Sunburnt and Shellshocked

Hello all! We are on day three (almost day four) of our Indonesian adventure. On Saturday evening we boarded a flight in Incheon, Korea to Denpasar, Bali. Being the neurotic flier I am, I needed help from a certain muscle relaxant... let's just call it "ativan"... to get through the flight. In all actuality, we almost didn't make it aboard because at the Korean Air counter, the check in lady noticed that we didn't have proof of onward travel. In Indonesia, most nationalities can get a 30 day tourist visa on arrival... with proof of onward travel.

We explained to the woman that, yes, we understood that we needed proof; however, we were leaving Indonesia, where it is close to impossible to obtain proof of onward travel if, like us, you are taking a ferry to Malaysia. Sheesh. I guess, though, she was just doing her job, and after about 20 minutes and several phone calls to Denpasar airport, we had our boarding passes and were on our way... upgraded to business class, no less.

Once we arrived in Denpasar, we faced our assumed greatest challenge: customs. Having read up on Indonesian culture before leaving, we figured that with no real proof of onward travel it merely depended on the mood of the person giving us our visa. I guess, though, we didn't take into account that when we arrived it was 2 AM and the people at the airport probably wanted to get out of there as much as we did, so we literally sailed through customs and were in Bali as easy as that.

Our next test was getting a decent fare from a taxi driver. I learned from my time in Beijing how difficult it can be to get an honest cab driver- hell, most cab drivers assume (rightfully, at times) that foreigners have much more money than them so why not cheat us when they can? Anyway, we had several drivers try to bamboozle us but we would have none of it and got a decent guy to take us to Kuta (foreigner central) for about five bucks. He dropped us off in the town centre and we wandered around until we found a place to rest our weary (and by this time, sweaty) heads for a few hours until we were supposed to meet up with our bus the next morning.

My first impression of Bali: foreigners = ignorant and usually drunk. Locals are some of the most beautiful and kind people I have ever met. I heard so much talk about locals trying to get as much money out of you as possible and this has not really happened to us yet. The people are very kind and honest.

When Sunday morning came around, we woke up around 8 AM and set out around 9 to meet what would be our transport company for the day- Perama (cannot recommend them enough!). They signed us in and told us to be there for the 10 AM departure. There was a whole family back there- even a busy toddler- running the business. Very honest, excellent service.

Patrick and I wandered around Kuta, had some breakfast, I bought a new bag, Pat bought some sunglasses, we bought some sunscreen and took out enough money to last us a week (the Gilis have no ATMs). When we got back to Perama, they were just about ready to go. We sat down and the man next to us started chatting. He was so interesting. He was an Indian from Goa (South India) and he was a commercial scuba diver. Patrick, who is getting certified this week, got some advice from him. He travels all the time, has two girls and a wife at home, loves animals and cooking. We had a great chat with him all the way to Ubud, which was the first stop on our bus.

We stayed on, since we were going to Padangbai Harbour to take the Perama boat to the Gilis. The whole journey took about 2 hours and we went through beautiful countryside- terraced rice fields, jungles, beautiful rivers. I fell in love with Bali almost immediately.

When we reached Padangbai, we had a bit of a break and then were bussed to the harbour. A dinghy came to get us to the boat and we were greeted with tea and (delicious) fried banana. The bananas here, we are told, are King Bananas. They're a bit orange on the inside and are super yummy.

The boat over took about five hours. There are other boats you can take for only two hours, but they are very expensive and usually people get seasick as the Lombok straight is quite rough at the best of times. Pat and I have good sea legs, though, and we met a nice guy from Finland along the way. We had a beer, chatted about our travels, when all of the sudden the crew started shouting in Bahasa Indonesia- DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!! Pat saw them before I did, and I nearly pushed him off the boat to get a look. They were pretty far away when I finally caught sight of them, but they were doing some amazing jumps and you could very clearly see that they were having a tubular time. So were we. That really made my day!

We arrived at Gili Trawangan (the largest of the three islands) around 6 PM. Pat and I found a decent place to spend the week (about 3$ CAN each per night) with a ceiling fan and a nice courtyard- and wonderful hosts (although the innkeeper looks to be about 15 years old- he's very kind and professional, though... and helpful to dumb backpackers like us...).

Today we spend the day looking around the island. We walked the entire perimeter on the beach, and when we felt hot we jumped in the beautiful turquoise sea. Pat lost a toenail, but it has been purple for a long time. We got some great pictures that we can't wait to share with you... maybe tomorrow. Right now we're meeting up with our Finnish friend for a frosty Bintang and maybe some grilled barricuda... for about 3 bucks. Life is good, my friends.

xo