The Far South

So leaving Bali for the Gilis, 3 tiny paradisiac islands close to Lombok (the main island east of Bali). The scenario was supposed to be perfect...white sandy beaches, corals for snorkelling, amazing views on Bali and Lombok, no cars and police on the island, and some tourist infrastructure. This time I’m on a muslim land but apart from the fucking muezzin you don’t feel it at all (alcool everywhere, all local women on the street the face uncovered). Gili Trawangan, the biggest of the three, where I was hosted has really become touristical, but at this time of the year, like in Ubud, no big crowds. A few years ago it was very popular with backpackers nowadays it’s a more mixed kind of tourism.
So you’ll say everything’s perfect right ? you can’t complaint this time!
Almost...for that you have to make abstraction of the rubbish everywhere...and that’s just imposible. Actually the beach area in front of the bars is less dirty but all the rest of the island is a total mess (of course the same underwater). That is really annoying in most of thirld world countries, but on a perfect spot like that it looks even more “out of place”. Fist big deception then. Second one is realizing that being alone with really nothing to do apart from swimming and sunbathing, on a somehow kind of romantic spot (ok garbage not included) with happy couples everywhere is a bit depressing after two days !
Bye bye Gilis, I won’t miss you. Next stop Lombok island and its south coast, supposed to be still quite unexploited with the best beaches of the region.

Lombok is a little bit smaller than Bali and a little bit less populated too. Landscapes are pretty similar but the culture is quite different since the Sasak people (90%of the island population) are muslims. Actually after a one an half hour drive from Bangsal, the nearest port of the Gilis on the northwest to Kuta (on the south of Lmbok, absolutely nothing to do with Kuta in Bali, which is the biggest beach resort in Bali) , I spotted a lot of differences. Lombok is “wilder” you can find some part of rainforest and areas still untouched, while it wasn’t the case in the parts of Bali I saw. It also feels less densely populated, and it seems that most of the population lives in Mataram, the “capital” which is indeed really spreaded out, but on the rest if the island you don’t find as many villages, less traffic on the road too, and many more coconut trees. People also seem poorer than in Bali.
So once in Kuta, I rented a scooter once again to explore the area. Actually it is the only thing to here, go and enjoy the beaches around if you don’t surf (the majority of the few tourists here are surfers). This time the experience had nothing to do with Ubud. No traffic at all but I could also say “no roads” or at least the worst roads I’ve ever seen ! landscapes are really spectacular too, between small villages, green hills, rice and tobacco fields and wonderfull views on the coast. So once again I had a lot of cheap fun (renting a scooter for a day costs 4€, plus 50 cents for gas) riding around.
Obviously after a few days I got tired of beach bitching and decided to have a more “real and off the beaten tracks experience” (I prefer seing myself as an adventure traveller and not a lambda tourist!) into a typical and nice indonesian village called Tetebatu, on the slopes of the Rinjani volcano.
Nice walks on the rice fields and forest with views on the volcano, very quiet place except for the strongest calls on prayer I’ve heard in my life...especially disturbing at 5am, but a real 1001 nights horror show at 6 pm, up to three muezzins at the same time, plus a woman singing (totally out of tune, of course), and it lasts so long...like 30 min (with interuptions to make you wrongly think it’s finally over).
What am I doing here ? wanted to see how indonesian live...well I guess I’m done ! nice kids saying hello al the time because you are their only distraction (most of them will never go further away than 20 kms around their village) and window on the world (even if globalization obviously came here before me, example...I was asked if my brother looks like Justin Beiber, if I prefer Madrid o Barca, Shakira o Rihanna). Families working all day like in the middle-age , with a middle-age religious practice...yes Lombok is poorer than Bali but I’m also realizing there is also less culture and entertainment. it is surely exotic, authentic, even beautiful but it is above all quite a sad place at the end. Surely I also feel like that because my trip is now on it's final part (already done 5/6), and I'm of course sad to finish it even if I also really miss home.

As an introduction I will start with a few facts like a short “Bali for dummies”:
So Bali is actually a small island of the Indonesian archipelago, with about 3,5 millions people (but the island being so small, it looks really densely populated) just on the east of the bigger Java Island .
The main particularity of the Balinese is their religion, they are still hinduist whereas Indonesia is now the most populated muslim country in the world. Bali is also the most turistical island in Indonesia. It is especially popular with Australians, who enjoy surfing and cheap partying in the south coast and japaneses who enjoy cheap massages and spa (and for the women apparently male prostitutes). Europeans come here more for the culture and diving.
And I ? well I guessed I picked Bali because it was a strategic stop between Aussie and south east asia and I was also attracted by the probably long gone “mystic”” we all heard about this place.

So I arrived at Depensar at 21h and such a shock after leaving Australia, just like when you come from Spain to Morocco, suddenly emerging in a totally different culture and way of life, with all the ”cliches” of a touristical third world destination...very cheap, noisy, dirty, and this impresion that you just converted in a very shining white wallet full of money.
I could afford the luxury to take a cab to go directly to Ubud in the center of the Island (one hour drive...15€) and avoid spending the night in the superticial and full of Australian drunk dumbies beach of Kuta.

Ubud is in reality a funny agglomeration of villages, and the cultural capital of Bali.
It is also touristical but at this time of the year not overcrowded.
In itself it is not really a beautiful town and there’s not many attractions to see, so why foreigners love Ubud ?
It is generally famous for its good food, the spas, and the Balinese dance shows...and as a good tourist I did as expected from me:
• Food is really okay although after a while I became a little saturated with fried bananas, peanut sauce and rice !
• Of course I obviously couldn’t resist the spa experience which consisted of a one hour full body massage (nothing erotic even if the masseur insisted maybe a little bit on my bums...), then an exfoliation product with honey, then yogurt (so for once in my life I felt like a giant cake !). And to finish a flower bath (ok I’m not such a pussy and I had asked for a seaweed bath...don’t know why I had the flowers instead ! anyway after the cake I could experience being a Balinese princess).
• I assisted to two different dancing shows, because they are many different types of dances...the first one was a Legong and the second one a Kecak (o fire dance), nice but frankly a bit of a turist trap.

Still what I enjoyed the most in my two days in Ubud was renting a scooter for an afternoon to explore the countryside around and to visit some temples in the other neighbourhoods. At first it seems totally dangerous and crazy...but then you realize nobody goes very fast anyway because of the road, the people, the trucks anf the others motorbikes, then you understand that there are just no rules, everybody can stop everywhere, can do whatever they want...you start to do the same just trying to avoid bumping into someone in front of you (for the one behind you no worries, they are the one who are supposed to look !) making yourself notice from time to times with your horn if needed. After one hour or so it even gets really fun and exciting (far more than my bungee jumping in NZ for instance!) and the only real trouble is just finding your way, because there are almost no road signs.
Plus it really helped me for my next three days because I rented a car to visit the east of the Island. And what a “car” ! it was a Suzuki Jimmy. From outside it looks like a small jeep for 2 people (nice!), but of course it is not a 4 WD, I could not go further than 70 km/h (imposible to actually go faster than that with the driving conditions here), the radio didn’t work (at least I had air con), rearviewmirror and seat broken...probably the most crappy car I’ve ever droven...but somehow I liked it and it felt really “local”, and it managed to take me to my destination without any trouble (not even a policeman to bribe), so I won’t complain.
Anyway , alone with my buddy Jimmy, we travelled to the amazing rice fields first to Pura Besakih temple, the biggest and most sacred site of the island, on the feet of Mount Agung volcanoe. Most travellers have to face here the constant harassment of the “false guides mafia” and they are apparently very annoying. But I got very lucky since I arrived there on a rainy day and there was at the moment a huge and very crowded ceremony...so nobody really cared about me and I could enjoy the temple at is best (just see the pics), it was a very special sensation, very spiritual, even if I understand nothing about this complex religion (they have many gods and demons, a complicated caste system still existing and a very large mythology as well).
After that I spent the night in an outstanding balinese countryside landscape of terrace rice fields.
On the next day I made my way through Amed on the northeast coast. The place has become increasingly touristical in the last few years. Now the coastshore is full of restaurants and bungalow hotels for about 8 kms. Here come mostly european tourists for diving. Guess what ? I did the same!
The snorkelling was not as impressive as Australia though, the water wasn’t that clear for a start, and since we are on the thirld word the garbage management doesn’t really exist so you find rubbish on the beach and in the water...But I also wanted to dive for a second time on a very special site. The wreck of an american second war ship called the “Liberty”. Since I’m not a certified diver, once again I had to do an introduction dive...but nothing to do with my first experience: I had two dives of 50 min (instead of one of 20 for less than half the price), and our instructor an englishman called David gave us much more explanations and independence. The site is also perfect for beginners, it’s a huge boat of 100m long lying close to the beach between 5 and 30m deep. So it is very easy to access, I guess we dived to 10, 12m...and on the second time since we were doing well we could even “enter” in the wreck !! corals, fishs, wreck...frankly I felt like Jacques Cousteau! it was unbelievable...and just my second diving day in my life, problably one of my top 5 experiences in my journey. I was also told afterwards that is it one of the most famous diving sites in Asia, maybe that’s the reason why at some point we were like 15 divers around the wreck even if we were on low season.

After that I drove back to Ubud to drop off Jimmy, and came back to the coast to take a fast boat for the Gili islands near Lombok, the next big Island on the east of Bali.

Just 5 days in “the island of Gods” then, but 5 amazing ones. This is not the most beautiful place I’ve seen, but I really loved it. The spa, the drive, the dive helped of course but above all what really surprised me is that Bali still has a lot of personality...it’s overcrowded with tourists but people seem to live as always (even globalization with internet, cell phones, western music everywhere doesn’t seem to have change that much their habits), they are also very welcoming, not agresive at all with foreigners. In conclusion, to me Bali is still Bali (you just have to get outside of the beach resorts to find it), hope you’ll see it before that changes.

Everything comes to an end, and here I am in my last step in Australia, Darwin and the far north.
It is quite an ininteresting town and I came here only to visit the biggest national park in the country, Kakadu. It’s the land a the famous Crocodile Dundee, a tropical, hot and wet bush with swamps, a lot of Aborigene culture and of course the big saltwater crocodiles (up to 6m). So very different from the rest of Australia and supposed to be at is best at the end of the wet season, full of water.
I finally booked a 3 days tour to visit the area and frankly it was a little bit disapointing. First because it was really expensive (500$), and we haven’t seen that much (the paradox is it’s the time of the year when the park is more beautiful but most of the sites are inaccesible, even in 4WD...). Lot of waterfalls, a nice cruise on a billabong, some short walks, and nothing more...and by now I’ve started to see so many impressive places that this one in particular didn’t really amazed me.
At this stage I have to say that I was also starting to getting tired of Australia, and its aseptised anglosaxon society.
So happy to leave and really excited to take another plane to my first Asian destination, Bali.

Time as well for a short sum up of my two months down under...

I really enjoyed here
. The amazing and so different wildlife, especially kangaroos (and their meat!)
. The coral reef, absolutely unbelievable
. Melbourne relaxed and unstressed lifestyle
. The Opera House and Sydney harbour beaches
. Kangaroo Island, for a real bush experience

I didn’t like that much:
. Very unformal way of speaking...eveybody is a “mate” a buddy, “no worries”, and it seems quite fake
. Especially the “no worries” which works as soon as you walk “the line” , I’ve never seen a country with so many “laws” and forbidden things before.
. Although it is quite a multicultural society and much more informal than their Brits “ancestors” they often look like them...especially in their way of drinking.
. Skyhigh prices...sometimes so ridiculous that you have to laugh (15€ a cigarette packet for instance)

After a quiet week in Byron Bay (raining all the time, nice place, but frankly overated for me) without anything interesting to tell, I've finally been to the northen coast of Queensland.
For once the couchsurfing worked in Australia, and I've found probably my weirdest host...a gay nudist kiwi writer called Mike.
Luckily I wasn't surfing alone there, there were 2 other guys, Matt (an intelligent and funny american straight marine) and Mark (nice and funny Berlin guy)...so I had a kind of bizarre but globally nice week, seeing lot of different things like : rainforests, a wildlife hospital, a tropical island...my first dive on the coral reef (absolutely fantastic), eating kangaroo (excellent meat), discovering a very interesting book on male multiple orgasm (yes that exists!) and just doing nothing on the beach and enjoy a finally perfect australian summer weather !
My stay Down Under is almost over now...just 5 more day on the top north in Darwin...and then I move again this time for Asia (and just two more months before coming back).