Pamper time

I took a shuttle bus from Padangbai to Kuta today and because I described it as a ride from hell yesterday, I was pleasantly proven wrong for today's ride. There were only six people in the van, including the driver, and it was one of the easiest trips yet (aside from the roads, of course, which always seem to be horrible in Indonesia).

Anyway, my big plan for the day was to check in to a hotel and then go get some pampering done. I ended up with a room for 100,000 rupiah which is, quite frankly, more than I've paid anywhere else in Indonesia. But that includes breakfast and there's a pool which figured nicely into my idea of pampering. I walked into a salon nearby, saw that they had a menu, and just started saying, "I'll take that and that and that. Can you do all that today? Great! I'll be back in a half-hour after I eat lunch." A few hours later I was painted and waxed and scrubbed and rubbed and steamed and feeling pretty great. When all was said and done, I had a pedicure, a wax, a massage and a facial for just under $18. Not a bad way to spend a day's budget, if you ask me, particularly since I know I won't be able to do that in Australia. Then I went back to the hotel and laid by the pool for awhile with a book.

I am really going to miss Indonesia. Maybe it's because I mostly took things slow here and spent a lot of time in fewer places rather than a little time in lots of places, but I really felt like I knew the places that I visited. Or maybe Indonesians are just super friendly and that helped me feel right at home. Regardless, everywhere I went people knew me by name and I had my regular places - mini markets, cafes, bars, restaurants, bookstores. Generally if I'm not gonna be in a place for very long, I don't like to go to the same place twice, even if I've had the best meal ever. But when I'm staying put for more than a couple of days, I do like to go to the same place because you get to know people more easily. There's something comforting in feeling like you're at home when you're thousands of miles away. 

Indonesia has everything. Mountains, beaches, jungle, volcanoes, diving, trekking. All kinds of stuff. There's so much of Indonesia that I haven't seen, so I feel like another trip here will definitely be in my future. And did you know it's the fourth largest country by population after China, India, and the US? I had no idea.

The other thing I really enjoyed about Indonesia was the attitude. People were friendly and laid-back everywhere I went. And my musician friends would like that music is MUCH appreciated here. Locals and foreigners alike are constantly playing an instrument, singing, and trying to get others to join into the festivities. I feel like my description isn't doing it justice, so I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it. Or visit yourself one day!

In less than 24 hours I'll be in Australia, my fourth (and final) continent of my trip! Will is already there - due to a goofy scheduling issue, he made it there three days earlier than he thought. But I'll be sure to say "I told you so!" when he picks me up from the airport. :-)

SHARK!

I came to Padangbai on Monday and barely made it here with my head. There was so much for sale  on the ferry - water, chips, cigarettes, t-shirts, cookies, instant noodles, fruit, rice, dvds, knives (!), blankets, matresses, peanuts, drinks, gum, hats, towels, jewelry, honey, and newspapers (yes, I actually made a list just so I'd remember) - and I said 'no' so often that I was sure I was gonna nod my head right off my body! But I made it here and I'm staying at a place called Kembar Inn, just a short walk from anything that I could possibly need.

After my five hour ferry, I decided to treat myself to a beer. I walked into Sunshine Bar and no one was there, but a local by the name of Newman introduced himself, talked to me for awhile, and said that live music would be starting in an hour. Awhile after that, when more people had streamed in, I turned to the table next to me and asked if any of them were divers. They all kind of laughed and I couldn't figure out what was up. So I went on to say that I just arrived, wanted to do some diving, and was looking for a recommendation for a dive shop. As it turns out, they laughed because they all work for dive shops! Happy coincidence for me, huh?

I really liked Gabby and Chris with OK Divers, so I decided to dive with them the next day. It was just me and them which was awesome. There were lots of new things about these dives compared to the ones I've done previously. Full wetsuit with booties instead of a shorty wetsuit without booties, a new type of boat to the dive site, a different way to enter the water, using toothpaste on the goggles to keep them from fogging up instead of plain ol' spit. And, perhaps you've figured it out by now. . .I saw a shark!! A whitetip reef shark, to be exact. How cool is that?! We saw two, actually, but we think that it was the same one. He apparently wasn't particularly large, but everything looks bigger (and closer!) underwater and I didn't care anyway, I was just excited that I got to see it. We also saw a cuttlefish hunting and catching a shrimp, lots of very colorful nudibranches, nudibranch eggs which look like a ribbon of pink tissue, and a huge clam. All in all, they were two awesome dives.

Today, after a breakfast of Bali coffee, a pineapple jaffle, rambutens, and mangosteen, I walked 20 minutes or so to a pretty, secluded beach. There's a much closer beach to my hotel, but I specifically chose this one because it's so quiet. I spent the rest of the day, lying on the beach in a shady spot, and putting a huge dent in the book that I'm reading. Tomorrow I expect I'll do more of the same. :-) I'd been planning on leaving on Friday to go back to Kuta, but I think I just decided tonight that maybe I'll stay here a bit longer. Kuta was rowdy/drunk tourist central and not really my scene. Padangbai is quieter and just lovely.

Sunbathe, dive. Sunbathe, dive.

I alluded before to the fact that I needed some down time. Partially that's because of the crazy amount of travel I've done recently and partially it's because I know I have a crazy amount of travel ahead of me. When my friend Will joins me in Australia, he's only going to have a limited amount of time before he has to head back to his new USCG base in San Francisco. The plan is to fly into Perth, spend a couple of days there, and then fly to Cairns in northeastern Australia. From there, we'll (somehow) make our way to Sydney from where Will will fly back to the States. Here's the thing. If you've ever flipped through a Lonely Planet guidebook, you may have noticed that they give sample trip itineraries. The OZ LP designates a 6-8 week time frame for the Cairns-Sydney portion alone. Will has about 3 1/2 weeks. So, uh, yeah. It'll be crazy. No worries, though. Once he leaves, I'll probably turn back around to spend more time in places and do them "for real."

Anyway, for now, that down time consists of me doing one of two things: sunbathing or diving. Oh, okay, there's reading and eating and a few other not so strenuous activities thrown in there, too, but that's about it. Gili Trawangan (GT) beaches were perfect for relaxation and now I'm in Senggigi. I'm staying at a place called Pondok Siti Hawa where I have a bungalow that's practically right on the beach. It has a porch where I can read and listen to the waves crash, and an open air bathroom (so cool! well, until I hung my towel up to dry and it got drenched in the downpour we had this afternoon). The best part is that I totally have the beach to myself so it's really peaceful. There's no diving here in Senggigi, but I did get two dives in while I was still on GT. I saw LOTS of sea turtles which was just amazing and I also saw cuttlefish. The neat thing about these guys is that their skin changes colors to camouflage themselves and/or to communicate. Watching it happen right in front of my eyes was awesome.

In a day or two I'll leave Senggigi for Padangbai where I'll be able to do more diving. Then I'll head back to Bali for my last few days in Indonesia. Sunbathe, dive. Sunbathe, dive. :-D

Cinnamon trees and big-ass lizards

I'm back and that means it's finally time to post about Bukittinggi! It's been a week since I left Bukittinggi; talk about stringing you along mercilessly, huh? 

Not too long after my arrival in Bukittinggi I met a local by the name of Lala. He suggested a hotel for me which, honestly, was kinda crap, but he still turned out to be a pretty cool guy. He told me about a hangout cafe that was nice and very much needed after my long overnight bus ride from Lake Toba and then he offered to walk around with me and show me some of the sights. We went to Panorama Vista with very good views of the mountains Singgalang, Sago, and Merapi (a still active volcano). Next we checked out a couple of the markets (one of my very favorite things to do in a new place) and scoped the old clock tower in the center of town. When I finally decided I was so tired I couldn't possibly walk another step, Lala and I went back to the cafe for a coffee and some chatting. (Lala, btw, is a pretty interesting character and I'll have to tell you more about him some time. Someone remind me!) I was trying to figure out my game plan for the rest of my time in Bukittinggi and made arrangements to spend the following day with Lala on the back of a motorbike checking out the surrounding areas of Bukittinggi (it means "tall hill" in case you were wondering).

The next morning Lala had something come up and he couldn't do the tour after all, but he introduced me to Roni (as in the San Francisco treat) and I went with him instead. There were a number of scheduled stops for the day and after the amount of time that's passed, I honestly can't even remember the order of things, but it doesn't matter much. We started out by checking out a couple of villages, making stops along the way to take pictures. For one of these stops, Roni pulled some bark off of a tree and told me I could chew it if I wanted. The last time this happened was in Bukit Lawang when my guide handed me some bark from a quinine tree. It was very bitter and took forever to get that horrible, medicinal taste out of my mouth, so I wasn't in such a hurry to go tasting random tree barks. I smelled it first and immediately recognized it to be cinnamon. I tried it, expecting it to be at least a little bit bitter, but it was quite pleasant actually. Did YOU know cinnamon came from trees? Because it honestly never even occurred to me. Cinnamon wasn't the only plant I got a lesson on, either. Next Roni handed me a tiny, slightly closed up yellow flower bud that almost looked like a smaller-than-pinky-fingernail version of a chrysanthemum and told me to chew it. He hadn't steered me wrong yet so I didn't even hesitate this time and was only slightly surprised when my mouth started to go numb. Apparently this flower is used by locals for toothaches and other mouth injuries. And finally in the area of plants, Roni pointed out a type of fern that is sensitive to touch and actually closes up when you get near it (I'd also seen this in Malaysia and it's so cool), and we chatted with a guy who was harvesting coffee cherries.

Alright, so enough about the plants. We also saw lots of water buffalo (some super close to the road and making funny faces at us), flying fox bats, and monitor lizards. Now, monitor lizards aren't nearly as big as Komodo dragons (which live on the island of Komodo in Indonesia and isn't an island I'll get to before my visa runs out), but they're still pretty big, hence the "big-ass" descriptor in the title. And though we did see two of them, only one truly lived up to that, the other was downright tiny in comparison.

In addition to seeing more of the mountains I mentioned above, we also went to Lake Maninjou and Sianok Canyon. The lake was absolutely stunning and made for an awesome place to stop for coffee. But the road surrounding it, 44 Bends (or so called by Roni anyway), definitely added to it and was a lot of fun on a motorbike. Sianok was no Grand Canyon, but it was cool, too. 

And the villages. One was known for their brown sugar making and one for their silver making; we watched both activities for awhile before moving on. At lunch time we stopped at a place where I met the little guy in the picture. He was super shy at first, but he came around. :-) He must've been about four or so and in between spurts of playing he was working in a school book, the kind that preps you for reading and writing. It was with him that I learned (at least) four new Bahasa Indonesian words and had a great time doing it. If I'd stuck around even longer, I'm sure I'd know more.

The tour ended around 7pm, I took a quick shower, and went out for my last dinner in Bukittinggi. It was an earlyish night since I had to catch an 8:30am bus to Padang for a flight.

You're probably not keeping track of the amount of travel involved between Lake Toba and the Gili Islands. Let me recap for you. It started with the 17 hour bus trip from Lake Toba to Bukittinggi. A 17 hour bus trip made much worse by the fact that Indonesian roads are pretty horrible. You'll be tooling along and then all of a sudden have to come to a dead stop because the roads are rutted and rocky and, well, non-existent, actually. Two days later I spent the better part of nine hours on the back of a motorbike. The day after that I went two hours by bus to Padang, flew to Jakarta (two hours), had a one hour layover then flew to Bali (two hours). Two days after THAT, I rode 1 1/2 hours by bus to Padangbai, took a five hour ferry to Senggigi, rode one hour by bus to Bangsal, and (finally) took a 45 minute shuttle boat to Gili Trawangan. Is it any wonder that I wanted to do nothing for a few days (or weeks!) after all of that??

Gilis

I know I promised a Bukittinggi update, but it's going to have to wait a little while longer. I'm currently on Gili Trawangan, a tiny little island (no motor vehicles, pop. 800) off of Lombok. Internet is ridiculously expensive, so I'm gonna be kinda scarce for the next few days or so. But here's what I can tell you so far. There are volcanoes jutting up from the horizon, the water is crystal blue, and the sands are white, black, and super soft. And tomorrow I go diving!

Short update

I have LOTS to catch up on and not lots of time to do it, but here's the basic gist. Bukittinggi and the people I met there were great. I'm in Kuta on the island of Bali now (met up with Rowan again) and heading to the Gili Islands tomorrow. I'm in the process of writing a nice long write up on Bukittinggi, but wanted to go ahead and throw something up here to let everyone know where I am and where I'm going.

Stay tuned. . .

Soaking up some culture

On the ferry to Pulau Samosir the other day, I met three Malaysian guys who work in Indonesia and were on their way to the island for a short weekend trip. We got to chatting and they told me about a Batak performance happening later that night. The Batak are an ethnic group of Northern Sumatra. Since then I've been immersing myself in Batak culture. The performance included singing, dancing, instrument playing, and a little bit of flirting with the crowd. :-) It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I met Stanley, Go, and Jeff because otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone.

I got along so well with the guys that I quickly agreed to go for a bike ride with them the next morning, even though they wanted to meet at the ungodly hour of 8am. The bike ride was very scenic and had me taking notes of where I wanted to go back to later to take more pictures. Architecture in the Batak style is pretty cool, so I knew I had to get some shots of it.

(Stanley, me, and Jeff taking a scenic break from riding.)

Besides taking in the arts, the architecture, and the views, I've also been eating a lot, too. What? Food is part of the culture! Ever since Malaysia I've kind of been getting scared off of chicken. Too often it's more fat and gristle than actual meat and sometimes it's just mystery meat altogether. Luckily, I've found gado-gado, steamed vegetables, a hard boiled egg, peanut sauce, and rice served on the side. I suppose it sounds like an odd combination, but it's really good and I've had it a couple of times now. Fruit juices still rock and my current fav is passion fruit juice.

(Check out those crazy roof lines!)

I'm not exactly sure how I'll fill my day tomorrow. I have a 5pm bus ticket to Bukittinggi and although the ferry back to the mainland is only one hour long, I'll probably take the 2pm one. I've been advised that although the ferry is supposed to be hourly until about 6pm, there often isn't one after 2pm if there aren't enough people to ride. The bus should take about 15 hours; I'm out of practice with super long rides like that, so hopefully all will go well.

* * * * *

By the way, in case anyone heard on the news, yes, there was an earthquake in Northern Sumatra. And yes, I happen to be in Northern Sumatra, but no, I haven't been affected at all. Apparently a couple of people at my guesthouse felt tiny little rumbles, but I didn't even feel that and actually didn't know about the earthquake until I heard them talking. Take a look here if you're interested in more details.

Could Lake Toba be any farther away?

Today was a long day. How long was it exactly? Well, I left my guesthouse this morning at 8:15am, walked for 20 minutes to get into town, and took a tuk-tuk to the bus station. From there I rode three hours back to Medan and took another tuk-tuk to another bus station, also in Medan (that took about a half hour). I transfered to a second bus and pretty much wished I was dead. The bus was crowded and very hot. I mean, what kind of bus doesn't have A/C and only has tiny little windows at the top that slide open?? Ugh. That bus arrived in Parapat about five hours or so later, but my trip still wasn't over. A short walk had me at the boat jetty where I scarfed dinner and waited an hour for the ferry to head to Samosir Island in Lake Toba. An hour-long boat ride and another short walk and FINALLY, I made it to Liberta Homestay where I'll be resting my head for a couple of days. Whew.

After all that, I think I'm in need of an ice cold beer. I'll try to upload the monkey and orangutan pics that I know people are waiting for tomorrow.

Success

If a successful jungle trek is measured by blisters, then I had one (big ugly) success today. If, on the other hand, success is measured by the number of wild orangutan spottings, then I had 11 times the success. Woo!

I was hot and sweaty and kept being bitten by mosquitoes because my bug repellent was being sweat right off, but when my guide and I turned a corner and I saw my first orangutan, I knew it had all been worth it. Well, until my guide started freaking out a little bit and telling me we had to get away from her. Fast. I was like, dude, hold on a second, I'll kill myself trying to get down this hill if I move any faster. Afterwards he told me that her name is Mina and she can be very aggressive. She's actually bitten my guide before and he had to go to the hospital.

Besides the orangutans, I also saw lots of long-tail macaques and Thomas leaf monkeys, too. The national park where I was trekking is also home to elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses and man, wouldn't it have been cool to see those? But those aren't the types of animals that are hanging around the edges of the park and I wasn't up for a week long trek into the jungle.  

Well, internet in Bukit Lawang is expensive and agonizingly slow, so that's all for now. I will upload the rest of the monkey shots when I'm back in a city.

What's up, dude?

Since there's not a whole lot going on right now, I was going to wait until I had something interesting to write home about. But some people like to worry and the SPOT doesn't seem to be working, so here I am with a random bullets type of post.

* At least two people have commented "What's up, dude?" when I told them I was American. Either this is how they think all Americans talk, or the surf culture is so entrenched that even in the jungle you can't get away from it.

* Yes, I'm actually in the jungle again! Who woulda thunk it after I was so excited about getting out last time? But there's a good reason for me to be here. I'm currently in one of the few places in the world where I can see wild orangutans. That was one of the things I said ages ago that I wanted to do, so. . .here I am.

* In Bukit Lawang I'm staying at a cute place called Garden Inn (which, unfortunately, reinforces how much I was getting ripped off for my gross room in Medan because this place is way nicer and only Rp5000/$0.55 more expensive). There are three resident cats here named Michael Jackson (he's black and white), Mike Tyson (he's a fighter and you can tell from looking at him), and Eileen (she's a little unsteady on her feet, supposedly from a snake bite she received). Am I the only one who finds their names amusing?

* I'm figuring out that flying is just as cheap as buses in Indonesia, only much quicker, so it looks like I'll be flying a few times in the next month. Yay! I love flying.

Hmmm. That might be all I have for now, although I'm sure I'll think of something just as soon as I log off. . .

Melaka/Malacca

Melaka has a varied history which is apparent in the architecture styles seen throughout town. There are predominantly Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese influences and it makes for very interesting wanderings. There's not exactly loads to do in Melaka; perhaps the most interesting sightseeing that I did involved the People's Museum. For the most part, the museum was actually pretty blah, but the third floor contained the "Beauty Museum" which was all about self-mutilation (piercing, tattooing, neck coils, foot binding, that kind of thing) in the name of beauty around the world. Two negatives that the museum had going against it were that 1) the photos were very old copies and of fairly poor quality, and 2) the A/C wasn't working so it was broiling in there. If it hadn't been for those two things, I'm certain I would have read every single word and spent hours taking it all in.

So why did I stay for so long in Melaka - also spelled Malacca, in case you were wondering - when there wasn't much more to do than wander around, talk to cool people, watch DVDs, and eat duck (seriously, it was the best duck ever and I ate it four out of six days!)? Well, I found out the day I arrived that May 1st was Labor Day and was told that getting a bus around that time could be difficult. I figured I'd just leave a day or so after that, but then I was having such a chill time that I decided to stay longer. Then I started looking through an Indonesian guidebook to begin the planning process there and realized that I was going to need more time there than I thought initially. Ultimately I decided that I was going to skip Pulau Tioman (where I'd wanted to do some diving) and Singapore (where I'd only planned to spend two days or so anyway) altogether.

This brings me to the change of plans I mentioned the other day. Hey, guess what? I'm in Indonesia! I took a bus this afternoon from Melaka to KL and then flew to Medan (on an AirAsia flight that I just booked yesterday for $41). It ended up being an expensive day because I missed the bus that would've taken me directly to the airport and instead had to take a taxi once I got to KL, at a cost of RM72 instead of RM22, a difference of $15. Then, I had to check my backpack for the first time ever on this journey and that cost me an extra $10. Ah well, it happens sometimes, I suppose. I'm staying in Medan at a place called Zakia Hotel which, quite honestly, is pretty much crap, but I have my own bathroom for the first time in ages and I get free coffee in the morning. Besides, I'm leaving tomorrow for Bukit Lawang anyway and will only be using this room for 10 hours or so.

Btw, I'm back to being a solo traveler. Rowan left Melaka early yesterday morning and headed to Bali. There's a chance I'll run into him again, but for now I'm on my own.