We met up with Sandra in Bangkok, took the train to the city, then worked on finding a place. It was Sandra's birthday the next day, so we wanted some place nice. We're in a very nice hotel where a separate bed fits in the living room. Yes, the hotel room has a living room. :D We headed to the nearby mall for a very yummy dinner of sushi.
This morning, we found breakfast, then went to find Little India. We went through a section Chinatown, which was a bit crazy. A narrow walkway through shops. It took us a while to find Little India, or really very many good Indian restaurants. We eventually found one and had a good lunch. Since then we've just been hanging out in the hotel relaxing. Tomorrow we head out on an overnight train to Northern Thailand.
-Miranda
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In the morning we got up and headed out for a dive. The goal was Manta Point and Crystal Bay if the conditions were good. We got to Crystal Bay and went in. There were fish everywhere. The water was pretty chilly, but it was still pretty neat. We were looking for Mula Mula (Sunfish) which are huge and apparently hang out in that area. We didn't get to see any. :( Oh well.
Next we headed to Manta Point. They spotted mantas from the boat, so we hopped in. It was very cool. We weren't in very deep water, so we could have brought the camera, but we didn't know that before going in. Oh well. We saw around 6 manta rays. Two were almost completely black. It turned out to be a great last dive.
The rest of the day was mostly spent relaxing. We had yummy pizza at a restaurant near our place. It was cracker thin crust. They even had popcorn as an appetizer. :D Right before our pizza came out the power went out. We got to eat in the dark, well, to candle light. Very fun.
Today we head to Kuta, which is near the airport so we can fly to Bangkok tomorrow.
-Miranda
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This turned out to be a bit of an adventure... I'll warn you now, this is going to be a long blog. The trip is not something we would repeat and I'm not totally sure it was worth it, but there were some fun aspects and we saw some neat things. It was originally going to be only 3 days. We were going to stay on Flores, do some diving, then fly back to Bali to catch our flight to Bangkok. As we began looking into flights more, we found out that they were going to be a bit more expensive than planned. No big deal. Start looking at booking the flight, and they only had 6 or so nationalities listed... So, you put a US passport number in then say you're from Australia or Japan?! Didn't really make sense. Then I started looking up information on Merpati, the company we would fly with. Most people talked about how it was incredibly unreliable. One couple had a 48 hour window to get back to Bali for their international flight and they missed the flight because Merpati delayed the flight one day, then cancelled it the next. In the end, we decided to just extend the boat trip and stay on board for the whole 5 days.
Breaking it down by day is probably the best and easiest way to go.
Day 1:
We woke up early and, fortunately, Joe was feeling better. We got to the Perama office, paid for the rest of the ticket, then hopped on a bus and waited. During the bus ride across Lombok, we stopped in a village and watched a woman make a pot, which was kind of neat. We also stopped at the boat dock, where they build and work on the boats. From there, we got on the boat and headed out.
We left port around 2pm. We didn't motor long that day. Just to a nearby island. There we snorkeled, then had dinner around a campfire. The crew played and sang some songs on guitar. Some were traditional, local songs, some were popular Western songs. We got back on the boat and worked to find some place to sleep.
Here's the thing... There are cabins. You pay a lot more for a cabin. Sandra had heard that the cabins weren't that great anyway, so we opted for sleeping on the deck. They said we would get sleeping bags. We didn't end up getting any. You could rent a blanket if you wanted though. You were provided with a rock hard, huge pillow and a mat to sleep on. There were 22 people that were supposed to sleep on the deck. The back area was covered, and there was the downstairs area that was where we ate, then the open deck in front of the captain's room. We decided to take the front deck because the sky was clear, it was warm and it looked gorgeous. Once we were moving, it got a bit windy, so we all bundled up in warmer clothes. Joe and I used surongs for blankets. This was going all right until at about 3am we started getting sprayed with water. The wind was really strong and blowing any splashing from the boat up onto the deck. We all got up (there were 7 of us) and tried to find other places to sleep. Everything was packed! One of the girls got one of the bunks in the captain's room and Joe started moving others to the benches on the side of the boat (they were right outside the upstairs cabins). Franzi and Rafaela (two Swiss girls that were friends with Sandra and with us on the trip) slept under the benches on one side, Sandra slept on top on the other side and Joe eventually went under the bench on the same side as Sandra. The crew or captain kept telling me I could sleep behind the captain. I finally moved my mat in there and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, the captain smokes probably a cigarette or two and hour, plus there was a trap door under my feet that people tried to lift a few times during the night. Needless to say, most of us didn't get much sleep.
Day 2:
We got up, had breakfast where Joe had a huge rat run across his foot and outside. That convinced us we didn't want to sleep downstairs... We then headed out to an island that had a salt water lake in the middle. The lake was gorgeous, but we decided not to go swimming in it. We did some snorkeling, which was neat. We then went back to the boat for lunch and to continue motoring along. We hogged the back area in order to stay out of the sun and we all tried to sleep in order to make up for lost sleep the previous night.
Around 6 hours of traveling later, we arrived on a different island where they told us we were there to watch the sunset... The beach was awful... It looked like the coral had just been dynamited (some do that for fishing). The beach was just covered in dead, blasted coral. The water was super murky and there was garbage all over the beach. We went in just to cool off, but that was it. We watched the sunset, but before it was even completely done, they started telling us we had to go back to the boat.... Weird.
For that night, we hoped to get the back area to try and sleep a little better. Unfortunately, the group that was back there the previous night beat us to it, so we went back on the front deck to try it again. We got all ready in our warm clothes then tried to sleep. It didn't take long before the first splash came, so instead of trying to fight it, we moved right to the benches. This time I slept on one of them. Definitely more sleep than the previous night, but not by a lot.
Day 3:
We arrived at Komodo Island and went to shore. We did the 'long' hike, which took 2 hours. It was pretty hot, but the hike wasn't hard. We saw deer and a wild boar. The boat was dying, unfortunately. The poor thing looked terrible. We also saw a small Komodo Dragon. Once we arrived near the restaurant and people areas, we saw two large Komodo Dragons. They find food near people, so tend to hang out around there. They were pretty impressive.
After Komodo, we only had to travel about 20 minutes to Pink Beach. The sand was a mix of red and white. It was gorgeous. The water was chilly, but the snorkeling was amazing. Of course we had taken the camera out of our bag for the Komodo hike and forgot to grab it again, but Sandra had her camera and took some great photos.
Once we were done snorkeling we headed to Flores where we would have a couple hours on land, were dropping off some people and picking up some new ones. I got work done, we had some juice at a restaurant, and then headed back to the boat. For that night, the plan was to stay in the harbor there. This meant no traveling, which means no ocean spray!! We were quite excited and set up on the front deck again. We were there for maybe 2 hours and it started raining.... That was probably the second time it had rained the entire time we were in Indonesia. Again, we all got up and moved to the benches. There was a little extra room though, so Sandra got a spot in the back that was still open and one of the other people got a spot downstairs.
Day 4:
We got up, had breakfast, then the boat left for Rinca Island. This is another island that is part of the Komodo National Park. We did another hike here, which I think was much neater than the hike on Komodo Island. The terrain was amazing. Right away we saw quite a few Komodo Dragons. They have Water Buffalo there. We did see one. This hike was also 2 hours, but it was pretty hot again.
After leaving the island, we did some more snorkeling. This spot we just left from the boat since the tide was too low to take the small boats onto the beach. The visibility was pretty good. We saw a Hawksbill Turtle and a couple lionfish just swimming around! Normally they are hanging out in a crevice, but these two were swimming over sand, which was very fun to see. After that, we just traveled the rest of the day and through the night.
That night was absolutely gorgeous. Joe and I decided to try the front deck again. Sandra got a spot downstairs while the others took their spots under the benches. The sky was clear and it wasn't too windy, at least right away. Joe spent a good chunk of the night watching the stars. At one point, we noticed the moon was close to setting. It was very orange. We watched the moon set, which was amazing. It's not something you normally see, plus there were wispy clouds which reflected the orange light. Since I wasn't sleeping well, I moved to a bench again.
Day 5:
In the morning we went to an island with a waterfall. We walked to the waterfall and went swimming. There was even a rope swing into the water below the waterfall. Joe was the first to go off that, of course. (: Joe also noticed a rope tied to a tree near the bottom of the waterfall, so we used that to go behind it. I went later. It was a small, but neat limestone cave.
After, we motored some more to another snorkeling spot. This place wasn't great, but still had some interesting fish. We didn't stay long, just so we could get back to Lombok a little earlier.
During the last hour or so, the wind and waves were getting pretty crazy. It wasn't terrible, but not great fun either. About 15 minutes before we were supposed to get to Lombok, it started pouring. We were hanging out in the back area, and began to get drenched even though it's mostly covered. Then, four of the mats that we sleep on (which were mostly piled in the front) blew off the boat! We had to turn around and the crew worked on fishing them out of the water. We made it to port fine, but I'm really glad that didn't happen in the middle of the trip. There were simply too many people that were supposed to sleep on the deck. There wasn't enough room if it rained like that.
After arriving in Lombok, we hopped on a bus, made it back to Senggigi and went back to the hotel we had stayed in before the trip. Unfortunately, Joe started feeling bad again. He ended up staying up most of the night with a fever feeling nasty. The next morning I found out that my towel was missing. I thought it had been in the bag, but Joe informed me he had hung it up on the line on the boat... Whoops. Minus one towel. Those camp towels are pretty common among backpackers so since I didn't know he had hung it up, so I didn't know to look for it. Oh well.
This morning we took a fast boat to Pedang Bai on Bali and have been mostly relaxing.
-Miranda
Most photos by Sandra.
The money to pay for the trip.
Ra and Franzi sleeping under the benches.
Komodo Dragon!
Pink Beach.
Water Buffalo.
Lionfish. It was pretty deep. We dove down to it, but the color isn't good.
Crown of Thorns. This is a type of star fish. It eats the coral.
An anemone fish.
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Our last evening on Gili T. we decided to go to a movie. They have a 'theater' where you just have to buy food or a drink and you can watch the movie. It's basically just cushions on the ground, then a projector. I got popcorn (first popcorn since Australia!) and we watched Water For Elephants.
The next day we basically just hung around until our boat was supposed to leave for Gili Air at 4pm. Once we arrived on Gili Air and got a place, we found dinner and that was basically it. The next day we went for a walk around the island. The thought was to possibly go snorkeling somewhere off shore, but we didn't end up picking a spot. It turns out, the 'best' spot is actually in front of the hotel we were staying at. We did snorkel there for a bit. Joe and I just used our swim goggles while Sandra used her own snorkel gear. We didn't bother getting fins. It was neat, but renting gear wasn't really necessary for such a short time. Dinner that night was really good. They had tempe kabobs and tempe 'steak'. Super yummy.
This morning Joe wasn't feeling great, so we had a quick breakfast, then got a pony cart to the harbor in order to catch the boat to Lombok at 8:30am. Once we arrived in Lombok we had to catch a shuttle bus to Senggigi where we will be leaving on a 3 day, 2 night boat trip to the Komodos tomorrow. Sandra found us a nice place to stay that has wifi. Unfortunately it doesn't reach the room, but there's power in the restaurant, so it works out fine. Joe's been trying to sleep this afternoon. He has a fever so we'll be watching him closely. Hopefully it's nothing.
-Miranda
A pony cart.
There are cats all over all the Gilis. This was a kitten that climbed on top of Sandra's bag.
Joe snorkeling.
My view from the cafe where I watched the bags on Gili Air.
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We decided to head to the Gili Islands to check them out. Sandra had heard a lot of good things about them. There are three. The 'main' one is Gili Trawangan. We took the boat over in the afternoon and found a place to stay at Bubble Dive. There are no cars or motor vehicles here. Transport is by walking, bicycle or covered pony carts. While here, Joe and I decided to get our Advanced Water certification. It just consists of doing 5 dives, so pretty easy.
The day after we arrived, Joe and I did our first deep dive down to 30 meters. It was also a drift dive, meaning the dive is in a strong current. It was pretty nuts. I was busy watching Joe since he takes a bit longer to get down (especially on his first dive), then I looked at the bottom and realize I was zipping along! I had to watch where I was going or possibly run into some coral.
The first dive went well. To complete it in two days, we decided to do a night dive. A few of the things you are supposed to avoid during a night dive is strong currents, high surge and surf and diving in an area that has things you can get entangled in. This area had both strong current (not as strong as the afternoon dive, but still a significant current) and we were dodging boat anchor lines... It was super creepy. I would be watching for Joe to come down, then look over and see a rope coming at me that I had to dodge. Once we were down, it wasn't too bad. There were also cages that were built down there that have a current running through them in order to help the coral grow faster. We had to dodge those as well, but the really neat fish were under those. We even saw an octopus! We watched it hunting. I think we both could enjoy night dives, but that one was pretty freaky.
The next morning we dove off the shore. On our way back in, the jellyfish were everywhere. They just feel like pinpricks. They're not dangerous, just annoying. The next dive was at Shark Point. We went down to 30m, saw some turtles and 4 White Tipped Reef Sharks. The last dive was a pretty easy one. We were pretty tired after two days of diving.
Sandra met up with a friend of hers from Switzerland while we were diving. She had enjoyed being able to take a break from speaking English all the time. She and her friend even rented bikes and went around the island. One cute thing is they have a turtle sanctuary. It's basically three large tanks with a bunch of baby turtles in them. They keep the turtles for a year, allowing them to get bigger, before releasing them to help up their chances of survival.
Saturday we went on a snorkel trip around the three Gili Islands. It was neat and fun, though the small boat was a bit crowded. We felt a bit naked in the water after doing all that diving.
The internet hasn't been great, hence the lack of updates. Hopefully it will get better later.
-Miranda
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