Joy, technology!!!we have had no internet for about 10days.....guess where i am?: gili gili gili!!!!!!!!
We missioned it to kuala lumpur to sort out our visa(which was an adventure as we didnt have a guide book and didnt even know the currency:ringgit!), just about managed to get ourselves a room for 2nights while we waited for tickets-cost 3times indonesian prices and was the most minging/unsafe hostel ive been in so far!! so malaysia was an experience, we stayed in china town, but were glad to get back into indonesia where we know how things work and can understand a bit of the language. So we got a flight from KL to Medan in Sumatra, which has little going for it other then a mediocre airport and buses out to the national parks. We hopped on a Bemo (people carrier bus thing with 8 seats but can fit-and counting-13 adults 2 kids, 4babies and a cockeral) to Buckit Lewang which is right in the centre of govcontrolled rainforest. The town was devestated in 2003 by a MASSIVE flood that killed 340 locals and around 60 tourists, so it was really interesting hearing peoples stories....the problem was that everyone had lost business/tourism was low so we werent left alone for a minute- in the end we booked a 2day jungle trek with one of the guides that had followed us ALL the way from medan. I was petrified about the night over in the jungle and the white water rafting back to base but all in the name of adventure! The trek was fantastic, it was mega hard and at points we were clambering down slopes launching ourselves from vines to trees to stay upright....but we went at a reasonably slow pace so it was doable! We hiked for 10hours on day 1 and reached 'camp' at 5pm.'Camp' was right on the edge of the jungle next to the river bank. We had really good indonesian food and did card tricks....THEN they put the tent up-eg 4sticks with a ground sheet and a tarpoline over the back....AGH! Basically the night was bivvybagging BUT without the bivvy bag! Jen and i were for obvious reasons (crazy crazy insects, massive spiders, and ants the size of a 2p!) pretty freaked....so managed to 'sleep' by safetypinning a sarong around my feet and legs. tucking my junper into my trousers and using my Lowe Alpine rucksack raincover to go over my head....nearlly suffocated but had to be done!!! The next morning we found out the4 indonesian idea of a 'raft' consisted of the lorry inner-tire blown up to fit 2 of us. The guys roped them all together then i very nervously jumped in and we spead off- thought of you mum!!! It was hell for the first 3 mins then the adrenaline kicked in and the next 40 mins were spent screaming my lungs out and trying to hold on for dear life. 'HATTE HATTE' ('carefulcareful' in indonesian) was screamed at the top of our lungs!
SO all well and good, got back to our hotel room and decided 20mins before the bus left that we in fact wanted to spend our last 2weeks in the beautiful gili islands, so over the past day and a half weve taken 2 flights, slept 4hrs on our bags outside jakarta airport at midnight(!), done a 5hr crossing on a wooden boat in waves SO big they were making the boat completely rok onto its side(!), and were here!
horrah!
so jens in lombok with a friend for the day and im hanging out in Gili T for the day soaking up the rays and swimming in turquoise sea! all good.
home soon. 20th sept is creeping up scareily quickly. Looking forward to being with my peeps but i know its going to be a wrench to leave indonesia!xxxxxxxxxxxx
We missioned it to kuala lumpur to sort out our visa(which was an adventure as we didnt have a guide book and didnt even know the currency:ringgit!), just about managed to get ourselves a room for 2nights while we waited for tickets-cost 3times indonesian prices and was the most minging/unsafe hostel ive been in so far!! so malaysia was an experience, we stayed in china town, but were glad to get back into indonesia where we know how things work and can understand a bit of the language. So we got a flight from KL to Medan in Sumatra, which has little going for it other then a mediocre airport and buses out to the national parks. We hopped on a Bemo (people carrier bus thing with 8 seats but can fit-and counting-13 adults 2 kids, 4babies and a cockeral) to Buckit Lewang which is right in the centre of govcontrolled rainforest. The town was devestated in 2003 by a MASSIVE flood that killed 340 locals and around 60 tourists, so it was really interesting hearing peoples stories....the problem was that everyone had lost business/tourism was low so we werent left alone for a minute- in the end we booked a 2day jungle trek with one of the guides that had followed us ALL the way from medan. I was petrified about the night over in the jungle and the white water rafting back to base but all in the name of adventure! The trek was fantastic, it was mega hard and at points we were clambering down slopes launching ourselves from vines to trees to stay upright....but we went at a reasonably slow pace so it was doable! We hiked for 10hours on day 1 and reached 'camp' at 5pm.'Camp' was right on the edge of the jungle next to the river bank. We had really good indonesian food and did card tricks....THEN they put the tent up-eg 4sticks with a ground sheet and a tarpoline over the back....AGH! Basically the night was bivvybagging BUT without the bivvy bag! Jen and i were for obvious reasons (crazy crazy insects, massive spiders, and ants the size of a 2p!) pretty freaked....so managed to 'sleep' by safetypinning a sarong around my feet and legs. tucking my junper into my trousers and using my Lowe Alpine rucksack raincover to go over my head....nearlly suffocated but had to be done!!! The next morning we found out the4 indonesian idea of a 'raft' consisted of the lorry inner-tire blown up to fit 2 of us. The guys roped them all together then i very nervously jumped in and we spead off- thought of you mum!!! It was hell for the first 3 mins then the adrenaline kicked in and the next 40 mins were spent screaming my lungs out and trying to hold on for dear life. 'HATTE HATTE' ('carefulcareful' in indonesian) was screamed at the top of our lungs!
SO all well and good, got back to our hotel room and decided 20mins before the bus left that we in fact wanted to spend our last 2weeks in the beautiful gili islands, so over the past day and a half weve taken 2 flights, slept 4hrs on our bags outside jakarta airport at midnight(!), done a 5hr crossing on a wooden boat in waves SO big they were making the boat completely rok onto its side(!), and were here!
horrah!
so jens in lombok with a friend for the day and im hanging out in Gili T for the day soaking up the rays and swimming in turquoise sea! all good.
home soon. 20th sept is creeping up scareily quickly. Looking forward to being with my peeps but i know its going to be a wrench to leave indonesia!xxxxxxxxxxxx
