June 27 – Another Crazy Travel Day

Since I burnt my leg on the scooter I haven’t been able to walk a lot so I’ve mostly taken it easy – hanging out on the beach while Jacob swims or explores the island. We spent some time in the local Karaoke bars and eating lobster at what felt like our own private restaurant on the beach. Boracay was nice and although there are a lot of tourists, 99% of them are Korean, Chinese or Japanese so it kind of feels like we’re the only tourists here, if that makes sense. From Boracay we decided to go to Puerto Galera on another island nearby. We took a public ferry which was another very strange travel experience.

 

 

 

 

"beware of falling coconuts"

private beach

our private restaurant

First, there were cockroaches everywhere in the passenger area which we’re getting used to at this point, but they were climbing on our bags, seats and legs so we decided to go sit in the lobby area with the chickens and roosters. We were travelling through another major rainstorm so the boat was rocking severely. There were 3 older Filipino’s sitting across from us on a bench and one of them tried to get up but she fell flat on her face. I helped her up and back onto the bench while the 2 other people she was with basically ignored her. I don’t think they were all there mentally. The next hour was a little surreal; the woman would cry as if she was in pain but her companions would just yell at her. Another woman came to sit next to us and started throwing up, some kid was running around naked, the roosters were “cock-a-doodling”, the boat speakers were blasting Lady Gaga and then all of a sudden the older woman who had fallen started pissing all over herself and the floor. At this point Jacob and I could not help ourselves from laughing, not at the people but at the situation and that all these things were happening at once.

After 8 hours on the ferry (which was supposed to only be 4 hours), we arrived at the port to find out that the bus we needed to catch to Puerto Galera had stopped running for the day and we would need to spend the night at the outdoor ferry terminal in order to catch the first bus out at 5am. So we huddled up on a bench while it continued to pour, but at least this time we had some sort of a shelter.

local transport

 

ferry cockpit

overnight outdoors

Jacob's umbrella fort

After another long day of travel we arrived at Sabang beach in Puerto Galera where we can now relax and enjoy the 24 hour thumping music from bars, nightly (and daily) fireworks, people yelling all night long, pigs being slaughtered outside our window, and prostitutes constantly flirting with Jacob trying to give him a “massage”. I think we need a vacation :)

 

 

June 19th – A Long Day of Travel

It’s 1:30am and I’ve just finished a few shots of Filipino Rum with the owner of my hotel and his 2 sons. My bags, clothes, books, passports, cash and electronics are all wet and I’m soaked to the bone after having travelled over 30 hours (only 7 of which were in the air) from Bali to Boracay Island in the Philippines.

We left our hotel in Bali at around 5pm to catch a flight to Kuala Lampur where we had an 8 hour, overnight layover. We spent the night in a Starbucks outside the airport and at 7am while attempting to check in for our flight to Manila, we were denied boarding because we did not have a ticket for onward travel (out of the Philippines). So with 45 minutes until take-off, we scrambled to get out the laptop, find a wifi hotspot and book our flight out of the Philippines while an airline employee hovered over my shoulder to make sure that I actually paid for and confirmed my flight. With minutes to spare we were escorted through security, passport control and on to the plane.

We landed in Manila, but at the Clarke airport which was actually some type of military base 2 hours north of the city and not the one we had thought we were flying in to. We needed to get to the Manila city airport in order to catch a flight to another island. We found a bus that was going to Manila and after a little discussing and some extra cash, the driver agreed to drop us off at the city airport instead of at the downtown bus terminal. We expected the driver to first drop off the other passengers at the bus terminal but instead he re-routed the entire bus with 15 other passengers on board in order to drop us off first.

We got on a small turbo prop plane bound for the islands and after a bump-filled flight, landed in the middle of a rainstorm. We should have checked the weather before coming here; apparently typhoon season has arrived early and the area has been blanketed with heavy rain and wind for the past several days. From the airport we still needed to take a shared taxi-van to the port where we could catch a ferry to the smaller island of Boracay. The next 2 hours sitting in the front seat of this van, without seatbelts, may very well be the scariest 2 hours of our lives. Driving at night without headlights at 120 km/h up and down hills, around sharp bends, in the middle of a downpour is something I never want to do again. Every so often the taxi driver would rub the crucifix hanging from his mirror while mumbling a prayer – I decided to give it a couple of rubs also.  

We were dropped at the port and could not find anyone who knew where we should go so we decided to join the group of about 150 people huddled under a shelter who I assumed were going to the same place. Nobody was moving anywhere so I covered our bags and we braved the rain to make our way down to the water where we could roughly make out a small crowd and a lot of commotion. After an hour of standing in the rain waiting for a ferry that we weren’t sure was even coming, you can imagine our shock when out of the darkness, came a tiny, roofless rowboat. A fucking rowboat! I was furious. Lungi cried.

As the rowboats would arrive, groups of Koreans would swarm to get a seat and after watching this happen a few times we decided we would need to get a bit physical if we wanted to get onto a boat. So as the next boat approached we barged through the crowd of Koreans (momentarily getting into a pushing match with a small Korean girl) and jumped onto the boat as the “captain” frantically scooped water out with a little bucket. Fortunately the rowboat was only bringing us out to a larger motorized boat which dropped us at the Boracay port from where we took a motorcycle taxi to the beach and grabbed the first hotel we could find in the dark.  

Definitely the most intense travel day so far but it seems to be worth it. Although it rains most of the time, the sun does sometimes come out and the beach is beautiful even when it’s pouring.

Last minute booking in the airport

re-bandaging Lungi's burn at the airport

waiting for boats

after getting off the rowboat

 

 

June 17 - The Volcano

So as I was sitting on the beach enjoying some space cake and a Bintang (the Indonesian beer) at 9 in the morning, I looked across the water to Lombok and could see a massive volcano in the distance and it hit me…I need to climb it. So the following day, and after a lot of convincing (I told Lungi that there were donkey’s that would bring us up), we left the island and made our way via boat, horse and some form of car to a small village at the base of the volcano called Senaru where we organized our trek to the volcano rim. 

The volcano is called Gunung Rinjani with a peak at 3,726m above sea level and there are certainly no donkey’s available to carry us up. We teamed up with another Canadian couple who we had met on the Gilli islands and the next morning we were up at 6:30 am to start the 2 day trek to the crater rim. We had a guide and 2 porters to carry the equipment and food.

Getting to the rim of the volcano took 9 hours of steep climbing over a total distance of almost 11 km. We trekked through the jungle for the first 6 hours, climbing over big roots and boulders while holding on to branches and tree trunks to avoid slipping. Once we got above the clouds, the forest opened up to rocks, dirt and dry grass, more like a desert terrain. Climbing at this point was especially difficult as we were going up at a 75 degree angle and our muscles were already exhausted. The climb was a lot tougher than we expected and as we got higher Lungi was ready to quit and just sleep on the side of the path. At one point she was moving so slow that the rest of our group decided to just leave us behind – I guess they were tired of waiting. Despite her whining and complaining, she made it.

Once we got to the top, it was all worth it. The view from the rim was awesome; on one side there was a crater with a large volcanic lake, hot springs and a smaller volcano emerging from the middle which apparently last erupted 6 months ago. On the other side there was the view over the island, ocean and surrounding islands. Sleeping on the rim of the crater was another challenge; it was freezing cold, there was some sort of giant volcanic spider trapped in our tent and then there were the dogs that would howl all night long.  

Getting back down was almost as hard as getting up, we must of done half of it on our ass as we slid on the rocks and wet jungle floor. The celebratory beers at the bottom were great though!

The Volcano

The team

The Lungi

Porters

Still going

Almost dead

In the middle of a cloud

Volcanic monkeys

The view

Another view

Making dinner

Volcanic sunset

View from the rim

View into the crater

Finally at the top

June 17 – Bali, Lombok & the Gilli Islands

So far, Indonesia is our favourite place in Asia and we’ve definitely seen the most beautiful beaches of our lives while here. The scenery is straight out of a postcard; deserted white sand beaches, turquoise water, lush jungle, waterfalls, palm trees hanging over the sand, small islands popping out of the water, volcano’s on the horizon and gorgeous sunsets followed by huge, bright moons.

View from plane

View from plane

 

The people here are very friendly and most of the time it’s genuine, they aren’t just being nice to try and get something from us. The children are very playful and often join us at our table/beach chair to talk or just hang out. The original plan was to do some island hopping but we didn’t realize how great the distance was between each island so we decided to only visit 3:

Bali

We first visited Ubud, a town on the slopes of the central mountains and full of amazing culture. Every day the locals light incense with flowers, rice and leaves and place them around and in front of their homes and shops to welcome good fortune. Most of the hotels have a temple built within the compound which is used by the owners and their family members. We spent a day exploring the area with a scooter and discovered the rice terraces, valleys and old stone temples with incredible sculptures guarding the entrances. We then spent a day on the beach in a place called Jimbaran which was a little too touristy for us so we decided to go.   

 

 

Gilli Air

The Gilli Islands are a group of 3 islands stretching off the coast of Lombok. We stayed on Gilli Air, the smallest island, which takes less than 90 minutes to walk around, including swimming breaks. This is the perfect place to escape everything and just chill out, eat some freshly picked coconut, sip some beer and watch the day pass. There are no motorized vehicles so to get from one side of the island to the other, you walk or take a horse. Jacob made friends with a very eccentric software designer named Paul from Silicon Valley who’s certainly been on this island for far too long. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but one morning Jacob left the room to get breakfast and after being gone for 45 minutes I went to find him. He was sitting at a table on the beach with Paul, eating cake. The cake looked delicious and smelled like sweet coco and coconut. Despite several attempts to find out what was in it, neither Paul nor Jacob would tell me but Paul kept referring to it as “space cake”. We were supposed to leave that day but I was unable to get Jacob to focus on anything other than his conversation with Paul about the steps needed to stage an alien landing on the beach…we ended up missing our boat to the next island. We still aren’t sure what was in that cake.

Our beachfront bungalow

 

 

 

 

Lombok

We went to a small surf village called Kuta on the southern tip of Lombok. Everyone knows that I’ve always wanted to visit Hawaii and Kuta is exactly what I imagine Hawaii to be like; large bays with crystal clear water, surfers riding the huge waves, hidden beaches, small shops and food stalls along the water and winding roads passing through local villages. We rented a scooter to explore the island and had to be very cautious while driving off of the main strip as the roads are in horrible condition. They aren’t paved and are very narrow with sharp turns and crater-size potholes everywhere. While going down a hill, Jacob lost control and got thrown off the bike. I got stuck underneath it and the exhaust pipe fell onto my ankle burning it pretty badly. Fortunately there was a jeep driving behind us when this happened and they gave me a lift to the hospital where the doctor peeled off a big junk of my skin that had been burnt. It was pretty scary but both Jacob and I are ok. Anyway, we were expecting for something bad to happen along the trip so hopefully this is it.

Our private beach

 

 

 

 

At the ER 

 



Jacob's severe injury