Bali - Canggu

Aina headed to Singapore and then back to Barcelona to start preparing for an interview.

We thought about how we wanted to organize ourselves for all these unexpected and cool changes to our trip. I mean how many people can say they had to stop their holiday / travels for an interview and then be able to head back out and travel again. Anyways, we are being reminded of our fortune to not only have one another, but also of the circumstances we have in our life together on a regular basis while traveling.

Aina was smart and suggested I go to a surfing school. The whole idea of being here alone made me uncomfortable, as Aina knows I draw a lot of strength from her support. So I was a bit stressed and anxious about circumstances.

Aina had booked us a small homestay out in the countryside of Canggu. The couple, Made and Wayan, are some of the sweetest people we have encountered on our trip. They were very genuine and welcoming. Their hospitality almost reminded me of our visit to see Aina's friend Memo and Emre with how welcomed I felt, although in this instance we were paying, so still slightly different.

Aina left the next day and I decided to stay another night at Made and Wayan's as it was so nice. Made would take me to the surf camp bright and early. They had forgotten money they had lent me at one point and I had to remind them I owed them 20k rupiah.

View from the room.

Kites

Out in the countryside it seems children were flying kites everywhere. It was really nice and in the photo above you can sort of make out the red kite hiding in a cloud.

My dinner at the Homestay.

Organized and ready.

Everything I have at this point. It seems like a lot but it isn't too much. My bag weighs about 8 kilos. Aina's weighs slightly more.

Surfing over the past few days has been fun. The instruction is less than what you get on an airline in case of emergency, but I didn't die so that's good news. More or less the instructors say "paddle deep!" "Chest up!" and my personal favorite although it was only said once "keep your balance!". I am not sure it was worth it and my cost benefit analysis as an middle aged man tells me I will be unable to devote the time I would like / need to advance my surf skills. I wish it was as easy as skiing. 

I think I enjoyed the people also as much as the surfing. My favorite experience was meeting Mike from Cologne. A nice guy just recently out of school and looking to study psychology now. Mike and his friends were extremely nice and Mike and I had a long conversation about football, as his team is BVB and I support Arsenal. Mike also is in insanely good shape and does breakdancing and other interesting activities. I try to keep in shape so whenever I meet someone in great shape I always want to know what they do. Mike does not use weights but uses his own weight for strength building. 

After more inquiry and explanation of my little routines he invited me to workout with him and his friend named Casimir, which I think for some reason is the coolest friggin' name. No idea why, but I like it a lot. Also, Casimir seemed liked a really nice guy and laughed at my dumb jokes, so of course I liked the guy. I hid the fact from them that I was an old man. As I had discovered my first day in camp that I was nearly 10 years older than everyone. They asked, "You have no wrinkles and look so young. Do you use creams or something?". I felt like Sophia Loren. I was beautiful for that bright shining moment. Anyways, the workout was intense and impressive to see the strength of Mike. I am now sore and want to try and find a gym and do more.

The last night in the camp I invited Karen and Keegan, a couple from Jackson Hole, to go to dinner with me. Apparently I had made myself seem pitiful and lonely because when I swung by their place from the dorms I had four people with me, as I kept inviting people. Keegan said "You put on this sad lonely guy thing and then show up with four people". Keegan, who I liked a lot, is an ER nurse so I got a hilarious story from him.

We went to a local restaurant where you could select the foot you wanted. The plates generally cost 25k - 35k.

Options & more Options.

My accidental Bali Thanksgiving Dinner.

Yes, Everything looked absolutely delicious. Keep in mind my German friends had exhausted me and I needed to refuel. The plate above cost about 52k, erm almost double a normal plate. I ate a pork rendang, tempeh, a corn salad, potatoes, green beans and carrots, sauteed green, two samosas, a fried chicken breast, and rice. I think that is all.

After dinner Stefan and I needed supplies from the pharmacy for little rashes and burns from surfing. While there I saw this packet of flu medicine and the guy looks just like Jaime from Broad City to me.

Jaime from Broad City?

Sorry I don't have any surf photos :(. I promise I can stand up on whitewash waves. 

Maumere

After our brief run through Kelimutu we were back to the beach and found ourselves in Maumere this time.

Maumere is a small fishing town and it is still developing itself as tourism seems to be seeping in. Aina and I probably added to the 20 or so total tourists in town it would seem. Maurmereans ( sounds odd, but don't know what they call themselves ) are also bewildered by our appearance in their small beautiful area. It felt similar to West Timor with the people, but the fauna was much richer and more like a jungle than the dryness of West Timor.

This would be our relaxing and snorkeling destination for next few days. 

Our first day was focused on getting ourselves supplies and clean laundry. We learned quickly that bules (tourists) weren't passing through there often as the pharmacy only had one small bottle of suncream with a tagline of "skin whitener". We asked for other bottles, even though they were expensive, but they wouldn't have any until another few days. So we purchased some flesh tone colored face cream with spf also and headed out to see the fish market that would be closed. While walking to find a restaurant that we wouldn't eat at we found a small little shop run by a Chinese lady and they had skin creams with 20 spf. In business we were. We bought three bottles of the ctram, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, and a large water for about 3 euros. These were the prices we knew existed in places, but not in any tourist town. I think we were a bit shocked at the price as usually we would have gotten the bule mark up, but the kind lady just seemed happy we were there to buy from her. 

We spoiled ourselves a bit here and enjoyed a break from the fast paced week we had completed going Jogyakarta > Surabaya > Soe > Labuan Bajo > Moni > Maurmere.

We ate good seafood and ate more of the local cuisine too.

Gado-gado

Beef rendang

The bar area where we stayed was really nice and the best place for wifi. We did a lot of business from there or reading news / looking at Instagram. By the way Aina has an instagram account check it out!

Local children walking home from school and having some fun with us silly bules.

From Maurmere we would head to Bali and a visit to rural family home.

Until the next time :).

Kelimutu - Crater Lakes

After leaving Labuan Bajo we grabbed a flight to Ende. This would put close to Kelimutu mountain located near the town of Moni.

As always whenever we get to a new place, Aina and I were attempting to get the best deal for our ride to Moni. Our plan: find the bules ( white person / tourist ) and combine with them to save everyone some money.  Side note: brings a whole new meaning to the song: https://youtu.be/K6P7g_qz2OU


We had called our "hotel" in advance and they wouldn't offer us a ride for less than 400. At the airport in Ende Aina approached a couple and found they had gotten a car for 400. We said maybe we could go with them and split whatever cost the driver added. In the end we paid 600 (300 each). Not bad and everyone wins. Our driver was named Galan and he was a Rasta. We would soon learn the town of Moni has a sort of Rasta mafia and everyone knows one another and seemed to claim they were brothers or cousins etc. It was an expensive town by Indonesian standards considering where we were.

Once there in the evening we set about finding a moto to rent for the next day, as the car ride would cost 250 each way (500 total). A moto would only cost 100 about double the price of a moto rental in Bali. We were sent looking and in the end used our hotel owner's Moto that unfortunately didn't have functioning lights which meant no sunrise at Kelimutu and it also did not have a functioning horn a very important feature in Indonesia. Oh and the speedometer and gas gauge didn't work either. We were assured there was enough gas to get up the mountain and at the minimum we could just coast down we thought.

The crater lakes of Kelimutu are acidic lakes of saline or sulfur and their coloration can be due to oxidation levels, the light, or whether it is saline or sulfur. So the colors can change and we're told rapidly.

A good photo above of the lakes with direct light. There was another lake called the evil lake, but it was quite boring looking the day we went. For an idea of what the evil lake looked like you can see it here, lake picture.

The advantage to going up to the lakes at the time we did was that there was no one else there at all. All the tourists in town, about 20 max probably had already gone up for the sunrise. So we had all the views to ourselves and no one in the background of our photos. While there a couple from Oregon also showed up. They were super nice and we chatted with them for about 20 - 30 minutes about our respective travels and what we are up to in general. We never got their names, but it was a nice experience as we don't meet or see many Americans on the trip or ones that are as friendly as this couple. 

These small encounters by chance with people such as this couple are becoming an important part of the trip as we make friends with people whether it be for a brief conversation or possibly to hangout again in the future if our paths cross again, as we agreed with Christine and Daniel from our snorkeling in Labuan Bajo.

After saying goodbye to the great couple from Oregon we headed down back to Kelimutu. The views going up and down are fantastic and a car ride would have spoiled them as we would have missed the impressive ferns that are the size of banana trees.

Once back in Moni we checked out of our hotel. Thanked Brian, who seemed confused that we had already paid through booking.com. It was an odd parting, but at least he pointed us in the right direction for a bus, more or less.

We hopped on a Bemo bus after waiting a little more than 5 minutes said our goodbyes to Moni and headed to Maumere, a small very untouristic beach town about 4 hours away.

Flores - Mantas & Dragons

We left Kupang, West Timor to fly to Flores where we were looking for a bit more turistic of places and lots of nature. We had a good feeling we would not be disappointed.

We flew to Labuan Bajo as this is the nearest town to Komodo National Park. The flight was supercheap, 100000 Rp. per person, less than 10 euros each!

We stayed out on an island called Sebayur and is situated near the islands of Komodo and Rinca. It would serve as our launching off point for our snorkle trips and tour of the komodo dragons.

An experience we will never forget was swimming with the gentle giant manta rays. They were absolutely beautiful and so graceful in their movements. We found ourselves in a lucky moment and were able to swim within a large group of them twice. It was an exhilarating, thrilling, and almost scary experience all at once as we found ourselves with 10 - 15 mantas swimming past us and so close we could touch them. The rays were massive measuring about 3 meters (9") across.

We were also stunned by abundance of fish and gorgeous reefs on offer. Every time it was a new experience seeing turtles, eels, little neon colored shrimp and a whole host of varieties of different fish. I could snorkle everyday if it were possible. I find it so extremely peaceful.

We also managed to see the Komodo dragons. The park rangers claim to not feed the dragons, but it seemed the water buffalo were being feed and these are the main diet for the dragons on the island. In general I didn't realize that the dragons mostly hunted by biting and tracking their prey. It can be a process that can take two weeks as the bacteria from their infectious bite eventually causes the animal to die and permit the dragons to feed. If it is a large buffalo there can be up to 15 dragons feeding on the animal. We also learned they are cannibals and will eat their young. Making it to adulthood is difficult.

We also visited the pink beach which sits on a small island between Komodo and Rinca. The beach gets its pink hue from the surrounding corals which are a bright red and when broken down create the color of the beach. The large pieces of the pink coral look like dehydrated strawberries you get in your cereal.

A view of our bungalows on the island.

Soe, West Timor

After a 7 hour train ride we were ready for rest in Surabaya a large eastern Java city. It is much prettier at night than day or so it seemed to us. We arrived late and took a taxi for our brief stay in a capsule room. The price was cheap, but I feel for caged animals, all the snoring must be why people make a fuss for cage-free eggs and free range meat.

The next day we were on a flight again for Kupang in West Timor with intention to arrive in the north central city of Soe before midnight. Arriving in Kupang we jumped in a cab and immediately made our way to a Bemo, small lively buses always accompanied by music, in Oesapa. As we paid the taxi our Bemo was leaving and we stepped on as it pulled off. We found two seats in the backrow of 5 and settled in. We were both buzzing and really happy to be on our way again. The bus was actually really fun with music (they love good country music and bad country music) and because where we were was so remote you could see so many stars and the milky way easily.

We planned a day of visiting present and past tribal communities of West Timor. This would take us to visit the Boti and None tribes. 

In the morning our guide arrived for the negotiation process. This is a hobby almost as everyone seems ready to discuss prices. Its feels at times as if I could just start saying numbers to people and immediately get a higher response and begin to work each other down. 

With an agreed upon price we headed out to first visit the Boti community and along the way would purchase betel nut as a kind gesture. They chew the betel nut with some lime stone powder and another thing. It turns their mouths blood red and it seems a little odd, but this is also popular in Myanmar too and seems more prevalent there than in West Timor.

We arrived in Boti and were presented to the Chief or King of the tribe. He was a man of about 60 years old and was still single. Our guide explained he had forbidden the community from dancing as they were in mourning from his mother's death five years ago. 

He was a really nice host and offered us coffee and fried bananas, which were really good and would serve as our lunch for the day.

We chatted for about an hour with the guide being our translator. We asked various questions about what it meant to be a Boti person and their beliefs. In general he explained how the people have a strong connection to the earth, its plants and animals. They worship the earth and the sky for they provide to their people. He seemed to be a very kind person and said he appreciated our visit, but he was not interested in us, as I would attempt to explain things about ourselves. 

After visting with the chief we walked around his property as the Boti people number in about 300 plus people and they have many huts around the area.

Tools for chewing the betel nut.

Our next visit for the day was to the None tribe and community. These were former headhunters until the end of World War II. When the Japanese invaded Timor and more or less killed anyone that stood in their way or could be considered in their way. The tribe of None was forced from their dwellings and lived in caves near their village until the war ended and the community ceased to function in the same way as it had before.

We briefly met with the villagers and were able to explore the area of None.

Sacrificing area.

After our visit to West Timor we headed back to Kupang to catch a flight to Labuan Bajo. There we would do some snorkling and visit some komodo dragons.