Thursday, July 25, 2013
3 days of long car rides and getting up early = Grumpy Joey and Skye
Gunung Bromo and Ijen are difficult places to get to using public transport, so you are basically stuck with booking a tour through a company. Joey and I have had it with tours but I guess we had to do it one last time (we hope). This tour involved long sits on the bus and very early mornings! These are two things neither of us like too much, but I guess it was necessary.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Beautiful Borneo Part 2
After some much needed R&R at the Mayfair Hotel in Sandakan, it was time to head off for our next adventure in Semporna. Semporna isn't much of a city, but what's special about it is that off it's shoreline, lies one of the most beautiful dive sites in the world called Sipadan. Sipadan is an island that is heavily protected and only 120 people are allowed to dive a day.
To warm up for our dive to Sipadan, we signed up for for diving on one of the other islands with a company called Scuba Junkie. Scuba Junkie was in our guidebooks and was one of the only dive shops that showed up on google for the area. They had reasonable prices and the dive site sounded pretty sweet too.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our dive at Mataking Island which is about 1.5 hours away. Before we even got to dive we were having equipment difficulties. Joeys regulator (for those of you non divers: breathing apparatus) was not working very well because the air gauge needle kept on bobbing up and down everytime he took a breath, which means it's broken. Mine seemed fine on the boat but half way through our dive, mine started to do the exact same thing. Luckily it didn't cause any complications. A problem like this isn't necessarily catastrophic, but with diving it is always best to be on the side of caution.
Our first dive was pretty cool. More so of a drift dive. The cool thing about Mataking is that most of the things you are looking for are micro. So the entire time we looked for things like shrimp, frog fish, and nudi branches. Joey and I are all about finding big stuff. The little things could interest us less, but it was still diving and we had a great time. Our guide was very knowledgeable and passionate about the little things.
That night we rested up for our big day at Sipadan. We had to move hotels because Scuba Junkie had no more room. We moved to Borneo Global Backpackers, which was the company we were gonna be diving with for Sipadan. This whole trip Joey and I have been able to avoid dorms, unfortunately this time to save money (cuz Sipidan was prettttty expensive) we decided to stick it out in a dorm. LUCKILY there was only one other person in our 8 person dorm, it was a french girl who was very quiet! We were so happy.
The next morning we set out for Sipidan. We were sort of scared because the people diving with us looked like pros. It was a couple, and the guy actually turned out to be an instructor in Australia. Joey and I both had a sigh of relief when we found out his girlfriend only had a few more dives than us. We are still really bad on sucking up our air quickly, and there was no way that we wanted to ruin another person's Sipidan experience by having to come up early.
Our guide that morning said he had saw a group of hammerhead sharks about 100 metres away from the reef, so that is where we set off. In Sipidan the aim of the game is to look for more macro animals such as sharks, but the reef itself is amazing in itself. Unfortunately we did not run into any hammerheads, but we did see lots of white tip reef sharks. Whoop de doo... We've already seen lots of them. The cool thing about Sipidan was that they were EVERYWHERE. After our 3 dives, I bet we saw atleast 30 white tip reef sharks.
For our last dive we went to Turtle Tomb. The dive site is basically a huge reef drop off that goes down 600 metres. We only went to about 25 metres in total, but there was nothing beyond that anyways. The reef wall was absolutely beautiful covered in soft and hard corals of all different colours. There were all different types of tropical fish as well. One of the highlights of the dive was going into a cave they call Turtle Tomb. Sadly, turtles sometimes swim in there and can't find their way out and then they die :( I am glad we didn't see any turtle skeletons. It would have made me sad because I LOVE LOVE LOVE sea turtles.
The next day, Joey and I were exhausted after 2 full days of diving. There was a big festival going on in Semporna. It was a boat festival with lots of beautiful coloured boats in the harbour. We were both amazed at how many people were at the festival in the streets. You could barely get anywhere. What used to be a 2 minute walk turned into 20 minutes. What annoyed me most was the fact a lot of woman had umbrellas to cover themselves from the sun. Normally a woman walking down an uncrowded street with an umbrella is perfectly fine, but when the streets are packed with vendors and thousands of people, an umbrella is not a wise choice, especially when every woman does it. There were many times I feared for the safety of my eyes. There's this new invention called sunscreen, maybe you should try it sometime. Both Joey and I found the festival quite intense because of the sheer volume of people. Another thing we experienced in Borneo was that everyone just stares at you forever. Peninsular Malaysia was fine for this because I guess they are used to seeing white people, but in Borneo it edged on the side of ridiculousness.
Joey and I barricaded ourselves in the room for most of the days because it was too hot and crazy outside during the festival. We were glad to leave Semporna on a night bus. Malaysia is known for it's plush overnight buses. This bus was no exception except the windows were all smashed in and kept together with black saran wrap. Very safe... The driver blared Pitbull, Lady Gaga and Beyonce all night, until I got Joey to tell him to turn it down. When the driver did, the people around us didn't like this. They decided to torture us with their cellphones on speakerphone, and listening to their craptastic music full volume. Don't try to take music away from South East Asians, it won't end well.
Finally Joey and I got some shut eye... we were abruptly woken up by the guy behind Joey puking into a barf bag about half a foot away from Joey's face. I was glad to learn that we were very close to our destination of Kota Kinabalu.
When we arrived to KK, we headed to Borneo Global Backpackers to see if we could rent a room for 5 hours to get some much needed sleep. We were very thankful that they gave us a discounted rate so we could get some shut eye! Later that day we walked around KK, just waiting for our flight to Manila. On to our last country!
To warm up for our dive to Sipadan, we signed up for for diving on one of the other islands with a company called Scuba Junkie. Scuba Junkie was in our guidebooks and was one of the only dive shops that showed up on google for the area. They had reasonable prices and the dive site sounded pretty sweet too.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our dive at Mataking Island which is about 1.5 hours away. Before we even got to dive we were having equipment difficulties. Joeys regulator (for those of you non divers: breathing apparatus) was not working very well because the air gauge needle kept on bobbing up and down everytime he took a breath, which means it's broken. Mine seemed fine on the boat but half way through our dive, mine started to do the exact same thing. Luckily it didn't cause any complications. A problem like this isn't necessarily catastrophic, but with diving it is always best to be on the side of caution.
Our first dive was pretty cool. More so of a drift dive. The cool thing about Mataking is that most of the things you are looking for are micro. So the entire time we looked for things like shrimp, frog fish, and nudi branches. Joey and I are all about finding big stuff. The little things could interest us less, but it was still diving and we had a great time. Our guide was very knowledgeable and passionate about the little things.
That night we rested up for our big day at Sipadan. We had to move hotels because Scuba Junkie had no more room. We moved to Borneo Global Backpackers, which was the company we were gonna be diving with for Sipadan. This whole trip Joey and I have been able to avoid dorms, unfortunately this time to save money (cuz Sipidan was prettttty expensive) we decided to stick it out in a dorm. LUCKILY there was only one other person in our 8 person dorm, it was a french girl who was very quiet! We were so happy.
The next morning we set out for Sipidan. We were sort of scared because the people diving with us looked like pros. It was a couple, and the guy actually turned out to be an instructor in Australia. Joey and I both had a sigh of relief when we found out his girlfriend only had a few more dives than us. We are still really bad on sucking up our air quickly, and there was no way that we wanted to ruin another person's Sipidan experience by having to come up early.
Our guide that morning said he had saw a group of hammerhead sharks about 100 metres away from the reef, so that is where we set off. In Sipidan the aim of the game is to look for more macro animals such as sharks, but the reef itself is amazing in itself. Unfortunately we did not run into any hammerheads, but we did see lots of white tip reef sharks. Whoop de doo... We've already seen lots of them. The cool thing about Sipidan was that they were EVERYWHERE. After our 3 dives, I bet we saw atleast 30 white tip reef sharks.
For our last dive we went to Turtle Tomb. The dive site is basically a huge reef drop off that goes down 600 metres. We only went to about 25 metres in total, but there was nothing beyond that anyways. The reef wall was absolutely beautiful covered in soft and hard corals of all different colours. There were all different types of tropical fish as well. One of the highlights of the dive was going into a cave they call Turtle Tomb. Sadly, turtles sometimes swim in there and can't find their way out and then they die :( I am glad we didn't see any turtle skeletons. It would have made me sad because I LOVE LOVE LOVE sea turtles.
The next day, Joey and I were exhausted after 2 full days of diving. There was a big festival going on in Semporna. It was a boat festival with lots of beautiful coloured boats in the harbour. We were both amazed at how many people were at the festival in the streets. You could barely get anywhere. What used to be a 2 minute walk turned into 20 minutes. What annoyed me most was the fact a lot of woman had umbrellas to cover themselves from the sun. Normally a woman walking down an uncrowded street with an umbrella is perfectly fine, but when the streets are packed with vendors and thousands of people, an umbrella is not a wise choice, especially when every woman does it. There were many times I feared for the safety of my eyes. There's this new invention called sunscreen, maybe you should try it sometime. Both Joey and I found the festival quite intense because of the sheer volume of people. Another thing we experienced in Borneo was that everyone just stares at you forever. Peninsular Malaysia was fine for this because I guess they are used to seeing white people, but in Borneo it edged on the side of ridiculousness.
Joey and I barricaded ourselves in the room for most of the days because it was too hot and crazy outside during the festival. We were glad to leave Semporna on a night bus. Malaysia is known for it's plush overnight buses. This bus was no exception except the windows were all smashed in and kept together with black saran wrap. Very safe... The driver blared Pitbull, Lady Gaga and Beyonce all night, until I got Joey to tell him to turn it down. When the driver did, the people around us didn't like this. They decided to torture us with their cellphones on speakerphone, and listening to their craptastic music full volume. Don't try to take music away from South East Asians, it won't end well.
Finally Joey and I got some shut eye... we were abruptly woken up by the guy behind Joey puking into a barf bag about half a foot away from Joey's face. I was glad to learn that we were very close to our destination of Kota Kinabalu.
When we arrived to KK, we headed to Borneo Global Backpackers to see if we could rent a room for 5 hours to get some much needed sleep. We were very thankful that they gave us a discounted rate so we could get some shut eye! Later that day we walked around KK, just waiting for our flight to Manila. On to our last country!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Beautiful Borneo! Part 1
We flew to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on the Malaysian side of Borneo. Kota Kinabalu was a cute little city on the water. We were picked up by our hotel, which is so nice getting of a flight and seeing that someone is holding a sign with your name on it. It's not nearly as good as being greeted by friends and family, but it's still pretty sweet!
Our room was nothing special at Borneo Global Backpackers, but the staff were really awesome and helpful. Joey and I had tried to book a dive at Sipadan (For those of you who don't know it's one of the top dive sites in the WORLD) but were unable to with a couple of dive companies who were fully booked up. Sipadan was a victim of dynamite and cyanide fishing, so now it is heavily protect and is only allowed to have 120 divers a day. This books up pretty fast. We were so so so happy when we found out that the hostel who has a dive company at Sipadan had space available! Despite it being expensive, we were totally stoked.
A couple of other things we wanted to do while we were in Sabah was climb Mt. Kinabalu and see Probiscis monkeys. One thing that really sucked about Sabah was that EVERYTHING we wanted to do, had to be booked through some package tour. Every package tour Joey and I have ever booked on this trip has been not very good, and in general, are way way more expensive than doing it yourself. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu was out of the question when we learned it would cost us $300 CDN each. That's a lot of money for a 1.5 day climb up a stair case.
After a couple of days of enjoying the amazing seafood and friendly people of Kota Kinabalu we headed off to a city called Sandakan. Sandakan itself, has absolutely nothing to offer. It's the orangutan and probiscis monkey sanctuaries in the surrounding areas that are the prime sights. We were happy to stay in Sandakan because we found an amazing hotel for a reasonable price. The place was called Mayfair Hotel, and it wasn't spectacular looking but it was so clean. The highlight was the big screen plasma screen in our room, and the thousands of dvds in the lobby free for our viewing. All Joey and I wanted to do was veg out for a couple of days and do nothing! Which is exactly what we did.
The guy running the Mayfair was hilarious, in a non funny way. He was such a serious Chinese guy, but would say the funniest things with the straightest face. His gruff and rude demeanor made him likeable. Who would have thought? He also knew everything there was to know about Sandakan and the surrounding area. Great for asking questions.
One of the days in Sandakan we decided to go see the Probiscis monkey sanctuary. For those of you who don't know what it is, google it, and I'm sure you will be chuckling in no time. These monkeys are very very funny to look at. When we got to the sanctuary we were a bit disappointed to see that these monkeys were living in such a small area of jungle. A lot of Borneo is covered in Palm tree plantations for the making of palm oil. It's not what you would expect in a place with such a reputation for beautiful forests and unique animal species. It was actually quite depressing to have driven an hour and only seen plantations. Miles upon miles of palm trees.
The sanctuary was quite small, and there weren't trails to walk around, so we just waited until the monkeys came for their feeding at 11am. You could tell a lot of monkeys knew exactly what time it was because you could see them lingering in the trees nearby. When the food was down on the platform they came running. You could see that the monkeys had distinct families because different groups would wait their turn for different platforms. You could also tell who was boss. The bigger the nose, the more dominant the male. They also liked to announce they were coming with slamming of fists and big jumpy actions on to the platforms. The lower caste monkeys hid under the platforms hoping to get some scrapes! After the feeding we were transported to a resort for lunch, which was rather uneventful. The food was crap and overly priced. We had to wait around 2 hours for the next feeding.
The next feeding was similar to the first. Both of us were getting a bit bored, but were soon fascinated by these little fish who live in the puddles near the sanctuary, called Mudskippers. They can actually sort of walk around on the mud and can live through the dry season in holes they dig for themselves. They were actually quite cute! After the second feeding we headed home to watch some more dvds!
Our room was nothing special at Borneo Global Backpackers, but the staff were really awesome and helpful. Joey and I had tried to book a dive at Sipadan (For those of you who don't know it's one of the top dive sites in the WORLD) but were unable to with a couple of dive companies who were fully booked up. Sipadan was a victim of dynamite and cyanide fishing, so now it is heavily protect and is only allowed to have 120 divers a day. This books up pretty fast. We were so so so happy when we found out that the hostel who has a dive company at Sipadan had space available! Despite it being expensive, we were totally stoked.
A couple of other things we wanted to do while we were in Sabah was climb Mt. Kinabalu and see Probiscis monkeys. One thing that really sucked about Sabah was that EVERYTHING we wanted to do, had to be booked through some package tour. Every package tour Joey and I have ever booked on this trip has been not very good, and in general, are way way more expensive than doing it yourself. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu was out of the question when we learned it would cost us $300 CDN each. That's a lot of money for a 1.5 day climb up a stair case.
After a couple of days of enjoying the amazing seafood and friendly people of Kota Kinabalu we headed off to a city called Sandakan. Sandakan itself, has absolutely nothing to offer. It's the orangutan and probiscis monkey sanctuaries in the surrounding areas that are the prime sights. We were happy to stay in Sandakan because we found an amazing hotel for a reasonable price. The place was called Mayfair Hotel, and it wasn't spectacular looking but it was so clean. The highlight was the big screen plasma screen in our room, and the thousands of dvds in the lobby free for our viewing. All Joey and I wanted to do was veg out for a couple of days and do nothing! Which is exactly what we did.
The guy running the Mayfair was hilarious, in a non funny way. He was such a serious Chinese guy, but would say the funniest things with the straightest face. His gruff and rude demeanor made him likeable. Who would have thought? He also knew everything there was to know about Sandakan and the surrounding area. Great for asking questions.
One of the days in Sandakan we decided to go see the Probiscis monkey sanctuary. For those of you who don't know what it is, google it, and I'm sure you will be chuckling in no time. These monkeys are very very funny to look at. When we got to the sanctuary we were a bit disappointed to see that these monkeys were living in such a small area of jungle. A lot of Borneo is covered in Palm tree plantations for the making of palm oil. It's not what you would expect in a place with such a reputation for beautiful forests and unique animal species. It was actually quite depressing to have driven an hour and only seen plantations. Miles upon miles of palm trees.
The sanctuary was quite small, and there weren't trails to walk around, so we just waited until the monkeys came for their feeding at 11am. You could tell a lot of monkeys knew exactly what time it was because you could see them lingering in the trees nearby. When the food was down on the platform they came running. You could see that the monkeys had distinct families because different groups would wait their turn for different platforms. You could also tell who was boss. The bigger the nose, the more dominant the male. They also liked to announce they were coming with slamming of fists and big jumpy actions on to the platforms. The lower caste monkeys hid under the platforms hoping to get some scrapes! After the feeding we were transported to a resort for lunch, which was rather uneventful. The food was crap and overly priced. We had to wait around 2 hours for the next feeding.
The next feeding was similar to the first. Both of us were getting a bit bored, but were soon fascinated by these little fish who live in the puddles near the sanctuary, called Mudskippers. They can actually sort of walk around on the mud and can live through the dry season in holes they dig for themselves. They were actually quite cute! After the second feeding we headed home to watch some more dvds!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Gili T
We needed to get away from the chaos of Bali. Kuta was too dirty and too expensive. Both of us were aching to find some white sand and some crystal blue water. Gili Trawangan off the coast of Lombok was where we could find this paradise.
Joey and I purchased transport tickets that included bus and boat to Gili T. We were told that it would take approximately 9 hours to get there. We could deal with a long day of traveling considering the 2 hour fast boat alternative was triple the price. The day started off with a very early morning. Up at 5 and out of the room by 6 am.
After 12.5 hours of a lot of hurrying up and then waiting around. That is the theme of Asia. Hurry up, and then wait. We dealt with a pretty horrible sales guy who was trying to sell us a ticket back. I seriously thought he was going to fight Joey at one point. Joey wasn't sure when we wanted to come back or how we were coming back so he said he didn't want the ticket. The guy was like "Well how are you going to get back?", Joey somewhat frustrated but said jokingly "I'll swim." The guy obviously was not pleased with this answer and started to get really rude to us. Finally we caved and bought a ticket from him for a better deal, but I was still not impressed by his crappy sales tactics.
We didn't get to see much of Gili T when we arrived because we arrived 3.5 hours later than we were supposed to. This posed as a dilemma because we didn't know where we were staying and we were almost too tired to find a good deal. Luckily some guys had a relatively cheap room with breakfast. It would do for the night.
Later on we met up with our good friends that we met in Penang, Tim and Hayley. Joey and I met them in Rudy's at a local bar. We were exhausted from the long day of travel so we went back to our hotel pretty quick, except we got lost and spent half an hour looking for it. When we finally did, a bed never felt so nice.
The room that we had was actually really nice at Gili Gecko. The only thing that really sucked was that you could hear every little thing happening in the other 3 rooms. You could hear someone brushing their teeth, or farting. We had already arranged with Tim and Hayley to check out a place they found down the beach that was reasonably priced and right on the beach. We all met up and made the 30 minute trek there with our loaded backpacks. The group of us finally found it and were relieved to take our packs off.
The rooms weren't the nicest at Nusa Tiga, but they were 50ft to the beach, and breakfast was included. What more could you ask for $11 a night? Some of the best snorkeling on the island was right in front of our beach too!
Later on that day I met up with Tori which was a friend that Joey and I had met up in Laos. We had been trying to get together forever, but Joey and I were always a couple days ahead of Tori. It was so nice to finally meet and catch up. I liked hearing about Tori's recent adventures. Tori also saw some other friends she had made in Thailand in Gili T, a couple named Gwen and James. It was like one big happy family.
The next couple of days were spent laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. We'd go for the occasional snorkel. Life was really good. After a bunch of weeks of traveling non stop, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. Good friends, beer, the beach and the sun. Gotta love life.
One evening while the tide was going out and the sun was setting, some of us decided to go searching for sea turtles on the reef by our beach. Tim and I were the first to go out, and luckily we discovered a sea turtle. It was so amazing. He was just cruising around, eating coral and occasionally coming up for air. I was in love with this little guy. I didn't want to be selfish with my snorkel so I swam back so Joey could experience the turtle too. On my way back I found another cute turtle.
After a few days of doing nothing, Joey and I knew we wanted to do some diving. We though we'd finish up our Advanced Open Water certification with Blue Marlin. We signed up for a deep dive, a navigation dive and a night dive.
Our first dive was the deep dive, which just so happened to be very close to our hotel beach. I was a bit disappointed because I had already seen a lot of the reef, but going 30 metres below the surface gave me another perspective. There were a lot of fish down there, and we even saw a turtle and a black tip reef shark. The diving itself was challenging because the current was so strong. There was this cleaner fish called a remora that had been on the turtle, but decided it wanted to be on me instead. The rest of the dive I was trying to scare this thing off of me. I wasted half my air nearly screaming. I like fish, but I don't like them cleaning my skin and cuts. Joey was beside himself with laughter. He wasted so much air he had to use the emergency air supply.
In between dives we went to the dive centre where were worked on our work sheets. Joey wanted to get a little R&R in the hammock near the front of the shop. Next thing I know, he's lying on the ground not really sure what hit him. He had broke the hammock! People in the dive centre restaurant were laughing hysterically and so was I. Joey sheepishly got up and pretended as if nothing had happened. It was hilarious.
The navigation dive was rather uneventful. I am not very skilled with the compass. I realllllly don't understand how they work; they are beyond my comprehension! We fumbled around and did the set tasks and barely saw any cool animals. Oh well, we had been prepared for this boring dive.
The night dive later on was quite cool. The scariest part was actually jumping out of the boat into the water. Once we starting going down, it was like going down to another world. The reef wasn't all that impressive, but it was really neat to see the fish sleeping. A lot of the fish you see in the day were getting some shut eye by resting up against rocks or the sea floor. Both Joey and I were getting annoyed because the other two people on our dive were higher up then us. They would not control their buoyancy and then all of a sudden be dropping on top of you. My buoyancy also wasn't the best because I was too heavily weighted down. It was my first time wearing a wet suit, so I took on extra weights. I kept on almost touching the ground which is not a safe thing to do at night because you don't know what's on the sea floor.
Later on in the dive we turned off all the flash lights and just swan through darkness. All the particles and organisms that were floating in the water turned a glowing green colour. This is called phosphorescence. I had heard about this before, but had never experienced it. It was such a cool feeling to be floating around in the ocean with no light, except for dancing green dots.
After the dive we were filling out our dive books when this woman in our dive group started talking to our dive instructor about spirituality. I was having hearing problems because of some water in the ear so I couldn't hear much. I heard some really random things about this adventure our instructor had gone on that involved lots of puking, pretending he was a cat, and then seeing UFO's. I later clued in to the fact he was on peyote. It made sense. The conversation was getting a bit weird, especially because Joey and I weren't being included. I just wanted to be like "k sign our log books now..." but I had to wait for the perfect opportunity. It took about 45 minutes of extremely weird conversation to get my piece in. Joey and I were exhausted and had a really early morning back to Kuta.
The next morning we woke up and hurried to the ferry. We were sad to say good bye to the island that was our home for over a week, but were also excited to get on with our adventure. We were off to Borneo next!
Joey and I purchased transport tickets that included bus and boat to Gili T. We were told that it would take approximately 9 hours to get there. We could deal with a long day of traveling considering the 2 hour fast boat alternative was triple the price. The day started off with a very early morning. Up at 5 and out of the room by 6 am.
After 12.5 hours of a lot of hurrying up and then waiting around. That is the theme of Asia. Hurry up, and then wait. We dealt with a pretty horrible sales guy who was trying to sell us a ticket back. I seriously thought he was going to fight Joey at one point. Joey wasn't sure when we wanted to come back or how we were coming back so he said he didn't want the ticket. The guy was like "Well how are you going to get back?", Joey somewhat frustrated but said jokingly "I'll swim." The guy obviously was not pleased with this answer and started to get really rude to us. Finally we caved and bought a ticket from him for a better deal, but I was still not impressed by his crappy sales tactics.
We didn't get to see much of Gili T when we arrived because we arrived 3.5 hours later than we were supposed to. This posed as a dilemma because we didn't know where we were staying and we were almost too tired to find a good deal. Luckily some guys had a relatively cheap room with breakfast. It would do for the night.
Later on we met up with our good friends that we met in Penang, Tim and Hayley. Joey and I met them in Rudy's at a local bar. We were exhausted from the long day of travel so we went back to our hotel pretty quick, except we got lost and spent half an hour looking for it. When we finally did, a bed never felt so nice.
The room that we had was actually really nice at Gili Gecko. The only thing that really sucked was that you could hear every little thing happening in the other 3 rooms. You could hear someone brushing their teeth, or farting. We had already arranged with Tim and Hayley to check out a place they found down the beach that was reasonably priced and right on the beach. We all met up and made the 30 minute trek there with our loaded backpacks. The group of us finally found it and were relieved to take our packs off.
The rooms weren't the nicest at Nusa Tiga, but they were 50ft to the beach, and breakfast was included. What more could you ask for $11 a night? Some of the best snorkeling on the island was right in front of our beach too!
Later on that day I met up with Tori which was a friend that Joey and I had met up in Laos. We had been trying to get together forever, but Joey and I were always a couple days ahead of Tori. It was so nice to finally meet and catch up. I liked hearing about Tori's recent adventures. Tori also saw some other friends she had made in Thailand in Gili T, a couple named Gwen and James. It was like one big happy family.
The next couple of days were spent laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. We'd go for the occasional snorkel. Life was really good. After a bunch of weeks of traveling non stop, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. Good friends, beer, the beach and the sun. Gotta love life.
One evening while the tide was going out and the sun was setting, some of us decided to go searching for sea turtles on the reef by our beach. Tim and I were the first to go out, and luckily we discovered a sea turtle. It was so amazing. He was just cruising around, eating coral and occasionally coming up for air. I was in love with this little guy. I didn't want to be selfish with my snorkel so I swam back so Joey could experience the turtle too. On my way back I found another cute turtle.
After a few days of doing nothing, Joey and I knew we wanted to do some diving. We though we'd finish up our Advanced Open Water certification with Blue Marlin. We signed up for a deep dive, a navigation dive and a night dive.
Our first dive was the deep dive, which just so happened to be very close to our hotel beach. I was a bit disappointed because I had already seen a lot of the reef, but going 30 metres below the surface gave me another perspective. There were a lot of fish down there, and we even saw a turtle and a black tip reef shark. The diving itself was challenging because the current was so strong. There was this cleaner fish called a remora that had been on the turtle, but decided it wanted to be on me instead. The rest of the dive I was trying to scare this thing off of me. I wasted half my air nearly screaming. I like fish, but I don't like them cleaning my skin and cuts. Joey was beside himself with laughter. He wasted so much air he had to use the emergency air supply.
In between dives we went to the dive centre where were worked on our work sheets. Joey wanted to get a little R&R in the hammock near the front of the shop. Next thing I know, he's lying on the ground not really sure what hit him. He had broke the hammock! People in the dive centre restaurant were laughing hysterically and so was I. Joey sheepishly got up and pretended as if nothing had happened. It was hilarious.
The navigation dive was rather uneventful. I am not very skilled with the compass. I realllllly don't understand how they work; they are beyond my comprehension! We fumbled around and did the set tasks and barely saw any cool animals. Oh well, we had been prepared for this boring dive.
The night dive later on was quite cool. The scariest part was actually jumping out of the boat into the water. Once we starting going down, it was like going down to another world. The reef wasn't all that impressive, but it was really neat to see the fish sleeping. A lot of the fish you see in the day were getting some shut eye by resting up against rocks or the sea floor. Both Joey and I were getting annoyed because the other two people on our dive were higher up then us. They would not control their buoyancy and then all of a sudden be dropping on top of you. My buoyancy also wasn't the best because I was too heavily weighted down. It was my first time wearing a wet suit, so I took on extra weights. I kept on almost touching the ground which is not a safe thing to do at night because you don't know what's on the sea floor.
Later on in the dive we turned off all the flash lights and just swan through darkness. All the particles and organisms that were floating in the water turned a glowing green colour. This is called phosphorescence. I had heard about this before, but had never experienced it. It was such a cool feeling to be floating around in the ocean with no light, except for dancing green dots.
After the dive we were filling out our dive books when this woman in our dive group started talking to our dive instructor about spirituality. I was having hearing problems because of some water in the ear so I couldn't hear much. I heard some really random things about this adventure our instructor had gone on that involved lots of puking, pretending he was a cat, and then seeing UFO's. I later clued in to the fact he was on peyote. It made sense. The conversation was getting a bit weird, especially because Joey and I weren't being included. I just wanted to be like "k sign our log books now..." but I had to wait for the perfect opportunity. It took about 45 minutes of extremely weird conversation to get my piece in. Joey and I were exhausted and had a really early morning back to Kuta.
The next morning we woke up and hurried to the ferry. We were sad to say good bye to the island that was our home for over a week, but were also excited to get on with our adventure. We were off to Borneo next!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Ballin' Bali
Joey and I were off to Kuta beach against the recommendations of pretty much every travel we had ever met. When we arrived, I could see why no one liked it here. The beach was infested with garbage and "rastafarian" Indo guys. No thanks. Accomodation was ridiculously high, and the restaurants were crap! It is one of those places you have to check out to experience the sheer craziness of it all. If Khao San road was on a beach and was a bazillion times bigger, this would be it.
We were there for the surfing. There were lots of surf schools who had reasonable rates. We spent our first day trying to find a good place to dive with. We settled with a place called Big Kahuna. Our class was to start at 7am the next day.
That morning Joey and I got up early to scrounge up some breakfast at the Circle K. We found some processed banana bread. The breakfast of champions. Joey and I met up with our teacher and we were off to the beach across the street.
The waves were decent size first thing in the morning and both Joey and I were standing up pretty much right away. I was slightly annoyed with our instructor because if you fell over he never had any feedback as to why you fell off or couldn't stand. I know surfing is not necessarily something someone can 'teach' but you can give useful feedback to the student. That's not too hard to ask? The waves started to get really big and started coming front on and from the side. I was getting tossed around everywhere and drifted into the swimming area. I was getting frustrated because our instructor clearly saw we were having difficulty battling the waves and didn't make an effort to help us out, or move somewhere else along the beach.
After getting our asses handed to us by the waves, both Joey and I needed a break. We sat on the beach with some water and watched our 'instructor' (might I add we paid this guy a lot of money) take our board out to ride some waves. He wasn't the most talkative guy that was for sure. We attempted the waves again, and they kicked our butts again. So it was time to take a break.
That afternoon we went surfing again with the same company. This time it was with a big group of people, which I thought would be great cuz it's always fun to meet new people. We met 3 really cool Scottish people and had a great time until the waves started filling up with other surfers. I would try to catch a wave but someone else would already be on it, or there would be someone directly in my way. It was still a good time but we cut our surfing short because it was too hard to get through the crowds.
That night we met up with our newly found Scottish friends for dinner and some drinks. Jodie and Pam both teach at International schools in Taiwan and Malaysia. Teaching english abroad is something that really interests both Joey and I. We have met a lot of people who have done it that find it very rewarding. Not too mention a lot of schools will pay for your return flight, your accomodation and give you plenty of vacation time! This is something we may consider doing in the future.
The next morning we heading off to the Gili Islands on neighbouring Lombok. Our friend's Tim and Hayley would be there waiting for us. It was going to be nice to check up with eachother again!
We were there for the surfing. There were lots of surf schools who had reasonable rates. We spent our first day trying to find a good place to dive with. We settled with a place called Big Kahuna. Our class was to start at 7am the next day.
That morning Joey and I got up early to scrounge up some breakfast at the Circle K. We found some processed banana bread. The breakfast of champions. Joey and I met up with our teacher and we were off to the beach across the street.
The waves were decent size first thing in the morning and both Joey and I were standing up pretty much right away. I was slightly annoyed with our instructor because if you fell over he never had any feedback as to why you fell off or couldn't stand. I know surfing is not necessarily something someone can 'teach' but you can give useful feedback to the student. That's not too hard to ask? The waves started to get really big and started coming front on and from the side. I was getting tossed around everywhere and drifted into the swimming area. I was getting frustrated because our instructor clearly saw we were having difficulty battling the waves and didn't make an effort to help us out, or move somewhere else along the beach.
After getting our asses handed to us by the waves, both Joey and I needed a break. We sat on the beach with some water and watched our 'instructor' (might I add we paid this guy a lot of money) take our board out to ride some waves. He wasn't the most talkative guy that was for sure. We attempted the waves again, and they kicked our butts again. So it was time to take a break.
That afternoon we went surfing again with the same company. This time it was with a big group of people, which I thought would be great cuz it's always fun to meet new people. We met 3 really cool Scottish people and had a great time until the waves started filling up with other surfers. I would try to catch a wave but someone else would already be on it, or there would be someone directly in my way. It was still a good time but we cut our surfing short because it was too hard to get through the crowds.
That night we met up with our newly found Scottish friends for dinner and some drinks. Jodie and Pam both teach at International schools in Taiwan and Malaysia. Teaching english abroad is something that really interests both Joey and I. We have met a lot of people who have done it that find it very rewarding. Not too mention a lot of schools will pay for your return flight, your accomodation and give you plenty of vacation time! This is something we may consider doing in the future.
The next morning we heading off to the Gili Islands on neighbouring Lombok. Our friend's Tim and Hayley would be there waiting for us. It was going to be nice to check up with eachother again!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Waterfalls, Volcanoes and Craters, oh my!
Joey and I had signed up for a tour that would take us to Bromo, then to Ijen, and then to the ferry where we would head over to Bali. Getting to these places can be tough on public buses. I think it would require a lot of patience and time. At this point, these are two things we have little of. Even if a ticket to do all three things through a tour company is a bit more expensive, atleast the tour takes care of the 2 nights accommodation and breakfast.
The first day of the tour sucked. We left Yogyakarta at 9 and didn’t reach Bromo until 8pm. 11 hours on a bus is no fun! I guess we did meet a number of interesting people on the mini bus though! By the time we arrived at our hotel (which wasn’t the one Joey and I wanted to go to, but whatever) we were exhausted. I was unimpressed with the cold weather, and most importantly, the shitty menu that our “hotel” had. Honestly, anything but fried rice/noodles would be amazing. Indonesians do not deviate from their daily foods consisting of nasi campur (rice, fish and veg), nasi goreng (fried rice)and ayam soto (chicken soup). Most restaurants only serve these things, and if they do serve western food, you probably don’t want it. I think Joey and I have officially given up hopes on getting a decent western meal. Although, we have had some good pizza.
We got to bed by about 9:30 and set our alarms for 4am. Ouch. I was not looking forward to waking up that early. The group of us in the mini bus had managed to gang together and rent a jeep so we didn’t have to do the 3 hour trek to the look-out point. It was a bit more expensive to get the jeep, but I don’t like strenuous exercise any time before 12pm. In our group of people there was a really cool Spanish girl named Atina, two British girls, and a very annoying American guy. This guy just loved to hear himself talk about anything and everything, but especially he liked to talk about himself. I struggled to hold a conversation with him because of his constant interruptions. I felt bad for the girl who had to sit with him for the 12 hours the previous day.
Well he was back at it at 4:30am and was chatting away, mostly to himself. Most of us had not had coffee yet, so none of us were quite interested. The jeep ride was fairly uneventful. Joey was let down that it was a Toyota. Both of us were especially let down that we didn’t go off-roading, and because the guy driving didn’t really know what he was doing. When we got to the top of the lookout point to get our sunrise glimpse of Bromo there were tons and tons of people up there. We managed to find a place with less people and took a bunch of really awesome photos.
Our group was then herded back to the jeep where we drove to the foot of Bromo, where we would climb (actually, walk up a staircase) to the top of the crater. There was about a bazillion local men with little horses who were offering dirt cheap prices to ride the 500metres to the base, but honestly after 12 hours on a bus the day before, I felt I could use some of the exercise. One thing that really bothers me about these countries is that there is no control over people and making money. One guy a long time ago thought of an idea to use his horse to shuttle lazy tourists 500metres to Bromo, next thing you know literally 200 men with their horses come and try to do the same thing. They ask incredibly reasonable prices. There are just far too many of them, and I hardly doubt that any of them are making a good living by doing this. This is just one example of a business idea being taken on by everyone and their neighbour.
We got to the top of the volcano which was pretty neat. There was a big sulphurous cloud coming from the middle, but other than that there wasn't much volcanic activity. The view was gorgeous though. You could see all the jungle(whats left of it)rice fields and agricultural land for miles. We stayed up there for a bit but had to be down in order to get our mini bus so we could head on to Ijen.
Joey and I were the only ones in our group who were going to Ijen; the rest were heading on to Bali. Some Canadian friends we met in Sumatra had highly recommended Ijen for it's natural beauty and lack of crowds. It's also surrounded by beautiful coffee plantations.
That night we met our guide named Amos in the minibus as we drove to Ijen. The ride was slow going because the roads were so washed out. We started talking and Amos seemed really friendly. He was only 19 but seemed to already possess the skills to be a good guide. He liked his job because he got to practice English and meet people from all over the world. When we go to the hotel Joey and I went into the hotspring fed whirlpool. It wasn't exactly hot but it was nice anyways.
The next morning was an early one. Annoyingly so, it didn't have to be. Our door got knocked on at 4am so we could be up and ready to leave at 4:30 to catch sunrise. Joey and I get ready quickly and wait outside for what seems like forever. 5:15 rolls around and we still haven't left. Amos finally lets us know that we are waiting for another couple. Joey told him to go wake them up because we were going to miss sunrise. What we didn't know was that it was a muslim couple who were at the mosque for prayer. Amos apologized profusely for them being at prayer. What he didn't know was that we were pissed because if he knew we were giving them a ride to the base of Ijen and they had prayer at 5am, then why the hell were we woken up at 4? Sleep is a very valuable thing to Joey and I, especially because we had been up at 3:30am the night before!
We totally understand if someone is Muslim and needs to prayer. We have nothing but respect for them, but when you sign up for a sunrise tour, pray later! Don't make everyone else (It was only me and Joey, but still) wait. What annoyed me even more was that when we got to the base of the crater, they didn't even start climbing right away. I was very disappointed.
The walk up to Ijen was too strenuous for that early in the morning. I was hungry because the crap breakfast(who in their right mind thinks that chocolate sprinkles between two white pieces of bread constitutes as breakfast, seriously are you trying to give me diabetes?!) that our hotel provided didn't fill me up in the slightest. The scenery was beautiful and could have been even more beautiful if there hadn't been garbage absolutely everywhere. In parks like this you pay upwards of $3 for "park conservation" but they can't even pick up the garbage. The combination of lack of sleep and nutrition made me more sensitive to the garbage. I feel in Canada and other nations we spend a lot of time, effort and money to preserve our nature and lesson our carbon footprint. Then you come to these countries and they just throw garbage wherever they can. Such little compassion for nature sent me into tears. Our guide was so weirded out that I was crying. I told him everything was so beautiful here, but it's sad that their is so little control over waste dumping.
When we got to the top of the crater the walk up steep hills was worth it. In the middle of the crater was a huge steaming lake. You could see near the shore of the lake the sulphur miners who get the sulphur from the ground and haul it down the mountain. It looks like an incredibly tough job!
On our way back down Joey and I started asking Amos questions. I was quite surprised to see his views on things. He had said some contreversial things such as Muslims being superior to Christians because Christians don't prayer 5 times a day like Muslims do, and that he called African American people the N word several times, and to add insult to injury he said that all of them are mean and very violent. I don't blame Amos for having these views. He comes from a very religious family, and like other Indonesians, thinks that Westerners (black or white) behave exactly like the do on tv or the movies. How can you blame them if it's their only glimpse into our world? Most of them will never come to our countries.
After the walk and the talk I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was glad to be heading to Bali that day where Joey and I could get some rest! We said our goodbyes to Amos and headed on our way to Aussie wonderland of Bali.
The first day of the tour sucked. We left Yogyakarta at 9 and didn’t reach Bromo until 8pm. 11 hours on a bus is no fun! I guess we did meet a number of interesting people on the mini bus though! By the time we arrived at our hotel (which wasn’t the one Joey and I wanted to go to, but whatever) we were exhausted. I was unimpressed with the cold weather, and most importantly, the shitty menu that our “hotel” had. Honestly, anything but fried rice/noodles would be amazing. Indonesians do not deviate from their daily foods consisting of nasi campur (rice, fish and veg), nasi goreng (fried rice)and ayam soto (chicken soup). Most restaurants only serve these things, and if they do serve western food, you probably don’t want it. I think Joey and I have officially given up hopes on getting a decent western meal. Although, we have had some good pizza.
We got to bed by about 9:30 and set our alarms for 4am. Ouch. I was not looking forward to waking up that early. The group of us in the mini bus had managed to gang together and rent a jeep so we didn’t have to do the 3 hour trek to the look-out point. It was a bit more expensive to get the jeep, but I don’t like strenuous exercise any time before 12pm. In our group of people there was a really cool Spanish girl named Atina, two British girls, and a very annoying American guy. This guy just loved to hear himself talk about anything and everything, but especially he liked to talk about himself. I struggled to hold a conversation with him because of his constant interruptions. I felt bad for the girl who had to sit with him for the 12 hours the previous day.
Well he was back at it at 4:30am and was chatting away, mostly to himself. Most of us had not had coffee yet, so none of us were quite interested. The jeep ride was fairly uneventful. Joey was let down that it was a Toyota. Both of us were especially let down that we didn’t go off-roading, and because the guy driving didn’t really know what he was doing. When we got to the top of the lookout point to get our sunrise glimpse of Bromo there were tons and tons of people up there. We managed to find a place with less people and took a bunch of really awesome photos.
Our group was then herded back to the jeep where we drove to the foot of Bromo, where we would climb (actually, walk up a staircase) to the top of the crater. There was about a bazillion local men with little horses who were offering dirt cheap prices to ride the 500metres to the base, but honestly after 12 hours on a bus the day before, I felt I could use some of the exercise. One thing that really bothers me about these countries is that there is no control over people and making money. One guy a long time ago thought of an idea to use his horse to shuttle lazy tourists 500metres to Bromo, next thing you know literally 200 men with their horses come and try to do the same thing. They ask incredibly reasonable prices. There are just far too many of them, and I hardly doubt that any of them are making a good living by doing this. This is just one example of a business idea being taken on by everyone and their neighbour.
We got to the top of the volcano which was pretty neat. There was a big sulphurous cloud coming from the middle, but other than that there wasn't much volcanic activity. The view was gorgeous though. You could see all the jungle(whats left of it)rice fields and agricultural land for miles. We stayed up there for a bit but had to be down in order to get our mini bus so we could head on to Ijen.
Joey and I were the only ones in our group who were going to Ijen; the rest were heading on to Bali. Some Canadian friends we met in Sumatra had highly recommended Ijen for it's natural beauty and lack of crowds. It's also surrounded by beautiful coffee plantations.
That night we met our guide named Amos in the minibus as we drove to Ijen. The ride was slow going because the roads were so washed out. We started talking and Amos seemed really friendly. He was only 19 but seemed to already possess the skills to be a good guide. He liked his job because he got to practice English and meet people from all over the world. When we go to the hotel Joey and I went into the hotspring fed whirlpool. It wasn't exactly hot but it was nice anyways.
The next morning was an early one. Annoyingly so, it didn't have to be. Our door got knocked on at 4am so we could be up and ready to leave at 4:30 to catch sunrise. Joey and I get ready quickly and wait outside for what seems like forever. 5:15 rolls around and we still haven't left. Amos finally lets us know that we are waiting for another couple. Joey told him to go wake them up because we were going to miss sunrise. What we didn't know was that it was a muslim couple who were at the mosque for prayer. Amos apologized profusely for them being at prayer. What he didn't know was that we were pissed because if he knew we were giving them a ride to the base of Ijen and they had prayer at 5am, then why the hell were we woken up at 4? Sleep is a very valuable thing to Joey and I, especially because we had been up at 3:30am the night before!
We totally understand if someone is Muslim and needs to prayer. We have nothing but respect for them, but when you sign up for a sunrise tour, pray later! Don't make everyone else (It was only me and Joey, but still) wait. What annoyed me even more was that when we got to the base of the crater, they didn't even start climbing right away. I was very disappointed.
The walk up to Ijen was too strenuous for that early in the morning. I was hungry because the crap breakfast(who in their right mind thinks that chocolate sprinkles between two white pieces of bread constitutes as breakfast, seriously are you trying to give me diabetes?!) that our hotel provided didn't fill me up in the slightest. The scenery was beautiful and could have been even more beautiful if there hadn't been garbage absolutely everywhere. In parks like this you pay upwards of $3 for "park conservation" but they can't even pick up the garbage. The combination of lack of sleep and nutrition made me more sensitive to the garbage. I feel in Canada and other nations we spend a lot of time, effort and money to preserve our nature and lesson our carbon footprint. Then you come to these countries and they just throw garbage wherever they can. Such little compassion for nature sent me into tears. Our guide was so weirded out that I was crying. I told him everything was so beautiful here, but it's sad that their is so little control over waste dumping.
When we got to the top of the crater the walk up steep hills was worth it. In the middle of the crater was a huge steaming lake. You could see near the shore of the lake the sulphur miners who get the sulphur from the ground and haul it down the mountain. It looks like an incredibly tough job!
On our way back down Joey and I started asking Amos questions. I was quite surprised to see his views on things. He had said some contreversial things such as Muslims being superior to Christians because Christians don't prayer 5 times a day like Muslims do, and that he called African American people the N word several times, and to add insult to injury he said that all of them are mean and very violent. I don't blame Amos for having these views. He comes from a very religious family, and like other Indonesians, thinks that Westerners (black or white) behave exactly like the do on tv or the movies. How can you blame them if it's their only glimpse into our world? Most of them will never come to our countries.
After the walk and the talk I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was glad to be heading to Bali that day where Joey and I could get some rest! We said our goodbyes to Amos and headed on our way to Aussie wonderland of Bali.
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