Indonesia | loveliness. | Page 2

Category: Indonesia
- lombok: kuta
  
  Posted at 7:57 am by jasminedesirees, on January 15, 2015
  
  One of my favourite places in Indonesia was Kuta in Lombok (not to be confused with Kuta Bali). We took a mini-bus there for the weekend while we were waiting to see if we’d ever get our passports back.
  
  It was about a 3 hour bus ride, we didn’t know anything about the place, and we had no place to stay, but I’d seen enough pictures of the amazing beaches there to know we definitely had to check it out (I have tons of pictures from all of the beaches, but they definitely deserve their own post).
  
  The bus driver let us out in the middle of town, and we shouldered our backpacks and walked about 10 feet to the nearest homestay, where we got a room with wi-fi and breakfast for $5/night.
  
  We were in Kuta Lombok in late October, so just at the beginning of the rainy season, but we had absolutely gorgeous weather. I’m pretty sure I got heat stroke, but it was worth it.
  
  Because it was the start of the rainy season though, there were hardly any visitors there, often we were the only people in the restaurants or shops.
  
  Kuta is not much of a tourist town anyway, it’s very laid back with amazing surfing at many of the different beaches, and it’s off the beaten path enough that a lot of people don’t make it over there, but I saw a few signs for big resorts being developed, so that will likely change in the next few years.
  
  We had a great time creeping the town and exploring the surrounding area on a moped, playing with the baby goats that wander around everywhere, and eating at some amazing restaurants, we only had 2 days there but I would have liked to stay longer.
  
  The only thing I would mention as a negative thing about Kuta is that there are a lot of children there working to sell bracelets and blankets to tourists, and it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if there aren’t many visitors there at the time.
  
  It’s hard because you want to help them, but we’d traveled enough by then to know that it actually isn’t helping them to buy things from them on the street, because that’s just incentive for them to spend more time selling on the street to support their families, rather than doing kid things, like going to school.
  
  The kids would come up to you in restaurants, or while you were walking down the street and show you their goods, but if you expressed any interest you would be mobbed by any kids that were in the area, trying to get you to buy from them. I saw older kids beating up younger kids to get them out of the way, it was really sad.
  
  There are a couple of restaurants we visited in Kuta that donated a portion of every meal sold to helping the kids so they no longer have to work on the streets. As I learned in Cambodia, if you want to help, there are ways of doing it that won’t end up doing more harm in the long run.
  
  If you have a chance to visit Kuta Lombok, definitely do it, especially if you are a surfer. I promise, you won’t regret it.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, kuta, Kuta Lombok, lombok, surfing, travel
- lombok: senggigi AKA how not to renew your indonesian visa
  
  Posted at 10:10 am by jasminedesirees, on December 18, 2014
  
  After Gili T, we took a boat ride over to explore Lombok for a couple of weeks. Our first stop was Mataram, which is the main city, where we stayed for 3 days while we were trying to get our visas extended to stay in Indonesia another month.
  
  I didn’t love Mataram, it’s very busy and crowded, and everything is kind of far away so it’s not really walkable, and the traffic is so crazy that I didn’t feel comfortable renting a moped either, but there was some beautiful architecture and an amazing mosque that was being erected near our hotel.
  
  There are agencies in Gili T, and Senggigi that will renew your visas for you, but we figured we could do it ourselves, so we went into the main government building to try. If you are going to do this, make sure you dress very conservatively. Lombok is a Muslim island (as is most of Indonesia, except for Bali) and covered shoulders, closed toed shoes, and covered legs are required.
  
  I don’t think it would be very hard to get your visa done this way, in retrospect we should have just waited and tried to figure it out, but there were so many people, and the language barrier was too much, we just felt overwhelmed so we decided to use an agency in Senggigi instead.
  
  It seemed like a good idea at first. We dropped off our passports and paid the money (about $60 each) and they told us our passports would be done within 4 days, with the new stamps. So we rented a moped and did some exploring, hung out by the pool, and enjoyed our few days in Senggigi, it’s a really cute area with lots of beaches and good restaurants.
  
  We went back on Thursday to pick up our passports, and nobody was at the office, even though it was well past the opening time. Sometimes things work a little slower over there, so we thought that was fine and kept coming to check in every few hours, but nobody ever showed up.
  
  I had taken down an email address and phone number, and given them my email address in case anything came up, but we never heard from them, and when I tried them, both the email and phone number were out of service.
  
  We decided to check back again the next day, but there was still nobody there, and when we asked the neighbouring business if they had any contact info, we were told that he was almost positive they had packed up their business and moved back to Bali. So that was fun.
  
  We ended up going to the tourist police station which was quite nearby, and they couldn’t have been friendlier, or more helpful. They eventually tracked down the guy and called him for us, and he told us we would have our passports back on Monday (5 days late) and was confused about why we had contacted the police.
  
  We were supposed to be leaving for a 3 day trek up Mt.Rinjani (more on that later) so we had to push that out by a few days. On Monday we went back there to pick up our passports, and still nobody was there. Finally someone showed up, but he had no idea what we were talking about.
  
  We refused to leave without talking to someone, eventually another guy came, an Australian, and he told us that our passports were in Senggigi, ready to go, and they would be there any minute. We waited another hour, until finally the guy we had originally given our passports to called him, and told him that our passports were still at the renewal office in Mataram (where we had originally gone to renew them ourselves) and we’d have to go there to pick them up in person.
  
  We did that, we were super annoyed, but we would have done almost anything to get our passports back by that point. Once we got back to the renewal office, it took about 20 minutes, we went upstairs, got our photos taken again, and got our passports with the updated visas.
  
  I’m not saying you should definitely renew your visa yourself, but it’s more expensive to go through an agency, and you will likely end up having to go get it yourself anyway, since most of the time they need to redo your fingerprints and photographs.
  
  So it all worked out in the end, our time in Senggigi was great, except for that minor hiccup. I’ve never seen so many palm trees in my life as on Lombok, and if you are there and looking for a great place to eat, check out Cafe Alberto, it’s right on the beach, has an amazing view for sunset, and has the best mushroom ravioli I’ve ever had.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, lombok, mataram, passports, senggigi, travel, visa renewal
- gili trawangan
  
  Posted at 9:51 am by jasminedesirees, on December 16, 2014
  
  From Amed, we took a boat across to Gili Trawangan, the most populated of the Gili Islands. We bought our ticket the day before, they are sold all over in Amed, and just showed up that morning to get on the boat. It was about $5 USD per person.
  
  The boat ride was about an hour, and would have been lovely except for the wind. The waves were massive, and everyone on board was getting soaked. The woman sitting right in front of me had a brand new baby, he couldn’t have been more than a week old, and they were both getting drenched so we used our towels to make them a fort.
  
  We didn’t have a place to stay booked on the island because most of the smaller homestays don’t have an online presence, but we found a cheap, clean room within a few minutes just by walking around and checking a few places out.
  
  The very first thing we did once we dropped off our stuff was make a bee-line for the fruit smoothie carts, it was similar to Sanur in that you could get almost any kind of fruit smoothie for about $1 USD.
  
  I got mango and dragonfruit, and just laid on the beach pinching myself. These photos have not been edited or filtered, that’s just what colour the water is.
  
  There are no cars on Gili T, just carts pulled by donkeys, so it’s a lot of walking, but the island is so small that it doesn’t matter. There are bikes for rent all over the place, and you can ride around the whole island in like an hour and a half.
  
  The night of D’s birthday we took a donkey to the other side of the island to the Ombok Sunset resort to see the sunset, which is where the swing-set in the water is.
  
  There were a bunch of people lined up to get their picture taken so I kind of didn’t want to do it, but then a cloud came and covered the sun so everyone thought that was the end and started leaving, and right then the sun popped back out, and the sky was gorgeous.
  
  The donkey carts aren’t made for very big people, D kept hitting his head every time the donkey took a step, so we just ended up walking back.
  
  The main area in Gili T where the boats drop everyone off is actually pretty crowded, we were there in late October, coming up on the rainy season, and still it was very busy.
  
  There are lots of good restaurants on that side (try the butterfish!), and if you walk down to the Ombok (there are 2 on the island) on that side they show movies on the beach every night, and it’s pretty much perfect.
  
  But if you leave the main area, and head either way on the island, it’s a lot more chill, with some awesome beach bars, and a much quieter vibe.
  
  We had four days on Gili T, and honestly, that was enough for me. It really was so busy, and the diving wasn’t that great. I kept hearing that it was amazing, but then I was told that a lot of the people diving in Gili T are just getting certified, and so they don’t really have anything to compare it to, so of course they think it’s amazing.
  
  It definitely had nothing on Flores.
  
  I was talking to someone a few days ago who had been to Gili T 20 years ago, and he was telling me how unpopulated it was, how there was only 3 restaurants on the whole island, and they shared a generator, so only one of them would be open on any given night. I wish I could have visited back then.
  
  I would love to go back to the Gili’s though, there are two other islands, Gili Air and Gili Meno, which are much less busy, and more laid back, so that will be my next visit.
  
  One word of caution though, the Gili’s get their power from Lombok, so power outages there are not unusual, and wi-fi is kind of terrible, which is fine because that’s not why you are going to Gili anyway, but just something to be aware of.
  
  Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 4 Comments | Tagged beach, Gili Islands, Gili T, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, island, scuba
- tirtta ganga
  
  Posted at 9:02 am by jasminedesirees, on December 15, 2014
  
  On our way back from hiking Mount Batur, we stopped in to check out Tirtta Ganga, one of Bali’s gorgeous water palaces. it’s up in the NE part of Bali, so it’s perfect to visit while you’re up in Amed, or on your way back from a day trip out of Ubud.
  
  It’s not marked very conspicuously, when our driver pulled over I thought he was just stopping for snacks, because it’s surrounded by walls, with shops and restaurants in front, with just a little gate and a sign over the archway.
  
  Luckily it wasn’t very busy when we were there so we were able to check everything out and take lots of pictures without there being a crowd, or a group of random people in all of our photos.
  
  The grounds was amazing, with lots of sculptures and water features, and a giant fountain in the middle. There are stepping stones all through the first pool so you can walk around it and look at all of the sculptures.
  
  We were told that the waters in Tirtta Ganga were supposed to have spiritual healing properties, and that people were allowed to swim in certain areas, but there wasn’t really anyone to ask, and we didn’t want to accidentally go into the wrong area.
  
  Also, there are huge Koi fish everywhere, and they definitely could have taken off a pinky toe if they felt so inclined.
  
  It was very peaceful, quiet and green, even though there is a more expensive homestay and a nice restaurant along the right side of the property, it doesn’t take away from the ambiance.
  
  Also there was a large pool filled with lilypads and gorgeous purple flowers, so that was my favourite part, obviously.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged amed, Bali, culture, Indonesia, tirrta ganga, travel, ubud, water palace
- uss liberty
  
  Posted at 9:52 am by jasminedesirees, on December 9, 2014
  
  The USS Liberty in Amed, Bali was my first shipwreck dive, and it was amazing. It’s a great dive for beginners, or for people who aren’t actually certified to wreck dive (ahem) because it’s a shore dive, and the wreck isn’t very deep, only 18M, so it gets a lot of sunlight.
  
  The water is very clear so it’s easy to see everything, and it’s pretty wide open so even if you are claustrophobic, there aren’t really any places where you feel trapped inside.
  
  There were a lot of little fish, although we didn’t see anything super exciting, but just the feeling of being inside the wreck was enough to make it one of the best dives I’ve ever done.
  
  I was able to do some wreck diving in the Philippines a few weeks ago, and I actually had kind of a scary experience, (more on that later) but it definitely made me look back on this dive with even more affection, because for those dives it was very deep, and the visibility was pretty terrible, and it was so dark that we needed a flashlight inside the ship.
  
  We talked to almost every dive company in Amed, before deciding to go with BLD.
  
  Most of the dives around Amed are shore dives, so it was cheaper than some of the other diving we’ve done, but if one thing to keep an eye out for is that a lot of the companies will only take you to one dive site per day, to do two dives there, and we found out it’s because they have to pay a tax for each dive spot they go to, and they make more money by just keeping you at one site.
  
  It’s up to you if you want to dive only one site, but we wanted to see as much as possible, which is one of the reasons we went with BLD. Our second dive was actually not that great, it was a shore dive down a sandy slope, there wasn’t much to see but we did spot a black baby frog fish, and it looked like a tiny alien.
  
  Our dive guides were really great, they were local guys from Amed, and we ate lunch with them and chatted about our lives, and their lives and learned a lot about Bali. They both thought it was very strange that we had been married for 3 years and didn’t have any babies. They invited us out to see a band with them at a bar that night. All of the people in Amed were lovely.
  
  If you are a diver, or even a snorkeler, and you have some time when you are in Bali, definitely make the trip up to the USS Liberty, it’s so so worth it.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged amed, diving, Indonesia, scuba, shipwreck, shore dive, uss liberty
- hiking mount batur
  
  Posted at 8:16 am by jasminedesirees, on December 3, 2014
  
  The first thing I will say about hiking to the top of Mount Batur to watch the sunrise, is that it is amazing and breathtaking and gorgeous and you should definitely, definitely do it while you’re in Bali.
  
  The second thing is, for the love of God, wear every piece of clothing you brought with you. People kept telling me to dress really warm, but I am very stubborn and had already decided what would be appropriate volcano hiking gear, and refused to listen to anybody.
  
  I also was thinking of the time we climbed to the top of Pura Lempuyang, and people told me to bring a jacket, and it was not cold at all by my standards so I had to carry it the whole way.
  
  I figured that since I am Canadian, I have a higher tolerance for cold, and since I spent most of my time in Amed wishing it wasn’t so freaking hot out, it would be nice to be out in the brisk morning air.
  
  It was. The air at the bottom of the mountain at 2 am was glorious. And then we started climbing. And during the two hour climb to the top, I was so hot and sweaty I wished I would have worn even less than I was wearing.
  
  But once we got to the top, and stopped moving, I was whistling a different tune. Or at least I would have been, if I’d have been able to feel my face.
  
  We started the climb up the mountain at about 3:30 A.M. It’s pitch black, but everyone gets a flashlight, and it’s mandatory that every group has a guide. It was really beautiful to look back behind you as you were climbing to see the string of flashlights bobbing along in the darkness. I wanted to take a picture, but I know my limits, photography-wise, and I am pretty confident it would have just been a black fuzzy blur.
  
  There are two places where you can stop and watch the sunrise. One is the main area where most people hang out, and the other is the very, very top. It’s another 30 minutes climb past the main area, and it’s a hard and treacherous climb (I would like to note that this was before I had climbed Mout Rinjani in Lombok. Now it seems like a leisurely stroll in the park. But more on that later).
  
  Being me, I obviously decided immediately that we hadn’t come all the way up there to not make it to the very top, so up we went.
  
  The climb to the summit isn’t actually very far, but because the very top of the mountain is coated by layers and layers of volcanic ash, it’s very hard to climb. You sink in above your ankles with every step, and you also slide back a little bit with every step, so it takes a really long time to make any real progress. On top of that, it was incredibly windy, and we weren’t moving fast enough to keep warm so it was bitingly cold.
  
  Have I sold you on this yet? Perfect.
  
  Once you kept to the top, it’s completely worth it. We found a little spot to sit down, and one of the guides brought us coffee. The sun was just starting to peak over the top of the mountain.
  
  And then right at that moment, an enormous cloud appeared, and blocked the entire thing.
  
  Just when I was contemplating flinging myself over the edge since we’d made that journey for nothing, the clouds parted for about 15 seconds. Just long enough to snap a few pictures, and everyone at the top with us jumped up and started cheering.
  
  Then the clouds came again. And this kept happening over and over again. Just when you thought the clouds would never move and we wouldn’t be able to see anything, they would part again and give us a few seconds of complete magnificence.
  
  We were up there for about an hour before we started the climb down. The guides made us breakfast on top, bananas and eggs cooked in the little pockets of volcano steam, it’s pretty cool to watch.
  
  Then we started the trek down. It takes about an hour and a half, and you come down a different way, skirting the crater rim, and then descending into the valley filled with lava rock from all the years of eruptions.
  
  Once we got to the bottom, our driver picked us up and drove us the hour and a half back to Amed.
  
  This hike was definitely one of the best things we did in Bali, and I can’t recommend it enough. But please, please don’t wear shorts. My legs turned blue. It was not ideal.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 10 Comments | Tagged batur, hiking, Indonesia, mount batur, sunrise, travel, volcano
- amed, bali
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on December 2, 2014
  
  After we left Sanur, we went up to the northeast coast of Bali to spend a week in Amed. It’s completely gorgeous up there, and also very relaxed. It’s very far away from the hustle and bustle of Denpasar, and the tourist trap of Legian/Kuta. It’s just a really cool, chill little town.
  
  Amed is about a 3 hour drive from Sanur, but the scenery is amazing. Amed is quite near Mount Agung, and the drive takes you along the coast, and past some gorgeous rice fields. The coast where Amed is situated is great for snorkeling, there is a reef that stretches all along the shore. although some of the beaches are kind of rocky.
  
  We also did our first shipwreck dive there (the USS Liberty) which was every Little Mermaid fantasy I’ve ever had come to life, but more on that later.
  
  We didn’t have a place to stay, but there are tons of little cheap homestays in Amed, so we found a place no problem.
  
  The best part was, because we were there in October and that’s coming up on the rainy season, it wasn’t very busy, so even though we were staying at a cheap homestay, we went to quite a few of the nicer resorts and hung out there for a few hours each day, and they didn’t mind at all.
  
  We would always order food and drinks, but we couldn’t have afforded to stay there, so we ended up getting the best of both worlds. The Santai had a beautiful pool right on the beach, and delicious mango crumble for dessert.
  
  Amed had lots of cute little restaurants, which were largely wasted on me since it was too hot to eat anything other than mango and iced coffee, a yoga studio where you could practice yoga every evening along the beach, and no fewer than five Bob Marley themed bars.
  
  The best (but coldest) thing we did while staying in Amed was climbing to the top of the Mount Batur volcano for sunrise, but that definitely deserves its own post.
  
  Amed was one of my favourite places in Bali, and is a great stop over for a few days before taking the boat across to the Gili Islands.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 6 Comments | Tagged amed, Bali, Indonesia, mount agung, mount batur, travel, uss liberty
- nusa lembongan
  
  Posted at 12:34 pm by jasminedesirees, on December 1, 2014
  
  The island of Nusa Lembongan is about a 45 minute boat ride from Bali. We only went there for the day, and spent the whole time on the moped looking at all of the amazing beaches, including Dream Beach, and also took a trip over to Nusa Ceningan, a neighbouring island that is accessible by a slightly terrifying bridge.
  
  We took a boat there from Sanur, and got a magnificent deal because of our amazing haggling skills (or maybe they just wanted to fill up the boat) but we paid 600,000 rupiah total, round trip for both of us, when they were trying to charge us 500,000 rupiah each initially.
  
  Neither of the islands are very big, one day is lots of time to cruise around to all of them, there are some mangroves up in the northern part, and lots of beaches in the south. Nusa Lembongan is by far the more developed of the two islands. Nusa Ceningan was gorgeous, but pretty rustic, and the time driving those roads on a moped is not something I’ll soon forget.
  
  I even took a 20 minute GoPro video of the experience because was pretty sure we were going to end up driving into the ocean, and I wanted there to be evidence to help find our bodies.
  
  There are a lot of seaweed farmers on both islands, so you see large tarps with piles of seaweed drying in the sun on the side of the road. On the far side of Nusa Ceningan there is a little cove with a beautiful hotel called Secret Beach. We stopped in there for a swim in their pool and an iced coffee, and had the whole place to ourselves.
  
  Nusa Lembongan had lots of hotels and dive shops. We didn’t end up diving there the first time we went, but we went back about a month later in search of the Mola Mola. We didn’t see one, but we did a dive at Manta Bay, which was a bit murky and we didn’t see much, and also at a spot called the Mangroves, which was fantastic.
  
  The diving itself wasn’t that great because the current was pushing you so fast that you could barely see anything, but it was so much fun, like a 35 minute underwater rollercoaster ride, that I pestered our dive guide to see if we could do it again.
  
  I’m glad we got to go back and spend a few days there, because I was devastated when it was time to leave after our first visit. If you have time when you’re in Bali, definitely make the trip over to Nusa Lembongan.
  
  There are a ton of hotels and little homestays, we just showed up and found somewhere to stay there, since lots of the smaller, cheaper places don’t have an online presence.
  
  Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, nusa ceningan, nusa lembongan, scuba diving
- dream beach
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 26, 2014
  
  Nusa Lembongan will have its own post with more pictures from the whole island, but Dream Beach has a special place in my heart, and deserves its own post.
  
  This place is absolutely breathtaking, and more than makes up for the bumpy, treacherous moped ride to get out there.
  
  You can hang out at the hotel pool for the whole day for $5.00, or relax on the beach. I would avoid eating at the hotel restaurant, the food was not very good, but if you just want somewhere to hang out, enjoy the view and a few drinks, it’s kind of unbeatable.
  
  Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged beach, dream beach, Indonesia, nusa lembongan, travel
- sanur, bali
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 24, 2014
  
  Once we decided we definitely wouldn’t be able to stay any longer in Australia, we had to decide where in Indonesia we wanted to go. We’d spent a few days in Bali on our way to Flores, and loved it, so we decided to go back and really spend some time there.
  
  We heard good things about Sanur, so we decided to spend a few days there. I wasn’t crazy about the beaches in Sanur, but it was way nicer than being in the hustle and bustle of Kuta or Legian, and it was a very relaxing few days.
  
  We ended up finding a room to rent on AirBnB from the friendliest group of Bulgarians you’d ever care to meet. They lived in an amazing house with a swimming pool right in the center, which is basically where we stayed the entire time we were there.
  
  We did manage to venture out into Sanur every day though, and found some awesome places to visit. Our hosts also took us to some really fun places, so I wanted to share them here.
  
  The Man Shed– This was basically the coolest bar I’ve been to since the Warehouse. The whole thing is like a garage, filled with old, fixed up cars and bikes, and funky art.
  
  Casablanca– Every Friday night at Casablanca they have a “free pour” for an hour, starting at 7 p.m. It is free draft beer for everyone, as many as you can drink, starting at 7, and ending either at 8, or when someone breaks one of the rules. During the free pour, nobody is allowed to be on their phone, leave the restaurant, go to the bathroom, etc, and there are a bunch of funny rules. Everyone is super careful not to break any of the rules because nobody wants to be the reason that a bar full of people are no longer getting free beer, although we were told that it almost never lasts the full hour.
  
  Barb’s Sport– This was one of our first stops when we arrived in Sanur, we were both a little sad to have had to leave Australia, so we hung out with all the Australians and watched football with the Aussies. They have really good food, and their iced coffee is pretty much legendary. Weeks later when we were staying on the other side of Bali, we had to make a trip near Sanur and were seriously considering stopping in Sanur just to go back to Barb’s to get another one.
  
  Night Market- If you are in Sanur, be sure to stop in a the Night Market for supper. There are lots of delicious little morsels for sale, but the best thing to get is at the very back corner of the market, where a little fish restaurant is set up. You choose your cut from the cooler filled with all different kinds of freshly caught seafood, and they grill it for you right there. A fillet of Mahi-Mahi with rice and onions will set you back USD $3, $6 if you want a one liter Bintang to wash it down.
  
  They also have an amazing smoothie stand where you can get fresh juice with every single fruit in the world for only $1 USD. I spent a LOT of time at the smoothie stand.
  
  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged AirBnB, Bali, Indonesia, sanur, travel
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