Bali Part 1

After concerns of not not even being able to get the Bali due to volcano eruption in Lombak, we got the go-ahead from our on-line source to go to the airport. We jumped in a van and skipped along to the Phuket National Airport. Our flight was right on time and not too long later we landed in Singapore. This is were the real fun begins.

Our gate is the nicest and cleanest public place we've seen.

Just before dinner we decided to relax a bit on the free massage chairs that are spread about the airport.

To start off our 9 hour layover, we breezed through customs and found our choice for dinner. It turns out that Singapore has such a nice Airport that even the McDonald's has a majestic waterfall and Plaza all to itself. We sat down and discovered that the burgers are the same tasteless patties that we get in America and that ketchup goes a long way.

In between movies Paul and Hunter fulfilled a childhood dream.

Next on the list was to find some sleeping accommodations or entertainment in case we stayed up all night. We went through security and found that they had an entire game room, closed overnight, as well as a movie theater. We sat down and watched a movie about Steven Hawking, followed by the speedier wheeled movie of Fast and Furious 7. Our one complaint is that the volume wasn't loud enough to drown out the sound of people snoring as they used the movie theater as a hotel. 

Paul, wrapped up in his sheet, and Nola hiding in the personal T.V. booth at about 4 am.

We then tried to bed down for the night which is complicated considering we were left with concrete floors or thin carpeted concrete floors. It was a long night.

 

After our next flight we found ourselves in a new country yet again and we had to go through the whole conversion change in our heads. After withdrawing a couple million rupiah each, we found a hostel and took a taxi straight there. It was still early so we headed down to the beach to rent our scooters and do beachy things. Nola laid out and Hunter and Paul tried to surf. We were mediocre at best but after an hour or so we had caught a few waves and still had big smiles on our faces as we joined Nola.

Kuta Beach, Bali.

After a while we headed back to our hostel and planned out our next 9 days that we would be spending in Bali. With tons of activities planned we we got up and hit the road in the morning. About 30 minutes into our 2 our scooter ride we were syphoned off by some traffic police and they asked us for our license and registration. We gave them both but they smiled when they saw we didn't have an international driving license. They charged us a penalty of about 20 USD and when Paul didn't have enough money they said it was totally fine. In fact, the people next to us had a completely different price. We then realized that we were victims of the massive amount of corruption in Indonesia. Technically we did have to have an international driving license and it is a bit intimidating to bargain with the police but next time we had a plan to play our dumb tourist card and buzz by them.  This was the most effective method mentioned to us on line.

Modern day Highwaymen.

Finally, we made it to our first stop, Ubud. Ubud is the cultural capitol of Bali and has tons of carvings and temples and figurines and is a lot less run down as well as touristy. It is a pretty cool city and one of the few we went to that was not on the coast. There are lots of things to do here, but we really only came for one reason, and that is the Monkey Forest. The Monkey Forest is basically a park on the edge of the city with paths, water fountains, small amphitheatres, and tons and tons of monkeys. We went in through the cemetery and saw our first monkeys and a few monkey keepers that patrolled the paths to make sure the monkeys didn't get too aggressive. The rules are that if a monkey grabs something of yours, you let him have it. If you don't they will attack you for it, as we found out they can be quite vicious. Slightly nervous, we started on the path through the park.

Not 50 feet into the park this little guy ran up to Paul, stared him down,
and then hopped on Paul's bag to see if there was anything loose he could grab.
He jumped off after a few moments and we started to get used to these guys.

A little mother son grooming session.

Hunter squated next to them for a picture.

And they thought he wanted some grooming as well.
Hopefully they didn't find anything to eat.

The monkeys gave up and just started gooming, on Hunter's back.

He found some goodies on the edge of Pauls bag and
just wouldn't give up on the zipper. A monkey handler came and saved us.

 

 

 

After a good deal of time in the Monkey forest we went back to town and found a place to stay. For dinner we got samplers of several different kinds of Indonesian food, shown below. It was all delicious, however, the substance under the napkin on the left feels like lava when it enters your mouth. We went to bed early and got ready for a very early start the next morning.

 

Our alarms went off at 1:45 am and we got in the van at 2 and headed to Mount Batur. After a quick coffee and crepe stop we hit the trail. Our guide said that we crushed it and were up much faster than most of his groups, which was easier and better for him. It probably had something to do with the top altitude being about 6000 ft, much less than your average Coloradan peak. The views were incredible as we got to look out at the sunrise and the massive Mt. Aguno which is also a volcano.

Bananas and eggs cooked with steam from the volcano.

Yep there's monkeys up here looking for food, and they do get cold.

Massive burn spot out in the valley from the last erruption.

 

After the volcano hike we still had some energy left so we decided to check out a waterfall on the way back from Ubud. It was pretty cool and we swam around in it and tried to walk through it. The water was so powerful that it knocked us on our butts everytime, it was still really fun.  The scenery around the falls was alright as well.

Next Prana cover.

 

On the way out we walked around a religious ceremony at the temple down by the waterfall. We got on our scooters and drove down to a town called Sanur where we got on a boat. The boat took us over to a small island called Nusa Lombongan where we continued our Bali adventure.

 

 

Koh Phi Phi

After we left Phuket we arrived at Phi Phi hot and exhausted, which is becoming the norm for us at this point. They made us pay 65 cents to get on the island for trash clean up which was just annoying, we could tell later on that it wasn't working. After finding some food and a place to sleep without bed bugs we explored and got a lay of the land. It turns out most of the island is shear rock cliffs that look like gum drops and is uninhabited. The only place left is this strip that connects the two halves that's about a km long and 1000 feet wide. There are tons of shops, bars, hostels, happy massage places, scuba shops and pretty much everything else beach related. One side is only for the boat traffic and the other side is for swimming and playing. It's a really fun island because it's a smaller close knit community and easily to memorize where everything is. Oh ya it's also one of the most beautiful islands we've ever seen. We spent our days on the beach and nights partying with our new friends.

The view coming in. 

People side. The water was so shallow you could walk about 100 yards to the end of the swimming area without the water going above your waist. When the water level lowered ever so much at low tide it got baked so hot by the sun that it was hotter than most hot showers!!

Boat side. 

Hunter and Paul had some fresh caught fish the first night.

Two guys lost a bet and got each others names tattooed on their butts as a result. They have known each other for a total of 3 hrs. 

Fire shows at night. 

The most fun part of the island up to the look out. 

Paul paid to go up to the very top.

Nola and Christian smoked Hunter and a random Dutch guy in perhaps the windiest game of beer pong ever.

More fire!!

So there are no cars or trucks on the whole island and there aren't any roads either. 

Phi Phi was a super fun and somehow close knit little island with hundreds of tourists on it at any given point. It is definitely reaching its maximum fill level so it may have more problems than just trash coming soon. We were happy we got to experience it for 3 days and 2 nights before it gets completely over run. Finally, we will leave you with this: