HTML> Indonesia - Part 2

Indonesia - Part 2



Lombok's Gunung Rinjani - the volcano inside a volcano

BALI - Ubud
LOMBOK - Gili Nanggu, Senggigi, Gili Trawangan, Mataram, Senaru, Gunang Rinjani

July 12 - 25, 1999


By the time you read this it will have been officially a year since we skipped out of the United States. That´s a difficult concept for us to grasp. We´re writing this on July 31, but our "anniversary" date is August 2, and you can be secure in the knowledge that we will be utilizing a large portion of our frighteningly miniscule funds remaining to treat ourselves to a huge meal and a bottle of amazing Chilean red wine. Oh, did I forget to mention that we are now in South America? This fact is also very difficult for us to grasp because we just decided and finalized our flight to Chile less than a week ago, and are basking in our final two weeks of this year long adventure without the benefit of any mental preparation for this final leg of the trip. It just kind of happened...more on this later. First let´s join the action back in Indonesia where we last left our heroes battling the forces of hellacious touts, fire-hot chili sauce and the impending arrival of Dr. Evil (just kidding, I really mean our friend Robert).

We were anxious and excited to finally see a friendly face from home when we went to the Bali airport to pick up Robert. We had spent the previous month basically doing nothing whatsoever with the intention of saving up our energy for wild adventures with Robert. Our plans did not disappoint.

Fully schooled in the art of Balinese money changers, the first thing we did upon Robert's arrival was approach the throng of rabid touts where we were finally in full control of the situation. Robert let me handle the delicate negotiations and it was a full-on bargaining auction, fiercely arguing over 3 cents to the dollar and eventually getting exactly what we wanted. Believe it or not, exchange rates ARE negotiable...at least when we're the ones exchanging. Paige and I had hired a van and driver (with additional driver's friend attached - don't know why this is, but whenever you hire a car or taxi, they absolutely have to have at least one additional friend along for the ride. They never talk or grunt or mime or anything, don't help out by pumping the gas, don't serve us beverages or offer a hot towel or anything, but their presence is still a very crucial necessity for some reason) for the day for a rock bottom bargain price, and we all drove straight from the airport up to Ubud where we had rented a beautiful house in the middle of a string of rice paddies. We were a little worried that Robert, coming from the glistening comforts of the first world would have some serious reservations about our way of life/travel, but Robert confided in us that he didn't want us to change our style just for him; he only wanted to join in the adventure and enjoy the ride and our plans whatever they were. His only reservation was, "I have really tender feet, so I need to be careful and watch out for their safety at all times." We were confident that he had no idea what he was getting into...

Ubud's rice fields and human scarecrows

We had found a great two storey house overlooking the rice paddies, and spent a lot of time out on our porch/balcony soaking in the unique atmosphere. In the last update we mentioned the locals who patrol the rice paddies screaming and grunting at the birds, attempting to scare them away from their precious rice crop. But now we were right in the middle of the whole thing, and from dawn to dusk we stared and listened in awe, laughter and maybe even a little fright at these elderly men and women who seemingly bellowed in both rage, pain and ecstasy. At least that's how it sounded to us when we contrived demented stories about what was REALLY happening out there.

Robert, Paige...and THE guitar on our Ubud porch

From Ubud, we were excited to return back to the island of Lombok for some serious snorkeling and volcano climbing, and set out at the crack of dawn one morning to find transportation to the ferry dock, about an hour away. Every day the "TRANSPORT?" guys would harass our every move, but of course when you really need them they are never anywhere to be found, one of life's little ironies. We walked for a half an hour finding no transport and started to get worried. Finally some guy stopped for us, but spoke no English and we had a sketchy negotiation. We only had limited time now and were worried about making the ferry, so we agreed to whatever and instead piled in the van and frantically searched in our Indonesian phrasebook for words like, "FAST!" "HURRY!" and "DOG BUSCUIT!" (the last one was an honest mistake, but I think he got the message). He squealed into the dock's parking lot with 9 minutes to spare and we ran to the ticket booth out of breath. It was then we were told that the ferry had left early - exactly ONE minute before. Since when does ANYTHING leave early in the third world? We had conveniently forgotten an important rule: if it can happen, it will happen to us.

By the end of the day when we eventually made it over to Lombok, we were all exhausted and looking forward to a couple of relaxing nights on a tiny nearby island off the coast of Lombok called Gili Nanggu. We departed the ferry, negotiated for a small outrigger ride out to the island, and found ourselves crammed in a tiny canoe-like contraption racing back out to sea with our packs stacked on top of us. We arrived on the beach of Gili Nanggu an hour later REALLY tired now, and went to go check into our room in the sole place to stay on the island. It was then we found out the manager hadn't kept our room for us (we had called earlier). I was furious, and told him the conversation that I had had earlier with his boss. "You never had that conversation," he told me. I was confused, tired and pissed off (more pissed off than confused however, MUCH more) and calmly said, "Then you must be calling me a liar, are you calling me a liar?" "Yes," he answered. Great, now we're tired, angry and liars, have nowhere to stay, can't go back to the mainland...he flippantly said he could put us up in one of the empty "losmen," a loose term for "disgusting, repulsive, extremely dirty, giant-roach-and-spider-infested, hole" of a room for an exorbitant price. It was then that both Paige and I read Robert's mind perfectly: "What the hell am I doing here?"

We were out of there first thing the next morning, having had no sleep at all and anxious to get back to the mainland as fast as possible. We tried to put this event out of our minds and focus on the positive things...such as when Robert was packing up and noticed a Shaq-sized dead spider being hoisted away by a team of giant ants. I'll bet he can't wait to show that picture around back home...

Robert finally smiling because we're getting the hell off Gili Nanggu

Things dramatically picked up from there. We all went back to Senggigi where Paige and I had spent the previous month relaxing and basking in the wonderful tropical goodness of Lombok's white and black sand beaches. We had a couple days of snorkeling off the coast near our cottages, and one day Robert and I took a 2 hour outrigger out to the small island of Gili Trawangan for some additional snorkeling that had come highly recommended. Robert and I were a little shell shocked however, because the previous day we had ventured out near our beach only to find ourselves caught in some horrifying waves. We were thrashed and thrown about on the coral, out of breath and nearly bashed to bits, but somehow escaped to safety bleeding and torn to pieces. And Robert's sole reservation, his tender-as-a-baby's-butt feet, were literally shredded to pieces. But it was a different story on Gili Trawangan and we had some fantastic snorkeling without further disturbing Robert's now padless feet. The tiny island has no roads or cars, but has pony-drawn carriages that can take you around for a fee. As we walked along the beach admiring the European sunbathers (I think you're hearing me), we continually heard the carriage-drivers' calls of, "HEY TOURIST! TRANSPORT!!??" Not exactly the best sales tactic for success.

We rounded out our first week back on Lombok with many wonderful sunset meals overlooking the beach, playing pool in "downtown" bars and exploring the city of Mataram searching for exotic local crafts and cultural oddities. Very quickly the balance of Robert's experience appeared to be shifting towards "good" and we all began preparing for what became the culmination of our time there: climbing the volcano. Also, the "tender feet" aspect was noticably improving...

Another San Tai losmon and us in the window

But truly one of the highlights of both our last week in Lombok and this entire trip was our hike to Gunang Rinjani, the island's active volcano surrounded by a lake in it's crater. We decided to do it on our own, carrying our packs, all our food, tent, sleeping bags, stove, fuel, etc. instead of hiring porters and guides. Under the guise of our perceived ability, strength and pigheaded pride, we naively (and stupidly) thought that having porters carry our stuff was wimpy. We of course learned the hard way. Oh how we learned.

We got a 2 hour ride out to the middle of the island (driver plus friend, of course) to the town of Senaru where we organized all our equipment, finalized all our food necessities and stayed the night, planning to leave first thing the next morning. We had also heard about some wonderful waterfalls near Senaru that we could hike to, and excitedly set off to find them before it got dark. Again, truly another amazing highlight of this trip.

Dr. Evil and Paige hiking to the falls

It took us about an hour or so to hike through tropical forests, scale wet mossy boulders and wade through rushing streams before we finally started to hear and feel the roar of the waterfalls. And then suddenly, there it was in front of us, mist spraying in our faces from 30 yards away due to the power of the water pounding into the clear tropical pools 40-50 feet below. We could barely hear each other due to the roar as we stripped down to our suits and waded into the ice cold water. It was a total rush to swim over to the base of the falls and position ourselves directly underneath to receive the full brunt of the power on our back, shoulders and heads. It was even MORE violent and powerful than a Thai massage...and believe me, that's saying a LOT. We stayed as long as we could handle it and reluctantly left when our skin became wonderfully bruised and beaten to a pulp. A great, great time.

Robert and I under the waterfalls

At daybreak the next morning, we strapped on our packs (about 30 lbs. per person) and began up the mountain in high spirits, thankfully ignorant to the hell that was awaiting us. We initially walked through local farmland for about an hour when we suddenly were swallowed by the dense tropical forest. Then the innocent path suddenly and without warning changed from "somewhat level" to "straight up." Plus, it ceased being a path at all and became twisted roots, rocks and washed out undergrowth. Combined with the 99% humidity conveniently trapped within the denseness of the trees, we were freely dripping with sweat, every inch of our clothes drenched in wetness, as we attempted to navigate the near-rock climbing conditions of the trail. For 8 agonizing hours we labored over the hike, finally arriving at our campsite right before dusk. Not that it was a planned campsite or anything; more like we eventually collapsed and said, "Please! Not one more step today!" We unsuccessfully tried to regain some strength overnight with the three of us stuffed in a 2 man tent, battling off thieving monkeys and unable to start a fire due to the extreme wetness of the undergrowth. Strangely enough, even the meal of Oreos and half a cup of rice didn't regenerate our strength.

Early the first day...we know this because we're still smiling here...

The next day we emerged from the forest in the morning, climbing a steep volcanic slope and by midmorning suddenly found ourselves on the crest of the crater looking down into the volcano. All three of us agreed it was the single most beautiful lake we'd ever laid eyes on in our lives. Rinjani is a very old volcano in which this unbelieveable aqua blue lake resides in its crater - it last erupted in 1994 when another cone emerged in the middle of the lake and is still smoking and ashy. We stared in awe at this sight, almost unbelieving of what we were seeing. The climb down to the water was 2 agonizing hours of trecherous rock climbing - literally. We were totally spent, but managed to walk an additional hour around the lake to these phenomenal systems of hot springs; rivers and waterfalls adorned in colorful sulfuric patterns and textures. We eased our weary, weary bones in the hot water for an hour, napped on misty grassland slopes for another hour, and headed back up the crater to the crest, reaching it before nightfall.

Rinjani's hot springs

If we were worried about Robert's feet before, we'd never seen anything like the shape they were in now. They looked like they were out of some freaky science fiction movie. But we were thoroughly proud of our accomplishment and still basking in the sights we'd been experiencing all day as we scoped out a camping site and began cooking our sole can of beans.

Yes, that's the actual trail

Robert claims that that night was the single worst "sleeping" experience of his life. It's difficult to argue with him. We desperately needed the sleep, but had set our tent on the only available spot around: a severly sloped hill covered with huge dense pockets of grass. Try to drift off with huge humps of grass, the size of beach balls, directly underneath your back, neck and legs in the freezing cold of mountain air. Trust me, it's just not possible. But by the end of the next day we had made it down the mountain, completely spent, and celebrated our successful trek. We were so happy, we would have kissed Robert's feet...I'm speaking theorhetically of course. Ain't nobody ever going to kiss those things after the hell they went through ...except maybe a dog. No offense Robert, but you know it's true.

So that's it, our 6 weeks in Indonesia came to close as we spent our final 3 days relaxing back at Santai cottages in Senggigi, rebuilding our strength by swinging in our porch hammock and dragging our sore bruised muscles over to the refrigerator to get another beer.

Robert, Me & Paige at the lake in Rinjani's crater

So how did our intrepid travellers end up in South America? More on that in the next update, but here's a teaser: Lombok - Bali - Guam - Honolulu - Los Angeles - Miami - Santiago, Chile. Ninety-one hours in transit. ...needless to say, it was hell.

Just to let you know, we fly home for good (or bad) on Friday August 13...we've changed the date a bunch, but think we've finally got it down for good. Hard to believe that it's all coming to an end...or maybe it's just a new beginning?


Thanks for reading,

Grizd & Fajita