My three weeks in Indonesia flew by. I had a blast and love that country. Definitely would go back and would be keen to visit some of the other islands like Sumatra, Sulawesi, Flores, etc. I spent my time there in four places: Ubud, Gili Trawangan Island (Gili T), Senggigi, and Kuta Bali. I ended up spending a week in Ubud just hanging out and relaxing. It is very chill place. I did do a bike tour where we were driven to the look out over Mt Batur, one of the many volcanoes on the island, and then biked four hours downhill on local roads, through villages, past Balinese family compounds, high fiving little kids along the way. It was really fun and a great way to see Bali. I also went out one night with Megan, who is a Whistler gal living in Ubud. She showed me the local expat hangouts and shisha bar and we had a great time living it up. As well, we did a short hike on ridge with a nice lookout over the rice fields and tropical valleys. 
From Ubud I caught a bus and a fast boat to Gili Trawangan, the largest of the three Gili Islands. They are located just off the coast Bali’s neighbouring island Lombok. Gili T has a reputation as being a party island but if you want to party you can and if you want to relax, you can avoid the party all together. I chose to relax and do my Advance Open Water Scuba course at Trawangan Dive Center with my awesome instructor Philip. I love love love diving!! I was the only one of my course which was sweet because all the dives lasted however long my air supply lasted. As part of the Advance course, you do a navigational dive, a deep dive to 30 meters and three optional dives that you choose. I chose to do a night dive, an underwater photography dive and a nitrox dive. The night dive was really neat in the fact I saw more shrimp and crabs than I normally do and the whole aspect of being underwater in the dark was cool. I did have a flashlight but when I turned it off it was very dark. My two favourite dives were the deep dive and the nitrox dive. My deep dive was to Shark Point, where I went down to 30 meters for the first time. In process I saw eight turtles, one white tipped reef shark and a stingray. The visibility was so clear and the coral is so alive at the depth. The nitrox dive, also known as an enriched air dive as the percent of oxygen is increased in the tank allowing for a longer time spent a deeper depth, was to Deep Turbo. This site was amazing and we had the best visibility. The coral was so colourful and so large. Giant sea fans all other the bottom with tons of fish to see. We even saw a huge Bumphead Parrot fish which was easily a meter in width. Diving off Gili T was great and I loved every minute of it. Diving wasn’t the only thing that I did on the island though. I did spend some time sun tanning on the white sand beach and I rented a bicycle and bike/walked in the sand around the island. The other thing to do is go the sunset bar and have a cold Bintang as you watch the sun go down over the ocean beside the silhouette of Bali.  |
| White sand of Gili T |
I caught a boat over to Lombok Island and spent three days in Senggigi. The Lonely Planet says that Senggigi has white sand beaches but it is definitely anything but white. The beach that I stayed at was black. Senggigi is definitely built up with lots of large resorts but there weren’t any tourists in town. The place was dead. The high season is July and August and I am sure things are crazy than but right now it was just a chill place to hang out. I spent time most of my time at the beach. I even got a pedicure on the beach where I had one lady on each foot making my toenails look pretty. The homestay where I was staying had a really nice Indonesian owner and I got him to drive me to Kuta Beach Lombok on the south part of the island, about two hours away on his scooter. Now this is the place that I should have stayed as the beaches here where white sand with great waves for surfing. It is in development and with the new international airport opening this year only 20-30 minutes away Kuta is destined to change and become a big tourist destination. I am glad I got to see it as a sleepy surf town and if I had the choice again I would stay in Kuta Lombok over Senggigi any day.  |
| Jordan and I at Kuta beach. See the pile of garbage behing us? |
Indonesian time, like the rest of Asian, is never accurate so after waiting hours for a fast boat back to Kuta Bali, I finally made it an hour and half late to meet up with Jordan. Jordan and I are co-workers and friends from Whistler and it was great to see a familiar face and catch up. Our first night in Kuta was spent shopping, eating and drinking. We went out with Phil, a Quebecer who Jordan met at the airport, to a huge club called 61 Legian that served free food and drinks from 10pm-12am. 61 Legian is actually six clubs in one and we had a great night out without paying a cent for anything. Jordan and I got some good deals on clothes and items from the street stalls, but couldn’t bring ourselves to seriously shop in any of the real Billabong, Rip Curl, etc shops as we know we can get the same stuff, if not so similar on the street for so cheap. We tried our hand at surfing one day and I’m not very good at it but playing in the waves for the grand total of $3 was really fun. Plus we now can say we surfed in Bali! My only complaint is that Kuta beach is probably the dirtiest beach I have ever been too. There is so much garbage on the beach and when surfing you would come up from falling off you board covered in plastic wrappers. It was gross! Not really sure how it has gotten so dirty but they should invest in cleaning it up properly, considering the beach is the major tourist beach of Bali.
After three days and with an early morning flight, I said goodbye to Jordan and I continued on my journey around Southeast Asia. I am now in the Philippines, the eighth and final new country of my trip. It should be a fun two weeks ahead of me with diving, beaches and whale sharks on the horizon. xoxo
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