Diving in the Gili Islands

Jason and I are currently bobbing along Gili Trawangan, the largest of the trio of Gilis located ~2 hours away from Bali, Indonesia. Among the many beautiful things about this island, automobiles/scooters are not allowed so the quickest way to travel is by horse and carriage, no joke. Upon our arrival, we were approached by a "driver" and negotiated a fair price to be driven to scout out our lodging. We are currently paying ~$35 USD for our double, air conditioned bunglow at Ozzy's, which is just a stones throw away from the beach... life is good! The beaches are FAR more beautiful here than in Kuta- less litter, people and the water is pristine. Nonetheless, there really isnt much of a safety between the power boats that careen haphazardly in the water and the snorkelers, so it could get a little dangerous.

Today we did 3 amazing dives: sharks point, Han's and Hidden Reef. In comparison to the Great Barrier Reef, Gili has a far more beautiful coral forest and many more interesting creatures. I FINALLLLLY saw the "elusive" (only to me, it seems) sea turtle(s) during our first dive!! She (assuming) was 3 feet in diameter and perched up against some rock sleeping contentedly and couldn't be bothered by passing divers. Throughout the afternoon we saw a few more hawkbeak turtles munching hungrily on coral and algae, I could have watched them all day. Other notable creatures included lion fish, moray eels, tiny snakes, manta shrimp, box fish and hundreds and hundreds of other fish. I must give credit to our fantastic dive master, Irwin, for his good eye for pointing out tiny creatures. All in all, so far we are really loving Gili. We'll do another 2 dives tomorrow morning then head to Lombok.

Hopefully you'll be able to see our pics once jason uploads..the turtles are AWESOME!

Jungle Trek in Bukit Lawang

Orangutang, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

The exhausting journey to Bukit Lawang consisted of a missed flight in Jakarta and a mad dash at the airport, then a four hour ride through traffic-congested Medan, some of the most demanding and pot-holed roads Indonesia has to offer, and a 20 minute hike in the dark through forest to our destination: Sam’s Guesthouse. The next morning, we joined Andrea, Dennis, and Peter to begin our three day trek into Sumatra’s beautiful but challenging jungles. Rinto and Wanda were our local guides; not only were they humorous and charming, but they were completely insightful of the jungle’s ecosystem and creatures, having spent many years working in the Orangutang rehabilitation projects. Though Wanda was a serial chain-smoker, following him through the jungle was a challenge for us. His tiny body allowed him to easily crawl under trees and scramble up hills.

This would be a lot more difficult than the brochure made it look. For the next three days, we climbed up and down the jungle mountains of Bukit Lawang and at night, slept along the river. After a grueling day’s hike, we’d chill in the rivers, catch fish, and watch the monkeys as our trek team prepared camp and dinner. We were quite lucky to have such a fantastic team. Not without dangers and surprises, on one occasion we ran into Mena, a semi-wild “aggressive orangutang”. Just seeing Rinto’s expression got us nervous as he yelled at us to quickly descend down the mountain as he distracted Mena with bananas (he didn’t end up giving them the bananas) On another occasion, we came across a family of black gibbons who were curious of our packs and if we had any food. We stood back and watched Wanda scare them away with a swinging hiking stick, so they wouldn’t continue to track us.

Each night’s sleep was filled with it’s own challenges. Sharing a bed with our creepy crawly friends made it a challenge for us to fall asleep and we were always grateful to see the morning. Meals were always delicious. One evening our team prepared the core of a banana tree into a stew for us. We also snacked on fish we caught from the river. On the second day we shared the river with a three foot long lizard and a five foot long python visited us at dinner on the final night back at Sam’s. Finally, on the last day, we packed up our gear in a series of tubes and rafted our way back to Sam’s guesthouse.

We treated our team to a chicken feast on the final night. Five chickens and vegetables for a trekking crew of 15 costs us around $60 and the team entertained us with guitars and bongos into the night, from Bob Marley to Indonesian pop, they knew it all.

Jennifer and I were quite touched by the people of Bukit Lawang. In 2003, a flash flood decimated the village and killed 280 people. However, when we visited, we were met by genuine and hospitable people (unlike the touts and scam-artists of Bali). Two of our trekking cooks and porters especially made an impression on us. Two young boys in their late teens or early twenties, always smiling and laughing, singing when they knew the words, and clapping their hands when they didn’t. These kids grew up in the poor villages and made a hard living by lugging camping gear up the river each week, we could see that they were just so happy with their lives and the opportunities they had to bring us into the jungle. For that we were so appreciative and envious of them. Bukit Lewang was a stop that we almost chose to skip due to the extra travel involved, however it is one we definitely did not regret coming to.

Burnt in Bali

Kuta Beach, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

It's our fourth day in Bali and we are having a great time. It's nice to finally arrive in Asia. Everything is very affordable and the people are very friendly. We are staying at the Hotel Kumala Pantai here, a resort in its own right and paying what we were paying what we were paying for a very crappy hostel in Autralia. For around $10 here we eat very well each meal. And finally Jennifer has fully indulged in her massages. In two days we'll escape the beach and head to Bukit Lawang, close to Medan, to hike in the Mountains and visit the Orangutangs, it will be a good break from the beach and hopefully the scorching sun. Oh by the way, I am getting really dark and I almost look like a local! Jennifer continues to be a "cheap ass M'fcker!". Today, she diligently analyzed our lunch bill and actually saved us 1000 rupiah (which is equivalent to 10 cents!).

Soon we'll post some pictures of our sunburnt bodies. We are like two red tomatoes, but i'm a dark tomato.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Jason

Goodbye, Australia!

As Jason mentioned in his post, were on our way to Indonesia tomorrow! Today we took a cable car up to an area of rainforest in Cairns. While very lush and green, not particularly notable proceding New Zealand, but nice nonetheless.

Jason and I cocooned ourselves in our car for the majority of New Zealand and our frequent migration around the country kept us from interacting with other travelers. Australia has been special for me because we spend 3 days a boat with a great group of divers and have also been lucky enough to have superb roomates in our sharehouse. From our roomate, who is a solicitor (aka lawyer), working on a pro bono case defending aboriginal land, to a 20 yr old dive buddy traveling during his gap year after high school, each person has interesting stories to tell; this is probably what i enjoy most about backpacking, though it can be pretty sweaty and gross, at times.

Things I will miss about Australia:
- cool/interesting people from our scuba trip and sharehouse
- Tim Tams: the best biscuits ever (I'm told they have them in the States now!)
- BBQ kangaroo: tastes like mix of pork and beef. Very delicious!
- Great Barrier Reef

thanks for keeping up with us!
love,
Jennifer
-

Scuba kangaroo!

Trying on my new wig, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Just returned from our trip into the Great Barrier Reef. This was my second time here and I was very happy with the timing experience. Though I thought that the reef and taken considerable damage and was definitely "less beautiful" than when I dived it 10 years ago with Chelsea. Nevertheless, we had a great time. Jennifer and I did almost 11 dives in three days including two night dives. We had a grea time and our scuba skills improved a lot.

Tomorrow is our last days in Australia. I'm mixed about this. I hate to end another leg of our trip, but we are very much looking forward to gong to Indonesia. Australia has been a bit expensive for travellers like us and simply didn't have the sheer beauty of New Zealand we were expecting. Furthermore, we got it by some pretty strong rain which kept us inside our little sharehouse for many hours.

I had some good luck with my underwater camera so in case you haven't seen my new under water pictures yet, they are posted on www.flickr.com\photos\ruchbum

Okay...see you later!

Jason

One night in Oz

Sleeping in the car one night., originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

As Jennifer's previous post stated, we have run into some bad luck while touring Australia. Notably the rainy weather which caused us to drastically change up some of our plans. Anyways, while we were planning on spending a few days in Byron Bay surfing, we decided to fly up north Cairns to spend a few more days diving.

So anyways, we arrived late in Byron Bay due to the bad weather and decided that we were going to leave early morning. We simply needed a place to "lay our heads down". Anyways, the hostels were expensive and so we just decided to sleep in the car. Here is a picture of us setting up our beds! What a fun night. In the morning we were greeted by some wild turkeys looking for food.

As of now, we are in Cairns. I came here 10 years ago and it hasn't changed much. We are staying here for a week in a nice little sharehouse where we are sharing a house with a swiss couple, german couple, and a Australia lawyer. It is very nice compared to some of the crappy hostels we've been housed in (especially in Brisbane) and we are also finally enjoying some summer weather!

Anyways, we'll be offline for a few days as we are taking a boat out for two nights to explore the outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reefs. This was also the first place I tried scuba diving with Chelsea 10 years ago so i'm really looking forward to going back.

I've put some new pictures on www.flickr.com\ruchbum of sights we've seen in Australia so far. Sadly, nothing of Brisbane. Quite frankly, we didn't find that city interesting. Okay hope everyone is doing great!

Once in a century

Rain brings flood chaos to Sydney and Australia
"Parts of eastern Australia have been declared a natural disaster zone after a “once in a century” flood stranded thousands of people in regional towns, and heavy rain also forced the closure of Sydney’s most popular beaches...."
"...This type of flood will only get to that level once in a 100 years,” Mr Kear told The Times. “In saying that, the previous one was just over a decade ago....”

So in addition to hitting the airline strike and the power outtage, we've apparently encountered the worst rainstorms to hit in over a century. Since we left Sydney its been non stop rain, so we've had to abort any surfing/sightseeing along the New South Wales (NSW) coast. At present time, Jason and I are buying some time before our bedtime where we will be sleeping in our rental car because we are too cheap to pay for a motel :) I can't seem to get over how expensive this continent is, luckily we'll be heading back into third world territory in about 1 week.