Over the last few years Bali has made quite the impact on social media and become the crown jewel for Indonesia’s travel industry. From its rice paddies to its beaches, it is very photogenic which explains the influx of bloggers, vloggers and hardcore Instagramers stoking the fire. But for those who want to do more than just take photos for “da gram” Bali has you spoilt for choice above and below the water. With that in mind my friend Annie and I went to find out what’s what.
Our adventure started with the RailAir bus from Reading to Heathrow to catch a Malaysian Airline flight to Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali via a 1.5 hour stop in Kuala Lumpur. After a mostly sleepless 19-hour flight we found ourselves halfway round the world and confronted with our first challenge, one neither of us had prepared for. Haggle a taxi into Kuta, the closest town to the airport and the location for our first night. It started poorly when after being confronted by a pack of taxi drivers throwing prices at us we retreated against oncoming traffic back into the airport to ask the tourist information how much they thought a taxi should cost, 300,000IR (Indonesian rupiah) was the suggestion. We surprised ourselves by getting one for 200,000IR. Our first victory.
Kuta
The Australian version of Magaluf and Malia, as long as you take the place at face value you will enjoy it. Yes, it does have lots of drunk Auzzies strolling around, almost as many tattoo parlours as people and traffic that will make you wonder if you will make it out alive, but it has a lively atmosphere, a beach to drink and surf and there are some amazing places to eat and drink if you are willing to explore.
We stayed in the just off the Poppies II at Seahouse Bali Indah Beach Inn which wasn’t on the beach. Seahouse is a nice little hotel that is out the way enough to have a bit of piece and quiet but within a minutes’ walk you are back in the fray. The staff are very helpful and friendly and it has a decent restaurant and bar which you get coupons for when you check in. After a one-hour recovery nap that lasted two and a half we sorted our lives out and went for a walk towards the beach. Kuta beach is long, surprisingly clean and full of atmosphere. There are sun bathers, families, surfers, body boarders, patrolling perverts filming with camera phones and entrepreneurs trying their luck to sell you everything from massages, artwork and even dart blow pipes and bows and arrows. Try that back home and you would have the fuzz on you in no time. After about ten minutes of slowly plodding along refusing offers from the latter groups we sat down on some beanbag chairs with a couple of beers people watching while being serenaded a group of locals with a guitar singing chart hits behind us. We were living our best lives.
After the dream of a glorious sunset was tarnished by cloud we returned to the chaos in search of a proper meal. Warung Mina was where we settled, on Jl. Raya Legian, the main one-way street through the area Here I had my first and only beef rendang of the trip. We returned to our hotel balcony with a couple bottles of Bintang, the beer of choice in these parts, booked ourselves a place to stay for the next few nights in Ubud and in an attempt to stay in shape during the trip, pushed the chairs back and did our first and only 10-minute circuit class of the trip.
Day Two
The morning started earlier than expected when we both found ourselves awake at four in the morning, tired but unable to sleep eating we resorted to eating pringles in our beds chatting about anything and everything. We did eventually get up at a more reasonable hour, had breakfast with our coupons and then walked next door to book the 11am shuttle bus to Ubud. After packing our bags poorly, we returned to the reception to find our transport waiting for us. Bags in the back and we were on our way.
It takes ages to drive anywhere through the Kuta back roads unless you are on a moped, otherwise you spend ages waiting to take it in turns for the traffic going the wrong way down one-way streets to pull into a slightly wider section of the street for the various vehicles to slide past each other. It would genuinely be quicker to walk. Five minutes after setting off and only about 100 meters travelled our driver got a phone call which we now assume from someone asking him where he was because the people he was meant to be picking up were waiting for him. We had been ushered towards the wrong car. He politely asked us to leave, we assume because his English was on roughly the same level as our Indonesian, and we found ourselves walking back to the Seahouse. A concerned receptionist was lingering outside when we made it back, apologised for something that wasn’t really her fault and showed us to our actually mini bus that had now arrived. It then took nearly ten minutes to get back to where we abandoned the last vehicle. We picked up some French couples from two other hotels and we were finally out of Kuta.
Ubud
A few hours North from Kuta is the town of Ubud but feels more like a village. It would be easy to spend a lot of money in Ubud. It is filled with luxury jungle hotels where you could get yourself a floating breakfast in your private pool or a bath with freshly picked jungle flowers covering the surface. The restaurants are plentiful with a range of cuisines and live bands to choose from and if you are a vegan hippy who needs a daily dose of yoga and crystal healing this is the place for you. The traffic was just as terrible as Kuta’s but walking around was even more frightful because they had dug up half the pavement forcing you to either walk on the road or fall down a storm drain.
We were dropped of in the centre and with full bags was a 20-minute walk back the way we had just come, again, to our hotel. Annie treated me to two nights of luxury at the Budhi Ayu Villas Ubud which was the nicest place we stayed in during the trip. It’s a small but beautiful hotel on the edge of town next to the Ubud Classic Centre and acres of rice paddies. To be honest Budhi Ayu was our second choice of accommodation but the last room in our first choice (which was closer to the centre) was booked up as we were deliberating where to stay. The only room left at the Budhi Ayu was a five-bed family room and rather than lose out on our second choice as well we booked it. When we arrived at reception they must have realised this was a waste of bed space that an actually family could have used so they decided to upgrade us to a private villa. This has never happened to either of us before and it left us a little bit giddy for hours. Especially as we walked in to our own little gated paradise with a two-story villa, king side bed each and private pool. The only thing that ruined this tranquil oasis was that this villa came with a very needy cat. I felt a little sorry for the poor bugger to start with as I had no idea who owned him and he seemed hungry and we didn’t have anything appropriate to feed him. This feeling quickly vanished with its relentless whining.
A dip in the private pool (I gathered all the flowers left around the villa and put them in the pool in order to mimic a flower bath), a little bit of unpacking and we were off to explore. First stop, the Sacred Monkey Forest. Not far from the centre and rated the top thing to do in Ubud on Trip Advisor this 12.5-hectare site is home to three temples and roughly 750 Balinese longtail monkeys. Hours could be spent watching, taking photos and videos of these little blighters interacting with each other, or even better the tourists who get a little too close for their liking. It’s a very busy site between the monkeys and the sheer number of tourists so this can happen by accident. We exited the site from the main entrance closest to the centre of town to see what it had to offer.
Having missed lunch we were running on empty and sorting that was the priority. We chose Anuman to eat, partly because it was close, partly because it was upstairs and would have a nice view, partly because it looked cool and because the local dishes were cheap. I had the nasi goreng (fried rice), and Annie had the mi goreng (fried noodles). Before heading back to the hotel, we explored the centre walking up the main street looking at the shops, street vendors and eying up the possible eateries for the following evening. During the evening the nightmarish traffic had mostly subsided and was a perfect temperature to just amble about at our own leisure. After a delightful encounter with two of the cutest dogs the world has ever produced we returned to the hotel to organise the following days activities and then the villa for some card games, pringles and oreos. The cat only wanted the pringles.
Day Three
The night before we signed up for an early morning rice paddy tour before breakfast. I’m no farmer by any stretch of the imagination and no clue about harvest periods but the rice paddies were surprisingly empty of any obvious crop and anyone to cultivate them. I was also surprised by the amount of litter that found its way deep into the rice paddies. I hope it was as a result of wind over the indifference of farmers and tourists to their immediate environment and what is otherwise a very scenic place to be. A selection of fruit and some eggs on toast later and we were off to start our trip north with our driver, Evan.
When we booked the rice paddy we also booked ourselves for a day trip. There was a selection of set trips on offer but none of them included all the attractions we were hoping to see. Luckily they let us customise our own itinerary. The first stop was the Gitgit Waterfalls, just over two hours north of Ubud. A man offered himself as a guide upon arrival. We declined and would recommend you do as well. It was a single path that lead directly there. At the end of the trail was a swing, which are becoming quite popular with Instagrammers going to Bali, high on the bank over the river and a selection of weaved arches for couples to have their photos taken with part of the waterfall behind them. We swung over the edge but declined the offer to have these photos taken. Especially the one where you sit in what looked to be a large bird’s nest. The waterfall itself was impressive. It had a double fall and a great place to escape the heat and humidity of the Bali climate. We were quite lucky that there was only two other people in it when we arrived and only starting to fill up when we decided we had left our driver waiting for long enough.
Before we left for Indonesia we saw pictures of the “Bali Gates” all over the internet and thought we would see what the fuss is about. If I’m being perfectly honest I was slightly disappointed by the Handara Bali gates. Yes, its scenic but you have to que to get a picture between them and its living proof that some edited picture on the web are better than real life. It’s also the entrance to a golf course and I’m sure they are fed up with people blocking their entrance way.
I was hoping our next stop would be less disappointing. We were originally going to go to the Bali Swings just outside of Ubud but as we had just done one we asked Evan if would could change to final destination to the Tegalalang Rice Terraces, Ubub’s second highest rated attraction and another location ruined by Instagrammers. I don’t blame them though, it’s beautiful. Its advertised as a place to watch farmers tending to their crops on the rice terraces, but the only ones we saw were ones who had barricaded off section of the pathways and would only let you through if you paid a “donation”. One of these was right at the start leaving us with little choice but to pay it. I can understand a donation would be needed to help pay for repairs on the terrace walkways from the erosion caused by the sheer number of visitors but there was also an entrance fee we had to pay to enter the terraces. Where does that money go to I wonder. I have nothing against compensating the farmers for their work on maintaining the terraces but felt this method could have done with more thought. While walking around the terraces I started a game to try and catch all the “boyfriends of Instagram” in the act of taking too many photos of their girlfriends in unnecessarily flowy dresses and poses that no normal human being would perform in public. It was a very easy game. After a few poses of our own we found Evan in the crowded car park and returned to Ubud.
We returned to our villa, freshened up and left to find dinner and a shuttle bus to take us to Tulamben in the morning. The later part was slightly more difficult than first thought. There were many companies all advertising different times and prices so finding the earliest time with the cheapest price required a lot of back and forth up the street. We eventually settled on a company called Perama, they were the most expensive of the operators but the only one who could provide us with a 7am bus to Tulamben. We ate at a cheap local place on the bend of Jl. Goutama Sel. with a beer, got some travel snacks from the Coco Supermarket and returned to sort our lives out for tomorrows trip.
I like Ubud a lot and would have liked another day there to make the most of our villa, especially the pool that we only used once, and to wander around town a little bit more, maybe do a yoga class and to video myself walking in slow motion down narrow jungle roads.
Day Four
Budhi Ayu were nice enough to make us a packed breakfast of toast, fruit, boiled eggs and bread which we ate while waiting for the bus. A coach was not what we expected and as the true rude boi’s that we are we managed to snag the back row. This only lasted 45 minutes before we were asked to leave and the coach was replaced by a packed minibus and torrential rain. Luckily the rain had passed when the engine decided to pack in, especially as access to it was under my seat and required me to get out. Three hours later we were in Tulamben, a tiny town which pretty much just consisted of the main road that runs through it. Throughout the drive and on arrival at Tulamben we had seen parades of children in an array of coloured uniforms marching through the streets. It was all part of the Indonesian Independence Day celebrations, which last a week.
Tulamben has little to offer except being the place to go if you want to SCUBA dive the USS Liberty Wreck. Hit by a Japanese torpedo in 1942 it was beached and stayed there until a volcanic eruption on the island in 1963 shifted it off the beach and 30 meters into the sea where it now sits as the best dive site in Bali and one of the best and most easily accessible wreck dives in the world. The Liberty Dive Resort was the company we selected to provide our diving experience, no so much out of reputation or google reviews but purely due to the lack of any other information and prices on other companies. Our dive leader had been working on the dive sites around Tulamben for ten years and probably knows his stuff but the dive brief was just that, brief. We presume it’s because he was told that I’m PADI Advanced Open Water and Annie is a Diver Master. This was my first dive in a year and Annie’s first in several years and we were convinced we would get overly excited and just rinse through our oxygen. It was an incredible dive site but it was very crowded. Because of our qualifications we could go deeper than most of the others but I still kept finding myself kicking the same Chinese guy who kept swimming too close behind me. He wasn’t even in our group so god only knows what he was doing there. I was underweighted (my fault) so accidentally surfaced during my safety stop, had an oxygen dial that moved when I breathed that cut the oxygen off it I breathed to deeply when the tank was getting empty (poor equipment but should have spotted it during the pre-dive checks) and Annie lost her Apeman camera. Other than that, it was a great dive.
Dive finished we walked back towards the “centre” of the town for our first lunch since we landed and to find someone willing to drive us back to Kuta. Our spot for lunch provided us with cheap but tasty food, a front row seat for all the different groups turning up to march for the parade and a driver to get us to Kuta via the Temple of Lempuyang Luhur. This is a place that was probably of some cultural and religious significance at one point that sadly proved too tempting a photographic opportunity to prevent the hordes and their cameras from descending on the temple. They are a dedicated bunch to be fair as it’s an hour away from any main road up a mountain. On arrival you are requested to wear a sarong to cover up and to not perform any “yoga poses”. They still did. I’m ashamed to say Annie and I joined the large que of people who come here just to have a photo taken between the Bali Gate. This one is definitely more impressive than the one at Handara because on a clear day there is the peak of one of Bali’s highest mountains that sits perfectly between the pillars. It was thick with cloud when we arrived. Pictures we had seen suggest there was a lake in front of them so when we arrived to find that it was just barren earth we were a little shocked. It actually makes sense as I put little thought in how they managed to get between the pillars if there was a body of water in front of it. The water effect was created by some very entrepreneurial locals who place a smoked lens filter underneath the camera to reflect the image. For a small donation of course. After watching the rest of line practice the poses they were going to perform, ignoring the “no yoga poses” sign, and then quickly busting out our moves we had a few minutes to walk up some stairs to see the same view from a greater height before returning to the car.
The three hours it was due to take to get back to Kuta from the temple ended up taking just over five and felt worse by my body starting to deteriorate. The tummy wasn’t happy and the accidental surface during my safety stop resulted in a bit of decompression sickness. Beneyasa Beach Inn 2 (also not next to the beach) was our accommodation for that night and after walking to the wrong one first (there are two of them hence the “2” in the name) we eventually made it, tired and broken. We chose this place because it was cheap and it left nothing to suggest it was anything but that. The room consisted of the beds (with only one tiny red velvet throw), a fan and an en-suite with a toilet that didn’t flush properly and a shower that only produced a small stream with nothing but the power of gravity behind it. The place also had a pool but just looking at it made me feel I had contracted cholera, dysentery, cryptosporidiosis and every other unspellable water borne disease. We were planning on doing a sunrise trek up Mt. Batur followed by some hot springs the following day starting at 02:30am but as we lay there staring at the fan we discussed how bad we would feel if we didn’t do the trek. Yes, it would suck if we missed out on it and Annie and I do suffer from FOMO but we had been no stop since the plane landed and were knackered. We decided to have the following day off to relax and enjoy it.
Day Five
Official Blobfish day. We had breakfast across the road at an Australian place called the PAD (they got my order wrong), bought some bottles of water and booked ourselves back in at the Seahouse. We returned to the beach for some swimming, played the only game of beanie that I actually won, rejected more offers for massages and bows and arrows and enjoyed just doing nothing other than enjoying being on the beach.
We returned to the Seahouse for a nap via the Tree House Café where we had our first western food so far. Just like the others, the nap lasted longer than intended but we had nowhere to be and nothing booked so it didn’t really matter too much. We sort of made ourselves presentable for the outside world and went to explore it some more. After Annie lost her camera diving I gave her my spare one. The lens cover on the case had small cracks in it but we managed to find a camera shop that sold spares. It wasn’t designed for it but it fit nicely without obscuring the image much to the doubt of the salesman. Add a memory card for Annie and a spare for me and we deemed the evening a success even without doing anything else. We carried on to Jl. Raya Legian to see what all the noise was about. Most the big clubs and bars in the area were on this road and were either next to each other or opposite. This lead to a confusing and terrible conflicting mash up of music from bars trying to make sure theirs is heard over all others. For reasons I’m not sure of myself we chose to eat not far from this at a restaurant called Mini. We shouted our order at the waitress, Annie stuck with fried noodles and I went for my first and only batch of satay during the trip, which tasted great but took forever to arrive. I do love this classic Indonesian dish but it has to be a mild one as I’m not the biggest fan of peanuts. We walked back down the road looking at a few shops, watching all the Auzzies fall into one venue or out of others and just taking in the atmosphere. Several years ago, when we were living together at Uni, we would probably have joined in with the Australians but that’s not the type of trip we were on. We returned to the room to pack the bags again for our flight to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores the following morning.
Day Six
We took a Bluebird taxi from outside the Seahouse to the domestic flight terminal. Bluebirds are a private taxi company that actually put the meter on, making journeys around the local area cheaper than just picking one up off the street who would give you a fixed rate. It was only when we were checking in that Annie remembered that she booked us business class seats. They were only £5 more than the standard seats so why not. This gave us access to the Concordia (business class) Lounge. Never been in business class before or a lounge. After security we sat down for breakfast only to find out that when we got to the lounge there was a free buffet. Super duper fancy. To be fair it didn’t look Michelin star so didn’t feel that gutted we had just paid for breakfast but the unlimited fruit and juice hit the spot. Our flight was delayed by two hours so we got to take more advantage of this. We definitely felt out of place amongst the suits with our card games (I lost again) and loud laughing at audio clips of posh laughing. I was surprised we weren’t asked to leave. The flight only lasted an hour when we eventually got off the ground and unlike the peasants behind us we got a meal during that time, but we all got to enjoy the view out the window. Flying over tropical islands with a light scattering of settlements and boats was something to behold.
Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park
This town is the central hub for anyone wishing to visit the Komodo National Park and is covered in dive shops the same way Kuta is with tattoo parlours. Most of the main shops, restaurants, dive centres and hostels you are likely to visit are on about three roads close to the marina and waterfront, the airport strangely sits in the middle of the town with most of the residential areas the other side of it. As with everywhere we have visited so far, the traffic was insane but mostly one way so was slightly more manageable and like Ubud they seem to have dug up most of their pavements. The Komodo National Park sits between the larger islands of Flores and Sumbawa and consist of three main Islands (Komodo, Padar and Rinca) along with numerous smaller islands and is the only place on earth you can find the dragons that share its name in the wild. A permit (which is easily acquired from the marina or your tour provider) is required to enter the national park and is only accessible by a two-hour boat ride.
Our main reason for coming to Labuan Bajo and the Komodo National Park was to see the dragons and to go diving in search of manta rays. Luckily for me I knew someone who knew someone who ran the area’s top-rated dive centre. One of Annie’s friends from school, Clare, owns and runs a small dive empire across Indonesia including a boutique dive resort on Sumbawa called Kalimaya, a liveaboard dive boat and the Uber Scuba dive centres on the Gili Islands and in Labuan Bajo. Annie had a few other friends who were in Labuan Bajo when we arrived. Lydia (who was doing her dive masters with Uber Scuba) and Zoe I had met before at one of Annie’s birthdays at Uni but it was my first-time meeting Pippa and Kat. They were all waiting for us The Palm Hostel, our home for the next four nights, which was a sweaty fifteen-minute walk from the airport. We arrived as The Palm’s inaugural pool party was in full swing. After claiming my bottom bunk, I was off to catch up with the ones I knew, introduce myself those I didn’t and sign all the paper work required for the dives the following day. After a few drinks in the pool and the other girls returned to Clare’s house, Annie and I went for a walk and to a bar recommended to us called Le Pirate. It was an amazing place for a drink with one of the best uninterrupted views of the sea in town, if you got there early enough to bag yourself a seat on the top deck. If I ever return to Labuan Bajo the accommodation at Le Pirate is some I would definitely try and book myself in for as well.
After freshening up back at The Palm we headed out again to meet the gang at a restaurant called the Happy Banana, a Japanese restaurant that had a sushi dish named after Uber Scuba and with portion sizes to make the Americans feel at home. I was recommended the ramen, while not Indonesian it was still Asian. It was a good shout. After a few drinks and farewells Annie and I returned to bean bag chairs by our hostel’s pool to reflect on the trip so far and to get each other excited and the possibilities of seeing majestic sea flap flaps (manta rays) the next day.
Day Seven
We arrived at Uber Scuba just after 07:00 and just before the first batch of divers left for the day. Slowly all the others due to be with us that day arrived and we walked across the road to the marina to find our boat, Iona, who stood out from the others in the harbour, painted in the turquoise and yellow colour scheme of the company. All the boats are crammed in like sardines along the jetty and it takes a while to get the boat out without damaging it or others but once clear it was straight out into the Flores Sea towards the Komodo National Park. A light breakfast of cakes, buns and fruit was provided. After a general boat briefing where the dive group of myself, Annie and the rest of the Welsh mob (apart from Kat who is not a diver) were introduced to our dive instructor Cristina we all moved to the top deck to relax until the dive briefing when we got closer to our first dive site. Siaba Besar was first up. As we were getting our gear on I noticed that someone had gone off with one of my flippers. One of the boat crew managed to find it for me and proceeded to put on my foot for me saying “Cinderella will go to the ball”. This single statement resulted in me being called Princess Jon by the dive crew and the Welsh girls for the rest of the trip and probably will stick beyond my death. I have a crippling fear of being on my own on the surface of deep open water but there is something about descending into the blue rather than down the wall of a reef that feels like nothing else and I love it. At the bottom before we started exploring the bottom the Welsh rabble went through a few skills as Annie chilled on the sand and I was trying to creep up on blue spotted rays. I failed. It wasn’t long after we set off that I was able to tick off my first ever green and hawkbill turtles! Fifty minute of swimming along the reef and pointing at things and we were back on the boat heading to the next dive site, Manta Point. This was going to be my first ever drift dive. The theory being that you let the current take you and then drop to the bottom and hang on to a rock for dear life as you watch the manta’s as they glide into the current filtering the plankton into their mouths. To fight against the strength of the current would leave you shattered and you would rinse through your oxygen. Its called manta point because it is one of the best places to see mantas but its not always a guarantee and the poor dive centres can often receive poor online reviews if they don’t show, as if it were something within their control. We didn’t have to worry about that as we saw nine, including two ninjas (melanistic manta rays)! It was quite mesmerising just watching how they effortlessly glide around. Another new sea creature ticked off my list and the one I was hoping to see most. Because it was a relatively shallow dive and the current did most of the work we were able to stay under for a little longer but all too soon we were back on the boat.
The lunch provided on the way to the final dive site of the day was some of the best local food I’ve had since being in the country and there was plenty of it. After a snooze on the top deck we arrived at Batur Balong, the final dive site. We came down along the reef wall with a barracuda probably the same length as me watching our descent. They are scary looking beasts. Add the lone conscious white tip reef shark among a scattering of sleeping black tip reef sharks at the bottom to the turtles and manta ray and I ticked off the three main animals I wanted to see while I was diving in Indonesia! Sharks get a bad press and I will admit that I was nervous about being in the water with them, but they were very chilled. If you don’t bother them they will very unlikely bother you. These two species at least. This dive didn’t last as long and i was secretly thankful. Even though I had a wetsuit on I got quite chilly towards the end.
The trip back to the marina in golden evening light added with the day’s events made for an incredible sense of euphoria. After returning to the dive shop we got our log books signed and returned to our various forms of accommodation until dinner.
Clare had booked us a table at an Italian restaurant called Made In Italy which was a twenty minute walk from The Palm. Annie and I were the first to arrive and it was about another twenty minutes until some of the other Welsh girls started filtering in. Even for a little town like Labuan Bajo this place was a little off the beaten track but well worth the trip if you fancy a change from noodles and rice and a decent wine list. Might be worth ditching the Bintang vest for something with sleeves when you dine there as well. When you finish dining, Made In Italy provides a free taxi service back to whatever hotel you came from if you fancy it but Annie and I chose to take the stroll back to walk off the pizza, pasta and bread sticks. We sat around the pool again getting all excited about seeing manta rays and Annie showing me how to connect my Apeman camera to my phone so I could download and watch footage on a larger screen. After catching up on a few notes we headed back to our dorms.
Day Eight
The Palm breakfast, like most other breakfasts provided in this area of Indo, consisted of fruit, bread and eggs however you fancied them. I forgot the bread over here was an acquired taste and had roughly the same sugar content to kill a diabetic. This was mainly to keep it fresher for longer otherwise it would go off very quickly in this climate.
We returned to the Uber dive shop to rendezvous with the Welsh horde, who were late again, for a half day of adventure on another boat. Clare had organised for us to go on a day trip on the Venus Boat, a traditional vessel with such a high-quality finish I felt like I should have been more important to be on it. We were also provided with lunch and what seemed like a limitless amount of Bintang. The first stop was the Rangko Caves which were just over an hour away from Labuan Bajo to the north. The boat anchored off the shore and we took the dinghy to the beach. From the beach it was only a few minutes’ walk up the towpath to the cave entrance. The cave entrance sits about fifteen meters above sea level and requires climbing down a wooden ladder to be in the main cavern. Within the cave is a large seawater pool where we swam around for a bit. With very little light filtering into this part of the cave it was very eerie and great fun to swim under the water and tickle people’s feet. In the back of my mind I was thinking this was the sort of place where one of you would be dragged under by some unknown cave dwelling creature from some teen horror film. I can only assume that sea level was higher at one point for the salt water pool to have made its way into the cave with the entrance that high from the beach. Or the cave system carries on beneath the surface of the pool. If only we brought our dive gear. After returning to the VB (Venus Boat) we headed to Pulau Papanggu, an island about half the size of a football pitch, for some snorkelling. It couldn’t compare to the experiences of the day before but its always nice to be swimming in the sea. As the girls practiced their Loreal hair flicks in the water I went off pretending I was on Cast Away.
After a lunch of fried noodles and vegetables and more beers, Annie had a nap on one of the benches down stairs, the other girls returned to the top deck and I sparked up a conversation with the 1st mate. As we moved back towards the harbour of Labuan Bajo I asked if they would let me steer the boat. They did. Even the bit weaving in and out through the other boats. They clearly knew on a subconscious level I would be able to handle it. Eventually I did have to hand back controls to the captain when it came closer to our drop off point to take the dinghy back to the marina mooring steps. As we were doing so well at winning at life we thought we would treat ourselves to a post boat trip crepe and then walked a whole three meters next door to a travel agents called Alexandra Tours to book our trip to the Komodo National Park the following day. We returned to The Palm for another beer and to sit in a crepe coma around the pool. All to soon it was time for Pippa to head to the airport and back to New Zealand. The rest of us went to went for a drink for a drink at Le Pirate, very quickly started to flag. We were still filled with crepe and not really up for a boozy session so and called it a night.
Day Nine
It was another early start without our complimentary breakfast so we could be at Alexandra Tours after 6am. Again, Annie and I were the first to arrive. Eventually the rest of my Welsh harem (minus Pippa who was back in NZ and Clare who had gone on a last-minute holiday to the other side of Flores) turned up along with the others who had booked the tour, with either Alexandra or another tour operator. We were taken down to the marina and shown our boat. Compared to Iona from Uber and the Venus Boat this one was slightly more basic with only one level for us to occupy and spread out. The deck appeared to have been recently washed down so lying down there wasn’t very appealing either. Light started to appear behind the hills of Labuan Bajo as we left the harbour for the Komodo National Park. Our first stop Padar Island. It takes roughly two and a half hours to reach Padar depending on which boat you take. As you get closer, they all start to condense trying to overtake, battling for prime mooring real-estate and when you do arrive they have to push other boats out the way anyway so that you can disembark onto the jetty stairs. The main reason people visit Padar is for the views of a rather unusual natural phenomenon. From the viewpoints you can clearly see three of Padar’s bays, each one made of a different coloured sand. There is a pink sand beach, a white sand beach and a black sand beach. We managed to reach one of the higher viewpoints when there was a lull in the masses following behind us so were lucky to have a relatively crowd free photo up there. It is a bit of a walk up the hill to get to these spots but it’s well worth the sweat and panting. Over night Annie had been hit by a tummy bug so was feeling a bit drained of energy but just about made it to the top.
We found our boat among the armada and set sail for destination two. On the way we stopped off to go snorkelling around an area known to have manta rays pass by. There were three already there when we arrived but two quickly disappeared after the excited massed jumped in to try and get close to them. Annie was still suffering so stayed on the boat but those of us who went diving and saw them the other day stayed back and knew better than chasing manta rays which could stress them out. The manta crazed masses did eventually shepherd the poor manta within a couple of meters of me. He seemed to be quite relaxed considering the number of people trying to keep up and film him. I can only assume it was because he could effortlessly glide through the water at speed we could never match. Back on the boat and twenty minutes later we had reached point two on the itinerary, the pink beach on Palau Serai. We had to swim from the boat across the reef to get to the beach but if you remembered your snorkel and mask there was life to be seen under the surface. I had never seen pink sand before and after a quick google search I now know it is created by the broken shell pieces of dead foraminifera (“a single celled planktonic animal with a perforated chalky shell”) being washed up on to the beach. The contrast between the pink sand, the yellow cliff wall and the blue sea is something my photos didn’t quite do justice. After the three couples on the tour with us finished taking it in turns photographing each other in various poses in and out of the water finally returned to the boat we headed around the corner to our final stop of the tour, Rinca Island. One of the last habitats for dragons in the wild, this island is under threat from developers with planning permission for a resort being approved by the Indonesian Government. This could open the door for others to follow suit. Until they decide to ruin this relatively uninhabited stronghold for a vulnerable species it remains untouched save for a few park rangers and their huts. When you arrive on the island there are signs to warn you of crocodiles but not dragons as you follow a path to the small visitor centre where you need to register and pay the entrance fee before you meet your guide. Our boat driver told us we had enough time for the medium length tour which last an hour and forty minutes. The short trip is thirty minutes and the long one is four hours. Our guide, who called himself “Safety”, and his dragon deterring stick took us through the small ranger village where we saw four of the six dragons we encountered during the walk. We had arrived after mating season when they tend to hide, and during the hottest part of the day so they were all taking cover in the shade and appeared to be very reluctant to do more than breath. The fifth was just outside the village under a tree in a small clearing and the sixth was in a more remote area guarding a nest she had just built. Komodo nests tend to consist of several fake entrances or dead ends to help defend against any would be egg snatcher while the mother is off hunting. During the trek we came across several water buffalo, one of the dragon’s main source of food. They don’t have the power to kill the buffalo there and then but tend to go for the method of wounding it and then stalking it until it dies from the venom injected during the bite. Until recently it was widely though that the sheer number of bacteria in the dragon’s saliva that killed its prey. This stalking could go on for weeks before the animal dies. In the event of being chased by a dragon there was talk of abandoning Annie as she was the weakest and slowest member of the group, and at one point she did fall over and struggle to get back up. After the laughter subsided she did eventually return to her feet but this did confirm her position as dragon fodder. If you ignore the thought that you were being watched from the shadows by the dragons, Rinca is a very scenic island.
Most people napped on the return journey, either at the bow, on the benches or on the floor. I was too slow to get a spot comfy enough to join in what seemed to be a group activity. By the time we got back it was nearly time for our planned evening event so we jumped on a selection on mopeds (Kat and Zoe on one, Lydia, Annie and I on a second) and headed through the traffic to Wae Molas. Wae Molas is a beautiful hotel/hostel with an onsite restaurant and a range of things going on during the evenings throughout the week. It would between here and Le Pirate that I would choose to stay if I returned to Labuan Bajo. Every Wednesday the local Marine Megafauna Foundation representative provides a free educational talk on manta rays, the research they are doing in the area and worldwide and how we can help them protect the rays. If you are a certified diver you also get a discount on your meal that day as well so it was a double rainbow. After dinner and acquiring myself an MMF t-shirt and sticker we all jumped back on the mopeds and headed to Clare’s house in a part of town the other side of the airport that Annie and I had not seen yet. The more residential area. Even though Clare was on the other side of the island the girls were still staying there. I would too if I had the choice. It was a beautiful house that she had built to her specifications with all the mod cons, including a fridge straight out of the Starship Enterprise. It took up four plots (one plot normally does one local house), one of which was used just for the garden and her own pool. It was insane. Lydia had to leave the country for a week the following day to renew her visa so after the house tour we worked out that Annie and I would look after Lydia’s moped and return it to the rental shop in a couple of days. Like Clare, Lydia wouldn’t be back until after I had returned home so we said our farewells and then Annie and I jumped back on the hog and attempted to find our way back to more familiar streets.
Day Ten
We were rudely woken up at some ungodly time in the morning by the school down the road having some mass assembly sing song that sounded like they had all chosen a different key for the rendition. This was meant to be our chilled, lay in day. Never mind. After breakfast we sat by the pool, caught up on trip notes, some reading and a little bit of research on what to do with our second and last free day with no set activity other than move accommodation. I was sad to leave The Palm. It was very clean and comfortable with staff so friendly they had learnt my name and greeted me every morning they saw me. Never had that in a hostel before and it will be a long time before I come across it again I reckon. We had only booked four nights and when our plans for what we were doing after changed they had no spaces left for us. We moved across to Kampung Bule Hostel, a place that was located in a small apartment building with a rolling shutter front door and there appeared to be no one in charge. There seemed to be other people staying there but the layout didn’t do much to promote much group interaction. The shower was debatably worse than the one back in the Beneyasa Beach Inn 2 and there was a resident rat that lived in the communal kitchen but our room was comfortable, clean, central to all the action and very cheap. We checked in, made a mess of the room, admired the view from the large windows at the front then headed to the airport the meet up with Zoe and Kat so the three girls could by flights back to Bali the following week.
From the airport we took a bit of a magical mystery tour to find the Batu Cermin caves. It looked like the area had been developed to cater for hundreds of tourists a day with a large carpark and between eight to ten structures built around it for souvenir shops, restaurants and whatever else the locals could sell to the masses. Sadly, from looking at the sign in book when we entered the cave area they would be lucky if they got those numbers a week. All but three of the purpose-built structures were empty. There was a souvenir shop, a café (I use the term loosely) and a small restaurant with the tastiest local food and nicest staff we encountered during the trip. A guide will make himself available should you want one but unless this is your first ever cave or really want to know more about this specific one you would probably be ok without them. There is only one way in and out, walking along a paved path through bamboo forests where you are more than likely to see some monkeys. The caves use to be below sea level so if you look closely at the rocks there are fossils, shells and apparently a sea turtle fossil somewhere. We never found any. Most of the cave system is open plan with large gaps to let the light filter through and it’s possible to rush round the system in about twenty minutes. But if you are feeling adventurous for a more traditional caving experience there are hard hats with lamps on to explore a narrow and dark tunnel system. We decided to enter the caves without a guide or hard hats. It sounds like the start of a teen slasher flick or a story you would hear on the news where all involved died somehow, but there was only one way in and one way out and phones have torches now so we were all good.
We left Batu Cermin to find a free beach that was pointed out to me by the crew of the Venus Boat just north of the city along the peninsula. The coastline is starting to fill up with luxury hotels and resorts, making access to the sea more difficult and resulting in those who aren’t staying at the resorts having to pay for the privilege of swimming in the sea. Some of these resorts are already finished but strangely most of the road surface isn’t. After giving up on the search for the free beach we stopped off a view point where a group of locals were gathering. It wasn’t bad as views go but we had something better in mind. We were off to the end of the northern peninsula. It took a while to get there due to the state of the road but we had an uninterrupted view of the sunset all to ourselves. I will admit the road was terrible and you would struggle to get to the end unless you had a moped or 4x4 but it was strange that no one else was there because of the amount of space we had around us and in front of us. It is impossible to see the sun hit the sea in Labuan Bajo because of the boats and other islands in the way. Here there was nothing and it was one of the best sunsets I’ve had the pleasure to witness. We gave it a few minutes after the sun plunged into the sea to take in the most of the view but then it was back on the bikes so we could get as far back down the track as we could before the light left us completely. Would have been fun in the dark though.
We had dinner at a restaurant Annie and I had been eyeing up the last few days called Tree Top. There was a bar on the ground floor, an organic shop on the first and the restaurant took the second and third floors. There were a few steps involved as you can imagine. During the day I reckon the view from the restaurant over the bay would be one of the best but it was too dark to see anything when we got there. We played cards, drank and I had my second and final rendang of the trip. I was surprised and disappointed I didn’t come across rendangs (beef or chicken) more often. It’s in my top five favourite meals of all time. Comfortably fed, watered and all carded out we called it a night. Luckily our new hostel was a stones throw away going with the traffic.
Day Eleven
Annie and I were returning to the sub aqua world and were back at Uber for seven. Back on the Iona boat we headed to the northern dive sites with a new dive group and guide. The first site was called the cauldron because of a deep sand hole in the middle of the reef. We were told to expect strong currents called a “shotgun” towards the end of the dive as water rushes between two islands. It never arrived. After adding a few more sea turtles, white tip sharks and another manta right at the end of the dive during the safety stop to my tally we returned to the boat. As we moved towards the next dive site Annie decided to pass on the next dive as she was still suffering from her tummy bug and a lack of energy. I started to feel like I had mild decompression sickness again and probably shouldn’t have dived but did. It might be because of the headache or my dive buddy’s absence but the second dive wasn’t as fun. Diving Crystal Rock was like diving in an aquarium to start with. I was attached to a reef hook and with an inflated BCD I was able to just stay floating in place observing the shoals of fish and sharks moving along the reef. This is a good way to conserve oxygen when diving. We finished the dive by moving over the reef ourselves towards the pinnacle. Back on the boat and I thought my head was going to explode so I retreated to the top deck to try and sleep it off. My nap was disturbed by lunch which was amazing again so I could only be a little bit annoyed. There was just enough time to get comfortable before it was time for the final dive at Castle Rock and the return of Annie to the water. Geographically it is almost identical to Crystal Rock except one of them has a panicle that sticks out above the water and the other sits just beneath at safety stop height (can’t remember which one is which). In terms of wildlife there was no contest. There was more wildlife at Castle rock than I had seen during all the other dives during this trip combined. I lost count of the number of sharks that were moving across the reef which included at least two grey reef sharks (new to the list). I was lucky enough to be chosen to have the reef hook again. Buzzing of the last dive we returned to shore during the very photographic golden hour. At the dive shop I paid off my tab and said goodbye to the Uber Scuba team, we returned Lydia’s scooter to the rental shop across the road, walked back across the road to the local fish market while we were still in the area then returned to Wae Molas to meet up with Zoe and Kat for dinner.
We arrived during an incredible sounding sasando performance (a traditional Indonesian stringed instrument) of the latest chart hits with the sky coloured in every possible shade of red, pink and orange. The girls had achieved very little with their day by the sounds of things and I was surprised they weren’t drunk. As soon as the light faded, our sasando Rockstar packed up so the Friday movie night could start. The Sixth Sense was tonight’s feature film which they project across the pool to a screen on the other side. Before the end of the film we were all about ready to wave the white flags. Our beds were calling and I wanted to pick up the phone.
Day Twelve
This was my last day on Flores and with Annie. With my flight back to Bali at 4pm we had a slow, relaxing morning. I had my first ever hipster breakfast at the Bajo Bakery. It was a homemade mango and pineapple yogurt with lines of flax seeds, chia seeds, goji berries and dark chocolate and chunks of pineapple and mango floating on top. We suspected they were out hunting the ingredients down straight from the forest it took so long to turn up (I had time to fix their toilet during the wait), but it was worth it. The top floor also had one of the best harbour views available to you. Annie chose not to remain at Kampung Hostel so after packing up we moved her across to a very cool looking backpacker hostel called the Dragon Dive Komodo Hostel and Diving. Ten years ago, this would have been my dream hostel. After Annie had settled in we returned to The Palm to spend the afternoon by the pool. It was nice that they remembered our names when we walked through to poolside and even though I felt they liked us they had to enforce the hostel rule that if you aren’t staying there you need to spend a minimum of 150,000IR behind the bar. A good excuse for a few beers and lunch. Zoe and Kat turned up just under an hour before I had to make my way to the airport. Thankfully I was able to convince Kat to drop me off on the moped so I could have a little bit longer with everyone. It was sad saying goodbye to Annie, it had been an amazing trip and I wanted it to continue but I had to return to the real world. She had another week of fun ahead of her.
Check in and security at the airport was straightforward but the number of delayed flights had me concerned. As fate would have it so was mine by just under two hours. The flight information screens were more than useless, suggesting all flights, even ones known to be delayed, were running on time. It was getting dark when we eventually took off but I was lucky enough to have a window seat allowing me an aerial view over what were now the recognisable islands of Padar and Rinca before the light faded.
Back in Bali I haggled a taxi to take me back to Kuta, this time staying at the Amazing Kuta Hotel. A very bold title. I had a bed in dorm room that to be fair was very modern. There was an electric key card to access the room and all the bunks have their own lights, plugs and clever storage units built in. I had the place to myself as well! It was good but “amazing” might have been a bit of a stretch. I returned to the front desk to try and book a Bluebird back to the airport the following morning. My flight home left at 9am so as per internationally accepted practice I aimed to be at the airport about three hours before, leaving around 6am as it really wouldn’t take long at all to get to the airport at that time in the morning. I don’t know if it is international practice or just something my parents have instilled in me to be honest but it has become habit. They said that the Bluebird lot don’t start operating until 7am but they could get a driver for me for a fix rate. Now, I’m not a pessimist or a skeptical man, I’m a realist and have been scammed a couple times over the years. This is also not to say that I didn’t believe them or they were trying to scam me but I felt like I wanted a second opinion so I said I would get back to them and went out to find some food and get some last-minute souvenirs. I returned to the Seahouse for my second opinion. They confirmed what the Amazing Hotel said but I chose to book it through them and stayed to spend some money on cider at their bar and watch some NBA before carrying on with my other tasks. On previous walks around the area Annie and I came across a stall that did frozen ice cream rolls of various flavours which we kept forgetting to try. I proceeded to resolve that and then to fill the rest of my luggage allowance with souvenirs and a watch from the Ripcurl shop I have had my eyes on since I worked my first season in the south of France nine years earlier. The remaining time I spent awake in Indonesia was used trying to fit everything into my bag and just before the lights went off I was joined by someone else in the dorm. And he snored. One was not amused.
Day Thirteen
I was up and ready to leave Amazing Hotel before the receptionist was conscious. I felt bad for waking him up but I had places to be, specifically The Seahouse for 7am so I could catch my Bluebird to the airport. At that time in the morning it only took ten minutes to get to the international terminal. Because I waited for the Bluebird rather than getting a taxi off the street I got to the airport a little bit later than intended and the crowds had built up. Eventually I made it through security and after a few minutes being sat at the gate I heard my name being called over the PA to make myself known to the gate desk. My initial thought was that because I was a solo traveller they were going to ask me if I could fly out the next day instead because they had over booked the flight. They asked me if I was travelling alone. I said yes and started to think about where to stay and what I was going to do with the rest of the day back in Kuta. Maybe I could go to Seminyak or Cannggu instead. They asked for my boarding pass. I handed it over and wondered how you get back through security. They congratulated me on being upgraded to business class and handed me a silver boarding pass. I wasn’t sure what to do but I couldn’t stop smiling. If I’m ever in business class again I have decided that I’ll let most the other passengers get on the plane first as I felt rather guilty sat there with all that leg room in my ridicules chair as it massaged me, sipping my pink champagne, watching them walked past, judging me or thinking I was judging them. I wanted to make the most of an experience so choose not to sleep during that flight and was waited on like a king. Thanks Qatar Airways. Sadly, all good things came to an end and nine hours later I was back economy next to an elderly gentleman with elbows that occupied space beyond his boarders similar to Hitler in the late 1930s. Twenty-three hours from leaving the Amazing Hotel and I was back home ready to return to work the following day.
I saw Annie just over a week later on a flying visit when she collected her van. It sounded like she had a great time with the girls minus the delayed flights, over booked accommodation and another lost camera while diving. Last time I give that clumsy gremlin anything of value. Annie and I had been talking about traveling together for nearly as long as we have known each other, both adamant we would be the world’s greatest traveling companions. And to be honest I think we might be. We were on the same wave length for pretty much everything and had the same expectations for the trip. Annie had been traveling before but I was still very impressed with her quiet confidence and ability to plan accommodation, transport and activities, stay calm when situations weren’t ideal and just get on with it when I might have lost my cool. Even when she was feeling under the weather she hardly complained about it and just got on with the day. If there was a way of rating your travel companions, a Trip Advisor for people, then Annie would get top marks.
This trip involved a lot of firsts for me. First time to Indonesia. First time to Bali and Flores. First time in business class (and got to do it twice). First time in a private villa. First time having a private pool. First drift dive. First time diving with manta rays, turtles and sharks. Even if this was my second time experiencing all these things I would have done the trip exactly as it was in a heartbeat and it wouldn’t have diminished how incredible these experiences were. There were several people and places that contributed to this but a big thank you goes to Uber Scuba for being amazing and to Clare for organinsing various meals, and trips for us and for her help, advice and generosity while in we were in Labuan Bajo.
We only experienced a small part of Indonesia so I can’t speak for all of it but it is a fabulous and beautiful country. The scenery, the wildlife, the food and the people combine to make and almost unrivalled combination. Sadly, this vastly sprawled country suffers from a wide range of natural disasters from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. An earthquake hit Lombok and the Gili Islands hard a couple of days before our arrival in Bali and anther hit Sulawesi shortly after our return. If you have a spare few coins I’m sure there are a few aid agencies happy to take them who are working to rebuild the areas affected. Don’t let this put you off going though. If you don’t, you are missing out on somewhere truly special.
