Hello again and welcome to the eighth and final travel update!
After six weeks of travelling around Asia, our extended holiday (I'm not even gonna try and call it backpacking anymore...) has finally come to an end! I'm currently on the plane between Jakarta and Dubai and I'm very excited about getting home!
Anyway, without further ado let's get back to the update in question! Now where did I leave you in the last post...ah yes, the first day in Lombok!
Kuta Beach
I feel I should include a bit of a foreword here as our 8 night stay in Kuta, Lombok wasn't exactly as we'd hoped...it was a little lacking in excitement, so please forgive the short daily summaries. There really wasn't a lot to do, we weren't just being lazy at the end of the trip, honest!
Day 34! Sunday 10th August 2014
On Sunday we decided to hop on the moped and explore the best beaches around the Kuta area of Lombok! There are loads of secluded little coves along the coastline which really are beautiful! We decided to first try out Mawun beach, slightly west of Kuta!
The moped journey was smooth with Jack driving and me holding on for dear life...and we arrived at the beach in one piece! Mawun is a really nice beach, the sand is good (not full of impassable piles of coral like Kuta beach) and you can swim there too as the waves aren't too intense at the water's edge.
The problem with Mawun beach is that there's no shade or sun loungers, so you're forced to grin and bear the sun at it's full intensity! Where are the annoying massage ladies with their sunloungers and umbrellas for rent when you need them?! Ah yes, probably still annoying people on Dreamland beach back in Bali!
There's also a slight issue in the form of the locals that frequent the beach...if you're a western lady in a swimsuit you'll often find yourself the target of some unwanted attention. Local teenage boys walk around with big digital SLR cameras (god knows where they get them from) under the pretence of taking pictures of "the beach". What they actually do is point their long lenses at poor unsuspecting women in bikinis. Not cool. Sort it out Lombok!
However, it was a lovely beach and we enjoyed our time there. We actually managed to stay for quite a while before my skin began to frazzle under the layers of dutifully applied factor 50 sun block!!
That evening we went for dinner and drinks at Discovery Cafe, one of the restaurants on Kuta's "main strip" (I use that expression very loosely...it was more of a main "path"). We didn't stay out for long though as we had an early start the next day for our first surf lesson! Exciting stuff!
Day 35! Monday 11th August 2014
On Monday we were picked up from our hotel at 8 o'clock on the dot by Ali, our surf instructor. We headed to Selong Belanak beach in his Jeep, stopping off along the way to pick up two German girls, Julie and Nadia. They were coming along for the lesson too but they already had some experience, not complete beginners like us!
http://m.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/05/02/selong-belanak-the-remote-charm-southern-coasts.html
Unfortunately I don't have any of my own pictures of the beach or of us surfing as we were told not to bring any valuables due to a lack of lockers at the beach! However, Selong Belanak was a really nice beach, ideal for learning to surf as the wave conditions are usually ideal!
We each had our own surf instructor. Jack had a guy called Lenny, who was a local "surfer dude" if I ever saw one! I actually ended up with Ali, which was a strike of luck really as he has over 25 years of surfing experience and is a great teacher. Ideal really, as on the day we went surfing Ali explained that "the water was angry". The surf was rough and the current was strong, making for some huge waves, but I think I did okay all things considered! I imagine I looked something like this girl here...
I totally did not just type "pro surfer girl" into the search box on google images...definitely not!!
Ali promised us that by the end of our half day lesson, we would be able to stand up on the board (we rented 8ft foamies) and ride the waves in. We were a bit dubious and I thought he might be more than slightly overestimating my skills. However, he was true to his word!
By the end of the lesson we were both riding the waves to the shore and styling out our crashing falls. I managed to stand up and ride 6 waves, one of which carried me along for nearly 10 seconds before dumping me off the edge of the board. I was rather proud of my efforts!
By the time we got back to the hotel in the late afternoon we were absolutely exhausted so we just chilled at the hotel with our books for the rest of the day!
Day 36! Tuesday 12th August 2014
I did warn you that Lombok was rather uneventful so you shouldn't be surprised to hear that on Tuesday we again ended up staying at the hotel, sitting in the comfy chairs on the porch outside our room. I did manage to write the previous blog post that day though, so all was not lost!
We ventured out for lunch at Cafe 7 and later that day we had dinner at a little local Warung in Central Kuta (the name escapes me...it was very Indonesian sounding!), where they made a face out of vegetables on Jack's rice!
Day 37! Wednesday 13th August 2014
Wednesday was yet another chilled day but it was spiced up a little by our evening excursion!
We spent the morning at the hotel, I was rapidly making my way through my extensive English Literature reading list at this point - top student points right there! We then headed it out for lunch, again at Discovery Cafe, which not only has good food but also has pretty decent free wifi!
During our lunch, a local boy came to our table to try to sell us handmade bracelets. This happens everywhere in Kuta! They follow you down the road and guilt trip you. I'll give them their due though, they're not lacking in persistence - see above picture of 5 of them hounding some poor people at Kuta beach!
This particular little boy was not content with just selling bracelets, he spotted our iPhones like a hawk and started chanting "play game, play game". He saw straight through Jack's attempt to tell him that he had no games and found himself a bike racing game to play...for half an hour! I really had doubts that Jack was gonna get the phone back!
He was actually rather good at the games and kept setting new high scores, much to Jack's chagrin!!
Unfortunately when Jack managed to forcibly remove the phone from the child, he pretended to cry. God these kids really know how to work you, little con-artists in the making! Eventually he gave up and happily skipped off to try to flog some bracelets to some other tourists, much to our relief!
Later that evening we drove up the coastal hill to Ashtari, a restaurant/bar/yoga spot on the top of the cliffs overlooking Kuta. We felt we needed a bit of luxury as a break from the monotony of Kuta and that's what we got! I had crispy calamari and some spring rolls which were really tasty! The bowls were pretty cool too, repurposed coconut shells!
Oh and the view wasn't bad either!!
Day 38! Thursday 14th August 2014
On Thursday we were supposed to be going for our second surf lesson but unfortunately we didn't make it due to another bout of food poisoning. We began to wonder if we'd be able to eat anything that wouldn't make us ill over the next week, it was more than a little tiresome!!
Jerry, the hotel owner, heard about our food poisoning and prescribed us "Jerry's Special Juice", made of fresh ingredients sourced from his garden and kitchen. It was some sort of vile tasting concoction made of guava leaf, turmeric and americk (bit of a language barrier here, I don't know if he actually said americk...anyone know?!). It did taste absolutely ghastly but it seems to have done the trick *touch wood*!
We headed out late in the afternoon for some food at The Spot, the restaurant we ended up in on our first night in Kuta! I had fish and chips...an Indonesian tradition...not!!
For the rest of the day I listened to the whole of the audiobook version of Michael McIntyre's Life and Laughing autobiography, read by the man himself, in favour of getting further through my reading list - it was definitely a good choice! I spent a good 6 hours sitting on the porch giggling to myself and watching the family rooster dig itself a hole in the garden. The stuff of comedy I tell you!
Day 39! Friday 15th August 2014
On Friday we did yet more "chilling" and had a Mexican style lunch at Dwiki's. We then went for a drive on the moped to explore the coast just east of Kuta.
We went through Pantai Segar and found Tanjung Aan beach, which we liked so much that we decided to go back the following day!
We then drove through Gerupak, a lovely village where the locals still make a living from fishing and seaweed farming.
Unfortunately we ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere on the way back! The fuel gauge had F at the top and E at the bottom...exactly the opposite to Jack's car. Therefore he didn't realise that the tank was indeed empty when we started our journey home - oops!
Luckily some French tourists came by on another moped and went to buy a bottle of fuel for us further along the coastal road and brought it back to us - what lovely people!
Petrol tank replenished, we made it back to the hotel without a hitch. However, when we got back we discovered that the whole of Kuta was experiencing a power cut...not ideal!
We had dinner by candlelight at Nuggets Corner (recommended by a guy we met earlier in the week), which operated a BYOB (bring your own beer) system. We turned up with two bottles of Anker in tow and both really enjoyed our meals! I had the beef rendang which was delicious and was actually the first whole meal I'd eaten in over a week! Result!
We were about to head back to the hotel when we saw light streaming out of a building down the road! It turned out that Gecko (where they do great wood fired pizzas) had a back up generator and a live band. So we went in and enjoyed light, free wifi and good music in an otherwise blacked out Kuta! By the time we got back to the hotel the power had returned - good timing eh?!
Day 40! Saturday 16th August 2014
So as you may be able to tell, we weren't exactly sad when our last day in Kuta, Lombok came around! We did make the most of it though and headed east along the coast again to Tanjung Aan beach, this time with plenty of petrol!!
It's a beautiful beach which is pretty much deserted and had lovely powdery white sand, I loved it there!
We happily spent the afternoon there before heading back west and up into the hills for another meal at Ashtari.
I really liked it up there, the salt and pepper containers were pretty cool too!
It was also our last ride on the moped, which had been an interesting yethair-raising experience (especially in the dark)! All was well though, we survived a week on the moped without incident - phew!
Ashtari by night
Day 41! Sunday 17th August 2014
On Sunday the last morning in Kuta finally arrived! I think we checked out of that hotel just in time too...
Jerry had decided to build another two rooms on top of the pre-existing rooms...whilst there were people staying in them. I'm not sure he really understood how the whole hotel industry works...people don't like being woken up by building work on the hotel site, let alone above their rooms! I was rudely awoken by a clueless Indonesian builder bashing a structural pole into the roof above my bed...I've had better wake up calls!!
Anyhoo, we had booked ourselves a flight from Lombok airport back to Denpasar to avoid the whole fast boat/long bus ride combination and were very pleased with our forward thinking (*my forward thinking). So, Jerry's eldest son drove us the 25 minutes to the airport so we were there ready for our flight that afternoon. His four year old son also came along for the ride, he jumped in the boot of the car and rolled around whilst clutching his mother's purse for the duration of the journey...interesting!!
When we arrived at the airport we tried to go to CFC (Indonesia's answer to KFC) for lunch, but amusingly enough they had run out of chicken! So we abandoned that idea and headed through to check in for our flight with Garuda Indonesia.
The flight was good and we even got to see the tip of Mount Rinjani through the clouds as we flew over Lombok! We also saw some lovely Islands during the flight back to Bali that May or may not have been the Gilis!
When we arrived back in Bali we jumped in a taxi to Seminyak, where we'd booked into Hotel Horison for two nights. I was so looking forward to staying in a proper hotel again and having a bit of luxury, I was not disappointed!
We relaxed in the hotel for a bit and got settled in before heading out into Seminyak to find some dinner! We went into an Italian restaurant called Cafe Marzano because it was busy (usually a good sign!) and we ended up loving the food!
The lamp shades in the restaurant were like bird cages, which I thought was a really nice touch! They weren't as amazing as the food though!
I wasn't too hungry so I ordered the panzerotti prosciutto (a small calzone kind of thing, meant for a starter) for my main course and it was so tasty! There was a slight difference in the size of my dinner and Jack's though!
Day 42! Monday 18th August 2014
The next day we headed down for breakfast to fuel our only day in Seminyak, the supposed glitz and glam of Bali! It turned out to be the first proper breakfast I'd been able to eat in weeks, so well done Hotel Horison!
After breakfast we went to explore the shopping area! I bought a really cute little studded clutch bag for a "cheap cheap" price so I was happy! Shopping abandoned we found ourselves on Seminyak beach (which was a little disappointing after Tanjung Aan!), where we ambled along watching the seasoned surfers negotiate the waves!
We must have walked a very long way because when we headed back to the street we found that we had ended up in Legian, the town next to Seminyak - oops!
We stopped for some lunch in Uncle Norm's Bar & Bistro to refuel and to borrow the wifi so we could work out where on earth we'd ended up! I also took rather a liking to Bintang Radler (with lemon) that lunch time!
After lunch we did some more shopping and then found our way back to the hotel ready for our highly anticipated evening at Ku De Ta, a swanky beach club! I had saved my favourite (yet unfortunately very creased!) white dress for the occasion, hoping it would fully emphasise my tan and help me fit in with the "in-crowd" at this trendy place!
We had a really nice time there and I had three really lovely cocktails (at some extortionate expense!). A "Strawberry and Coconut Daiquiri", a "Ku De Ta mojito" and a "Papillon".
I really liked how they set out the cocktail menu too, they must have some great creatives on board!
All in all it was a pretty lovely place!
It also happens to be a great place to watch the sun set over the ocean!
So Ku De Ta was a definite hit (thanks for the recommendation Alison!) and we both really enjoyed our last proper night of the holiday!
After drinks we had definitely worked up an appetite and decided to go back to Cafe Marzano again after enjoying it so much the day before. Those panzerottis are incredible, I'm definitely gonna try making them myself when I'm home!
Day 43! Tuesday 19th August 2014
On Tuesday it was time to start the long old 8000 mile journey home! We checked out of Hotel Horison, left Seminyak behind and got a taxi back to the airport!
When we got to the airport, went through security and started queuing at the check in desk, we realised we had ended up in the wrong terminal. I had wondered why our flight wasn't on the departures board and all the flights seemed to be going really far away whilst we were only going to Jakarta! Oops!
I was very disgruntled about having to go home through Jakarta but unfortunatley we couldn't get a flight straight out of Bali so it had to be done! We found the right terminal, checked in and took our last flight with Air Asia.
We arrived in Jakarta at around two in the afternoon and were met at the arrivals gate by a driver from the FM7 Resort Hotel, where we were briefly booked in before our early morning flight the next day!
The hotel was actually pretty impressive for an airport hotel that we only paid £15 each for! It had a really swanky lobby area and some egg shaped chairs which we spent most of the afternoon chilling in!
We then watched a whole hour special of the cartoon version of Scooby Doo (we are very mature adults I'll have you know...ummm...) in the room before heading for dinner at Le Porte, the hotel's own restaurant specialising in "world cuisine". It was actually really tasty - the nachos were amazing and I was a big fan of the lighting fixtures!
We decided it was best to try to get a decent night's sleep as we were booked on to the 4am airport shuttle bus!
I'm getting good at this going to bed early thing...I wonder if I'll be able to do it back home...my sleeping pattern is probably screwed anyway, I'm not looking forward to the jetlag! Getting over a 7 hour time difference is gonna be interesting...
Day 44! Wednesday 20th August 2014
We were up bright and early, as intended! I haven't seen 3am for a good while and I don't plan on seeing it again for a long time!! Nevertheless, we were ready and waiting when the golf cart arrived to take us and our luggage to the shuttle bus down the road.
I was quite disappointed that we didn't get to go the whole 2km back to the airport in the golf buggy if I'm honest...the bus we got on wasn't great...it made all sorts of funny noises and I'm fairly sure it was due for a service...I don't know...10 years ago?!
By some small miracle we got to the airport without leaving parts of the bus along the road and headed in to the terminal to get checked in! We were at the right terminal this time so that was a good start!
We arrived at the airport so early that we must've been the first to check in for the 07:25 flight to Dubai as they moved our seats and gave us the ones next to the emergency exit - score, extra legroom!
The experience that followed wasn't so pleasant.
Now you may be wondering why we left for the airport so early. Prepare for a rant!
The answer is this. We knew we had to allow some extra time to go through immigration as we had overstayed our 30 day "visa on arrival".
We actually tried to go to the Indonesian Embassy in London to get the 60 day tourist visa as our trip included 35 days in Indonesia. All of our paperwork was in order and our £35 cheques were ready. We were completely eligible for the visa.
Unfortunatley the embassy in London had run out of the visa stickers...but it's okay because they got more stock in THREE weeks later.
This meant that we had to go to Indonesia without the 60 day visa and just overstay the 30 day one everyone is given upon arrival. It also meant we had to take the blow of a $25 a day fine...excellent (on top of the $35 dollar entry fee and the $20 leaving fee) Cheers Indonesia, you've been so helpful...NOT!
So, when we got to immigration I explained the situation to the first very rude man. He shook his head at me and took me to see "the big boss" in the office, who gave me what I think he thought was a bit of a slap on the wrists.
I don't know why they got so high and mighty when it was their embassy's fault that we were in the situation! I'm still rather bitter as this only happened a number of hours ago, flipping con artists!
I deterred him and said I had no problem with paying the fine and I had my $25 US dollars per day ready. At which point he told me dollars were no good and new legislation requires that you pay 300,000 IDR a day instead. Just a little note to the Indonesian embassy, you might want to update your website!!
The immigration officer also had the audacity to tell me I'd overstayed the visa by NINE days instead of five. How he managed that I don't know, maybe simple maths skills aren't a requirement of the job. Idiot.
So off we went to the cash point to get out the money to pay the 1,500,000 IDR per person fine. That's around £75 each - over double what we would've paid if the embassy in London hadn't run out of visa stickers.
I was miffed to say the least, but at least I didn't succumb to their scaremongering tactics as they extorted the money from me. Arseholes.
Anyway, moving swiftly on, once we'd paid the fine they were happy to let us go. We wandered around the airport only to find that not much is open at 5am...except Starbucks - there is a god! We whiled away the time before boarding the plane whilst nursing some well deserved cups of coffee!
And then it was flight time! We were really happy to finally settle into our extra leg room seats and make tracks back to the UK! ¡Hasta la vista Indonesia!
The flight to Dubai went smoothly and we actually landed ahead of schedule. This gave us time to just chill at Dubai Airport, which as I mentioned the first time round, is very chrome. Chrome everywhereeeee!
I did a bit of duty free shopping and then headed to the boarding gate ready for the next flight, it was luckily only a two hour stopover before we got to get on the airbus A380-800 back to Heathrow - exciting times!! Just another seven and a half hours before we were back home!
The second flight somehow seemed to go slower than the first even though it was shorter, but after 7 long hours I was greeted by my Mum and Damon with welcome home balloons at the Heathrow arrivals gate! One of our neighbours, Martin, even left me a note stuck on the mantle piece!
It's so nice to be home, the house is full of beautiful bunches of flowers and I've had so many cuddles with Tara, my seventeen year old little dog, and Alfie, my little (well, huge) bunny rabbit!
I'm feeling very loved and I'm slowly making my way through the list of home comforts I've missed so much!
Thanks for keeping up with the travel updates! Now I'm home I'm just gonna have to find some really interesting stuff to do with my life to keep you all entertained so you carry on reading my blog posts!!
Until next time!
¡Adios!
xoxox
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