I was so glad that Darwin airport wasn't a Ryanair stylee one (ages away from the city whose name it bore) because when we arrived and cleared immigration and customs we had a very short bus transfer to our hostel. I had expected customs to be a nightmarish ultra long process but instead I was through really quickly with the only question I was asked was about whether or not I had lollipops in my bag (I didn't). The lady didn't believe me so wanted to search my carry on bag – it turns out she saw my tripod and that's what made her think lollipop...crazy! Rather than let me pack my bag up again they started letting more people through so there was stuff all piled up on top of me..and I reckon this is maybe when things went wrong for me....
I lost my journal...I've been writing in it since I left Dublin on the 22nd of May. I've been making notes, sticking in boarding cards along with other bits and bobs, and was really happy with how it was coming together. It was to be my souvenir of the trip...I've stopped being the hoarder I normally am and have been chucking out things that I would normally keep along the way in favour of having one thing to remind me of the adventure...and now it's gone :( I tried to call the airline and airport along with the hotel in Bali to make sure I didn't accidently leave it there, but no joy with a response from anyone.... The saving grace is I have this blog, and though not an complete reflection of what I've written in the journal it's enough to spark my memories of what I did where and when. So all's not lost :)
The first stop for our first free day in Darwin was to drop my camera into a repair shop to see if it can be fixed up. The lady bumped me up the queue to get it tested overnight and I called back the next morning to check what the damage was. We went wandering around to see what there was to do in Darwin and I was surprised at how small the central area actually is. We didn't do any organised tour of the place, instead choosing to see what we could on foot – the heat was tough so we didn't go too far because of that and from being so tired from lack of sleep the night before. We checked out a camera shop to see what kind of prices and models they had on offer in case I needed a new one, and to replace Mel's one that had been stolen by some thieving gypsy in Bali. I didn't get too into looking as I was holding out hope that they'd have mine fixed by morning.
We could have cooked at the hostel but were too tired and lazy so instead went to Cafe Uno beside the hostel (Youth Shack). I had the tastiest pizza of the trip to date and Una had the most amazing gnocchi ever! It worked out pretty pricey but we're worth it ;)
The next morning I crawled out of bed to find out that the LCD on my camera is shot. Not really a surprise since there was no picture visible in shoot or review mode. Unfortunately, they couldn't repair it for me there and then - it would take up to two weeks which was useless to me since we were leaving the next morning. So again, off I went to the camera shop to see what kind of deal I could get on a new one. I struggled for hours trying to decide what to do...see everything other than the screen was functioning normally on my IXUS. The problem was that in order to change the shoot mode, turn the flash on or off or review the pictures to make sure I got what I wanted in focus I needed the screen to work. If I didn't get a new camera I was effectively going to be shooting blind ala 35mm camera, and I didn't know if I'd be happy to do this for the remainder of the trip. In the end I consulted my concience back at home to see if I would be splashing too much cash by buying something new or if I should stick with the retro 80's camera I now had. My concience replied to say to buy a camera..so off I went and got a Canon PowerShot D10...waterproof, dustproof, shockproof....NICE!
I went back to the Wharf to try out the wave pool that they have set up to allow people to swim in a simulated sea environment because it's too dangerous to use the beaches around the area. Saltwater crocodiles and Box Jellyfish are plentiful there so it's unsafe to swim. They also have a saltwater beach that they monitor for jellyfish all the time so it's a safe swimming area if the wave pool doesn't float your boat.
Later in the evening I headed to the Deckchair Cinema to see what it was all about. The movie they were showing was called 'Young At Heart' and it didn't tickle my fancy all that much so after soaking up the atmosphere for a few minutes I headed back to the hostel to get ready for our departure to Kakadu the next morning.
All in all Darwin was a nice intro to Australia, but the road ahead is what holds my attention. I didn't see the whole place, so maybe a few more days if I make it back to Oz will be in order :)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Blogging Blank
I'm afraid I've lost my journal *sob* so I've no notes to use to piece together the time from July 31st to today..I'm gonna try piece it together and will post what I have when I get it worked out. In the meantime I've put some new pictures up for your viewing pleasure.
If you've found my journal and then found the blog please email me...I want it back PLEASE!
If you've found my journal and then found the blog please email me...I want it back PLEASE!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Day 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78 & 79 (Bali)
Where to start with Bali..where to start?
Six of us flew down a couple of days early to get a bit of R&R in before we moved on to Australia and the final portion of our big adventure. In doing this we missed out on seeing Mt. Bromo which was a bummer for me, but something I was willing to do to get an extended period in one place (albeit in two different hotels). And of course I would miss out on the experience but not the photos as Una stuck with the group and went to Bromo so I have hers to steal. So off we went to Bali arriving late at night to find that the hotel we'd booked into had given our rooms away so we were in effect homeless for the night unless we could sort something out. Thankfully we found out about this while still at the airport so we were able to get a travel desk there to sort us out – they found us a 3 bed apartment in the Jayakarta Resort for 2 of the 3 nights that we needed a place to crash. A shortish taxi ride later we got to our resort and were very, very pleasantly surprised by the place – it was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. We pledged there and then to make it our mission to get them to let us stay for the 3rd night :) Once our rooms were sorted out we headed in search of the pool shortly before 1am for a moonlight dip..the water was still pretty warm, nice!
Our first day in Bali was busy enough with lots of sunbathing and swimming by the hotel pool. We didn't manage to get loungers but did get a nice area to lay down and dry off before heading into town in the early evening to grab a bite to eat. We found a pretty ace restaurant by the sea that was a bit outside of our budget but we decided to splash out. I had the 2nd nicest tuna steak I've ever had there along with a lovely bacardi cocktail – what a way to spend the day :) We stocked up on pot noodle from the supermarket for the next few days and headed back to the hotel where I had an early night and the party animals got ready for a mad night out (they arrived home after 5am knocking on the door having been unable to wake up the night porter and unable to locate our key themselves – I crawled out of bed semiconscious to let them in).
I had every intention of being up early doors to get down to pool side to reserve us some primo loungers but after the abrupt wake up call I'd had I wasn't able to move until it was too late and the loungers were all taken. We eventually got out of bed and rolled down to the pool where we took advantage of the happy hour 2 for 1 special on Bali Hai beer – happy hour was indeed very happy, but not an hour. The danger was there from 11am to 6pm...that's a heck of a long happy hour! We sat by the pool bar sipping our frosty beers and took a moment to toast our buddies who had been up at 4am to climb Mt. Bromo. Later that night we headed out and I got my first taste of Bali night life – I reckon it's like the Aussie equivalent of Ibiza, there were some seriously crazy people out. A guy with his face painted like the Joker from Batman and his mate with sequence stuck to his face making him look like a sparkly pirate (another night there was a guy in a full clown costume..including the funny shoes?!). More happy hours in the pubs but they were the more dangerous kind with 2 for 1 on cocktails called the Bomba. We danced the night away and crawled home around 4am before going for a late night swim.
The group were due into Bali around 6.30pm and we had to move on to meet them at the Simpang Inn leaving behind our lovely apartment. To ease the pain we stayed at the Jayakarta until the last possible minute to make the most of their pool and the uncrowded beach in front of it. It was a glorious day. When we eventually got to the Simpang Inn and got checked in we realised how spoiled we'd been for the previous 3 days. It had cost us a bit, but the hotels couldn't be compared in any way...my room in the Simpang Inn was hot and stuff with a fan that moved the hot air around and sounded like it was going to fall off the roof, the bathroom was filthy and was back to the standard wet room setup without a proper bath or shower. I wanted to go back to Jayakarta and seriously considered it, but I'd missed some of the crew and wanted to catch up with them. So...off we went out again! Another late night filled with happy hour cocktails and crazy dancing (we even met a girl from Perth who wants us to go to her 21st birthday party and is planning on arranging it for the single night that we're in Perth..how random?!).
The first full day with the whole crew in town is a blur of hangover induced sleep – most of us stayed in bed for most of the day. The next day when the hangover haze had cleared I headed back to Jayakarta with Mel & Michelle to cheekily use their pool because we missed it so much. It was bliss :)
Our final day in Bali was a rush of trying to find a camera shop to repair mine and getting some last minute shopping and sunbathing in. There was no repair shop around and the guy in the solitary camera shop I found said the only place I'd find one in Indonesia was in Jakarta! We left for the airport at 8pm that evening with an estimated time of arrival in Darwin at around 3am...man alive..soooo late!
Six of us flew down a couple of days early to get a bit of R&R in before we moved on to Australia and the final portion of our big adventure. In doing this we missed out on seeing Mt. Bromo which was a bummer for me, but something I was willing to do to get an extended period in one place (albeit in two different hotels). And of course I would miss out on the experience but not the photos as Una stuck with the group and went to Bromo so I have hers to steal. So off we went to Bali arriving late at night to find that the hotel we'd booked into had given our rooms away so we were in effect homeless for the night unless we could sort something out. Thankfully we found out about this while still at the airport so we were able to get a travel desk there to sort us out – they found us a 3 bed apartment in the Jayakarta Resort for 2 of the 3 nights that we needed a place to crash. A shortish taxi ride later we got to our resort and were very, very pleasantly surprised by the place – it was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. We pledged there and then to make it our mission to get them to let us stay for the 3rd night :) Once our rooms were sorted out we headed in search of the pool shortly before 1am for a moonlight dip..the water was still pretty warm, nice!
Our first day in Bali was busy enough with lots of sunbathing and swimming by the hotel pool. We didn't manage to get loungers but did get a nice area to lay down and dry off before heading into town in the early evening to grab a bite to eat. We found a pretty ace restaurant by the sea that was a bit outside of our budget but we decided to splash out. I had the 2nd nicest tuna steak I've ever had there along with a lovely bacardi cocktail – what a way to spend the day :) We stocked up on pot noodle from the supermarket for the next few days and headed back to the hotel where I had an early night and the party animals got ready for a mad night out (they arrived home after 5am knocking on the door having been unable to wake up the night porter and unable to locate our key themselves – I crawled out of bed semiconscious to let them in).
I had every intention of being up early doors to get down to pool side to reserve us some primo loungers but after the abrupt wake up call I'd had I wasn't able to move until it was too late and the loungers were all taken. We eventually got out of bed and rolled down to the pool where we took advantage of the happy hour 2 for 1 special on Bali Hai beer – happy hour was indeed very happy, but not an hour. The danger was there from 11am to 6pm...that's a heck of a long happy hour! We sat by the pool bar sipping our frosty beers and took a moment to toast our buddies who had been up at 4am to climb Mt. Bromo. Later that night we headed out and I got my first taste of Bali night life – I reckon it's like the Aussie equivalent of Ibiza, there were some seriously crazy people out. A guy with his face painted like the Joker from Batman and his mate with sequence stuck to his face making him look like a sparkly pirate (another night there was a guy in a full clown costume..including the funny shoes?!). More happy hours in the pubs but they were the more dangerous kind with 2 for 1 on cocktails called the Bomba. We danced the night away and crawled home around 4am before going for a late night swim.
The group were due into Bali around 6.30pm and we had to move on to meet them at the Simpang Inn leaving behind our lovely apartment. To ease the pain we stayed at the Jayakarta until the last possible minute to make the most of their pool and the uncrowded beach in front of it. It was a glorious day. When we eventually got to the Simpang Inn and got checked in we realised how spoiled we'd been for the previous 3 days. It had cost us a bit, but the hotels couldn't be compared in any way...my room in the Simpang Inn was hot and stuff with a fan that moved the hot air around and sounded like it was going to fall off the roof, the bathroom was filthy and was back to the standard wet room setup without a proper bath or shower. I wanted to go back to Jayakarta and seriously considered it, but I'd missed some of the crew and wanted to catch up with them. So...off we went out again! Another late night filled with happy hour cocktails and crazy dancing (we even met a girl from Perth who wants us to go to her 21st birthday party and is planning on arranging it for the single night that we're in Perth..how random?!).
The first full day with the whole crew in town is a blur of hangover induced sleep – most of us stayed in bed for most of the day. The next day when the hangover haze had cleared I headed back to Jayakarta with Mel & Michelle to cheekily use their pool because we missed it so much. It was bliss :)
Our final day in Bali was a rush of trying to find a camera shop to repair mine and getting some last minute shopping and sunbathing in. There was no repair shop around and the guy in the solitary camera shop I found said the only place I'd find one in Indonesia was in Jakarta! We left for the airport at 8pm that evening with an estimated time of arrival in Darwin at around 3am...man alive..soooo late!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Day 72 & 73 (Yogyakarta)
Happy Birthday April!
Another nice hotel for our stay in Yogyakarta complete with pool and free wifi, my kinda hotel :) As it was April's birthday on arrival we all headed out to dinner with the added bonus of it being an OzBUS sponsored one. It was at a lovely restaurant not that far from the hotel where they had a huge selection of local cuisine available buffet style so we could pick and chose as much or as little as we wanted. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the tofu dishes – after having it in Pad Thai in Bangkok too I may be a convert, it's quite tasty after all! When everyone was finished their dinner we brought out the cake, a feat of engineering expertise if I may say so myself (we'd been unable to find a nice cake in the supermarket or bakery places around the hotel so instead we got 2 dozen donuts and I constructed a structurally sound pyramid style pile complete with candles and sparklers). Delicious donuts..Mmmmm.
The next morning we had a group activity to go visit Borobodur Temple which was very impressive. Our guide for the tour was really great, lots of energy, explained stuff well and kept the pace going so we weren't standing still in the sun for too long (it's sooo hot!). We all got a chance to make a wish with the girls having to touch the feet of the Buddha and the guys getting to touch anywhere they wanted. Trying to climb up onto the side of the bell shaped structure around the Buddha and getting a hand in to touch a foot was harder than it sounds. It was like we were back in India when we entered and tried to leave the complex – street sellers everywhere, absolutely everywhere!
Later in the afternoon some of the group went to the other famous temple in the area but as I had a flight to catch to go to Bali a few days earlier I thought it unwise to head out with them. The pictures look like it was pretty cool, so would have been nice to see it.
Another nice hotel for our stay in Yogyakarta complete with pool and free wifi, my kinda hotel :) As it was April's birthday on arrival we all headed out to dinner with the added bonus of it being an OzBUS sponsored one. It was at a lovely restaurant not that far from the hotel where they had a huge selection of local cuisine available buffet style so we could pick and chose as much or as little as we wanted. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the tofu dishes – after having it in Pad Thai in Bangkok too I may be a convert, it's quite tasty after all! When everyone was finished their dinner we brought out the cake, a feat of engineering expertise if I may say so myself (we'd been unable to find a nice cake in the supermarket or bakery places around the hotel so instead we got 2 dozen donuts and I constructed a structurally sound pyramid style pile complete with candles and sparklers). Delicious donuts..Mmmmm.
The next morning we had a group activity to go visit Borobodur Temple which was very impressive. Our guide for the tour was really great, lots of energy, explained stuff well and kept the pace going so we weren't standing still in the sun for too long (it's sooo hot!). We all got a chance to make a wish with the girls having to touch the feet of the Buddha and the guys getting to touch anywhere they wanted. Trying to climb up onto the side of the bell shaped structure around the Buddha and getting a hand in to touch a foot was harder than it sounds. It was like we were back in India when we entered and tried to leave the complex – street sellers everywhere, absolutely everywhere!
Later in the afternoon some of the group went to the other famous temple in the area but as I had a flight to catch to go to Bali a few days earlier I thought it unwise to head out with them. The pictures look like it was pretty cool, so would have been nice to see it.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Day 70 & 71 (Pangandaran)
appy Birthday Barbara!!
The crew unanimously agreed to change the itinerary slightly to allow us to have two nights in Pangandaran to have extra sun-soakage time and a chance to explore the national park there. Since we weren't due in until the 2nd we had a night each at two different hotels (the second one with a pool – nice!). We all headed out to dinner to celebrate the big birthday after some warm-up drinks in the birthday girls room and everyone seemed to really enjoy the food. In trying to be healthy I'd ordered chicken with spinach, or so I thought – it was actually spinach with chicken (maybe 3 tiny cubes of it) and rather than being leaves of spinach it was all the stalky bits that I'd throw out rather than cook...not the best dinner I've had, but with delicious chocolate birthday cake for dessert I wasn't going to complain.
The next day we got up and headed for a walk around the national park a couple of minutes away from the hotel. It all started out very pleasantly with us spotting deer and birds and butterflies, but then things took a bad turn...monkeys..everywhere! We kept on walking trying to complete the loop that Anto was bringing us on without any hassle, but the monkeys were having none of it and were getting cheekier and cheekier the further into the forest we got. There were a number of families sat around eating picnics that were being plundered by the beasts, they were fearless!
We managed to get away from the picnic area unscathed but a couple of minutes on we came across a section of the path that was infested with the furry fiends. There was one massive one (not as big as the creature that jumped on my in Gibraltar – but big enough to be scary) who was getting very aggressive with the rest of them that were on the path. Half the group had passed them by at a quick pace but when the rest of us attempted to pass they started hissing and spitting at each other before they started fighting – not pleasant! When we spotted a bit of a gap I did the 'walk confidently and they'll leave you alone thing' with one of the girls clinging to my arm. We had to divert around one of the lads who'd stopped in the middle of the ring of monkeys to take a picture to avoid having the big one jump at us, but we made it through. I was feeling all relieved when I heard that we actually had to pass back that way again, the walk was not in fact the loop I thought it was – doh! A couple of paces on and there was an incident whereby a monkey stole a water bottle out of the hands of one of the girls as she tried to skip past it. There was no way she was getting the bottle back, any time she tried to approach it, it started hissing at her. So spooked by the incident and unwilling to have a repeat issue she armed herself with a big stick..very funny!
When we got to the end of the walk we were on a lovely beach that had loads of boats available for hire taxi-stylee, so rather than walk back through the monkey madness we got ourselves some boats back to the beach outside our hotel. A fun afternoon at the pool followed where I willingly got involved in (and created) some pool games to pass the hours. There was a supply of inner tubes and boogie boards at the pool that we used to get jumping tricks going on. I amazingly managed to leap from the pool side, through the inner tube ring and onto the boogie board on the other side – nice!
When we got bored of the pool we headed down to the beach to watch some of our surfer dudes on the waves. It was around this time that I discovered that my camera is banjo'd :( The screen has stopped working...not a problem you'd think since I have a viewfinder on it...but...I can't change any of the settings or shoot modes. It's like I'm back in the 80s with a 35mm camera...how retro...how annoying! Here's hoping there's somewhere in Bali that can repair it for me!!
The crew unanimously agreed to change the itinerary slightly to allow us to have two nights in Pangandaran to have extra sun-soakage time and a chance to explore the national park there. Since we weren't due in until the 2nd we had a night each at two different hotels (the second one with a pool – nice!). We all headed out to dinner to celebrate the big birthday after some warm-up drinks in the birthday girls room and everyone seemed to really enjoy the food. In trying to be healthy I'd ordered chicken with spinach, or so I thought – it was actually spinach with chicken (maybe 3 tiny cubes of it) and rather than being leaves of spinach it was all the stalky bits that I'd throw out rather than cook...not the best dinner I've had, but with delicious chocolate birthday cake for dessert I wasn't going to complain.
The next day we got up and headed for a walk around the national park a couple of minutes away from the hotel. It all started out very pleasantly with us spotting deer and birds and butterflies, but then things took a bad turn...monkeys..everywhere! We kept on walking trying to complete the loop that Anto was bringing us on without any hassle, but the monkeys were having none of it and were getting cheekier and cheekier the further into the forest we got. There were a number of families sat around eating picnics that were being plundered by the beasts, they were fearless!
We managed to get away from the picnic area unscathed but a couple of minutes on we came across a section of the path that was infested with the furry fiends. There was one massive one (not as big as the creature that jumped on my in Gibraltar – but big enough to be scary) who was getting very aggressive with the rest of them that were on the path. Half the group had passed them by at a quick pace but when the rest of us attempted to pass they started hissing and spitting at each other before they started fighting – not pleasant! When we spotted a bit of a gap I did the 'walk confidently and they'll leave you alone thing' with one of the girls clinging to my arm. We had to divert around one of the lads who'd stopped in the middle of the ring of monkeys to take a picture to avoid having the big one jump at us, but we made it through. I was feeling all relieved when I heard that we actually had to pass back that way again, the walk was not in fact the loop I thought it was – doh! A couple of paces on and there was an incident whereby a monkey stole a water bottle out of the hands of one of the girls as she tried to skip past it. There was no way she was getting the bottle back, any time she tried to approach it, it started hissing at her. So spooked by the incident and unwilling to have a repeat issue she armed herself with a big stick..very funny!
When we got to the end of the walk we were on a lovely beach that had loads of boats available for hire taxi-stylee, so rather than walk back through the monkey madness we got ourselves some boats back to the beach outside our hotel. A fun afternoon at the pool followed where I willingly got involved in (and created) some pool games to pass the hours. There was a supply of inner tubes and boogie boards at the pool that we used to get jumping tricks going on. I amazingly managed to leap from the pool side, through the inner tube ring and onto the boogie board on the other side – nice!
When we got bored of the pool we headed down to the beach to watch some of our surfer dudes on the waves. It was around this time that I discovered that my camera is banjo'd :( The screen has stopped working...not a problem you'd think since I have a viewfinder on it...but...I can't change any of the settings or shoot modes. It's like I'm back in the 80s with a 35mm camera...how retro...how annoying! Here's hoping there's somewhere in Bali that can repair it for me!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Day 69 (Bandung)
Today we had an early start to make sure we got to the port in time for either the 9.30am or 10am ferry that was taking us to Java for our next stop, Bandung. The drive took us through Jakarta (or a portion of it) and wasn't as long as the last few days - or at least didn't seem to be.
The ferry crossing was incredibly smooth compared to the last rust-bucket we were on, and it felt like we were barely moving. A good number of us sat inside watching a horror movie (nothing like scares at 9.30am) where we were following the plot using the English subtitles. Thankfully there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue, just lots of screaming. The recurring sound was from the ghost character who followed everyone around singing 'jamu ne'...I've no idea what it means but it was creeping Una out so I'm going to record it and use it as the alarm noise tomorrow morning...I'll keep you posted on how that works out! She is working on her blog entry..from Turkey (so long ago I've to dig to the back of my brain to remember). It should be with you any day now.
We got to the hotel at a reasonable time and I sat down to catch up with all the blog entries I know you've been eagerly awaiting, hope you've found them somewhat entertaining or informative :)
Once all that was sorted out I started working on the plan, or should I say Master Plan for when we get to Sydney. We've booked into a hostel for a week to rest up, get washing done and hang out with as many of the OzBUS crew as are sticking around. We're hoping to get tickets to see P!nk in Sydney on August 29th (if anyone can hook me up..please, please get in touch - I know I've seen this show twice already but I wanna go again!) From Sydney we've now got a flight to take us to Broome where we'll have 4 days and nights to hang out before we take a 10 day tour to Perth. We get a night there before taking the Indian Pacific train from Perth on to Adelaide where we've got a night to visit Ann, Cerri & Aisling. Then it's off driving the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne where I'll collect Conor from the airport and drop Una off to continue her adventure. This is all working out beautifully on my spreadsheet...now to get it to work out in reality :)
So that's what I've done in Bandung...not sure what there is to see here, like pretty much everyone else here I've not ventured out to look around. Una is busily making a birthday card for Barbara for tomorrow and some of the others are singing themselves silly in the Karaoke bar upstairs..the sweet tunage that's flowing down is amazing :)
The ferry crossing was incredibly smooth compared to the last rust-bucket we were on, and it felt like we were barely moving. A good number of us sat inside watching a horror movie (nothing like scares at 9.30am) where we were following the plot using the English subtitles. Thankfully there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue, just lots of screaming. The recurring sound was from the ghost character who followed everyone around singing 'jamu ne'...I've no idea what it means but it was creeping Una out so I'm going to record it and use it as the alarm noise tomorrow morning...I'll keep you posted on how that works out! She is working on her blog entry..from Turkey (so long ago I've to dig to the back of my brain to remember). It should be with you any day now.
We got to the hotel at a reasonable time and I sat down to catch up with all the blog entries I know you've been eagerly awaiting, hope you've found them somewhat entertaining or informative :)
Once all that was sorted out I started working on the plan, or should I say Master Plan for when we get to Sydney. We've booked into a hostel for a week to rest up, get washing done and hang out with as many of the OzBUS crew as are sticking around. We're hoping to get tickets to see P!nk in Sydney on August 29th (if anyone can hook me up..please, please get in touch - I know I've seen this show twice already but I wanna go again!) From Sydney we've now got a flight to take us to Broome where we'll have 4 days and nights to hang out before we take a 10 day tour to Perth. We get a night there before taking the Indian Pacific train from Perth on to Adelaide where we've got a night to visit Ann, Cerri & Aisling. Then it's off driving the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne where I'll collect Conor from the airport and drop Una off to continue her adventure. This is all working out beautifully on my spreadsheet...now to get it to work out in reality :)
So that's what I've done in Bandung...not sure what there is to see here, like pretty much everyone else here I've not ventured out to look around. Una is busily making a birthday card for Barbara for tomorrow and some of the others are singing themselves silly in the Karaoke bar upstairs..the sweet tunage that's flowing down is amazing :)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Day 68 (Bandar Lampung)
To be honest there isn't a whole lot to report from today. It was a longer drive day than expected – I thought there was about 30 minutes left but heard a vicious rumour about two or three hours so put the question to the front of the bus..it was confirmed. I wanted to die! Really feeling the strain of being confined on a bus for so many hours these days, so I'm very excited about flying ahead to Bali.
The drama of the day was when I roused from sleep to have Una standing over me looking very upset..I hadn't a clue what was going on. It turns out that she'd managed to delete every single photo from her memory card – we're not talking a couple of pictures here, we're talking thousands! Every photo from the day we left Dublin...the mood was blue :( The only consolation was that I had a backup of everything up until we left Koh Samui, so she's missing from Hat Yai onwards..the days I was very camera shy for once, so we don't have a whole lot to share from those days...I'm working on piecing it together from what I have and taking copies of Annie's (she takes so many pictures that we're bound to bridge the gap :) thanks Annie).
We eventually arrived over two hours late, tired and cranky (or at least I was). Having eaten most of our snacks we needed to restock for lunch so went in search of a supermarket. Beside it we found a restaurant serving steak, and a Pizza Hut. I've been craving steak for aaages...but we couldn't understand the menu, and the waitresses didn't have an English menu, or any English to help us translate it. Fearing that we'd get mushroom stuffed steaks in mushroom sauce, and not feeling adventurous enough to order mystery dishes since we were hungry enough to chew our own arms off at that point we went to Pizza Hut...AGAIN! I had Lasange..AGAIN! I tried to have a semi-healthy option by getting salad too, but then I had too much food and couldn't finish it all. As an aside, the vanilla milkshakes in Indonesian Pizza Huts are the nicest I've ever tasted...so, so, so, so good!!
The drama of the day was when I roused from sleep to have Una standing over me looking very upset..I hadn't a clue what was going on. It turns out that she'd managed to delete every single photo from her memory card – we're not talking a couple of pictures here, we're talking thousands! Every photo from the day we left Dublin...the mood was blue :( The only consolation was that I had a backup of everything up until we left Koh Samui, so she's missing from Hat Yai onwards..the days I was very camera shy for once, so we don't have a whole lot to share from those days...I'm working on piecing it together from what I have and taking copies of Annie's (she takes so many pictures that we're bound to bridge the gap :) thanks Annie).
We eventually arrived over two hours late, tired and cranky (or at least I was). Having eaten most of our snacks we needed to restock for lunch so went in search of a supermarket. Beside it we found a restaurant serving steak, and a Pizza Hut. I've been craving steak for aaages...but we couldn't understand the menu, and the waitresses didn't have an English menu, or any English to help us translate it. Fearing that we'd get mushroom stuffed steaks in mushroom sauce, and not feeling adventurous enough to order mystery dishes since we were hungry enough to chew our own arms off at that point we went to Pizza Hut...AGAIN! I had Lasange..AGAIN! I tried to have a semi-healthy option by getting salad too, but then I had too much food and couldn't finish it all. As an aside, the vanilla milkshakes in Indonesian Pizza Huts are the nicest I've ever tasted...so, so, so, so good!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Day 67 (Palembang)
Today we moved on from Jambi to Palembang. There wasn't a whole lot to note from the day really, it was just another drive day. We did however get the second of our OzBUS dinners on the beautiful setting of a riverboat berthed just beyond the one and only sight that we were aware of in Palembang – the bridge.
We had been speaking to an American guy who was teaching English in a school in Jambi last night and he was aware of the bridge but didn't know why it was noted as something to see. When we got there I reckon the significance of the bridge is the sheer volume of neon lighting used to make it standout in the night sky. It was quite beautiful..and I'm not usually a neon fan.
Dinner consisted of rice, chicken, sweet & sour fish and some vegetables in what tasted vaguely like black bean sauce. The chicken was very tasty and I'd have happily eaten a lot more of it had there been more available. I didn't wanna overstep the mark and take more than my share and then leave someone else hungry. So when we got back to the hotel I ordered pizza so I could have some then and the rest for lunch the next day.
Mel, Michelle and I booked flights with Lion Air to fly down to Bali early and avoid two long drive days on the bus. This will mean we miss Mount Bromo which is a shame, but the bus here in Indonesia is the first one that I've consistently felt motion sick on so getting away from 2 long days on it is well worth the €29 for the ticket. It also means that we get 3 days more there than we would do if we stuck with the bus which will be good.
We had been speaking to an American guy who was teaching English in a school in Jambi last night and he was aware of the bridge but didn't know why it was noted as something to see. When we got there I reckon the significance of the bridge is the sheer volume of neon lighting used to make it standout in the night sky. It was quite beautiful..and I'm not usually a neon fan.
Dinner consisted of rice, chicken, sweet & sour fish and some vegetables in what tasted vaguely like black bean sauce. The chicken was very tasty and I'd have happily eaten a lot more of it had there been more available. I didn't wanna overstep the mark and take more than my share and then leave someone else hungry. So when we got back to the hotel I ordered pizza so I could have some then and the rest for lunch the next day.
Mel, Michelle and I booked flights with Lion Air to fly down to Bali early and avoid two long drive days on the bus. This will mean we miss Mount Bromo which is a shame, but the bus here in Indonesia is the first one that I've consistently felt motion sick on so getting away from 2 long days on it is well worth the €29 for the ticket. It also means that we get 3 days more there than we would do if we stuck with the bus which will be good.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Day 66 (Jambi)
We had a pretty long drive day planned for today, but since we were going to be crossing the Equator I reckoned regardless of how long it took, it was gonna be a good day. We set off early and expected to cross the equator somewhere around 9am. I expected a big line drawn on the ground to allow people to have their picture taken with one foot on either side, but alas that wasn't what we found. Don't get me wrong, what was there was cool, just not how I pictured it would be.
We pulled up and there was a big pillar Tugu Equator written on it in big gold letters so that's where we all got our photos taken. Phone reception was slightly better in the Northern Hemisphere, I know this because I called Conor to say hello from both hemispheres and got cut off when I stepped across the imaginary line! Cool to be able to say I've crossed the equator on dry land :)
After 20 minutes of photo action we were back on the road and on the way to Jambi for the night. The hotel there had a pretty large outdoor swimming pool that I took advantage of to get some movement in my limbs after all the sitting on the bus. It was pretty special to be swimming around under the stars and the partial moon on my first night in the Southern Hemisphere. Pretty weird that I'm on the other half of the world to all of you at home until November!
We pulled up and there was a big pillar Tugu Equator written on it in big gold letters so that's where we all got our photos taken. Phone reception was slightly better in the Northern Hemisphere, I know this because I called Conor to say hello from both hemispheres and got cut off when I stepped across the imaginary line! Cool to be able to say I've crossed the equator on dry land :)
After 20 minutes of photo action we were back on the road and on the way to Jambi for the night. The hotel there had a pretty large outdoor swimming pool that I took advantage of to get some movement in my limbs after all the sitting on the bus. It was pretty special to be swimming around under the stars and the partial moon on my first night in the Southern Hemisphere. Pretty weird that I'm on the other half of the world to all of you at home until November!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Day 65 (Pekanbaru)
Another day, another border crossing, this time our last overland one from Malaysia into Indonesia.
We clambered aboard another boat with our baggage and took some seats in the upper saloon. I've never been on anything quite so rocky. I thought the speedboat to Black Moon was bad, I thought the fast ferry back from Alton Towers was bad..they were nothing compare to this monstrosity! The boat looked like a hybrid between a speedboat and a small ferry, and it ploughed through the water at a crazy speed. It was like the captain thought the waves would part for us rather than bash us around the place. I tried to stand at one point to talk to someone but had to have a lie down to stop from feeling sick. The toilet on the boat was a squat...interesting trying to use it with the boat rocking around so much and only a small handle on one wall to try maintain your balance – quite the experience!
When we got off the boat an immigration guy snapped the passports out of some of our hands despite our protests that we were in a group and were all to stick together. Mine was one of those he grabbed so I stuck to him like glue demanding he return it – he wouldn't. I followed him to the office where they sell you the visa. He handed the three passports over to the lady who was sitting waiting to take our money. I took them back and left the room to wait for Kim and the rest of the group to catch us up. The lady was demanding $25 US or 300,000 Rupiah for the visa. That didn't equate! Needless to say we were unhappy and quite vocal about the fact that we were being ripped off. I had no dollars left (they were all long gone to pay for the activities earlier in the trip) so was forced to pay in local currency – I was not a happy bunny. I was even less happy when my passport was handed from that office into the one next door where they took it behind a screen for a long, long time before finally handing it back with a receipt for $25 not the amount I'd actually paid. The guy sitting outside the screen was holding a USB device that I'm sure now contains a scan of my passport and god knows what else. It wasn't a good first impression for me..they were so aggressive and rude :(
We met our bus on the other side of the border and were greeted by Anto, our translator for the next 14 days – the yes man. The bus is grand, but it's weird that it doesn't have enough stowage space for our baggage..most of it is inside the bus with us and is being used as a mattress by one of the drivers when he needs to rest up!
Pekanbaru was a lot bigger than we expected. It was back to a KFC dinner (I really, really wanna eat something different now but am too scared of getting sick again).
We clambered aboard another boat with our baggage and took some seats in the upper saloon. I've never been on anything quite so rocky. I thought the speedboat to Black Moon was bad, I thought the fast ferry back from Alton Towers was bad..they were nothing compare to this monstrosity! The boat looked like a hybrid between a speedboat and a small ferry, and it ploughed through the water at a crazy speed. It was like the captain thought the waves would part for us rather than bash us around the place. I tried to stand at one point to talk to someone but had to have a lie down to stop from feeling sick. The toilet on the boat was a squat...interesting trying to use it with the boat rocking around so much and only a small handle on one wall to try maintain your balance – quite the experience!
When we got off the boat an immigration guy snapped the passports out of some of our hands despite our protests that we were in a group and were all to stick together. Mine was one of those he grabbed so I stuck to him like glue demanding he return it – he wouldn't. I followed him to the office where they sell you the visa. He handed the three passports over to the lady who was sitting waiting to take our money. I took them back and left the room to wait for Kim and the rest of the group to catch us up. The lady was demanding $25 US or 300,000 Rupiah for the visa. That didn't equate! Needless to say we were unhappy and quite vocal about the fact that we were being ripped off. I had no dollars left (they were all long gone to pay for the activities earlier in the trip) so was forced to pay in local currency – I was not a happy bunny. I was even less happy when my passport was handed from that office into the one next door where they took it behind a screen for a long, long time before finally handing it back with a receipt for $25 not the amount I'd actually paid. The guy sitting outside the screen was holding a USB device that I'm sure now contains a scan of my passport and god knows what else. It wasn't a good first impression for me..they were so aggressive and rude :(
We met our bus on the other side of the border and were greeted by Anto, our translator for the next 14 days – the yes man. The bus is grand, but it's weird that it doesn't have enough stowage space for our baggage..most of it is inside the bus with us and is being used as a mattress by one of the drivers when he needs to rest up!
Pekanbaru was a lot bigger than we expected. It was back to a KFC dinner (I really, really wanna eat something different now but am too scared of getting sick again).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
