We had a nice week in Bali, mainly lounging at the pool and walking around. We also took a day trip to a sea temple in Tanah Lot. The temple is
regarded as one of the most sacred in Bali and it is built into the rocks in the sea.
Ancient rituals pay homage to the guardian spirits of the sea and poisonous sea snakes found in the caves at the base of the rocky island are believed to be guardians of the temple, standing vigil against evil spirits and intruders. We made it just in time for sunset and it was so beautiful, the waves crashing in and the sunset behind the temple was breathtaking.
We took a small prop plane to Lubuanbajou, Flores and planned to travel west to east across the 700 km island. Lubuanbajou is a small fishing village, very
quiet with only a handful of
guesthouses and restaurants. We managed to get the last room at Gardena Hotel with a perfect view of the harbor. The main mosque was right next to our bungalow so we woke every morning at 5am to the calls to prayer. The main draw to Lubuanbajou is it's location, the city is within 2 hours by boat to Komodo National Park; which is the only place in the world to see Komodo Dragons in their natural habitat and has over a dozen world class diving sites. That afternoon we met a family from France who asked if we wanted to share a charted boat to Rinca island to see the Komodo Dragons.
The next day we left
at 7am and arrived on Rinca island at around 9am. We walked about 500 ft. from the dock and saw the first dragons just outside the ranger station. Donna left the bathroom just minutes before she noticed one walking in... We went with a
guide on a 5 km trek around the island, hoping to spot more dragons. Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us great information on how komodo dragons live. They can run up to 18 km per hour but in general are fairly lazy, unless provoked. They grow to be about 3 meters long and camouflage themselves near trees where animals might pass by. Our guide was great at spotting them and we adjusted our routes to move around them.
The island is home to wild buffalo, deer, monkeys, etc and all can fall prey to the dragons. They generally wait for an animal to pass by and with one bite, their saliva will
kill the animal within 24 hours. We moved very close to one dragon and it didn't seem to mind, once we inched a little closer it opened it's mouth and turned towards us, prompting our guide to rush us away. He explained that the animals will generally not attack humans unless they feel threatened and they almost always give a warning first (by opening their mouths and making a hissing sound). He showed us the nests the females dig for their eggs, some 6 meters underground. They usually dig multiple holes but only lay their eggs in one of them (other dragons will eat the eggs so the other holes are dug to hide them). It was a great day and on our way back we stopped for some swimming and snorkeling.
The next day Matt went diving at the park. The park is known for its
untouched reefs, large marine life - mantas, sharks (reef, leopard, and bull), turtles, Napoleons, mola mola, etc.- and very powerful currents. About four months ago two divers went missing for 42 hours. The were found on a beach on Rinca island where the dragons are, and allegedly had to defend themselves. The story was all over the news in Asia, and we didn't believe the story in its entirety until Matt went diving with the same dive company that conducted the search and rescue mission to find the
missing divers. What are the odds, you go diving, the current drags you almost 3 miles, you end up on an island alive, but the island is populated with one of the rarest, most poisonous, and smartest reptiles in the world? What a great story to hear before you go under. All in all the diving was unbelievable and the currents were perfect, just strong enough to push you around a reef wall so you use very little energy and air. Matt was fortunate enough to spend a few minutes with a curious 3 meter white tip reef shark, but didn't bring the camera.
The next day we were planning on taking a bus to Bajawa,
in central Flores, but were approached by a couple from Germany who were looking to share a car. We decided that taking a car vs a public bus would be more comfortable, allowing us to stop for pictures, bathroom, etc and splitting a car 4 ways would save money. We booked a driver through a travel agency for a 5 day trip through Flores, stopping for 2 nights in Bajawa (known for their traditional villages and hot springs) and 2 nights in Moni (a small village nearby to Kelimutu, a crater with 3 multi-colored lakes), and dropping us off in Maumere, the furthest east where we could take a plane back to Bali.
We've been very lucky to have met great people during our travels but you are always taking a risk when you decide to take a trip with people you don't know. In this case, after 5 long days, I think we would have
both been happier riding on the public bus with the goats and the chickens... The trip started out great, we had a brand new comfortable SUV to ride in, our driver Patrice was friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the different areas of Flores, stopping at various points of interest to take pictures...then the complaining started. It was small things at first, not wanting to eat in a recommended restaurant or the food taking too long, then it was the hotel room, the time to meet in the morning, the
recommended order of seeing things. Everything was made difficult and after just 2 days our once cheerful driver was miserable and silent. We tried to make the best of it, allowing them to make most of the decisions since it doesn't really matter to us how we organize our day, what restaurants or hotels we went to didn't matter (its all the same in Flores, rice vegetables and meat for food and a simple room with a bucket shower/toilet) but after a while it was apparent that they could find anything to complain about and we just couldn't bare to be around them. They seemed to enjoy being miserable but we weren't going to allow them to affect our trip. We distanced ourselves when we could and the rest of the time just bit our tongues or laughed.
The drive through Flores on the "Trans-Flores Highway" was
beautiful, lush and green with rice fields, volcanoes, and small villages, passing by people all smiles, their mouthes stained from the red beetle nut, children wielding machetes working with their families in the fields yelling "Hello Mister" and smiling and waving. At one point we passed a gas station with over 2 kms of trucks waiting to fill their tanks. Apparently the recent hike in gas prices has affected Flores badly, not enough fuel to go around and sometimes people are paying up to 5 times the standard price per litre because of the lack of supply. It was a 9 hour drive from Lubuanbajou to Bajawa we were all exhausted from the trip.
The next day we went to the traditional villages of Benas and Luba, just outside the small town of Bajawa. The people there are very sweet, especially the children. Someone had passed away that morning so the villagers
were busy building a coffin and digging the grave so we didn't stay long and only took a few pictures of the village. At the end of the day we went to the hot springs, definitely a highlight of the trip! In Flores it is rare to find a hotel with hot water (in most towns there aren't even telephones) and electricity is usually turned on in the evenings only. The weather is rather cold because of the mountainous area so taking cold showers had been hard.
It was nice to soak in the nice hot baths for a few hours and we met some friendly locals. People in Indonesia are following the US elections closely and even in the smallest villages people want to discuss it. I think if Indonesia was allowed to vote in the November elections, Obama would win by a landslide (everyone knows that Obama studied in Jakarta). When we arrived back in Bajawa, the Germans asked if we wanted to come with them to dinner. Trying to avoid our experience from the night before we just said we were tired and ended up going to a local restaurant close-by, rather than the busy tourist restaurants. They had a set menu in Indonesian so we just sat down and they brought us 2 bowls of soup, big bowls of steamed rice, goat sate (with peanut sauce) and mixed sauteed vegetables, one of the best meals we've had in Indonesia and the bill was $1.75 total.
The
following day we left for Moni, about 4 hours drive from Bajawa. Along the way we stopped in Amire, a small village known for their Arak (Palm Whiskey). Patrice stopped to take us through a "processing plant" which was a bamboo hut with plastic water bottles filled with the strong liquor and a man in the Palm
trees collecting leaves for the Arak. Arak is a very popular local drink in all of Indonesia, it's
basically moonshine and comes in various strengths and sweetness. We all picked up bottles and went on our way. We stopped in a town called Ende, known for it's blue
stone beach. Women collect stones on the beach which are sold for about $5 per sack, the smaller stones fetching a higher price than the larger stones. It's a beautiful stretch of beach and I collected a few blue stones to bring home.
We arrived in Moni which
is an even smaller town than Bajawa and went to bed early since we decided to wake up at 4:30 am to catch sunrise at the top of Kelimutu. It was a short hike up, past the crater lakes, to the viewpoint. The sunrise was beautiful over the crater lakes, which change colors every year. The germans wanted to
walk down the mountain so we went with Patrice in the car back to Moni.
It was funny to see how Patrice's mood instantly changed as soon as they weren't around, we were talking and laughing and he invited us to go to two local wedding receptions later that evening. When we came back we went to
the small but busy local market where people come from various areas to buy fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. The main town of Moni is about 1 km in length but there are smaller villages scattered around the area and the market is very lively. Since there were weddings in the evening, pigs, goats and chickens were being slaughtered around the village during the day.
At around 7pm we left for the weddings. Upon arrival we greeted the bride and groom, making a small offering and then given plates of food. We drank a little arak and then headed off to the second wedding reception. This reception was very lively, we met Mayor and Adel (the bride and Groom), made an offering and ate more food. There was dancing and a lot of drinking, every moment someone was offering us a shot of arak and "no" was not an acceptable answer! We danced some traditional and western dances and drank many, many shots of arak. It was a great night, filled with great people and many memories. We said our goodbyes and stumbled back to our guesthouse. The next morning wasn't so fun, arak in large quantities gives a very bad hangover...
Patrice drove us to the Merpati Airlines office so we could try to reserve a ticket back to Bali. We loved the Merpati Airlines office because it was a true example of Flores. The office had 2 seating areas (old chairs with holes and cigarette ash on them) a counter where you request a ticket (they take your name and call the main office in Bali, there is no internet), and a counter where you pay (cash only) and then you receive a hand written ticket, but not until it is stamped by a guy whose only job is to stamp tickets (maybe his job title is Sr. Ticket Stamper Manager). Most people are smoking cloves inside, dropping ash on the counters and brushing it away when money/tickets need to be exchanged. We could only
imagine what a culture shock it would be for a person from Flores to buy a airplane ticket from a office in the US or anywhere in the Western world. We were thinking about heading further east but in the end decided to head back to Bali to get some things done before leaving Indonesia. We were lucky to get a ticket on a flight leaving that day and Patrice drove us to the airport where we said our goodbyes.
We are now back in Bali, we'll be flying to Borneo on August7th!
We arrived in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and it is simply unique. Kuching has an unusual name - the word means "cat" in Malay and there are many statues of cats dotting the city. Kuching is very welcoming towards visitors, but people don't put on an act for you and tourism is not their main focus. The city just goes about its own business in a relaxed manner and it's pleasant to be a part of it. Kuching is a cosmopolitan city, and it's reflected in the faces on the streets. While the population is predominantly Chinese and Malay, Kuching is home to people from all of Sarawak’s 26-plus ethnic groups. 
The city centre is small and walkable, the narrow, bustling streets crammed with shops selling things from the mundane to the exotic. There are beautiful Chinese temples, a stunning Mosque, colonial-style architecture, and a beautiful waterfront with a daily market. We found a restaurant on our first night which (although a little out of budget) had the best meals we've eaten since starting our travels. Steak with mushroom bernaise sauce, mashed potatoes and vegetables...my mouth waters just thinking about it! We had 3 amazing meals there, everything we tried on 
the menu was great and there was a lounge with a big screen TV and couches setup to watch the olympics. We spent time walking along the river, visiting the market and exploring the city centre. Our primary reason for going to Kuching was to get a visa from the Chinese consulate there but upon arrival we were told the embassy was only available to Malaysian residents. The girl mentioned it might be easier to just fly back to the US to get the visa which was comical. This means we will need to make a separate stop to Kuala Lumpur but I'm happy we landed in Kuching as we would have never explored it otherwise. 
We spent a day at the Semenggoh Orangutan sanctuary, just 15 minutes outside of Kuching. For over 20 years, the wardens here trained young orangutans, who had been orphaned or rescued from captivity, how to survive in the wild. The success of this programme has left the surrounding forest reserve with a thriving population of healthy orangutans, who are now breeding in the wild. 
When you visit Semenggoh, you still have the opportunity to see some of their successful graduates, semi-wild orang utans and their babies. Although they spend most of their time roaming the forest, they sometimes come back to the Centre for a free meal. We arrived early, about 2 hours before the scheduled "feeding time" where wardens set out fruit and milk for oranguatans who might come for the feeding. It's not guaranteed that you will see any orangutans at all. As we were 
waiting for the feeding area to open, one orangutan came swinging in from the trees...then another...and another...until there were over 10 swinging over our heads! We even saw "mama", their oldest graduate at 37 years of age who seems to run the place. She sat down on the bench in the same spot we were sitting, rather than staying up in the trees. The wardens brought out fruit and set it around the trees and we just watched the orangutans swinging around us in awe, it felt like we were in a chapter of the Jungle Book! :) The scheduled 3:30 feeding time also brought the crowds and as we walked the trail into the jungle, we couldn't move, any sight of an orangutan brought mobs wielding cameras and we couldn't take it. We left the trail and went back to Kuching, thankful we had such a great experience before the crowds arrived.
Matt had met a guy named 
Sean who was an experienced guide in Bako National Park so we took him up on his offer of a guided tour. Bako contains a wide range of vegetation - containing 7 different ecosystems. Bako also contains a rich variety of wildlife and a coastline covered with small bays, coves and beaches. We had a 45 minute bus journey and then a 30 minute boat ride before arriving at the entrance to the park. Upon arrival we saw the we saw two bearded pigs walking around park headquarters, 
hopefully a good sign of things to come. Further down 
the first trail we saw the rare and unusual proboscis monkey, they are difficult to spot and you’ll usually hear the crash of vegetation before you are able to locate them high in the trees. Probiscus monkeys are a funny site, big pot bellies, big noses and their 
fur is white on their bottoms (making them look as if they have a diaper on). We continued down the trail and saw alot of interesting plant life, it was especially interesting to see all of the carnivorous pitcher plants. We stopped at the end of one of the trails to sit on the nice sandy beach and relax for a while. There is a rock you can climb up to with beautiful views of the beach below. We hiked back to the park headquarters for lunch, one cheeky monkey stealing a can of coke and running for the trees where he peeled it open, poured it all over himself and then licked it off... We spent the remainder of the day watching the probiscus monkeys and then boarded a boat to go home.
We took a flight to Kota Kinabalu, which is the capital of the Sabah region of Borneo. It's not all that appealing of a town, mainly a port city but there was some nice shopping and a lively market. We tried to see a movie but didn't like the choices, when we started to leave we could hear the crash of bowling pins and walked upstairs to find a full scale bowling alley. We couldn't resist playing a few games and had a great evening, we didn't expect to be bowling in Borneo :). We arranged our travel to Semporna which is a 7 hour bus journey (which in asian time means about 12 hours). We broke down once along the way but it wasn't long before another bus was arriving to pick us up. We stopped for lunch along the way and met a fellow passenger named Muhammad Ikbhal, an old man with a cane with flowing white robes and a long white beard to match. He sat down and introduced himself, he was from Peshawar, Pakistan and working in 
Borneo over the next two years. Generally, when we meet someone who is muslim the first question is almost always "How many children do you have?" and when the answer is no children, the answer isinevitably "Why???" :) He has 7 children in Pakistan, all but 2 are now married. We had an interesting conversation with him and he offered for us to stay at his home in Borneo, if only for the night if we would like. The offer was tempting and in hindsight I wish we had taken him up on the offer but we had a paid reservation in Semporna and were anxious to get there after the long journey. At his stop he turned to say goodbye and we watched him join at least 10 people waiting for him, wishing we had taken the chance and exited the bus. The rest of the bus journey was long and uncomfortable, the air conditioner worked as a refridgerator and we were huddling together trying to keep warm. Next bus ride we will be better prepared with warm clothes!!
We are now in Semporna, the entry point to Sipadan Island, one of the best dive sites in the world. Matt signed up for his Divemaster course so we will be spending the next 3 weeks on Mabul island.
