few schools of small fish who only put us into a minor panic when we got too close and the fish split and started going towards us.

I got my second sunburn! I’m going to pretend like all of this sun is just prepping me for my first real tan – or skin cancer. I’m going to stay in ignorant bliss and call it a real tan. However, bathing in sunblock continues to be a morning, afternoon, and evening ritual.

Tomorrow we start our big adventure to get to the Isle of Flores. Not quite sure yet how we’ll get there, but 24 hours later, it should be a go! 

Day 8: Gili Air

We finally got a chance to snorkel and see what all of this whole “Dive Gili” thing is about. After another morning at a local ‘warung’ or diner, making friends with locals who love Bollywood (again), we got a deal on some snorkel gear and hiked our distance to a restaurant we’d been a day before to get out in the water and see if we can go and find some sea turtles that everybody had been saying you could see pretty easily.

I had no idea there was so much sea life so close to the shore! We saw sea urchins, rainbow coloured fish, grass-green coloured fish, some snake-like thing in the water, a whole school of fish (100s if not 1000s of fish), and some big fish (who I’m sure is actually not that big, but it sure felt like it at the time!). It was pretty incredible. The water is so warm to go

in there is no transition at all between sitting on the beach and being in the water. No awkward, uncomfortable getting cold when you get in or out here! Tragically, after we came out and had our fresh juices, the tide had gone out – and when the tide has gone out here, your ship has sailed on snorkeling. Remember those sea urchins? It’s so shallow, that if you try to snorkel over them and you’ve had a big lunch, you may be at risk of getting deflated by one of those sea urchins! No thank you! Tragically, we didn’t see any sea turtles!

Time to get out, try to play the ukulele I brought with, attempt to get better at playing chess and prolong the defeat that is going to be delivered to me by Pallavi, and have a few beers on the side of the water, looking at the volcanos of the isle of Lombok across the water from us.

One more day on Gili Air, try to see sea turtles, repack the bags, figure out how to get to Flores, and gear up for our early a.m. off the day after. But that is for future me to figure out. 

Day 7: Gili Air

Gili Air is not the island we were meant for. The Lonely Planet all said that of the three Gili islands, this is the one that is the mix of being happening and being chill. I think we were in the mood for more chill. Thus we spent at least the first half of our tropical paradise beach moping! I blame it on lack of caffeine.

The Gili Islands really do have beautiful water. They don’t allow

vehicles on the island, so all you hear are the bells of the horse carts and the dings of rented bicycles passing you on the sand roads around the entire island. The water here is that true aquamarine colour of blue and is rich with sealife. The Gilis is also one of the world’s best and cheapest places to learn how to dive. Our hostel is clean –but for the most part, the people are a bit stuck up. We have hypothesized that most of its inhabitants are scuba divers doing their 2 month instructor training course. What we have witnessed across the island is that scuba folk all seem like cool folk, but birds of a feather who stick together. They also seem to speak this weird scuba tongue. You hear it all over the island.

However, the entire island is filled with restaurant upon restaurant, but there isn’t exactly beach. Each restaurant has its own beach, so it appears that to pick the beach, you pick the restaurant you want to patronage first. We walked a fair piece away from the crowd to find traditional Gili Air food and a great place to just get into the beach. The restaurants all have these raised ‘huts’, filled with a small raised table in the middle and cushions for you to sit on while you wait on the food.
And locals who love Bollywood! Pallavi is like an Indian superstar. Every place we’ve gone, when the local asks where Pallavi says, and she says India, they respond, “India, Atcha, Atchaaaaaa. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai?” Atcha = ‘okay/good’ and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is a popular 1990s movie. Then they start discussing some Bollywood thing or another, and instantly they are friends. I had no idea that Indonesians loved Bollywood like this! Now that woman’s music on the boat yesterday completely made sense! 

Day 6: Transit from Ubud to Gili Air

We got up, ate our yummy breakfast, and made it to the corner where we waited for 30 minutes for our shuttle. We had been told a vehicle would stop at the place we were waiting and call out our name. We’ve read so many tales about people being promised one person per seat and ending up with people sitting on top of each other, so it of no surprise that we were a bit concerned when some two person diesel ute pulled up and waited for some time. We just hoped they didn’t call our name and were relieved they pulled away.

Our real shuttle finally pulled up, and they made us squish a bit in the back. So one person too many in the shuttle. Overall, not too bad. And we finally got to see the rest of Ubud – rice paddies, beautiful Eat, Pray, Love style resorts, etc.

Now, there are two ferries you can take. The speedboat or the slow public boat. We took the slow public boat. 4-5 hours! A pirates life is definitely not for me. It was even a smooth(ish) journey and both of us turned a bit green. I really hope I get my sea legs soon. I took a nap to help me get through. At some point, I though Pallavi had broken and started listening to and singing along with Hindi music. I woke up and Pallavi was looking around. What are you looking around for? Whoever was playing that Hindi music!!!

We finally got off of the ferry on the Island of Lombok, and got onto another shuttle which again was one person too many (and that person was me, sitting on a micro cot the driver put in the door). We also had to put our luggage on top of the vehicle. Thank God for group fitness that I could press and lift those 16 kgs over my head! I felt like she-man! We just prayed the luggage didn’t fly off! After a few stops we got to our final place, the public boat to Gili Air.

We sat around chatting with some Brazillian guy who’d done this route before, and Pallavi gestured to one of the boats that was just floating on the beach and asked if that was the kind of boat we’d need to go on. He said, yeah. I looked down at my tennis shoes & immediately started taking them off to put on my flipflops, and converted our glampacks to backpacks. It was only when it finally came time to board, that we realized the boat wasn’t actually tethered to the beach. This is going to be a timing and coordination game to get on the boat. Pallavi goes first, backpack on, carryon tethered to the front. Pallavi somehow gets her timing right and has some man help her on board. Apparently the poor guy wasn’t expecting a girl with luggage when he put his hand out to help her, and when he caught her hand, his eyes bulged out in surprise.

Now it’s my turn. Backpack on, carryon tethered to the front, extra carry on, bag of snacks, and now my flipflops so they don’t get washed away, in one hand. I get my timing, stand up, put my hand out for somebody to give me the final heave and nothing! But I made it up anyway.

When we finally got off the island and made it to the hotel (12 hours later), we decided screw the budget, 2 large bottles of beer!  

Day 5: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

We took an extra day in Ubud to buy us some cheap time to make some decisions on what to do next. We basically spent the entire day figuring out

1. Where do we go next?
2. Do we do it on our own or do we do it with a group?
3. If with a group, with whom and at what price?

It seems so simple, but this really took us all day. Indonesia has so many unique animals that you can only find in its remotest parts – and it isn’t straightforward to get there.

We decided to go to these beautiful island known for scuba diving and snorkeling, called Gili Air. This trip requires a bus to a slow boat to a series of buses to a boat. We decided to book through an agent!

One bus, one slow ferry, one bus, and one more boat. Done. And we negotiated a good price, and our kind hostess at the accommodation we are at agreed to make us breakfast at 6:30 so we can leave by 7.

Today we said goodbye to a few pairs of socks, a dress, a tank top, and a pair of 3/4^th. Backpack status = still hard to zip, but zippable. 

Day 4: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Ubud is a really interesting town with a good vibe about it. It feels as if although it clearly makes its money on tourism, tourists themselves have become just as much of a part of this community as the locals themselves. It feels as though locals, for the most part, are living their lives just as they would if there were not tourists.

Yesterday, we finally got out and about to explore the town. We went up towards the Ubud Palace, but decided it didn’t look interesting enough to go in. We then steered towards the market, where we happened upon the sound of chimes and saw a bunch of Indonesians in traditional dress with woven baskets on their heads outside of a Hindu temple. Captivated, we went closer. In the ‘bell tower’ of the temple, there was a man hitting two bamboo chimes as if to call people to prayer. Outside the temple, sat 4-5 rows of men, each with different sorts of instruments from finger cymbals, to a gong, to marimbas (sans the pedals), to hand drums playing some sort of chant music (which now I recognize in its different forms everywhere). We sat there for some time – apparently this is Hinduism unlike any Pallavi has ever seen. Pallavi is an Indian Hindu, but this Hinduism feels as if it is an ancient Hinduism that blended with native Indonesian tribal culture.

After a while, something happened, and the people started to enter the temple. The rules on the temple state that you can only enter in traditional dress, so even though Pallavi is a Hindu, she was out! But she so desperately wanted to be in, because of the walls of the temple, you could see the top feathers of what we could only guess was a ceremonial headdress. It was fascinating.

We decided to explore the market and then make our way to the Monkey Forest Temples. The temples themselves are surrounded in lush forest, with ancient trees, and a small river running on the bottom. These grey monkeys are absolutely everywhere with a good amount of forest rangers to protect the monkeys from the tourists eager to feed them anything. All of the structures are covered in moss, from a stone bridge carved like a dragon to statues of monitor lizards.

When night dawned, we decided to go and see a Kecak & Fire Dance performance. The Kecak part of dance is the Ramayan, a famous traditional Hindu story, by a choir of men sitting down and ‘singing’ the background soundtrack, interrupted by various narrators.
The men’s chitter is meant to sound like monkeys. The different characters emerge, dressed in Indonesian traditional costume. It was a bit like watching ballet – no clue what was going on, but enough clues to figure it out. Then the Fire bit of it had again the male choir, one man on a rocking horse, and a lit pile of coals. The rocking horse apparently symbolizes being in a trance, and in this trance, then man dances about kicking bits of burning coconut & ash.

No sooner than we left the dance performance and sat down in a small wurung (local restaurant)than we hear a Hindu prayer chant. It’s the same one the men were just singing! And the same one we heard in the morning. Full circle, full bellies, full day.

Day 3: Journey to Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Finally, time to get out of Kuta and get to the yoga/spa/Eat Pray Love town of Ubud. Just an hour and a half away from Kuta, you’d think it was a different world. Still touristy? Yes, but in a different way.

It’s slightly up in the mountains, so the air has a bit more of a moist-woodsiness to it than Kuta.

But I get ahead of myself. We arrive in Kuta at the Perama bus station and ask for directions on how to get to our accommodation. This is going to be the first real test of our backpacking skills.

Test 1: The gravel between where the van lets us off and the paved driveway.

It requires either a backpack or a deadlift. Pallavi cannot lift her bag, so I lift both bags and take them to the driveway. I didn’t think this was a big deal. Apparently its quite hilarious.

Test 2: Walk to the accommodation.

We get the directions and look at the map. It looks simple enough. Take a left, then take a right, and go straight. Perfect, right? Not so perfect! The sidewalks here are made for pedestrians with perfect walking capabilities. The slates are broken in some places; tipped at a 45 degree in others; and in some places just scooter parking.

So, we decided, it’s time to break out the backpacks. And 1 minute later, we decide the sidewalk isn’t nearly as bad as the backpacks are heavy. Pallavi puts hers back into rolling form; I, however, decide I am going to hoof it with the backpack still together as a reminder – don’t pack so much stuff!

The actual walk itself was beautiful. It passed by the monkey forest, dense with trees and hiding Hindu temples. It passed by the neat line of arts & crafts shops. But it really was the San Francisco style hill and the pauses between darting from the parking lane (where we were walking as the sidewalks were still questionable) into traffic and back to the parking lane so that we could pass the parked scooters safely and continue trekking up the hill that did me in, and I too, had to turn my backpack into a roller once more.

But, after a bucket of sweat, but 0 tears, we made it, put our stuff down, and went out to explore and find a good, backpacker style, Balinese meal.

This town really is absolutely delightful. There are rice fields tucked like city squares, with shops surrounding them on all sides. The streets are neat & tidy. It is like being in an artsy-town, stone lined sidewalks, narrow one way streets, scooters & cars on one side, parked scooters on another. We didn’t really see too much though. By the time we found a great place to eat, we sat, had a beer, and somewhere halfway through the beer, the heavens opened up and it poured with rain! Great thing we were inside – and it took a whole additional beer before the rain stopped. By that time it was dark, and we decided to just chill and do more of the touristy stuff tomorrow.

What do you do as backpackers without any responsibilities? Let’s see.