Such Great Heights

May 12, 2014

Such Great Heights

|. Indonesia Part II .|

Sometimes life gets carried away. The amazingness of being home is filling up every spare second of my life. However, now that I've been home for 2 months, I am itching and craving another adventure. I'm also itching to finish blogging about | this | adventure. Tonight with tea and a quiet house, listening to the rain, I'm going to finish up writing 'Indonesia'.

After 4 great days of diving and exploring the beach and country side of Indonesia … The anticipated moments became reality. After 2.5 months of travel solo without my man, he arrived at 3 am. Late. Of course. To make the time drag even more. Funny how you can think about that movie moment {it will be exactly like the best reunion in the most romantic chick flick, right?}. Then the plane is late, you're both tired. It's been 2.5 months. It's a lot of emotion... It's important to recap those emotions. I actually didn't know what to say.. you wait and wait for one moment in time, and all the words are gone...
Anyways, staying in a resort now felt more unnatural than staying in a dingy 11$ guesthouse. Funny what months of travelling can do. It was convenient and perfect for our first couple of days in Indonesia where we explored Kuta and what it had to offer. The buffet breakfasts were delicious, but I was happy to check into our cold water, fan room in our little Ubud bungalow [that is next].

After minimal sleep we set to walk to the beach side. . . Torrential down pour, the temperature went from hot and muggy to cool and wet in almost a split second. After waiting it out for about an hour we decided we'd explore in the rain. Kuta's streets were busy with tourists, cafes, name brand shops, and the area lined the sandy beaches with resorts. It was evident that we'd shown up in rainy season as we were of the few people walking the beach. We enjoyed our days venturing through the small streets, window shopping and people watching. After chatting with a local selling tours, we shopped around and picked our bargain and travelled to Ubud.

The day we set off to Ubud the weather was very hot and sunny. We took an hour plus ride with multiple other travellers sitting right above some sort of hot engine part in a van with no air conditioning. Everyone looked equally exhausted from the heat and noone spoke. On arrival we paid our driver an extra 5$ to take us the extra 4.5 km to our hotel (and we were both extremely happy we spent the extra money). We were dropped at a little set of bungalows at the back of a one way horseshoe shaped alleyway. The bungalow backed onto a hill covered with rainforest shrubs and palm trees. The local chickens walked around in the backyard and all you could hear was animals and the rain. It was so tranquil and beautiful. With only a fan and a tap that trickled boiling hot water or pounded freezing water, we were back on the backpacker trail. And might I add that the quant little bungalow included, my favourite, a banana pancake breakfast. We spent a few days in Ubud and could not have been happier with our experiences. Our first adventure in Ubud was to the Monkey Forest. The two ladies sitting at a small desk selling bananas gave us the impressions that we'd see monkeys. Within the first 10 feet Kris had a large monkey on his shoulder and all the bananas had been stolen. The cement walkways are covered in green moss and algae from the warm, damp climate. The trees are tall with hanging vines, huge green leaves and let in sunlight in only a few open areas. Monkey cover the area of the entrance to the park. They know where the food is. Large monkeys to the tiniest baby monkeys, we saw it all and they weren't afraid to interact.

While in Ubud we had a driver pick us up at the wild hour of 2:30 am. Not a sound to be heard, the roosters hadn't even started yet. We journeyed to the base of Mount Batur, an active volcano located on Bali, where we started our trek to the top. The air was cold and we were under dressed, luckly the hike was quick and kept us warm. We had a lovely tour guide who woke up each morning to hike the mountain. She had a family and another job and was ecstatic at only a 5$ tip. The roles and values of life are so different across the world. There is so much to learn about work ethic, passion for life and the value of family (and much, much more) from Asian cultures. At the top of Mount Batur, standing at 1,700 m, we watched the sun rise. As the light came over the mountain peak across from us, it became clear as to how high we were. The lake and valley below was vast and absolutely stunning from where we were.

From Ubud we travelled to the hot and sunny Gili islands where we enjoyed the tropical waters, bungalow life, and amazing snorkelling experience. We biked and trekked around the island. Sitting sea side we watched some of the most beautiful sunsets while eating dinner and listened to locals play music on the drums at a small bohemian looking pub. While snorkelling we saw some amazing fish and sea life. It was my first time ever swimming with a sea turtle and we were right up close. They're such majestic creatures. It was an incredible experience.

As we made our way back to Bali to catch a flight to the island of Flores, we stayed in a beautiful little guest house just one road from Jimbaran Beach in South Kuta. My grandma always told me that things like this were called Serendipity. When arriving at our guest house (after a long detour by our poor driver) we had no idea where we were or where to eat dinner. We decided to walk toward the ocean. As we walked the streets there was no sign of any restaurants or even stores. We passed people working in their garages and yards who all smiled and said 'Hello'. As we finally made our way to the beach we were one of the very few non-locals. The beach was packed with all ages playing big games of soccer, swimming, laughing and eating picnic dinners. The children were thrilled to see us waving and saying hello, their parents as well. They all enjoyed the Sunday sun happily. You could actually feel the joy, there were so many smiles. It was one of the neatest experiences we had on Bali for sure. As we walked the beach the young girls ran to Kris to get their picture with him and the young boys ran my way. We must of stood out like no other but we all laughed and enjoyed ourselves. Further south on the beach were a strip of restaurants where we enjoyed a fresh seafood dinner and watched the sun go down. The restaurant waiters drove us back to our guesthouse on their motorbikes, and we were on our way to Flores first thing in the morning.

Now, if anyone reading this has any desire to go to Indonesia, I highly recommend Flores. It's a short plane ride off Bali and it is hands-down worth the flight. When we arrived in Flores we checked into our hilltop bedroom with our outdoor, open roof bathroom with tropical vegetation and lizards. I'd never had an outdoor open roofed bathroom on this trip yet so that was pretty neat. We rented a scooter and toured the town of Labuan Bajo, and beautiful breathtaking country side. The town was a tiny two street town that had a few restaurants, a lot of dive shops, and a few other random stores. Though for this area of Indonesia, Labuan Bajo is considered very touristy, it was actually the least tourist area we had seen yet. The main attractions are the close by Komodo Dragons, as well as the world famous diving. As we hopped on the scooter out of town, we drove through winding roads up mountain sides through villages where the children would run out into the street and line up for a speedy high five as we drove by on the bike. They were bouncing with joy on connection of the slap. Some were actually pretty uncomfortable, but it was obviously something they loved and were used to. After a few stops to ask direction we eventually made it to our destination and hiked to a beautiful waterfall. The rainforest trail was pretty steep and led us through lush green rice terraces to the bottom of a tall, very cold, very beautiful waterfall. The skies were bright blue, the fields bright green and it was very warm. The day couldn't have been more perfect. From the mountain tops riding back to town we stopped to take in some of the most incredible views I have ever seen. Mountains, islands, and open ocean as far as the eye could see. Some of the heights and views of Indonesia were absolutely the top views I have ever taken in. Not a photo could ever capture the beauty of these places.

From Labuan Bajo we set out on a private long boat to Rinca Island and to do some snorkelling. I was pretty apprehensive of the Komodo Dragons, after all they could devour my limbs in one snap, but they were pretty neat to watch. They moved so slowly it was hard to believe they can run up to 20km/hr. We hiked around Rinca island which was beautiful to see and then came back to the main area to check out the Komodo's for a bit longer.
After our amazing time of Flores we headed back to Bali airport and waited for our flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand!!!!

Fair Warung Bale (the restaurant in the photo above) is an absolutely delicious restaurant, which was recommended to us, that we visited while in Ubud. This restaurant is run in conjunction with an organization called "Fair Future Foundation" which focuses on, and fundraises for, free healthcare for everyone in Ubud and other areas of Indonesia. This specific medical centre in Ubud serves in the most disadvantaged populations and supplies approximately 80% of it's clients with free healthcare and medical treatments.
See more at: http://www.fairfuturefoundation.org/#sthash.so6oFAQV.dpuf