After Thailand, I was off to beautiful Bali, Indonesia. I loved it before I even set foot on the island. Flying into Denpasar Airport, which is really in Kuta, the planes make their final approach low and slow over the ocean, and finally over Kuta Beach and onto the runway. Getting out of the airport was the usual unpleasant experience of ducking and dodging the numerous touts and scamsters trying to extract every last Indonesian Rupiah out of you in exchange for a very short ride into town. I managed to haggle one down to a reasonable level, and got into Kuta. As usual, I hadn't done a proper job researching the accomodation situation ahead of time, and spent 2 hours in the heat lugging around my backpack, which seemed to be gaining weight at a rather alarming rate. I ended up eventually lucking out and finding a sweet room with a queen sized bed, and huge balcony for only $8US/night.
The next day, it was time to try my hand at surfing on Kuta Beach. I've always wanted to try surfing, but living in Winnipeg, the opportunities to try have been a little hard to come by. We started out in the morning by getting dryland lessons, which involved our instructors showing us the basics on how to handle the board in the water, and the most important part - going from lying flat against the board to getting up and standing, doing your best to look ultra cool along the way. After this, we took to the waters. I was surprised when I successfully stood up on the very first wave that I challenged. I figured I must be a natural, and so it was to my dismay when I was embarassingly tossed aside by the next mini-wave that I took on. After some more waves and trial and error, I was getting up on every one and having a blast. I was taking on bigger and bigger waves, and even learning to steer. Very cool. My instructor said I did well, and even went on to say how much better a surfer I was than my brother Chris. I wasn't sure how he even knew Chris, but I didn't ask questions.
The next day I took a motorbike taxi down to the Southern coast of Bali, which is blessed with huge cliffs, where the ocean is crashing hard down below against their base. It was here that I took a 30 minute introduction to paragliding, with a local guy named Ketut. Ketut was all business, and within 20 minutes time - barely giving me enough time to take down my can of coke for courage - I was gearing up and waiting for just the right gust to get airborne. We didn't have to wait long, and soon we were in the air, floating over the ocean, just beyond the edge of the cliff. It took a few seconds for my senses to adapt to this new feeling of floating in the sky, without the noise of a motor to add some realism to it. But soon I was smiling and enjoying the experience thoroughly. It occurred to me that paragliding is not so much a thrill sport as much as it is an experience of serenity. The equipment is fairly minimal, and the wind is your fuel source, creating lift on the basic wing stretched out above you. I loved the experience, but I have to admit the slimpicity of the sport freaked me out a little. The simplicity also meant vulnerability to me, and I think I prefer the roar of a 4 stroke engine cooking up fuel in front of me, and having the familiar controls of an aircraft in my hands to make the plane do what I want it to in an instant. Maybe I'm just a control freak. But either way, it was a cool and unforgettable experience.
My nights in Kuta were spent drinking beer in various bars in Poppies Lane I and II, with random people I'd met either on tours or at my hotel. Kuta is basically to Australians what Cancun is to Canadians and Americans. So it was because of this that I enjoyed it for what it was, but after 3 days of seeing people sloppy drunk everywhere, and struggling to sleep at 3am while the music thumped on relentlessly, I was ready to move on and see a more genuine Bali.
I went up North to a town called Ubud. Ubud is the cultural heart of Bali, and it was much more tame than Kuta. I also enjoyed my stay there because I found a hotel where my room was absolutely amazing. The room was a good size, with a comfy bed. But the best part was the marble-floored private patio I had all to myself, along with an enormous balcony overlooking a river surrounded in jungle. Oh yeah, and they even hand delivered banana pancakes, a fruit bowl, and a thermos of Balinese coffee to my patio morning. All this for a cool $10/night. Not too bad at all! This place would have easily gone for $150/night in Canada, probably more. Ubud was basically a place to just chill out for me, and it served this role perfectly. The one highlight activity I did was taking a stroll through the Monkey Forest Sanctuary, where there are hundreds of monkeys everywhere, looking and behaving strangely similar to humans. I could have sworn one of them was my brother Corey.
While I was in Ubud, I was busy planning my next move. I was looking around on Couchsurfing.com when I came across an ad from a guy who owned a restaurant and guesthouses on the west coast of Bali (Sako Beach). The deal was that if people were willing to come and help his staff learn better English, that in return, they could stay at his hotel for free. I jumped at the opportunity, and within a couple of days I was being picked up by Arnan, the owner of the place. Arnan was originally from Java, and had moved to Sako Beach to manage the business, as his parents also owned other restaurants and hotels throughout Java and Bali. Unfortunately, I ended up not spending a lot of time teaching his staff English, but this was only because they were so busy almost all the time, and also because Arnan and I were busy hanging out. We had a lot in common, and we spent a lot of time having lengthy conversations over dinner or beers, about business and life in general. His restaurant had nightly entertainment, and one night I was convinced by the keyboardist to join him on stage to sing some songs for the guests. After some hesitation, I figured why the hell not, and was soon up there belting out various songs - pretty funny experience.
We were soon joined by another couchsurfer, Yongkie, also from Java, who was spending his long weekend in Bali. The 3 of us had an awesome time, cruising around the area in Arnan's truck, stopping for coffees and food along the way. I also managed to drag myself out of bed at 8am every morning for a vigorous jog along the beach. After Yongkie left, Arnan and I went to meet up with his sister and family, in Dreamland, which is an amazing beach resort area just south of Kuta (did I mention Bali is a very small island?) It was his sister's birthday, and we had some drinks and appetizers with them, followed up with some swimming in the pool overlooking the beach and sunset. At the end of the night, I said bye to Arnan, as I was off to Lombok the next day. Hanging out with Arnan was easily the highlight of my time in Bali.
I flew to and from the island of Lombok via airplane, on different airlines, but both of them were similar in that they used what must have been hand-me-downs from the bigger airlines. These birds had faded paint on the outside, and interiors that hadn't been updated in decades. So I wasn't really all that surprised when I found out that these airlines were on the "blacklist" of many aviation safety bodies. Just another adventure. The highlight of Lombok was the Gili Islands. Gili Trawangan is a tiny little island that has exploded with tourism, which is probably the reason it took 2 hours to find a place to stay, which was pretty pricey. Luckily, I had met another solo traveler - Emma from New Zealand - on the boat ride over, and we shared a place. My time on the Gilis was pretty chilled, but I loved it. Lots of beach time, and lounging around in seaside cafes and restaurants, sipping on ice cold beers.
Next stop - Malaysia!
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