Luck be a lady......

One thing about backpacking is that you can be lucky or you can be unlucky when you decide that planning can take a backseat to Facebook and exciting, entertaining internet surfing. That was the gamble we took when we arrived back in Kuta,Bali to extend our visa. If we had done some proper planning and research we would have realized that we were suppose to head to the immigration office with at least 7 business days left on our visa...not 3. Unsure of what the outcome would be, we dressed in our finest (which is a t-shirt instead of a tank top) and headed to the immigration office. We were welcomed with the answer "You're are too late, I guess you will have to leave the country". That was the last thing we wanted to do. So with some desperation in our voices we pleaded our case to the officer who pointed us to a different immigration office 30 min away. Happy for us to become someone else's problem. While traveling in 2nd and 3rd world countries we've learned that you can never be too sure if what is happening is legit or not. When we entered the second office we put on our brave face, crossed our fingers and got ready to plead our case. To our surprise, we were told not to worry, we would just have to pay a little extra for a rush extension and everything would be fine. We filled out the paper work and handed it over with our passports. When it came time to pay, the lady in the government uniform gave us a receipt (which was a small piece of paper ripped out of a notebook) She told us to head outside and pay the guy standing near the corner of the building, who was not flaunting a flashy government outfit. As strange as it seemed, we figured our passports were already handed off, so we might as well part with $140 as well. Two days later, when we headed back to the office, we were greeted with a smile by the same immigration officer. She pulled her purse up onto the stool beside her, dug through it and voila, pulled out our freshly stamped passports?!?!? We are still not to sure what really happened but we assume there was some under the counter action going on, with a small commission kept on some ones part.

During our stopover in Kuta, Dean decided that he wanted to get a tattoo. He'd been thinking about it for awhile and was ready. We searched around for a good artist and a studio that looked clean and wasn't attached to a bar. We found one called Rumble Avenue. After a discussion with Addee, the artist, we left only to return a few days later to see if what he drew was similar to Dean's vision. It was! After 4 hours, Dean walked out with a tattoo on his right calf. It looks great and will serve as a great reminder of this trip.

After 6 days in Kuta, we took luck into our hands again and boarded a local bus for the 6 hour journey to the Island of Java. It wasn't until the bus drove off the ferry into the town of Banyuwangi that we thought "hmm, we should have planned this out a bit better. Where does the bus drop us off?" Well, as luck would have it, a local guy noticed that we were starting to panic as the bus was heading out of town. In his broken English and our none existent Indonesian, he figured out where we wanted to go and relayed to the driver that we needed to stop. Being the only white people seen in about 6 or 7 hours, all eyes were on us as we were dropped off outside of a convenience store. Now what??? Lucky again, another local guy (who may have been phoned) happened to show up and took us to a near by hotel. He was also a travel agent who could help us arrange our trip to Ijen Volcano. (Another thing that we failed to research) We couldn't believe it. We made a plan with Maman (the agent/guide)  that would have us hike up Ijen to see the 'blue flames' and the sun rise, then get a ride to Mt. Bromo afterwards. Perfect!

At the bottom of Ijen.

We left our hotel at 12:45am and drove for just over an hour to the base of Ijen Volcano. It was very dark and very cold!!! After a cup of hot coffee we all started our ascend to the top of the volcano. And up it was, straight up! This was the 2nd volcano we have climbed in Indonesia. (The last one was on our last trip, four years ago) We knew we could do it but it was a mind game to keep our legs taking one step after the other. More than one time Kelly could be heard mumbling under her breath, "this is crazy!!!" With Dean's reassurance and encouragement, we all pushed on and we made it to the rim of the crater at about 4am. Our goal was to see the mysterious blue flame that is caused by the miners lighting molten sulfur on fire. Apparently, the flames cannot be seen every day due to weather. Well, we did it! We saw the flames! They were truly a sight to see. We were disappointed that we could not get a good photo...google it!! It's worth it.

Around 4:45am we climbed to the upper rim of the crater to watch the sunrise. What a sight!! It was beautiful!!! We were above the clouds and the sky was filled with crimson reds, oranges and yellows!!! We were so proud of ourselves. The smiles never left our faces.

 

Dean holding on to Kelly so she doesn't fall off.

Burning sulfur in the daylight.

We took our time at the top taking lots of photos. Some with the sulphur miners who carry 70-80Kg's (154-176 LBS) of huge chunks of hardened sulfur up and out of the crater then down the mountain (multiple times a day in rubber boots. It's insane!!) They only make the equivalent of 8 cents/kg. Dean tried to lift the baskets but could not. These men put a new meaning to "working for a living". As hard as the ascend was for Kelly, the descend was equally as hard for Dean. His knees struggled with the steep slopes and this time it was with Kelly's reassurance and encouragement, that we were able to make it down. We arrived back at our jeep at around 7 am. Ijen is definitely at the top of our list of highlights on this trip so far. It was an amazing!!

Miner walking along the rim of the crater with the sulfur.

Miner who gave us a piece of sulfur to keep.

It took 5 hours to reach the town of Probolinggo, which is about an hour from Mt. Bromo. Maman had a friend who was able to arrange our hotel for the night, trip up to Mt. Bromo and a 10 hour ride to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joke-ja-karta) the next day. Lucky? We think so!! Knowing that another early morning and another steep climb might not be do-able for us, we opted to do what many other tourists do and chose to take a jeep up. We woke up at 3:15 am (a sleep in...Yay!) crammed into a jeep and headed for the view point to watch the sunrise. Unlike Ijen, this place was PACKED with tourists. The view was gorgeous but the amount of people kind of took away from the tranquility of the moment. Eventually, the number of people subsided and we were able to get some great photos.

Back in the jeep we headed to the base of Mt. Bromo. The ground was covered in thick ash and it made it very difficult to walk (last eruption was 2011). So we opted to ride horses nearly to the top and then climb the last few hundred meters by stairs. The smell of the sulfur was very strong making it hard to breathe. It didn't seem overly safe at the top. One slip and sayonara....into the smoke you would go, never to be seen again. We snapped some photos and took in the view...yet again, another spectacular moment. 2 volcano's in 2 days. Wow, we felt lucky and pretty proud of ourselves...even if we cheated a bit on the second one. :)

Not to impressed that he had to pose so close to the edge.

It took just over 10 hours to complete the journey from Mt. Bromo to Yogyakarta. That day we saw the sunrise and the sunset and when we arrived at 10pm, we were exhausted! The hotel had hot water. We hadn't had a hot shower for over a month!!!! We were so EXCITED!!! We spent 6 days in Yogyakarta. A few days recovering from the travel and hiking and a few exploring on a scooter. We navigated through the crazy roads with no street signs and a poor map and scooted our way 46km to Borobudur Temple. It is a Buddhist temple built over 1000 years ago. It has 7 levels and we walked every single one of them dressed in our traditional sarongs. It is really mind boggling trying to fathom how these old temples were built. Where did they get the supplies? How did the people end up there? How long did it take? What happened to the people that built it? One can spend a long time walking around pondering these questions.

 

The next day we went the other direction 17km, to see the Hindu temple Prambanan. It was also built in the 9th century but was completely different than what we had seen the day before. Composed of lots of temples instead of just 1 big one. The main temple towering much higher than the others still had a few Hindu god statues inside. Equally stunning, and completely different then Borobudur.

We decided to switch things up and take the train to Bandung. We had heard train travel through Java is good and this was true. We bought executive tickets which cost us $24 for both and settled in for the 8 hour ride. The seats were comfy, the air conditioner was a perfect temperature and the scenery was gorgeous. We kicked ourselves for not taking some photos along the way.

Getting off the train.

Starbucks employees think his name is "Dih"

Bandung is the 3rd largest city in Indonesia. We found our way around the city using the local angkot (minibus) but it was very confusing. We rented a car and driver to get to Tangkuban Perahu volcano just outside of the city. This volcano is one of the few in Indonesia that you can drive right up to the crater rim. Unfortunately for us, when we arrived at the top, the fog and clouds started rolling in. We had just enough time to snap a few photos before we could no longer see the crater.

Luckily, on the other side of the mountain you can climb down to Kawah Domas crater. We decided since we had saved the energy going up we would try climbing down. It was steep but we made it and it was so worth it. There were many spots that extremely hot steam was escaping through rocks and a few pools with bubbling water that you could soak your feet in. We decided to try, and yes it was hot, very hot!! Volcanic warmed water for a foot bath was just what the doctor ordered. We rubbed clay from the bottom of the pools on our feet and relaxed. It was really fun!

Poking out from behind the hot steam.

That water is HOT!

Bubbly volcanic mud pool.

That day we also visited an amusement park full of hot spring pools and then went to a floating market. It was a full day!

All these little boats sold food of all sorts...including cotton candy. 

The train ride to Bandung was so good that we decided to use that mode of transport again to get to Jakarta. We had heard from a few people that Jakarta was just a large, very busy city and that we didn't even need to spend a day there. The rumors were true. It is big. It does have lots of traffic. It is dirty. We did spend one full day there though. We stayed in "Old Town" and spent an afternoon at the sunday market, wandering around the square in between the old buildings. It was very busy and many young local people stopped us to practice their English. We had lots of conversations, answered lots of questions and had our picture taken multiple times. We also had some of the best chicken we have ever had from a street vendor. We may not have put enough energy into exploring this large capital city but we were happy and content with what we did see.

Us with a few of the locals after one of our many interviews.

Well used tuk-tuk.

In the end, luck can bring you a long way but not always as far as you had wished. We both agree that with a bit more planning we probably could have used our time in Indonesia more wisely. It's a good lesson to learn. So, when we arrived back in Bangkok to work on getting our Vietnam visa we planned ahead and got our Myanmar one as well. We had hoped to get our India one done to but little did we know, it takes 6-8 business days. We just didn't have enough time for that as we had to get on the road. On October 13th, Kelly's mom fly's in to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. It is so exciting that we get to share some of our adventure with family and can't wait until she gets here!!! We have a few days to spare before we need to be in Vietnam so we decided we would cross the border to Cambodia to see the sights of Angkor. Yes again!! Yes, they are just that amazing! We have 5 days to make our way north. Then the next chapter of our adventure begins...

Indonesian Currency.

In-cog-nesia

View from Gili Island. Sunset over Bali's volcano. Mount Agung.

Well, four weeks in Indonesia and you think we should have lots to tell. Unfortunately, we have really only explored beaches, snorkeled coral reefs, biked 27km downhill through Bali, been invited to a Hindu temple to watch a 200 year old annual dance, seen deadly dragons. You know, nothing out of the ordinary.

Bali, Indonesia

It was nice to be in Bali, especially to start in Kuta. It is definitely a tourist destination. We found ourselves gorging on food we hadn't seen in a while. Hot Dogs, Chilli Cheese Fries, Cheetohs. It was good, really good. Perhaps too good cause our money was vanishing before our eyes. We knew we had to get outta dodge and quick. We did however manage to make it to the beautiful Kuta Beach 6 nights in a row to watch natures own art exhibit. It really is one of the most relaxing things one can do, plop down on a beach and watch the sunset. The nice thing in Kuta is that it seems everyone has this in mind. The beach fills up before the sun starts to set and everyone just relaxes, plays in the waves or drinks beer. We loved watching locals, they would walk right in to the water wearing their jeans and t-shirts, they didn't care. Or they would just sit where the waves crash and get covered in sand. We really didn't do much while in Kuta, one night though we bought a bottle of red wine for the sunset. Truth be told, we spent a couple days longer in Kuta then we normally would because we were waiting for a friend (Lovely Laura,who we met in Malaysia) to fly in. Our good old chap from Britain, or is it the UK? Can we just say England?

 

The next day we were off to Ubud. The girls to get their Julia Roberts on (Eat, Pray, Love) and me to experience the art and cultural center of Bali. Little did we know upon arrival that Ubud is large and filled with tourists. We lucked out and found a beautiful room. Set back from the main road, this garden villa was stunning. It was a treat to wake up there and a treat at night to relax while polishing off another box of wine, (while Kelly practiced her Zumba.) Through recommendation of a hotel employee we got talked into a bike ride/ Bali tour. The pamphlet sounded good and even listed Tom from Brisbane Australia saying it was "the best tour he had ever been on in the world" Well Tom, it lived up to your quote. It was lots of fun. I don't think the smiles left our faces. It started with an early morning pick up. And when I say early morning, I mean early, 8 o'clock. We had to set an alarm!! The tour started with a great breakfast overlooking a Volcano. You know, no big deal,  only a volcano Kelly and  I  climbed four years ago with flashlights! From there we went to a spice and coffee farm. We tried Good Shit Coffee. Mmmm, Luwak feces. Cleaned, roasted, ground and brewed, the best way to achieve a cup of coffee. (The movie the Bucket List.. coffee beans eaten and pooped out by the Luwak cat) We left the spice garden and that's where the real fun began. We each hopped on a mountain bike and began pedaling! For roughly 27km we road downhill through rice fields, passed schools and villages with screaming kids running up giving us a hello and high five. It was filled with moments that lightened our hearts and lifted our spirits. Of course riding downhill is tough work so we were really hungry. Luckily, the last part of "the best tour in the world" finished at another restaurant with a fabulous all you can eat Indonesian buffet. After three plates each we were back in the van and heading to Monkey Forest. Kelly and Laura were hesitant to go in. Lots of stories of monkeys biting people or stealing their possessions. I convinced them that if we stick together, we would be left alone. After only 5 minutes of walking, we watched a monkey leap onto a mans back and start grabbing at his backpack. Kelly and Laura turned faster then a cheap politician and almost ran out the entire way.

Mount Batur. Volcano in Bali.

Bali Rice Fields.

Large Banyan Tree.

Lombok and the Gili Islands, Indonesia

We enjoyed Bali but it was time to leave the hoards of tourist and head to Lombok (the neighboring island, some say it's the Bali of old)  We were fortunate enough to find a great homestay with fabulous owners just outside the town of Sengiggi. We organized a day scooter trip with one of their employees to show us around. Normally, guests would drive scooters and explore themselves, but Laura didn't feel comfortable driving a scooter by herself. (We all know Kelly can't!!) She did however, have no problem sharing the seat with Wayan. We did some great coastal driving and checked out a waterfall. In the afternoon we went to multiple temples. One of the temples, Wayan explained, is the only temple in the Indonesia where Muslims and Hindus pray together. It was a long day, but definitely full of many great moments. The next day we left our homestay and were on our way to town, when we wandered into a nearby Hindu temple. When we got inside, we were greeted by some people who invited us to come back at night. They told us it was their annual ceremony of music and dance, one that has been going on there once a year for over 200 years. Our homestay lent us the appropriate attire to attend the event and we returned that night. We sat with many locals watching the kids and adults perform significant dances that have immense religious meaning, while sweet sounding music was played on drums and cymbals. We were treated very well and some asked us if we would come back next year.

 

 

This little guy stole our water bottle off the scooter, unscrewed the lid and took a drink.

  

 

Local Fisherman.

We left Lombok after only a couple days and made our way to the Gili Islands. Funny side note- Gili is Indonesian for Island, so technically I just called them Island Islands. An areal view shows them as three small circles in a row, just off the NW coast of Lombok. The three Gili's which are popular amongst travelers and vacationers from Europe are Gili Trawangan, Gili Air and Gili Meno. Gili Trawangan, being the most popular due to its large resorts, plethora of restaurants and budget lodging. There are no cars or scooters on any of the islands. The only way to get around is to walk, rent a bicycle, or hire a horse and carriage. It was kinda neat, but you did feel sorry for the horses to be working in such intense heat. Unfortunately, our first night there Kelly started to feel nauseous. For the next four days she was unable to do much of anything. She had no appetite and the couple things she forced down came right back up. We took her to a doctor and he figured she had caught a bug somewhere. So our time on the Gilis was spent with Laura and myself wandering around, laying on the beach and drinking beer. Kelly spent her time laying in the room, watching some downloaded television shows. Luckily, Kelly started to get better quickly with the antibiotics in her system and she was able to come on a snorkeling trip.  On our second to last day we booked a trip to see the other two islands and have lunch on Gili Meno. The snorkeling was pretty good, but in some areas it was filled with hundreds of tiny, stinging jelly fish. The current around the three islands made swimming very difficult and only twenty feet off most beaches was an incredible drop off into the depths of the ocean.  The islands were pretty and unique, but as far as an island paradise, we have seen better. We said goodbye to Laura after 5 days on Gili Trawangan. She was heading back to Bali and Kelly and I back to Lombok.

Look into the distance and you will see the 3 Gili Islands.

Gili Island Transport.

Gili Buddies.

 

 Kelly and I hired a car to drive us to the south end of Lombok, to the surfers town of Kuta. The town itself is quite small and most of the stores and restaurants were made out of bamboo. It was a unique little town nestled in a desert type landscape. The main beach in Kuta had the most bizarre sand. The sand was tiny multicolored balls. It looked like lawn fertilizer.  It made walking on the beach very difficult.  We stayed in Kuta for a couple days. One day we rented a scooter and drove around to see some neighboring beaches. They were a unspoiled splendor. I'm sure you can get an idea from the photos, but photos never do anything justice. We had lots of fun playing in the waves and exploring the unique country side on the scooter. We were fortunate enough to get a brand new scooter, so we knew nothing would go wrong with it. Near the end of the day, the wind blew my hat off and over a bridge. I quickly parked the scooter and ran to retrieve it. Kelly thought it would be fun to turn the scooter around and drive it back to me. I heard her calling my name when I was under the bridge, but I was unable to see her. When I got back up she was struggling to stand the bike back up. A couple locals had pulled over and were helping. Somehow, Kelly was walking the bike to turn it around when she lost control under its weight and it ended up falling on top of her. She managed to avoid hurting herself, but she did scratch up the brand new scooter (which the rental guy repeatedly asked me several times to go easy with and not damage.) When the owner came back to collect his bike that night, we ended up arguing for half an hour. He was wanting money to replace every piece damaged. (side mirror, side panel, brake handle and a running plate.) I called him on the b.s, that he wasn't going to replace anything. In fact, I told him that I wanted the damaged pieces if he was actually going to put the money towards it. All the while, Kelly was up in the room feeling incredibly sick to her stomach with nerves. In the end, we settled on $50 dollars for the damage. We felt really bad for the small amount of damage we did do, but please, its a rental! We left Lombok after a couple of days and flew to Labuan Bajo.

Labuan Bajo, Indonesia

Our options to reach L.B were a bus, a 4 day, 4 night sail or fly. We really considered the sailing option, but had read many terrible reviews on it. In the end, we decied to fly as it was slightly cheaper then the sail. Plus, we both didn't like the idea of four days on a small sail boat with over 40 people or a 30 hour bus ride.  Located on the island of Flores, Labuan Bajo is a tiny little town set in some stunning scenery. While there isn't much to do in the town, it is the jumping off point to reach Rinca and Komodo Island. Tourists flock here every year to camera hunt the Komodo Dragons. We found a company selling a 2 day, 1 night boat trip to Rinca and Komodo Island. The trip included meals and lots of snorkeling opportunities. With only 8 people plus crew, we had a fantastic time. The people we traveled with were incredibly friendly and our crew was happy and energetic. (The captain with his young son and two of his sons friends.) On Rinca we took a two hour hike in search of some dragons. On the walk we found a large male under a tree and later found a 4 month old dragon crawling up a tree. (As soon as Komodos hatch, the hatchlings must find a tree to climb in order to escape imminent death. Komodos will eat their own young, which is ironic because a mother fiercely guards its nest) A Komodos bite contains more then sixty deadly bacteria that if not immediately treated will kill anything. After Rinca we went snorkeling just off of a pink sand beach. We saw many different species of fish and coral. A couple of us spotted and swam with a turtle. The turtle came so close to me, I could've reached out and touched its shell. We all boarded back on the boat and headed towards a bay where we anchored the boat to stay for the night. Along the way we saw a pod of dolphins playing in the waters ahead. Luckily, our boat was heading right for them and in no time the dolphins were swimming off the bow of the boat and jumping right in front of us. Our Captain was hooting and hollering, he was so excited!! This lead us to believe this doesn't happen very often. It lasted for a very long couple minutes. We all felt so lucky and there was a euphoric feeling among us for the rest of the night. We had some dinner then relaxed on top of the boat staring at the stars. In the morning we headed to Komodo Island. We again opted for the longest hike for the best chance of seeing some dragons. We were lucky and found a large male waiting at a watering hole. It was a little never racking being so close to something that wants to eat you. What made us more uneasy was the fact that our only protection was two young guides holding sticks. We found one more on the walk but it was a young female and she quickly ran away. Fortunately for most visitors, the dragons love the smell of food and some can always be found near the islands cafeteria. There we found two hanging around and on Rinca we found five! We took some great photos and enjoyed watching them as they watched us. Our guide noticed one had an 'x' painted on its tail, turns out this was the one who bit a guide only a few months prior. We had our fill and it was time to get back to the boat. On the way back to Labuan Bajo we stopped at two different spots for snorkeling. It was great to jump off the boat into the crystal blue water. One spot however was not near an island, but rather out at sea. We were told to ride the current and the boat would follow. We were all hoping to see some Manta Rays. (But it was the wrong season) The other snorkeling location was just off a tiny island. Nobody was to eager to get back in, except myself and one other person. We both jumped in and swam to the reef. I was cruising around checking everything out when I noticed a three foot reef shark checking me out. The other guy who jumped just after me, went a different way and saw a large barracuda. When the women finally decided to get in, we all swam together. We missed nothing and let everyone know when one of us found something. It was a blast. We found a Scorpion Fish, Cuddle Fish (which we pissed off and watched it change colors many times) Sting Ray and then everyone but me saw a Turtle. Kelly was so excited, it was her first turtle! We returned to town and headed straight for our rooms to shower, we were covered in so much salt!! We met up with everyone again for dinner and then said our goodbyes (everyone was on a different path.)

 

 

 

Komodo Dragon Dinner....Water Buffalo.

Currently we are back in Bali working on our visa extensions. We are finding Indonesia to be beautiful, each island is so different. We are spending more money here then we would like to be, but sometimes that's just how it goes. From here we plan to head to the island of Java to see and hike up some volcanoes. We will make our way up to the city of Jakarta and fly from there on Sept 30. There we will work on getting our visas for Vietnam.