Indonesië part 1

Being almost at the end of our trip, it's time to tell you about Indonesia. With only a couple of days left, we can tell you for sure that Indonesia is great: great food, beautiful scenery and above all lovely people. Let's start at the beginning of this month.

Late in the evening we arrived at Denpasar (Bali airport), finding out that we were really stupid: we forgot to bring money for our visa. Luckily people were very helpfull (and we were not the only ones...). So we had to drop our passports at the border, cross the border, get money from the ATM, walk back to the visa department and pay for the visa. All went very easy and they didn't check anything, so to us it appeard as a really easy way to get money... However, you don't question people at the boarder and we were happy to finally arrive at Bali.
The moment we walked out of the airport, a whole load of taxi drivers was waiting for us to take advantage of the stupid tourists. Together with an English couple, we managed to find a taxi driver who would bring us to Kuta for a reasonable price. Our first impression of Bali: Starbucks next to Mc Donald's, KFC, domino's, Starbucks again, Pizza Hut, etc. and all surrounded by very luxurious resorts. One thing for sure: Bali was definitely going to be our most expensive and touristy destination. Indeed prices for hotels were twice the prices we paid in Vietnam, so we needed a moment to adjust to this...

However, on the positive side the temperature was sooooo nice and people really friendly. You immediately feel and see the effect hinduism has on people in comparison to the muslim culture: everybody is smiling! In addition to this, Bali has beautiful surroundings, all so green and well taken care off (at least, when it is part of a resort or anything alike).

In general, we didn't really like Kuta. It's full of drunk tourist and way to Westernized with all its fast food restaurants (although we have to admit that we had a Mc Donald's ice cream...). However, we met a really nice couple from the Philippines (who were on their honeymoon). He turned out to be a surf instructor back in the Philippines and was willing to give us a surf lesson! So we rented surfboards and went to the beach. Although Kuta wasn't really our thing, the beach was really nice and the waves perfect for beginner surfers! After a while we both managed to stand up and actually 'ride a wave' (OK the foam... Which means you end up at the beach....)! We had such a good time, but we're exhausted afterwards. 

The next day we decided we had to make a plan for our last month, we were a bit unprepared and had no clue where to go. We made a rough schedule, but above all we wanted to relax and decided this was the place and time to do absolutely nothing. Because Kuta wasn't really for us,we went to Ubud first thing in the morning. 

Ubud was completely different, which we could already see on the way. Bali is really green (we are definitely in the right season!) and has beautiful views over the many rice fields. Ubud itself is called 'the cultural heart' of Bali and it truly is. This is the perfect place for shopping typical Balinese stuff. In the centre of Ubud, you find a big market full of handicrafts. In addition, you find many little shops here (including official looking shops selling fake watches, bags, dvd's and clothes...). 
In Ubud we stayed in a really nice homestay. The house was build in traditional Balinese style, which means the compound includes different buildings for different purposes including its own temple! The family was sooooo friendly and we had a really nice room (with hot shower!!). In the morning they made us breakfast (pancakes... the locals seem to think that tourist always eat pancakes for breakfast...) and served it at our room where we could eat at our private balcony: so lovely! 

Since we heard riding a bicycle is really nice in Ubud, we decided to rent bicycles and find our own way through the surrounding villages of Ubud. Before we actually started our own cycling tour, we visited monkey forest. The name speaks for itself: a forest full of monkeys! And not scared at all, climbing on top of the tourists, stealing their stuff and eating bananas...
When we started cycling it was a bit heavier than we expected. At first everything was ok, lots of downhill cycling! But, of course when you go down, there comes a moment you have to go up again... And that was so hard (now we understand why everybody has a motorcycle..). In addition to the hard work, we also expected to see more of the local life and more nature. But Bali is already so developed. You find paved roads everywhere and al lot of villages on the way. Therefor we decided to book a cycling tour, which was supposed to be the best tour you can do in Bali, and it was!

Our day started early. We were being picked up by a nice minivan with a really nice (very good English speaking) guide. They drove us to a nice restaurant with views over the famous (still active) Batur volcano and it's beautiful lake. Of course breakfast included nasi goreng but also delicious fresh fruit, lemongrass tea, Balinese coffee and lots more! After breakfast the minivan brought us to a coffee plantation where we were introduced to different Balinese fruits/plants/trees (eg. snake fruit, vanilla, cinnamon, peppers, cocoa) and of course different types of coffee beans. We learned about male and female coffee (yes they are truly different!), arabica and robusta (if you drink a lot of coffee, you'd better drink arabica coffee) and of course the famous Luwak coffee (aka shit coffee). They harvest Luwak coffee by feeding the Luwak animals (a mix between a cat and a fox) arabica coffee beans, which the animals do not process, and then gather their poo and get the beans out... After this, the beans are dried and roasted before they end up in your cup (at a very high price... Think about US$40 a cup). Of course we HAD to try if the coffee really is that good as everybody is saying. Well: it is definitely good, but in our opinion not worth the money.
After the tasting, it was finall time to get on our bike and start our cycling tour trough the real Bali. On the way we had amazing views over the many rice fields, saw plenty of local life and our guide friendly explained us a lot about they way they live and how the culture is developing. He also showed us a traditional Balinese house and explained the use of every different building in the compound. In addition he gave us an inside in the many traditions they hold and how this affects their daily life (very interesting). 
When he told us that the tour was ment to be downhill cycling, he wasn't lying. We literally went only downhill for hours! Getting exhausted of not doing anything besides slowing down...
After this amazing tour through the Balinese countryside we stopped at a restaurant where (a late) lunch was served. Of course typical Balinese including the best bami goreng we've ever had! Completely satisfied we returned 'home', happy with our decision to join this tour.

After this great tour we stayed one more day in Ubud, just wandering around the small streets, do some shopping, enjoy great Balinese food (Balinese food is the best!) and watching the ek 2012 wich afterwards was a bit of a dissapointment (As you might know... BUT the beer, 'bitterballen' and the orange shirts gave it a fun homelike feeling).

Our next stop was Lovina: a small village at the northern, more quite, side of Bali. Here we really treated ourselves. We booked a nice resort with an amazing swimming pool, lovely bungalows and super friendly people. Since it was really small (only six bungalows) we instantly knew all others staying at this resort. All who were enjoying their holiday, which was exactly what we were going to do as well: enjoy holiday by doing nothing, soooo good!
We spend our days by doing nothing, enjoying the pool, having delicious food and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Lovina. The resort had views over the rice fields which ended up at the beach (black sand..): a nice walk! 

After four days of luxury, we had some difficulty adjusting to our low budget backpacking life again. However, we found a nice place to stay and decided to spend one last day in Lovina. We started this day really early by doing a dolphin tour. We woke up at 5AM to meet our guide who took us to his little boat. Together with many other boats we sailed onto the sea to watch lots and lots of gorgeous dolphins! In addition to the sunrise, a perfect picture (unfortunately the dolphins didn't really have a feeling for it and kept swimming out of our pictures...).

The next day, it was time to move on. So we woke early and were being picked up by a really friendly guy who drove us to Padang bay. Here we got of the fast boat (6 engines on the back...) to Gili Trawangan....

Love,
Floor&Rob