Christmas in Indonesia

For more photos click album 1, album 2, album 3

As you probably have understood from reading the previous post, we both enjoyed the Philippines a whole lot! But, after three incredible weeks it was time to move on. And in South East Asia, exciting destinations is one thing that there is no lack of. From Cebu we flew to Kuala Lumpur, via Kota Kinabalu on Malaysian Borneo. We had a spectacular view of Mt. Kinabalu (4095 m) as we approached our mid-way stop. In Kuala Lumpur we stayed one night at the airport floor. Even though KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) has been awarded 'world's best airport' three times (03, 06, 07), its floor is still pretty hard...

The airport floor wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep. Eating Banana Split in Bali was much better...

Anyway, we got some sleep and the next day we disembarked on the legendary island of Bali. I'm not really sure what we had expected, and perhaps the recent visit to the pristine Filipino islands was still on our minds, but we were quite disappointed with Bali, or rather Kuta-Legian. Kuta beach has obtained a special, almost mythical status amongst Norwegians, and honestly, I can't understand why. Sure, there are some good aspects, such as the shopping and the blood red sunsets. The highly visible Hindu culture is another nice side of Kuta-Legian. However, these aspects do not outweigh the pollution, the dirty, smelly beach, the traffic, and the rubbish that is everywhere. The surf is supposedly world class, but it is hard to fully enjoy it as pieces of plastic stick to your arm on every paddle, dead fish float around you, and as you have to concentrate more on not swallowing any water than actually catching a wave. Having said that, on one of the late evenings in Legian I had one of the best surfs ever:)

Every evening the rather dirty and smelly Kuta-Legtian beach turns into a postcard-perfect sunset, displaying every possible nuance of yellow and red.

We stayed for three nights in Legian, in a nice, spacey room surrounded by a fantastic Hindu garden, full of gods, the smell of incense, and a couple of dogs. We spent the days mostly shopping. But we also went for a half day to the cultural city of Ubud, which was a welcomed get-away from Kuta-Legian. On the way to Ubud we stopped at an impressive Hindu temple. In Ubud we visited the palace and spent some time together with the monkeys of the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. It was all good fun until I felt a stream of warm liquid running down my neck. A little monkey bastard who was sitting on my head (!) suddenly thought it was a good idea to pee on me!

The monkeys were very cute, until one peed one me. The picture is taken at the exact moment when it happened. Enlarge it and see for yourself. As you can see he was struck by a red lightening and suffered a slow death...

Some of Bali's several thousands nice sculptures

Outside our room and on the bottom of our pool

We were glad to leave smelly Kuta-Legian on 'lille julaften' (the day before Christmas Eve), going to its less touristic neighbour, Lombok. First three hours bus ride to Pandangbai, via Ubud. Then five hours on a ferry to Lembar, before getting on a minibus to Senggigi, another two hours. Senggigi, and Lombok in general, has a much more relaxed, laid back atmosphere than its big brother to the West. So it was all laid out for a relaxed and joyful Christmas;) As the sun set in the ocean, making Bali's volcanoes yellow and red in the distance, we were dining on the beach, being almost alone in the restaurants. We both missed our families and the Norwegian Christmas, but we, at least, had a good three course Christmas dinner on the eve of the 24th.

On Christmas day we actually came pretty close to a white Christmas. Together with our new friend George, a language professor from Minnesota, we drove two hours south, from where we took a small boat to the amazing Gili Nanggu. I guess this island was everything we wanted Indonesia to be like. The beaches were so bright that we had to wear shades. The ocean changed from light green to light blue, reflecting the silky sand and the colorful corals, before the deep gave it a dark blue color. When we entered the water we were immediately surrounded by hundreds of fish, and even more when we revealed our treat, a banana and a couple of slices of bread... Gili Nanggu is a small island, it only takes you about 15 minutes to walk around it. However, you can easily spend hours taking inn the empty, white beaches that surround the island. Hidden in the lush vegetation that comes all the way down to the beach were thousands of grasshoppers. We also had a close encounter with a couple of big and nasty spiders. One looked like the devil himself. The island is also a turtle sanctuary, hosting a new generation of teenage mutant ninja turtles. Well, all good things come to an end and soon it was time to work our way back up to Senggigi. On the way we stopped to look at a couple of wedding parades that literally blocked the road. Awful music, but hopefully a happy marriage.

Gili Nanggu has most of the features a tropical paradise
should have...

...including giant spiders and pagurus bernhardus

The next day was spent by the pool, frying our dark Latino skin in the Indonesian sun. Then, during the final night in Lombok our stomachs started making trouble, a revolt that would later culminate in a couple of nights in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur. (I'll get back to the hospital story in my next post.) We both took a few pills and got ready for the bumpiest and most hazardous boat ride we have ever experienced. And keep in mind that the oceans around Norway aren't the calmest... I can't tell how high the waves were, but we couldn't see above them when we were in the 'valley', and they broke (!) onto the boat. It wasn't very pleasant, and most people got pretty sea sick. The only peaceful thing to rest our eyes on were the dolphins that seemed to enjoy the rough sea. Anyway, we came across to Bali, where we spent one more night before flying out the following evening. By that time I had a fever and felt pretty awful. It didn't stop me from having a last surf in the toxic sea though, probably a very bad idea as I just got worse.

To be continued...