Lembongan

I jumped in the vehicle and we were off. 

The driver seemed cool- chatty and young. It probably only took us an hour to get to the harbour /HQ of the boat/resort. It seems the resort and the boat(s) and pontoons where you alight to hop into a smaller boat are all owned by the same company. What was cool was on the big boat to the pontoon, I met again an Australian couple that I had done the bike ride with the previous day. It was nice to have some company and conversation.

I made it to the resort, which was really nice. On checking in, they wanted my credit card details for security - standard practice at hotels. It was then that I discovered my Credit Card had been blocked, despite the fact that I had advised them that I would be travelling to Indonesia, and my travel dates. Turns out it had been blocked prior to my trip when someone random had tried to use my details. The hotel was good about it, but of course it meant I couldn't use it for the rest of the trip. Luckily I am a man who has contingency plans, needless to say, someone got a bollocking on the phone once I got back to New Zealand.

As I said the resort was nice, and there were several activities you could do. There was about an hour or two before I could access my room, so I tried to do some of these, as well as having the complimentary first day lunch.

One of the activities was a banana boat/biscuit ride. I had always wanted to try it, but it didn't live up to the expectation - I was on the back of it, and physics isn't my friend, so it was 'sinking' underneath me, whilst the front stuck up in the air. This meant I was more concerned about hanging on for dear life, and fighting the resulting urge to be sick.

Another activity was a drive around the island. To be fair, this was also a waste of time, as they took you just down the road to a big yellow bridge, waited there for about 20 minutes, and then returned back to the hotel. I did try and explore the island myself a day or so later, but to be fair, it wasn't really an explorable place, as the layout wasn't conducive, things looked the same, and not tidily laid out, and the island was bigger than it appeared when I originally looked at it on a map.

I can however say, conversely, the food on the first day was a great buffet, as well as the other meals I had while there.

My room was amazing, it was a bure. Underneath there was even an outdoor lounging area, but being a single traveler, that pretty much went to waste. One of my regrets was it wasn't really a place for meeting people. I spent a lot of time on Tinder trying to remedy that fact, however I did spend a lot of time reading and napping.

It was a lovely place to be, although the snorkeling out from the resort was fairly average as it had a bit of an undertow, as well as a bit of traffic.

I ended up going out several times with the people doing scuba trips, which was good, got to see some more interesting areas, albeit, it was naturally disappointing only getting the 2D experience when they got the 3D. The highlight was just before hopping back on the boat the last time I believe I saw a small tortoise. 

On the day I was to head back to the mainland I asked if they could take me back to the pontoon a couple of hours early, so I could enjoy some of the attractions there - such as the water slide and the snorkeling. From memory the snorkeling was actually pretty good.

Anyhow, eventually I hopped back on the big boat, and was returned to the mainland.

Once there, it took a while to find the person who was actually my transfer to my next hotel, and once I did, it was a bit of a drive (due to the traffic, and the fact it was rush hour) and I had to make sure he was dropping me off at the correct place, as like I had found with Ubud, there were places with similar names.

Ubud

Ubud.

I made it through customs easy enough, albeit for the waiting. Once I got through I was welcomed by my own guy with a sign with my name on it - which is another first for me. I almost wanted to take a photo of him with it. I had hoped to get a SIM card at the airport, but I was looking for a Vodafone shop, but I only saw a couple of other brands that I didn’t know how legit they were, and I had the guy waiting for me. So we went to his vehicle. He put my bags in the vehicle and handed me an ice cold water and a welcome pack. Now I was a little paranoid at this point as the seal didn’t crack as dramatically as it would usually at home, so I was questioning whether the water hadn’t just been filled from a tap, so I only took a small mouthful at that point. Which was a good idea, as it took a while to drive to the hotel as traffic was quite built up, and toilets probably few and far between. I was waiting for the density of traffic to dissipate before attempting any real conversation with the driver, (remembering how educational the conversation I had had with the guy who transferred me in Fiji was) however it never did.

Once I got to the hotel I had a read of the pack and figured if the company recommends you don’t drink the tap water, they aren’t going to give you (disguised) tap water to drink.

Once I got to the hotel I wanted/needed to sort a few things out, but at the same time was fighting a long day. By the time I got myself sorted, it was about 10pm local time, so I nipped out and got some quick dinner - some soft shell tacos before going to bed.

Woke up the next morning with my alarm at 6am. Breakfast opened at seven so was nice and organised for that. I organised a 1.5 hour massage at 12, and once that was over, went about finding a SIM card. The hotel people had mentioned a booth just out the front gate - which I found and discussed with the guy running it - however I thought it a little too convenient being just out the gate, and figured I ought to check out the Main Street, especially as they might have a more non-tourist brand. Truth be told, I should’ve just bought the SIM card there as it took me ages to get to the Main Street due to the fellow pedestrians sharing a pavement that periodically had pavers missing, and then between them, periodic open manholes (which to be fair are big and square and raised, so not invisible). I also purchased a pair of sunglasses (some “Oreys” - ie fake Oakleys) and some gelato. By the time I had completed this and got back to the hotel, it was virtually 6pm, the closing time of the monkey forest and the Elephant cave. The rest of the evening I spent having a swim in the pool, having dinner and getting organised for the next days bike ride.

The next morning I woke up early again, and before breakfast went and got some supplies from the convenience store next to the hotel - just some water and chips. However a monkey had a go at stealing my chips, and on the second go right outside the door of my room  it succeeded in mugging me of them. It was a little sinister as I had no where to go, and wasn’t going to fight due to not wanting rabies or ebola. I had breakfast and got picked up at about 8 and we headed north for about an hour or two. I had been dreading this part of the trip for several reasons - one that it might be quite strenuous and I wasn’t particularly fit, and two that I got a seat that made me feel violated afterwards.

When we got our bikes, I was horrified to discover the seat was not particularly big, however both fears were unwarranted as 90%+ of the ride was downhill and required little pedaling, the strain was more on your arms and feat to keep you in position- which I think was also made harder by the fact the bikes had suspensions, meaning if you were facing downhill, you potentially were further forward than usual. What I wasn’t a fan of was the sharing the road with all the Bali traffic and the off-road bits could be rough in places.

However, it was over before I knew it, and the lunch we got was fantastic.

Once I got back to my hotel, I went and did the monkey forest - which was nice, albeit less special after my run in with the monkey that morning.

That evening I had organised to meet up with an American girl. It ended up she got back later from her tour than expected, and then had a massage booked (which was Ok, as it allowed me to fit in an hour massage too) but by the time we met, I was starting to feel like going to bed, so my conversation probably wasn’t on point.

The next day I was told to be ready to be picked up at 7-7:30 to head to my next hotel. At 6:45, whilst on the toilet I got a call saying the driver was here. Luckily I had used the time wisely the night before whilst waiting for the American girl, to be all packed.

The Return to Asia - Bali

Yes, there is a Four-year gap I still haven’t filled, but I figured you may appreciate some current adventures in the meantime. I know it’s four years, as my niece Sienna has just had her Fourth Birthday.

After a weekend of packing and preparations, I spent the night at Mum and Dad’s so we could get an early start with Dad dropping me off at the airport. Admittedly somewhat self-serving, I promised him a McDonald’s breakfast. The stop there also gave me a quick paranoia inspired check that I had my passport and ticket before it was too late, of course it was just paranoia.

As we got into Auckland the traffic locked up at Takanini, and it was around this point I fell asleep, waking at the airport. This of course was a little bit of a shock to the system, saying my good-byes to Dad, and facing the reality of the situation after just waking up (again).

Relax: That's my intention!

I was nice and early so I wasn’t pressured for time. I had a quick look around in the general airport after checking in my bags, having a small chuckle to myself that there is a KFC based at the airport- presumably for the people who take home buckets of KFC to the Islands. As much as I’m a fan of KFC, I was still full from McDonalds, so I proceeded through security and into duty-free.

Once on the plane I proceeded to watch some movies and TV. I started with “The Breaker-uppers” a recent Kiwi film - it had some good one-liners that had me laughing out loud. I followed that up with “Good-bye Christopher Robin” - about A. A. Milne and his son Christopher- who was the inspiration of his namesake in the Winnie the Pooh stories. That had me crying at the end - my neighbours in the seats next to me may’ve thought I was a bit nuts. I watched about half of Deadpool - but as I was next to the toilets I decided it was a bit too graphic considering I had kids walking past. So I switched to watching most of a documentary on “Back to the Future” and a few 5-10minute travel documentaries. As I was travelling through the day, I only dozed off briefly at one point.

On arrival to Bali, I was hit by the heat as soon as I hopped out of the plane and into the airlock into the airport. Customs took a while to get through, solely because of the number of people that were coming in - our  plane had been put into a holding formation for about half an hour before we landed as the run way was busy - I think out of all my travel, that’s the first time that’s ever happened, or at least the first time the pilot has mentioned that is the case - despite reading about it when I was a kid.

I’ll leave it there and continue in a new post...