Bukit Peninsula

20.12 Bukit Peninsula



We woke up at 6 am to see the sunrise but as we ran to the shore with our cameras in our hands, we noticed that it was pretty light already, and that the sunrise was no where to be seen because of the cloudy sky. We went back to our hotel to pack our stuff and headed to find a place to eat breakfast.



Jasmine, Carlos, Emma and I had planned to see the whole of Bukit Peninsula today and we were also on a mission to find a driver for us. Mario, our taxi driver from last night, had said that he would take us around for the day for 400 000 rupiahs, but wasn’t able to do it today since he had customers. It was good to have a comparison price anyway.



As we were walking down the street this man with a  van asked us whether we needed transport and told us he would take us around for 500 000. Carlos was willing to accept his price but I told him to wait for a better price. As we walked down the street, the man chaced us with his van and tried to offer beter prices. I wanted 300 000. Finally we settled for 325 000 and I was pretty happy that we didn’t go for his first offer ;)



He took us to a super market to buy groceries and maaaaan was it weird being in an Indonesian supermarket! You had to go through this weird security metal detector thing ? And man did they have tons of different vegetables and fruits. The supermarket was also full of seaweed flavoured stuff and I even bough these weird Indonesian snacks: these weird green balls, ”Tic Tacs” (not real Tic Tacs but just these little balls, snacks) that were made of seaweed and smelt like fish food and dried sea weed sheets! crazy.



After the supermarket, out first stop was Geger Beach. At first I was quite shocked that the driver drove us there – how long should we spend time in this sad sad sad little beach full of tourists that is next to a construction area, thath the driver wouldn’t  get offended. But thankfully I followed Carlos’ and Emma’s way far far far to the left hand side and after goign around this rock thing, we found the most beautiful, untouched beach spots !



It was so amazing that you could find this next to nature that was getting torn down because of new villa building. It’s actually so sad that the Balinese don’t realize or just care what they are doing to their island – destroying it. Or might be, thath it’s not even Indonesians that are building these villas but still. Everyone just seems to be thinking about the money instead of conserving their natural heritage.



I was so happy to be in this (Geger Beach) spot. It was so beautiful. We had the place all to ourself and we were just in awe of the white sand and the turquoise water. I even tested my water proof camer underwater for the first time ;)



After this we stopped at ”five churches” – it was this street that had five churches lined up next to each other – the Catholic, the Protestant, the Buddhist and the Hindu Church. We walked past the fifth one but because it was in the far left and wasn’t that outstanding, we kind of forgot to check it out :D





Next stop was Everbowl Beach which was RIDICULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL. Pristine white sand, turqouise water and the privacy surrounded by the incredible nature. It was a surf spot and although I was itching to get into the water, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to paddle out to the break.



So we girls just chilled and swam. At one point me and Jasmine had to get something out of the car so we strted climbing up the crazy long stairs. Just then Jasmine screamed ”Sandra, MONKEYS!”. I ran as fast as I could and looked at the cute little things. Just as I knelt down to take pictures, the fuckign monkey attacked ! Thank god I managed to run down the stairs but it was fucking scary :D Just a moment before I had stated that these monkeys might have rabies... I guess the mom monkey was just protecting its little one.



After this we checked out Padang Padang, a world famous surf spot. Too bad it was ruined by all the fucking tourists and t-shirt selling shacks.



We left in some 5 minutes but soon realized why our driver was pretty reluctant in driving us to Dreamland, this surf spot. It was filled with Asian tourists and the whole place just looked ruined. But, like with the other spots, as soon as you walked a bit to the side, the place was breath taking. For some reason none of the tourists seem to realize that if they would walk 50 meters to the left, they would have their own private beach...



After this tourist hell we headed to Ulu Watu to see the sun set and the Buddhist temple. As soon as the Balinese man had warned Jasmine to hide her camera from the monkeys, a fucking monkey stole my flip flop !!!!! PERKELE. I was like ”oh not again” (in Australia I lost 6 pairs of flip flops in the first 5 weeks.. yeah i know, i’m pretty pro) but the old lady came to rescue me by throwing a bag of food to the monkey. – of which I of course had to pay for – Not set up at all hey...



The temple was sooo full of monkeys and it was so cool. I think I took like 150 pictures of the litle fellows and 3 of the temple . . .



I was glad that Carlos had suggested to come to see the sun set at Ulu Watu because it was AMAZING.



We decided to spend the night at Balangan Beach (<3) since Carlos had told us that there should be some swell hitting so we needed to be on the coast to surf ;) Our driver couldn’t drive us all the way down because the road was a bit shitty so we had to walk down to the beach in the dark... ADVENTURE! It was pitch black but thank god Jassu had a flashlight with her (mine’s batteries were dead).



It was crazy when a motorbike drove past – you could see the huge curtain of bugs flying in the car light.. A bit disquisting but cool anyway.



We stayed at the same beach shack as Carlos had stayed at. I was sooo happy to hear that we would only be paying 40 000 rps a night! We had some food, a beer and chilled for a bit. The Good life. Then up staris to sleep in the most comfortable beach shack bed. AH I LOVE WHERE WE ARE STAYING AT!

Nusa Dua

19.12.11 Nusa Dua

I woke up, got dressed, had breakfast and went to the wifi café to update my blog and check out whether Carlos had written to me on Facebook. I had become familiar with Made and the other waiter from the café, and I was happy to see these two Balinese fellows again. They taught me something cool about their names: If you are Balinese and a Hindu, you’ll be name according to this system: If you’re the first born, you’ll be called ”Wayan”, if you’re the second born, you’ll be ”Made”, 3rd ”Nyoman” and 4th ”Ketut”. Then the system starts from the begining again. But only the Balinese Hindus, who don’t belong to the caste. And if I understood correctly (or actually if Made understood my question correctly) also the women use this name system. They all though have ’little names’, just like Made has a little name ”Tulada”.



I hadn’t heard from Carlos so I was a bit bummed. I had no idea how I could bump into him since I didn’t know his number and I had forgotten the name and the way to his hotel. Just then I realized there was I way I could meet him! The Scooter rental place !! We had to return the scooter by 12 o’clock so I could just go there and wait for him there. I looked at the clock – 11:30 – shit, I would have to hurry. So I gathered my stuff, ran to the hotel, packed my shit and checked out. The receptionist told me that someone had tried to call me a half an hour ago... shiiiiiit.



I started running to the scooter place. All the Balinese were looking at me, the crazy westerner running in the alley and trying to offer me transport. I felt like I as in the hot yoga version of running but somehow I ran non stop 2 km although it must’ve been nearly 30 degrees. I knew that there was the chence that Carlos would’ve already returned the bike, but my internal eternal optimist still kept me trying.

Like I had anticipated – Carlos had returned the bike already.



But I knew that there was a chance I still might run into him. Kuta isn’t that big. But the problem was, tha there was really no central hanging out place which I might go and check out incase he’d be there. Hell, for all I knew, he might’ve already left because no sane person would spend any extra time in this hell whole called Kuta. But I knew from previous experiences, that I have this super cool ability of finding the person if I _really_ want to. E.g. twice at a festival If found the one only person I’ve been looking for from a mass of at least 50 000 people. (And this person wasn’t even dressed in an abnormally obtrusive way) It’s just the case of will power ;)



I was walking back to my hotel (I had sent a message in the morning to Carlos to come meet me at my hotel at 3pm because I would be waiting for Jasmine there) and JUST _five seconds_ after giving up hope of finding Carlos and his friend, I saw a pair of familiar sneakers, a board and a fluffy hair-do. CARLOS!


Like I said, the case of will power ;)



We walked back to my hotel with Carlos and Emma (Carlos’ ex-girlfriend from Australia, which probably is a current one now though :D) and they asked me whether I was keen on coming to Bukit Peninsual with them. Fuck yeah ! Get me out of Kuta p-l-e-a-s-e! I was also stoked on traveling with new people, one of the best reasons for traveling by yourself :)



I told them that I had to wait for Jasmine though since I had promised to meet her. She would probably be keen on coming traveling too, and thus everything would be cheaper, too. AND the more the merrier! Since we had 2,5 hours to kill, we decided to look for sunnies for me, eat and sort out a cab. Carlos had to buy patches for his knee which he had fucked up a couple of days ago on the scooter so we went to a pharmacy. When Carlos asked the pharmacist how much a patch cost the girl replied ”25 000” ”each?” ”yes”. Carlos took three and went to pay. ”75 000 thank you” What Carlos did, was try to haggle the price down in the pharmacy 8D ”..can I have these for  50 000?”. Everyone just burst into laughter. It’s not like you can haggle the proce down at a pharmacy! :D



When Jasmine finally arrived at 15 past 4 (her plane had been delayed), our van still wasn’t at the hotel. I was impatient and just asked for the first van driver, who was stuck in traffic in front of our hotel, whether he could take us to Nusa Dua, in Bukit Peninsula. We got this guy, Mario, to drive us to Nusa Dua for 200 000. After leaving our stuff at the cheapest place we could find (100 000ruplahs/night) we set out to explore Nusa Dua. We went to the beach and got heaps of beautiful photographs.



Nusa Dua’s beach was beautiful but it wasn’t real Bali. It was resort Bali. I was quite annoyed that they had nothing else than fancy hotels, massage places and banana boat rental places line up after another. This has nothing to do with Indonesia...



Thankfully we found this alley way restaurant so we didn’t have to eat in the turist rip off ones on the main street. We had some beer and enjoyed our meal in silence (everyone was _starving_). After that we pretty much just passed out back at our hotel.

Balangan Beach

18.12.20011



I little video I filmed for you guys (in finnish, soz) in the morning, check it out: !
PS. I accidentally uploaded this to last night's post... Got the videos mixed up.. So if you wanna see last night's REAL video, click here.



So basically, realized, that Jasmine hadn’t gotten on her flight since she was not sleeping on the bed next to me. I decided I needed to go find an Internet café because I knew Jassu would’ve facebooked me ;) So I went to have brekkie (nice to have a GOOD breakfast included for once, instead of the rice crispy cereal brekkies they have at hostel in oz :D) and started talking with this  Aussie man. It was nice to have brekfast with someone and talk about stuff instead of eating alone :) Ps. Tim didn't really look this miserable unlike in this photo :D



So I checked my facebook (yes, jasmine hadn’t got on the plane from korea to bali, and would be here not until Monday 3pm) and read an email from Bahri (!!) the Jakartan man from last night’s dinner, telling me that he had found the kobra blood –shot –restaurant, and that he could take me there. SO STOKED. After the Internet café I decided to check out the sea conditions. I wandered to the beach but FUUUUUUUUUU. THERE WERE NO WAVES. I was in the state of ”hmm what the FUCK will I do today”. So. I guess no surfing for Sandra then!



After talking to these Balinease surfing guys, I left the beach and just decided to just keep wandering around and hoping to bump into backpackers that would be cool enough to hang out with me. I had tried to take a video on the beach but MY CAMERA WOULDN’T TURN ON and for a while I thought I had already managed to fuck up my camera .....before I realized I had just inserted the battery the wrong way... oopsiee ;D



After wondering around aimlessly and walking quite far away, I saw this guy that looked like a traveler. ”Hey, excuse me, do you know where’s the place to be, when it’s raining and there’s no waves? Where is everyone?”.



Carlos was this nice Chilean guy and after he said that he had no idea were everyone was and that he was looking for everyone too (since he was traveling alone as well) he asked me whether I’d want to walk around with him. I was happy anough to do that and to finally have had found another lonely soul backpacker ! hahahaa



We just wondered around in the sun (the rain clouds had finally pissed off! <3) talking about all the usual traveling stuff and we decided to go to a beer garden. As we were trying to find one, Carlos asked me whether I wanted to check Balangan Beach out and _GO SURF_. He had been there the day before, as he had been killing 4 days already while waiting for his friend to arrive. Needless to say,we ditched the idea of cold beer and went to rent a scooter from the guy Carlos had rented it the day before.



We paid 3,5€ each for a days rent on the bike and headed off to my hostel. I had to get e.g. sun screen but things didn’t go as smoothly as planned, since we got lost trying to find our way back to the main street :D I think we were driving around for at least an hour before reaching my Mastapa Hotel.. There was also the fact that Carlos was trying to not bump into the cops since his Driver’s License was back at his hotel room!



After getting my stuff and his surf board we were on our way ! It was soooo nice to be sitting at the back of the scooter and what made me even more jolly was when it started to rain a bit as we were accelerating up the hill : D I was just laughing and loving every moment of it!



It’s amazing how the course of my day turned 180 degrees after meeting Carlos! I had thought that it would be a shit day doing nothing an wasting time in Kuta, because there were no waves and I was alone AND my hotel isn't the one where to meet people. If the surf's dead, there’s nothing to do in Kuta (you should see this place... There’s nothing more than k-marts, restaurants and heaps of clothing stores...) . I was  so sure I would end up just killing time :/ BUT THANK GOD I MET CARLOS!

Soz, forgot to photoshop my tan in...

Because I don’t have a driver’s license and I’m too much of a pussy, I don’t feel comfortable enough renting a (motor)bike. What if the police stops me? (ok I can always pay them) But what if something happens? I have no driving experience what-so-ever, my reflexes are shit and the traffic and amount of bikes here are crazy ! So renting a bike and driving by myself is not an option i’d be willing to take :D



But how good of a day did we have !



Balangan was BEAUTIFUL ! Although we were pretty sad with the fact of Balinese destroying the nature with the villas, hotels and resorts they are bulding :/ They also don’t seem to be that concerned about trashing the nature.. But the surf ws so gooooood. I rented a board for 100 000 rupihas for two hours (they had monopoly over board renting so I couldn’t really haggle the price down) and ran into the water. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD TO BE BACK IN THE SEA. Five months of not surfing had made me ITCH to get back in the water :]



I was surfing with a 7”6 long board and managed to do pretty well so I’m happy with that! One day... one day i’ll surf a short board! Also I realized that the programme i had asked my gym personel to make me to srenghten my arm muscles (to help me out with surfing) has had an effect ! I could paddle way more and not get tired... oh gosh I am sooo happy :) !



I had a really nice time with Carlos: We bought lunch and ate it in a shack overlooking the sea. Carlos would’ve wanted fried rice instead of noodles but because the restaurant was out of rice, he had to settle for noodles. Hahahahahah I can only imagine how sick he is of noodles after staying one year in Australia (working holiday visa)... .BEEN THERE DONE THAT! ;) We got some bintangs too and enjoyed life. Sooo good. We also had this dicussion about surfing and sharks, surprise there :D



After lunch we made our way up the hill and sat on this cliff to watch the beach break and the sun. This made me hope even more that I would’ve brought my Nikon with me. Next time i’ll bring it no matter what! It was so picturesque that I almost felt pissed off for not taking my good camera... You can’t do shit with a digital camera and a beautiful view..



As we were talkign and listening to the calming sound of the ocean (and I noticed i had burnt my face, my legs and my arms... shiiit) Carlos suggested, that maybe we should travel together. He was about to go get his ex from the airport (joo sanonko mitä... mun tuuria?? :D:D) and she was about to stay here with him for 10 days (Carlos on the other hand is staying in Indonesia for 30 days) so probs after that. Since we share the same interest (surf surf surf) it would be cool to wander around with him. I might’ve laughed A BIT when he told me his ex doens’t surf.. .haahahahahahaaaa good luck making her stay on the beach for 10 days as you surf!!! At least i’d be bored of not doing anything else but lying on the sand by that time... Just like in Airlie Beach hey... ;)



Carlos told me that at least New Years we should spend together and that would be cool :) I know i’ll be with Jasmine then so the more the merrier :)



As we were driving back to Kuta (unfortunately) I was pure smiles. The sun was beginning to set (SOO BEAUTIFUL, WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T I TAKE MY CAMERA) and the light was all pink and violet... It was magical...



He dropped me off at my hotel and said he had to go to get his ex from the airport but that he’d call me to my hotel (since we were planning to go out). Later on that night I was sooo knackered that I just decided i’d go to bed as it was already 2 hours after Carlos’s ex had arrived at the airport and I hadn’t heard from him.





Just as I was brushing my teeth I heard this weird sound. I was so knackered that it took me a while to realize it was the phone! I answered it with toothpaste foam in my mouth. As Carlos was calling from his Aussie phone from Indonesia to a hotel phone, the reception was really bad and I couldn’t really hear what he was saying :/ So, phone call for nothing. I just passed out on my bed and figured i’d see them tomorrow.