24th - 27th December 2011
After a little rest and a proper cleaning of Djalma's foot, which hadn't shown any signs of improving, in boiled, salted water we slowly made our way up the small cliff ringing the long blonde beach and met the rest of the group for dinner. It was Christmas eve and since we couldn't afford the swanky Christmas dinner in one restaurant (50USD per head) I settled on some rather good fish and chips to feel as English as I possibly could. We had a few beers although no-one was really in the Christmas spirit much, Eduardo was still sick and Carlos wasn't feeling very special either, Gabby had a poorly stomach and everyone was tired from the long bus ride. At about 10.30 Djalma and I trudged back down to our little shack of a room and fell sound asleep.
Sunday, Christmas Day came round, guess what Father Christmas brought little ol' me? The runs. Mmmm, thanks so much – the thank you letter is in the post. Djalma looked after me with extra special Christmas spirit, but there really wasn't much he could do given the situation, at some point the Brazilian Crew (BC) came down to the beach to enjoy the sand, some surfing and Christmas Bintang. I stayed in bed and a tired little Luna kept me company for a couple of hours.
Djalma joined his friends and took some rather nice pictures of Carlos' family and people surfing, Later on in the afternoon I joined the “party” on the beach but by this point most people were ready to head back. Djalma and I were starving and we had sandwiches and chips for our Christmas dinner. Suitably fortified we made the walk up the many steps to their nice bungalows where we used the wifi to try and call home. I managed to talk to a tired sounding Mum early in the morning while the rest of the house was asleep, the internet connection gave up after that and I couldn't call my house back to speak to Nan, Kate or Mike, Djalma had the same problems calling his parents. We walked round to the restaurant where they were all eating and found an addition of two more to the BC; Rafa (pronounced Hafa) and Rita (Heeta) both are Brazilians living in Australia. We joined to group and after a while, having nothing to contribute to the conversation, I decided to send some Christmas messages and sort out photos. After another failed attempt at using the wifi back at their bungalows we said goodnight and went down, back to the beach and drifted off to sleep to the sound of waves crashing against the sand.
The next day we had something planned. Wow, the power of Monday. Djalma and I got up early and ate our breakfast looking out at the sea, and then walked up to wait for the minivan to take us round the beaches on the West coast of the Bukit Peninsula. The sky was overcast and threatened rain but all I could think was 'fabulous, now it won't be too hot and I won't have to worry about so much suncream'. Famous last words, it rained cats and dogs all morning and in the afternoon the sun came out and I got redder than I planned to.
The first stop on our little day trip was Padang Padang Beach. I've got to say it. It was a pretty crap beach. It rained non-stop, the sand was wet so we couldn't sit down, the beach was tiny and although it was quite pretty it wasn't what you'd call photogenic, but we stayed here for well over half an hour before trudging back up the numerous steps we'd trudged down to this piss poor excuse of a beach. Of course the drizzling abated... to allow torrential rain fall out of the grey sky before we made it to the minivan. On the upside people were so wet that for once it didn't matter that the air-conditioning wasn't really strong enough, we opened the windows once the rain let up and let the warm island air dry us off. We gave the beaches in-between a miss for the time being and drove to the furthest beach; Ulu Watu.
It wasn't much of a beach, we followed steps snaking down towards the coast and followed the wooden boards to a lookout point, this place was also good for surfing but to get out to the waves the intrepid surfers had to make their way out through the small and not very protected bay that was pounded by waves. The coastline was beautiful and the rain let the sun try to do it's thing.
After a few pictures we walked part of the way back up and stopped for lunch, I was famished – it doesn't matter how big a fruit salad is, it doesn't last all that long before you're hungry again. The BC had beers and we all ordered food which came out in the fullness of time. Djalma was sat further down the table so I didn't have any translations, I did my best not to cry from the boredom or read my book at the table and nearly wept with relief when my food came and I had something to do. I talked a little to Carolina at some points and tried to think of photography tips for Carlos, who I must, doesn't really seem to need them. Then our rather large group made its very slow way back up to the top where we got back into the van and went to the next beach. I got back into my James Bond book and kept myself amused for the short trip there.
The last beach was the best beach, by this point we had killed most of the day but we still had a few hours before sunset and we spent a couple of hours on a stretch of sand that spanned the coast turning into different beaches at different point. Some people swam and some people sat on the wet sand, I did the latter and read some more. Just as people decided it was time to leave having spotted some greedy looking monkeys, I decided to go for a little walk and take some photos, I thought I'd have at least half an hour before people actually started moving towards the steps back up.
I was right, I even had time for a quick and much needed beach wee. The sun had really come out and turned the shallow water into a beautiful jade green and the deeper water into sapphire, it was the most beautiful beach of the day. After a few pictures my mood picked up enough and I allowed Djalma to take a photo of me.
The we got started on the steps back up. I can't tell you how many steps there were, a ridiculous amount, the beaches here really require some effort to visit. We took some pictures of the waves breaking further out, huge rolling waves that seemed to steam in the wind.
Back in the minivan, this time with the air-conditioning on, we made our way to the final stop, the sea temple at Ulu Watu. This temple is one of many that span the coast and are supposed to protect the island from the sea. I'd been looking forward to see some different temples for a while, make that three months, but although the carvings were different the temples were little more than four brick walls, enclosing open air and they were closed to visitors.
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to look at but there wasn't much of it. The real pleasure of the site was it's position and the view of the sunset. We walked along part of the path, lined with thieving monkeys, that looked out over the sea. The monkeys. Sweet Mary, it was like talking a walk through Dickensian London trying to avoid, not so stealthy pickpockets. The monkeys were large, aggressive and had their eye on everything.
We saw one take off a lady's flip-flop while she was walking, it fought to get her shoe off, incredible, and after a quick bite and a play it tossed it somewhere else. Plenty of others were playing with footwear, water bottles, stabbing themselves with earrings and I'm sure there was probably a stolen phone or camera among the loot. Djalma and I walked by ourselves through the crowds of people also there to see the sun set and after a little exploring set ourselves up at a nice point to see the sun go down, Carlos and his family were there along with Rafa and Rita. The sun took so long that we actually let before it went down properly and we missed the pink sky. Whatever, it was along day and I think most people were keen to get back and put their feet up.
After a bad nights sleep listening to thunder roll and the waves trying to wash us out to sea Djalma and I left. One last breakfast looking out to the sea which was considerably calmer by the morning and we walked through some morning rain to the taxi Djalma had arranged. From out of town, this guy was a lot cheaper than the local guys, and therefore we could afford him on our small budget. Rita and Rafa joined us and shared the taxi fare to Padangbai Port. The journey took a couple of hours but we stopped along the way to try and find some sunglasses for my broken and super glued pair (even these are now lost) and to pick up more toiletry supplies and anti-malaria tablets. Successful in everything but the sunglasses, even with good fabric plasters for Djalma's nasty cuts on his feet we arrived in the little port town and set about finding a place to sleep for the night. First things first, lunch. We stopped at a small local place but with a menu in English and some rather good local food, the best choice we'd seen since arriving in Bali, so far there had been an excellent selection of western food and just nasi goreng, (mixed fried rice) or (mie goreng), mix fried noodles and maybe Gado Gado if we were lucky (steam veggies with a peanut sauce). It was all low key but it was also one of the nicest days I'd had so far. Since all four of us spoke English, we spoke English for the day and it was wonderful.
While we were sitting at the restaurant we also managed a “cheap” room for the night including breakfast the following morning. I worked on my blog in a couple of different cafés while Djalma spent the afternoon with the Brazilian couple, snorkelling and swimming in a bay near the port area.
Djalma and I tried to do a little last minute shopping before leaving for Gili Trawangan the following day where things would be more expensive. At some point we had lost both sarongs and not able to find affordable suncream or good sunglasses I desperately needed a hat, we found sarongs but nothing else and them went to meet Rafa and Rita who were eating with Seonie and Eduardo who had just arrived from Australia, also Brazilian. My heart sank a little at the thought of sitting through another dinner trying not to look bored, but everyone was really nice and spoke English. Seonie and Dodo (a nickname for Eduardo which sounds more like dudu than the extinct bird). They were both really funny and the evening passed quite quickly, it wasn't long before we were all saying goodnight and Djalma and I were off to bed having booked the cheaper route to Gili T for the following morning. I walked back alongside my Brazilian feeling lucky that I'd had a whole day in English.
The next morning, I worked out (it nearly killed me), had a shower, packed and ate my breakfast next to Djalma in the little courtyard our stand alone room was set in. We arrived at the pick up point early and I went to get snacks for the journey. We were scooped up by couple of scooters because we were late – we had waited for a good half and hour before we were told to walk round to the pier – and then got on the slow ferry to Lombok where we sat in the harbour for a good half hour before it actually left. The journey was uneventful and took only three of four hours instead of five or six. I lay down, almost the whole way, not feeling all that well and then regretting the rice crackers on the minibus ride between ports. Our cheap ticket deal included transfer between the Lembar Port on the East coast of Lombok further North to Bangsal where the long boats left for the Gili Islands. The guy drove like a maniac and I started to feel seriously sick after a few of his hairpin bends on the coastal road. The ride to the island was dry for those sitting in the back of the boat, thankfully as the last two people on board Djalma and I were. After more than half an hour we pulled up on the white sand beach at the furthest of the three Gilis and began the search for a room.
This was no ordinary search, it had taken most of the day to reach the islet (Gili in Indonesian Bahasa) and light was running out, so were cheap rooms, actually all rooms were running out. We found a rather nice bungalow for 10USD and then were told that we couldn't stay, after a lot of worry and lots of looking about we found a room in small house that we shared with other people for only one or two nights, for the rest of the time it was ours. As soon as we were settled and showered, I lay down on the mattress and then couldn't get back up, after the crazy ride on the minivan and then some choppy waves on the boat, my stomach was ready to heave ho. Djalma went out to get some simple dinner and say hello to everyone. I was asleep by the time he came back and after eating I was asleep again within minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment