loveliness.

Tag: Indonesia

• lombok: trekking essentials

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 21, 2014

  Tomorrow we get up at 5 a.m. for a 3-day trekking expedition to the top of Mt. Rinjani, an active volcano. We did trekking in Thailand, but that was more of a hang out in the jungle for a few days, eat some curry, and smoke some bush weed sort of situation.

  This is more of a see that incredibly tall mountain, maybe try to get to the very top by hiking for three days in the blazing Indonesian heat kind of thing.

  I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if we’ll make it. I don’t know if I’ll have to be carried back down.

  But I do know that we did not bring enough Snickers.

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Indonesia, lombok, mount rinjani, travel, trekking, volcano

• tips for traveling indonesia

  Posted at 8:49 am by jasminedesirees, on September 29, 2014

  

  Here are a few tips that I’ve picked up during our time traveling through Indonesia:

  Tourist Visa: When you arrive at the airport, you will most likely need to get a Visa On Arrival. A few countries are able to get visas before they arrive, but generally that’s what people get. First thing off the plane, you get put into a line to purchase your visa. They only take cash, USD or Rupiah, and it’s $35.00 per person. The signage isn’t very informative, so a lot of people wait in the line, only to get up there and find out that you can only pay in cash, and only USD or Rupiah, so they end up having to run back to the ATM and lose their spot in line. Once you get through the VOA line, you still have to go through customs, which can take another hour, so be prepared to wait in line for awhile once you get off the plane.

  Domestic Airport Tax: If you are going to be flying to other parts of Indonesia, you will have to pay a Domestic Airport Tax at every airport you fly out of. It’s not that expensive, if I remember right it is around $5 USD per person, but we didn’t know about it at the time, and had spent the last of our cash so we had to find an ATM in the airport so we could pay the tax before we were able to fly out.

  International License: You can rent motorcycles or scooters all over Bali, and it’s a cheap way to get around, at about $4.00 USD/day. There are some things to be aware of though. If you don’t have an international license, and you get in an accident you are completely liable for any accidents or injuries you cause. Even if you do get an international license, if you are in an accident you will likely have to pay anyway, since the general attitude seems to be that since you are visiting, if you weren’t here then the accident wouldn’t have happened, so you are at fault by default. I’ve been told by a few people that if you get pulled over by the police without an international license, you will likely have to pay a fine, and will be allowed to go on your way, but an international license is pretty inexpensive and easy to get, so if you plan on driving here, it’s probably worth it. Also, take into account your level of experience with motorcycles or scooters before you decide to rent one. Drivers in Indonesia can be kind of crazy, there is lots of passing and zooming around each other, and if you aren’t used to driving under those conditions, it might be better just to use a taxi. More expensive for sure, but better to be safe than sorry. More information about International Licenses in Indonesia can be found here.

  Flights Between Islands: I found it kind of difficult to find information about the best way to travel between smaller islands in Indonesia when we were coming here the first time, but there are plenty of smaller, budget airlines that fly around Indonesia, including TransNusa, and Garuda. You can check out their websites for general flight information, but we just ended up going to the airport on the day we wanted to leave and buying tickets on the next available flight. We checked out several different airlines, and their prices were generally the same.

  Restaurant Tax: This is a small thing, but good to be aware of. Restaurant prices here generally don’t include the tax, which is normal, and most of the time you’ll have to pay a 10% government tax on your bill. Just keep an eye out at the bottom of the menu, because while 10% is standard, I’ve seen lots of places that are 15%, and sat down at a restaurant last night only to discover that they were charging 21% tax on all menu items.

  Methanol: This is something to be aware of in many different places, not just Indonesia, but it does happen here so I wanted to mention it. In some countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, because liquor is expensive, some bars will add methanol to their liquor to make it go farther. If you drink methanol, you can become very sick, and even die, so definitely be cautious about ordering liquor, depending on where you are. This isn’t something I heard a lot about before we left, but we were told about it by fellow travelers along the way in Thailand, Cambodia, and Singapore, and it was a prominent discussion in Australia because so many Aussies vacation in Bali, and there have been cases of methanol poisoning there. You can read more about it here.

   

   

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged Indonesia, tips, traveling

• komodo

  Posted at 3:41 pm by jasminedesirees, on September 24, 2014

  I pretty much had my heart set on seeing Komodo Island from the time we decided to go to Indonesia, even though it wasn’t really that close to Bali, and even though I had a really hard time finding information about how to get there, where to stay, etc.

  I blame the constant showings of Komodo dragon documentaries on Animal Planet.

  
  
  

  We ended up booking a cheap flight from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo, and then taking a boat from there. We decided to go to Rinca Island instead because it’s smaller, so it’s a lot more likely that you’ll get to see Komodo dragons there.

  You can also see monkeys, wild boars, deer, and wild horses on Rinca. I would have done unspeakable things to see a wild horse, but alas, it was not in the cards.

  
  
  

  It’s about 2 hours by boat from Labuan Bajo, but it was a gorgeous day, and the view is so beautiful that it goes by really fast. We paid about $20 per person, plus a few dollars for the entry fee into the National Park. You also have to pay a small fee to bring in a camera.

  
  

  Once you get to the island, you get off your boat, and are assigned a guide, and you set off on a hike in a loop to the top of the hill to see the view, stopping to see any dragons along the way, and to see the nests where the Komodo dragons lay their eggs.

  Luckily for us, the day we were there a lot of dragons had decided to come out, and were wandering around and sunbathing, so we saw about 10 of them before we even started up the hill.

  
  
  
  

  Unfortunately, we’d climbed Pura Lempuyang two days earlier, and my legs were still too sore to walk properly, so I was basically resigned to the fact that if any of the Komodo dragons decided to chase me I was probably going to be eaten.

  
  
  

  Our guides were really friendly and knowledgeable, and carried big sticks to defend us, just in case. There were about eight other people in our group, from all over the world. One of the guys in our group was from France, and instead of bringing a camera, he brought a sketch book and made drawings of everything we saw.

  It was probably the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen anyone do, ever.

  
  
  
  

  The hike wasn’t very strenuous, but the view from the top was amazing. It actually weirdly reminded me of walking up the hills in the valley near my house in Saskatchewan when I was little, probably because of the dead, brown grass.

  Indonesia and Saskatchewan are really quite similar, it’s a little known fact.

  
  

  Out of everything we have done so far on our trip, I think this was probably the coolest. I felt very lucky to be able to go trekking for Komodo dragons in their natural habitat, it was an unforgettable experience.

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged dragons, Flores, Indonesia, Komodo dragon, komodo dragons, Komodo Island, komodo national park, Labuan Bajo

• flores

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 22, 2014

  There is really no reason for this post, other than to make all of us, me included, jealous that we aren’t there right now.

  I actually cried when we left Indonesia, and now I remember why.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged Flores, Indonesia, komodo, komodo national park, Labuan Bajo, travel

• crossroads

  Posted at 6:03 pm by jasminedesirees, on September 19, 2014

  As most of you probably know, we’ve been traveling for the last four months, through Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, and then about 6 weeks ago we arrived in Australia.

  Our plan was to do some traveling around Australia, and hopefully find jobs so we could actually set up shop and live out here for the next few months.

  We started in Sydney, and drove all the way up to Cairns (stopping in lots of neat places along the way, tons of posts to come) but eventually we made our way back down to Byron Bay, just south of Brisbane, because we loved it here so much.

  Now we’re kind of facing a tough choice. Australia is really expensive, and it’s been a lot harder than we thought it would be to find jobs here. I guess that makes sense, because what employer wouldn’t rather have someone long term than someone that will only be around for a few months?

  Before we left for this trip, we were putting away money every month into a separate account for a really long time, so we had saved up enough for our trip, plus we figured we’d be making some money once we got to Australia.

  We have about half the money we saved up left, but we’re trying to figure out what we want to do now. It’s basically the age old question of choosing between being responsible and sticking to the plan you made, or taking off on a wild crazy adventure.

  We kind of have two choices. We can stick to our plan, keep trying to find jobs here, and we can spend the next few months working and hanging around in Byron Bay, hopefully making enough money to support ourselves and then spending a couple of weeks in New Zealand before we go home.

  In option A, if we find jobs, we hopefully wouldn’t really be spending anything else from our vacation fund, so we’d have it to put towards our next adventure.

  Or, we can say screw it, catch the next flight back to Indonesia, and spend the next month diving and traveling around Bali, Gili and Lombok, then fly to New Zealand for a week or so and then fly home earlier than we’d planned, maybe sometime in early November.

  In option B, we would basically be spending everything we have left in our travel fund, and we’d be home earlier than we’d planned, but we’d be doing a lot more, and having a lot more fun, which is basically the reason we spent all that time saving money, amiright?

  Sooooo….. decisions, decisions.

  Nobody knows what to do.

  Posted in Australia, Indonesia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged Australia, byron bay, Indonesia, jobs, life, travel, traveling around Australia

• scuba diving: komodo national park

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 18, 2014

  The absolute best part about Indonesia for me was the diving. We’d heard over and over again that the diving there was amazing, and it couldn’t have been more true.

  These pictures don’t really do it justice, since they were taken on a go-pro with no flash, but I wanted to share some anyway. In reality, the water was crystal clear, and the colours of the fish and the coral were vibrant.

  

  

  

  

  We stayed on the island of Flores, in Labuan Bajo, for 5 days, and we were diving 3 dives per day for 3 of those days. When we first signed up to do it, I was worried that it might be a lot, considering the boy had only been diving once before, in Thailand.

  

  

  

  It turned out that my worry was completely unfounded, he loved it, and by the end of the third day, I was so sad that it was over that I wished we would have done at least one more day.

  

  

  

  I tried to explain to him how spoiled he was, that some of us got certified in Zihuatanejo, Mexico where you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you. He got clear turquoise waters, thousands of different kind of fish, sharks, turtles, and manta rays.

  

  

  

  We dove with Komodo Dive Center, out of Labuan Bajo, and I would absolutely recommend them. They were very professional, their food was great, and their staff were very knowledgable and fun.

  My favourite dive sites were Batu Bolong, and Crystal Rock, but we did nine different dives at different sites around Komodo National Park, and all of them were pretty amazing.

  

  

  

  We are already planning our next trip to dive in more of Indonesia’s gorgeous reefs, and I seriously can’t wait.

  

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 6 Comments | Tagged diving, fish, Indonesia, komodo, komodo national park, manta ray, padi, scuba, shark, travel

• monkey forest: ubud

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 16, 2014

  Honestly, after my monkey experiences in Thailand, and at Pura Lempuyang, I was pretty ok with not seeing any monkeys again for a long time, but then I somehow found myself at the Monkey Forest in the center of Ubud.

  

  

  It was basically terrifying, there are tons of monkeys, and they are so used to tourists being there and hand feeding them that they aren’t scared of people, so they will come right up to you, and jump and climb all over you.

  

  

  

  The monkeys can get kind of territorial over the bananas that people bring in to feed to them, I saw a lot of monkeys chasing each other and fighting, and I tried to stay as far away from that as possible, because I had a friend that visited here a few months ago and she ended up getting bit by one of them.

  I was not taking that chance, I’ve seen Outbreak, I know what happens.

  

  

  

  A lot of the other people there did not share my feelings, and were letting the monkeys crawl all over them and their children, so they could get pictures taken.

  

  

  There was a tiny new baby monkey that was just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. He kept trying to sneak away from his mom to get more bananas from the crowd, and she would grab him by the tail and pull him back against her.

  

  

  I saw one person with a bunch of bananas break off one and hand it to the mother, and she grabbed it, handed it to the baby, and then snatched all of the rest of the bananas out of his hand before he had time to react.

  The Monkey Forest is a pretty famous attraction in Ubud, and you should check it out if you’re there, even if you are terrified of monkeys. As long as you keep your distance, don’t feed them, and don’t try to steal the cute little baby (who would have fit perfectly inside my purse and nobody would have ever been any the wiser) you should make it out unscathed.

  

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Bali, Indonesia, monkey, monkey forest, ubud

• batty

  Posted at 8:08 am by jasminedesirees, on September 11, 2014

  On the way home from the luwak coffee plantation, our driver offered to stop at the Bat Temple so we could check it out on the way back to Ubud. I figured it would be a cool temple with maybe some bat sculptures or something, so I agreed, and was excited to visit.

  We arrived at the temple walls, it was across the road from a beautiful black sand beach, and it looked similar to other temples we’d visited in Bali, maybe a bit busier.

  

  

  

  I made my way inside, stopping to chat with a few people and getting a sacred belt that everyone needs to wear in order to enter the temple. I wandered around the grounds for a bit, admiring the architecture, and eventually headed toward the main dais.

  

  

  

  As I walked up the steps toward the altar, I heard a strange high pitch noise, but I couldn’t really tell what it was. I stopped about 10 feet away from the altar, which was positioned right in the entrance of the cave, and I thought it was strange that the beautifully carved figures and floral offerings on the altar were all covered in something white.

  

  

  At about the same moment I realized that, I happened to glance just above the altar to the opening of the cave, and that’s when I saw the bats. Thousands of bats, hanging together, moving, squeaking, occasionally flying back into the cave.

  It was quite literally horrifying, especially since my attitude toward bats can basically be summed up thusly:

  To quote Ace Ventura, “Have you ever seen a bat? They’re hideous! Lifeless, beady eyes; clawed feet; huge, grotesque wings, and fangs! They give you rabies, you know!”

  

  

  It was kind of like a car accident, I couldn’t look away, but I did manage to take a few pictures and get a video. I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I didn’t have evidence.

  

  

  The temple is actually very sacred, you can learn more about it here, and the architecture is beautiful. The temple grounds isn’t very big, so it doesn’t take long to see the whole thing, and it’s definitely not something you’ll soon forget.

  

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Bali, bats, Goh Lawah Temple, Indonesia, temple, travel

• luwak coffee

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 9, 2014

  I’d kind of heard about luwak coffee a few months before we left on our trip, but I didn’t really pay close attention to the description, only that it was the most expensive coffee in the world.

  On the way home from Pura Lempuyang, we stopped in at a little farm where they grow coffee beans, cocoa, and spices, and they also produce luwak coffee.

  
  
  

  In case you aren’t up on the latest in the world of strange beverages, luwak coffee is produced by coffee beans that have first been eaten, digested and expelled by a luwak (a mongoose) and then the beans are gathered up, roasted and crushed.

  Something about the stomach acids of the luwak reacting with the coffee beans makes it taste way better (supposedly) than any other kind of coffee produced.

  
  
  
  

  The little farm was pretty cute, they had examples of all of the different kinds of spices and foods that they grow there, and there was a woman roasting and grinding coffee beans, and she let me take a turn.

  The farm had a lovely view of a rice field, and they give you free samples of everything they produce, including a bunch of different coffees and teas. The luwak coffee was pretty good, but I didn’t think it was worth $100USD per cup.

  
  
  
  

  I loved the lemongrass tea though, it tastes like the hot iced tea they used to serve us at summer camp when we were little, which was completely full of sugar and made sleeping a bit tricky, but was totally delicious. I bought a bag of it, and I wish I’d had room in my backpack to buy all the bags they had.

  
  
  
  

  They had one little mongoose there so people could see what a luwak actually looked like. He was very small and cute and I wanted to adopt him.

  
  

  Posted in food, Indonesia, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged coffee, Indonesia, luwa coffee, luwak, mongoose, travel

• bali homestay

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 5, 2014

  While we were in Ubud, we stayed in a traditional Balinese homestay, which had been turned into a hotel. They are very common in Ubud, and the one we were staying in was wonderful, the woman who owned it was the sweetest lady, and even though we were out the door by 5 a.m. every single day we stayed there, she always left a little breakfast package on the front desk for us to grab on our way out.

  
  

  I especially loved the gardens. The whole home is situated around the gardens in the center, complete with fountains, statues and beautiful flowers, as well as a temple for the family to pray at.

  As pretty as it was, there were a few downfalls, so I wanted to share them in case any one else is going to be staying in one of these, so you can prepare accordingly before you arrive.
  
  
  

  If you are staying in a homestay in the middle of the city, bring ear plugs. There is a lot of noise, and it can be hard to sleep. The first night we stayed there, I was kept awake about half the night by dogs barking in the neighborhood.

  Just when they finally stopped, the fan in our room started squeaking, this loud, horrible squawking noise, but we couldn’t turn it off because it was so hot in our room and there was no air conditioning.

  Finally, just when the fan stopped squeaking, almost down to the minute, the roosters started crowing. It was so perfectly timed that I briefly wondered if I was being secretly filmed for a reality TV show. Earplugs are definitely your friend.

  
  
  

  Also, an eye mask. The room we were staying in was all brick, but on the one side of the room there were decorative cut outs along the top of the wall that were open to the outside to let in more light.

  There was a mosquito net around the bed to keep the bugs out, and it was really pretty, for awhile, but eventually I wanted to go to sleep and it was too bright in the room. Luckily, my airplane eye mask saved the day.

  
  
  

  The last thing I wanted to mention is that our bathroom was outside, on a balcony. It was completely open to the air, which was unexpected, but it was actually really nice showering outside with the sky above you. It was in the city, so it’s possible I put on a bit of a show for people in surrounding buildings, but you can’t have everything in life.

  
  

  I don’t think all of the homestay bathrooms are set up this way, even within our hotel I don’t think they were, so if you want to make sure that your bathroom is indoors, just check with the hotel before you book.

  All in all, it was a really great experience, and I would absolutely stay there again.

  

  Posted in Indonesia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged accommodations, Bali, homestay, Indonesia, travel

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