Balikpapan

Day 1 – Not what it said it was on the tin

Waking up early we were met by Dessy for our tour of Pankanlan Bun village, walking along the narrow streets seeing village life she then put us all aboard a motor canoe for a trip up and down the river.  I can’t say I was too happy about this as the boat sat very low in the water and Shell and I were carrying our day packs with all our valuables in!! But thankfully we stayed afloat and travelled up and down the riverbanks watching early morning village life go by.

 

Returning to the hotel Dessy had some presents for us all in the form of various keyrings and Tanjung Putting National Park T-Shirts (Yeay a clean T-Shirt!!).  We then had breakfast and said our goodbyes to Martin and Brigit before being collected for our airport transfer.

 

At the airport we were met by Dessy who told me she didn’t have any joy trying to get my Swiss Army Knife so I asked her if she could send it on.  Then she promptly produced my knife saying she was able to contact someone she knew in the airline office late the previous evening and they had opened early to get it for her – what a joker!! (But above and beyond helpful!).

We then checked in and waited for our flight, it was quite a strange flight as it was more like a bus journey as we made two landings at different airports for passengers to disembark and board before finally arriving at our destination airport at Balikpapan.

At the airport we were looking for a taxi to our hotel when Shell spotted a courtesy car with our hotel, so we managed to get a free transfer with him – result!!

After checking into the hotel and dumping our gear we found that we were a little way out from the main bar/restaurant area and after going to their bar and finding the prices to be stupidly overpriced we decided to head out.

Crossing the road we hailed down a Bemo (a public minibus thing) and got a ride down the road to the ‘lively’ area.  We soon found the seafront which has a number of bar/restaurants along a boardwalk but it was pretty deserted.

As we had been travelling for a while, we found the bar that seemed most open and stayed there for a while to have some food and drink.  As it started turning dark the bar started up some karaoke music on a big screen and I think they must have clocked me as they started to put a few rock numbers on.

A while later and a couple of beers more and the owner encouraged me to get up and sing a song, I duly obliged by belting out Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’ (Again) to an empty bar, whilst the owner took photo’s of me.  It seemed to go down quite well with the staff and non-existent audience.

 

In our guidebook it said that Balikpapan was the most lively/vibrant city in Borneo/Kalimantan however I think the writer was being very flowery with her words or had lived in a cave all of their life.  In truth it was just a city and we gradually realised that there wasn’t going to be much to do here.

At some point we booked another hotel closer to this area for a couple of days (to decide on our plan of action) then we headed back to our hotel by Bemo bus to watch some Soprano’s and have an early night.

Day 2 – Smelly and frustrated

Having the luxury of coffee/tea making facilities we made use of these before checking out and moving to our new (and cheaper) hotel down the road.  We could see it was cheaper when we got to our room and two Gecko’s had beaten us to it!!

Running extremely low on wearable clothes we googled nearby laundry’s and set off on a bit of walk in blistering heat only to find after ½ mile that the laundry did not exist and we could not find anything in the area, it looked as though we were going to have to remain smelly for a while.

 

As it was so hot we returned to the waterfront and got some drinks whilst we tried to research any trips they had around Balakpapan as we saw they had a sun bear sanctuary somewhere nearby.  But after some time scouring the internet we could find nothing that we could book or any clues on what to do other than an alternative river trip which was a poor alternative to the one we had just done and very overpriced.

Getting a tad frustrated we ordered some food and tried to decide on what to do, either cut Indonesia a bit short and fly to Malaysia or check out the Island of Sulawesi and its famed hanging graves.

In the end we thought we would look into Sulawesi and headed back to the hotel to do some research.  We found a couple of tour operators that did small cultural tours and so we sent off some E-Mail’s about dates and availability.

Day 3 – Sorted!

In the morning we headed for the breakfast area where there was pretty poor buffet style fair which we tried to make the most of before returning to our room.

We had had some response from the Sulawesi tour companies where we could start in a few days so we booked that up and organised our flights, the only thing now was to draw out enough cash to pay for the tour!!

Having sorted that problem out we were now pretty hungry so thought we walk up the road and grab a naughty Kentucky (Note – Kentucky is pretty crap in Indonesia).

Trying our best to make the most of Balikpapan we jumped on a Bemo Bus in search of the stretch of beach that was on our map which was supposed to be nice.  After overshooting our stop and getting the driver to stop we walked back and eventually found the beach, it was empty and not particularly nice.  To make matters worse the cafe on the beach did not serve beer!!

 

With no beer option and being very hot we caught another Bemo bus and headed back to the bar/restaurant waterfront and stayed there and had a few beers, happy in the knowledge that we were moving on tomorrow.

 

Later in the afternoon we returned to our hotel to relax a bit before returning to the waterfront in the evening to grab some food before going back for the night.

As you can see by the length of this particular blog, we won’t be returning to Balikpa-pants anytime soon and neither should you!!

Tanjung Putting National Park

 Day 1 – Its Ranger Time!!

Dear readers please don’t adjust your screens this blog will mainly be in orange!!!

Getting up fairly early we packed and went for breakfast which was a disappointing cold noodle buffet affair, we then sat in the lobby patiently waiting for our pick up for the start of the trip, who was late.

We were picked up around 9.30 by ‘Wolverine’ a man with around 3 inch nails on one of his hands (apparently it’s the sign of having a good job in Borneo, i.e. no hard labour!), who drove to the dock via his home where he picked up the beers we had pre-ordered for the trip (apparently he is also the man that can in Pankanlan Bun).

Once at the dock we boarded our boat for the next four days and were introduced to our guide (who looked about 20) and the crew that would be looking after us for the next few days.  We then had to wait for our German guests who were arriving on a flight that morning, when they arrived they seemed to be quite a nice couple named Martin & Brigit (Aka Mouse-deer and The professor – to be explained later!) who were only slightly older than us.

After introduction’s we were soon on our way up the river and after about ½ hour we were doing a left turn and into the tributary that was the entrance to Tanjung National Park.

 

For the next couple of hours we cruised slowly along the river with the beautiful scenery changing from mangroves into jungle on the way along.

We then moored up just as it started raining and the crew set up our table for lunch, which turned out to be a feast which included river fish, noodles and veg followed by some fresh fruits. 

By the time we had finished lunch the rain had stopped and we were trekking to the first orangutan station 1 (Tanjan Horapan) and were told we would be entering mosquito city so to apply the repellent liberally (especially my little monquito attractor – Shelley!). 

Whilst we were getting prepared we got our first glimpse of an Orang who was in a tree just by the boat jetty, so once we got off the boat we took some time to watch him in the tree, taking photo’s before heading deeper into the jungle.

 

Walking for around half an hour we started to see some orange shapes in the trees along the way and then we were very close up and personal as we had to pass one female orang who was on the ground just next to the path.  To be honest we were quite nervous at first and managed to get a few photo’s whilst carefully sidling past.

 

Eventually we came to the feeding station and stood around whilst waiting for the ranger to put food out on the platform we were watching.  You could tell the Orangs had their watches on as we started spotting them loitering in the canopy waiting for their favourite people to turn up.

 

When the rangers came in site and put kilo’s of banana’s on the platform there was suddenly loads of activity in the trees and the men of the forest started zeroing in from all directions, swinging from tree to tree to reach the food.

 

There must have been at least 20 orangs, mothers with baby’s, juveniles and large male adults all around us and when I say around us some times right next to you with no bars in between!!  Standing there the large alpha male made his entrance and strolled up to the table at which point the others scattered to a respectful distance whilst he sat on the platform and took his fill, apart from the exception possibly of his mate and infant who very carefully grabbed the fruit cautiously around him.

 

Once he had his fill he got off the platform and knuckled his way along the ground and passed Shell by literally a couple of feet, her expression was a mixture of awe and crapping herself!! (These apes are 8 times stronger that we are!!).

 

The big boy now out of the picture the rest of the Orangs went back to the platform to make the most of what he had left.  We stood there for an hour or two as our guide told us we could take as long as we wanted so we took him at his word and spent quite some time there marvelling at these incredible creatures gracefully negotiating the trees.

 

Reluctantly we then returned back to the jetty and boarded the boat where we cracked open some orangutan celebratory beers with Martin and Brigit (it was at this point that we realised that only ordering six beers for this trip was a schoolboy mistake, especially as it looks as though we would need to share them!) whilst we started to cruise down the river.

 

We carried on for a while and our wildlife spotting for the day had not come to an end as soon we were next treated to watching Proboscis Monkeys (The ones with large noses that look like me apparently) high up in the trees along the river bank.

 

After taking a few photo’s we were then taken to our mooring point for the night, where we took our showers (we did not fancy jumping in the river like the crew as there are croc’s in this river) before we were served a candlelit dinner under the stars on the back of the boat.  Again it was a nice mix of dishes including some fried chicken.

Whilst we ate our dinner the crew prepared our beds for the night, which consisted of double mattresses on the top deck covered with mosquito nets.  It had been a very busy day and it was now pitch black so we all headed for bed around 8.00!!

 

Our earlier jokes in the day about who snored loudest did not seem so funny later that evening as Shell and I soon found out who snored loudest and they were not from the UK, which resulted in neither of us getting much sleep this night!

Day 2 – More Orangs!!

Being up at 5-6 in the morning to the sound of the jungle sounds idyllic but not when you are walking around like sleep depraved zombies (thanks Germany!!).  But we were soon up and running once we had a cup of the local coffee on the jetty and then a breakfast of scrambled eggs on board.

 

After breakfast we were soon chugging up the river again, but it was raining and we thought we were in for a wet jungle adventure. We motored along for another couple of hours and we reached our mooring point at station 2 (Pondok Tanqqui) and fortunately by the time we had to disembark that rain had stopped.

We then walked up the path to make the 9.00 feeding time at the platform, again as we walked along we spotted one Orang high in the trees.

 

I personally liked this spot the best as it was far more intimate with far fewer people here to watch. Once again as the feeding time approached you could see orange figures lurking in the surrounding forest.

 

When the rangers came along it was the same drill with the orangs retreating when the alpha male drew up to the table, this time it was kilo’s of sweet potato’s that they were treated to (note the feeding stations only provide a small amount of their food for the rest of the time they are foraging in the forest for themselves).

Again there were most probably around 20 Orangs in the surrounding branches giving plenty of opportunity to get great photo’s and believe me we literally have hundreds to bore you with when we get home.

 

One of my favourite shots was when I spotted a juvinille high up a tree waiting his/her chance to get some food, it was  away from the viewing point so I went to try and get a better photo and then became slightly nervous when he/she took an interest in me and headed down the tree to get a better look at me.  I managed to hold my nerve and managed to get this great picture when it was a few feet away from me, I then retreated to a more respectful distance!!

 

The guide once again gave us plenty of time on our own to enjoy this spectacle and we stayed there for quite some time taking photo’s.

 

I am waffling on quite a bit I know but it gives me a chance to put another gratuitive photo in here (I could pick any one and they would be amazing)

 

We then headed back to the boat (Known as a Klotok if you are interested) where we motored up the river for another couple of hours until we reached station 3 (The famous Camp Leaky) where we moored up and once again were treated to a small feast for lunch.

 

After lunch we then got off the boat to visit camp leaky.  There was a long board walk to the visitor centre but halfway along this boardwalk one of our orange friends was sat there waiting.  We were slightly nervous once again as our guide informed us this was the infamous female named Mina who was a bit mischievous and had been known to bite visitors.  However our guide said Mina knew him well and respected him so she would leave us alone, we slid past her and then took a couple of cheeky snaps once at a perceived safe distance.

 

We walked on to the visitor centre passing some Macaque Monkeys and some wild boar.  The visitor centre was a fairly basic affair but it did have some nice orangutan family trees from the area, we then had to wait around for a while until feeding time.

At around 2.00 we headed into the jungle towards the platform but instead of spotting more orangs first we saw a gibbon who was high up in a tree and watching the proceedings.

 

 

Once again the routine was the same with the Alpha male, Tom, taking centre stage whilst the others had to lurk in the surrounding trees to wait for their chance.  Shell and I were just sat there watching when someone told me to look around and there was a orang holding on to a tree just feet from me.

 

Also it was quite funny to see the resident gibbon running the gauntlet by jumping onto the feeding platform (think Jack Sparrow, pirates of the Caribbean style) through the orangs, grabbing some food then shooting high up the tree with his loot.

 

Again we spent a good amount of time here taking too many photo’s before returning to the boat to head off back to the previous night’s mooring point.

 

It was on the itinerary that we were due to do a night trek/safari, which Shell and I could have skipped due to sleep deprivation, however after our evening meal we sprayed up with plenty of bug spray and headed into the jungle at night.

As we normally find when we have done these before we did not see a great deal, one tree snake, a mouse deer that the guide pointed out (none of us could see it!!) and then the guide poked a few tarantula’s out of their holes and about an hour later we were back on the boat.

When back on the boat we all wanted a shower before bed so we let Martin & Brigit go first, but when Shell went for hers they had already bedded down for the night and turned out all the lights, so then Shell had to stumble around in the dark after she had finished – a bit inconsiderate we thought!

Once I had had my shower we went to bed and read our books by torch light until we went to sleep to the sounds of the jungle, fortunately as we were knackered we did manage despite the buzzsaw’s next to us!!

Day 3 – Where have all the Ranga’s gone??

We were up with the jungle sounds stupidly early again and waited for the crew to stir so we could get some coffee.

After breakfast we were supposed to get a canoe to go up the smaller tributaries deep into the jungle but due to some local politics they were not forthcoming so we waited on the boat and it started to rain.

The guide then said that we would not be doing anything until later in the day so Shell got her Who wants to be a Millionaire game up on her Ipad and we played that with Martin and Brigit for an hour or so, they came into their own as there were quite a few German related questions, however we still didn’t make it to a million!

Later in the day we set off again in the boat back to station 3 (Camp Leaky), but when we got to the feeding platform there was a distinct lack of Orange activity.

The Alpha male turned up for a bit but seemed decidedly disinterested in the food and there was only a couple of other Orangs in attendance, but we still got some nice photo’s.

 

What we gathered was that sometimes the park entertains VIP guest (people who have donated large amounts to the charity) and they get private viewing so the Orangs had already been fed before we got there.

So this time we did not stay as long and headed back to the boat, but along the way there was one female in the middle of the path that had managed to get herself a plastic bottle of water off a tourist.  Our guide was not happy about this and after a brief battle of wills he managed to take it off her.  She then started grabbing branches and stripping them of leaves and making a nest of them before rolling around on the floor with them – cute but our guide says she is clever and does this to draw tourists in closer so she can steel from them or bite them, it was Mina!

On our way back we tried to sort out our lack of beverage situation back and asked our guide if there was any chance he could get us a few bottles of beer, he said he would ask around the other boats but unfortunately this just yielded one warm beer which the four of us had to share.

We headed back to our mooring spot for the night and on the way we spotted a large crocodile in the water (guide said it was the largest one he had ever seen on the river), so definitely no dips in the river for us!

 

In the evening we had our meal on the back of the boat again (have to say food was really good and varied considering we were on a small boat) and joked as we saw some other tourists setting out on their night safari.  Martin said he was going to hide in the jungle and pretend to be the fabled Mouse Deer and so when he was in the back of the boat getting changed we said he was getting into his Mouse Deer, so from then on he was known as The Mouse Deer (I guess you had to be there!!).

Soon after our evening meal we all headed for an early night, but to be honest I was glad it was our last night sleeping on deck as I can’t say it has been the most comfortable bed I have slept in.  Also because you know it’s a bit of a mission in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, having to navigate the deck, you’re bladder goes into overtime!!

Day 4 – Last Chance for Orangs!

Another ridiculously early start and breakfast and we were then on the river again heading for the early feeding time at station 2 (Pondok Tanqqui) which I was looking forward to as it was my favourite place.

Unfortunately it appeared that there had been a VIP visit before we got there as once again there were only about 3 Orangs knocking around for breakfast.  We waiting around for a while taking photo’s as it was our last opportunity.

 

The resident professor was in attendance and is a lady of 70 who had been studying the Orangs for over 40 years in the park and we think that she bought the VIP with her.

After a while realising that there was not going to be much action we headed back to the boat to continue our journey to a nearby local river village.

We got out at the village and were given time to wander around to see how the locals lived in this part of the world, but although it was interesting it was blisteringly hot so we didn’t stay there for too long.

 

At this village our guide had arranged a couple of motor canoes for us to go on a trip up some of the narrow waterways.

So Shell and I got in one whilst Martin and Brigit took the other and soon we were going back up the river and then turned into one of the narrow waterways.  It was quite hard work as we were getting whiplashed by all the plant life and having to duck and swerve around low hanging branches whilst balancing in the canoe.  However it was great as we were getting into the thick of the jungle and away from the normal tourist spots.

 

After a mile or two we came to a stop and turned around but instead of motoring back the drivers cut the engines and slowly paddled back, which was great as it really gave us a chance to appreciate our fantastic surroundings.

Along the way we saw various birds and were lucky as we were the lead boat we got to see some more Probiscus Monkeys (They look more like Shell to be fair!) in lower hanging branches that disappeared before the second boat got round the corner.

 

Eventually after a leisurely trip back we hit the main river and the drivers put the motors back on, but as is the norm for us on this trip the boat had engine problems and we broke down two or three times on the way back leaving us baking in the sun.  The driver finally sorted it out, once Shell had caught a bit of colour and we managed to limp back to the village where Martin and Brigit were waiting for us.

We hopped back on our boat and were on our way again and shortly we were stopping again, this time it was for us to put something back into the park.  For a small donation we were able to buy some tree saplings and plant them in an area they were trying to re-forest, which we were more than happy to do.

 

Unfortunately this was our last activity on the trip and all we could do was appreciate the scenery on the two hour cruise back to the docks.  On this journey back we did manage to ask our guide if he could contact the man that can to arrange some beers that we could take back to the hotel.

 

On disembarking we met back up with Wolverine who drove us back (via his house to pick up a chilled box with beers in it) to our hotel. 

Back at the hotel we were met by Dessy the lady we had booked this trip through over the internet and she wanted to find out how it all went and she also asked us if we wanted a village tour at 6.00 in the morning before we left (free of charge), which we said we would.  Also I asked her if she could help with getting my Swiss Army knife as the office would not be open when we were due to the fly, send it on if possible, which she said she would.

This was the first time Dessy had met us and were glad that we all had got on (we didn’t mention the war) but we did find it funny when she said Brigit looked like The Professor – only a twenty year age gap!!  So Brigit became known as The Professor for what remained of our time together.

Martin, Brigit, Shell and I then went to one of our rooms and cracked open some beers that we had been missing on the trip.  Later on we all went out together to a restaurant round the back of the hotel (Dessy recommended it) which I couldn’t believe as we couldn’t find anything when we first arrived in the town.

After dinner we all headed back to our rooms looking forward to a decent bed for the night, a hot shower and not having to try and locate the toilet in the middle of the night on a dark boat.

Just a slight addendum to this blog, just to let you know we are about 2-3 weeks behind on this blog, so for you info we are rained in at Pulau Langkawi Island in Malaysia (now 29^th May), but as I said before you can always check the date stamps on the photo’s.  I hope to get right up to date when we are holed up in Cairns for 10 days.

 

If you’ve read all of this particular blog, well done.  All I can say is this was a fantastic trip and if you get a chance to see Orangutan’s in their natural habitat, then do!!  The world is better with some orange in it!!!

Borneo (Kalimatan) – Pankanlan Bun

More Travel – Next Island

We were rudely awoken early as the receptionist thought we would like an earlier transfer to the airport!! (I think they wanted to save themselves two trips).  We didn’t and had a bit of breakfast before getting a transfer at a more reasonable time.

Unfortunately there were no direct flights to where we needed to be in Borneo (Although the Indonesian’s call their side Kalimantan, the part that the Malasian’s nicked is called Borneo!) so we had to get a flight back to Semareng (Java) and get a connecting flight to Pankanlan Bun (Learned this should be pronounced boon not bun).

What an idiot whilst rearranging my bags (we always make a point of putting a change of clothes in our hand luggage in case our bags go missing in transit) I forgot to take my swiss army knife out of our utility kit in my hand luggage.  The security scanner picked this up and I thought we were going to lose our second knife (Shell got her’s confiscated at Heathrow if you remember!), but they just sent me to a desk where I gave my details and they put it in an envelope to send on the flight separately.

Whilst waiting in Semarang we found a little café where we had a milkshake and used the time to do some blogging and research, before catching our connection.

 

We finally arrived in Pankalan Bun in the late afternoon we found that my knife hadn’t turned up and was at Semareng airport (it had only taken the first flight!) but after a conversation we were told we could come back and pick it up the next day. So we then took a taxi to our hotel where we were getting met the next day to start our Orangutan trip.  When we got there we found it to be a seriously Muslim hotel and there was a firm no when we enquired about getting a beer and it also transpired that we wouldn’t be getting a beer in town either.

When we had unpacked and also found that a couple of Germans would be joining us on our trip (Don’t mention the war!!) we then headed out to see if we could find something to eat.  The only places we could find in this small town were little roadside stalls (Warung’s) and we didn’t fancy taking our chances as we had a four day boat trip the next day, so instead we went to a shop and bought some pot noodles (Shell had spotted hot water coffee facilities in the hallway of our hotel), biscuits and crisps and returned to the hotel.

For the rest of the evening we watched a bit of Soprano’s whilst consuming our ‘feast’ and had a fairly early night in anticipation of our jungle adventure the next day.

Jakarta

Travel Day

We had made the decision after speaking with a few travellers that Jakarta was not a particularly a nice city to hang around in so we thought we would only stop there overnight to catch a flight to our next destination of Borneo.

After another decadent Starbuck’s breakfast we caught a taxi from our hotel to the train station, once again we were pleased to see that the train was decent and we spent the 3 hour journey watching the scenery go by and catch up with a bit of blogging.

 

When we arrived at Jakarta train station after a bit of haggling we agreed on a price for a taxi to take us to our hotel, driving through the city we must say it didn’t look as bad as we had been told or imagined (maybe we just saw the polished parts).

 

Our hotel was about 15 miles outside of the city but we chose it as it was close to the airport for our early flight the next day.  When we arrived we could see that it was more of a motel and purpose built for flight transfers and they had no beer!!!

So after we checked in we headed down to the local town to find a ATM and hopefully score a couple of beers.  Arriving at the 7/11 we managed to get a bit of cash but were informed that there was nowhere to buy beers in the area.

We then went back to the motel and asked the receptionist if they could order us a couple of bottles in which they said they could.

For the rest after the afternoon we watched a bit of TV before going to the motel restaurant (where we were the only people there) to get some noodles for dinner and enjoy an illicit beer or two, before going back to the room for the night.

Bandung

Day 1 – Shell Under the Weather

Poor Shell had been up for most of the night with some sort of fever, with cold sweats and shivers, so it was left to me to eat both pancakes for breakfast!!

We were moving on again so once packed we were picked up for our transfer to the nearest train station.  The journey was only around ½ and so and when we were dropped off we were shown to a VIP area on the platform (Basically a room with some air-conditioning and a decent toilet in it!) where we were told we could wait for the train that was due in 1 ½ hour’s time.

 

Instead of waiting there we thought we would find a café to get a coffee and something to eat, so we ended up wandering up and down the street in the boiling heat until we found a local warung (local café/food stall).  We ordered a couple of coffee (which turned out to be the really gritty variety) and after prompting from Shell I ordered a noodle dish off of the stall (Shell was still ill and not up to eating). The food was pretty good and extremely cheap, about 50p I think.

We headed back to the station ’VIP Area’ and waited until the train turned up. I must admit we are impressed with the Java trains as they appear to be pretty much on time and even though this time we had opted for economy tickets the seats and comfort was very good.

 

The journey was only 2 – 3 hours long but gave us a chance to do some blogging and reading whilst watching the countryside go by.

 

 

Arriving at Bandung in the late afternoon we then had a problem looking for a taxi as there appeared to be nothing outside the station.  After wandering around for about 20minutes trying to ask locals where to get taxi’s from we found ourselves at the other side of the train station where I spotted a cab coming out of the station car park.  I hailed him down but was a bit surprised when he wanted paying for the parking fee before setting off, however it was only about 20p and we just wanted to get to our hotel so reluctantly we paid it.

The taxi journey took quite a while as the hotel appeared to be though the other side of the city and there is a serious amount of traffic congestion there.  Eventually we arrived at our destination and was surprised when the driver entered an underground car park in a shopping mall, then we found that our hotel was located within the shopping mall. The hotel itself was quite functional but as it was in the shopping centre it had no windows, but we were only here for two nights so were not that fussed.

Unfortunately Shell was still not feeling that great but she wanted to go out anyway.  Our first stop was at a Wendy’s (you don’t get these in the UK anymore) burger joint in side the shopping mall, where we had some naughty western food before hitting the street.

Walking down the road I suddenly spotted a rock bar which looked good but as it was still early it was pretty much empty so we thought we would visit it later.  We carried on for a bit and found a motorcycle bar so we stopped there for a quick drink as at least there were a couple of people in this bar.

Still there was not much atmosphere so we first of all went and found an ATM as we had to get enough money out to pay for our up-coming Orangutan adventure after which we walked to an ‘Irish Bar’ of sorts that we had spotted on our drive to the hotel.

To be fair this bar was pretty soulless the only interesting thing was that you just had a row of fridge cabinets along wall that were stocked with beers that you just helped yourself with and paid for them at the counter.

As Shell was still not feeling great after one beer we left and went back to the hotel for her to rest and watch a bit of t.v. before having an early night.

Day 2 – Organising Day

Breakfast was not included in this hotel price but fortunately there was a Starbucks within the shopping mall so I popped down there and picked us up two nice coffee’s (with not bits in them!) and a couple of sweet pastries to have in the room.

Next we had a few things to do, book a train ticket to Jarkata, pull out some more money for Orangutan trip and make a bank deposit/transfer at a local bank for the trip.

Shell was feeling ill and after walking around in a long circle trying to look for a specific bank to make the trip payment at in the boiling heat she was not feeling great, I offered to sort this out myself whilst she went back to the hotel but she declined – I don’t think she trusts me!! 

Eventually we found the bank and a helpful bank clerk helped us fill in the deposit slip and then we took a bit of a walk to the train station to book our train ticket to Jakarta for the next day.  After this we headed back to the hotel but on the way we picked up some toiletries and a new sim card (our one had stopped working and we needed it for internet connections in remote places).

Instead of going back to the hotel we found a nearby restaurant/bar where we decided to have a couple of cold beers.  Whilst we were sat there once again we were approached by some students that wanted to interview us (this time filming us) for their school project and to practice their English.  It took quite a while and I was very impressed by one of the boys who wanted to talk to me about English football and then giving me a rendition of ‘I’m Forever blowing Bubbles’!!

We stayed there for a few drinks and whilst Shell caught up with some E-Mail (possibly to do with re-renting her flat) I had a play on an electronic darts game.  After I had finished I noticed a small local kid (about 4 – 5) trying to play the game, so I paid the money for him to have a proper game, helping him on my shoulders and moving him nearer to the board so he could hit it, his mum thanked me for entertaining him afterwards (I must be mellowing to kids in my old age!).

It was now later in the afternoon and the beers had not made Shell feel any better so we decided to go back to the hotel for the rest of the day so we could both relax.

On our way back through reception we had noticed the day before that  they did  something named a ‘Goliath Burger’ so thought we (Glenn not Shelley)  would order one of these to eat in the room for dinner.  The advert in reception was a model of this burger that was about the size of a dinner plate, so when we tried to order it with the receptionist she informed us that the model was actually the size of this burger and asked us how many pieces we wanted to split it into, eight was our response, like a pizza!

 

 

Getting back to our room we watched some TV and then the ‘Goliath Burger’ turned up and it was indeed the size of a plate (the biggest burger  I have ever seen), I polished of half of it whilst Shell only managed 2 pieces of it.  We continued to watch TV for the rest of the evening until I could manage to force myself to finish the rest, #fatbastard!

Buta Karas

Day 1

At breakfast we arranged an expensive rip-off transfer to Buta Karas as there didn’t seem to be any other available options.

So after breakfast we thought we would keep the guy waiting and take one last look at the beach so went to a beach bar and ordered a couple of milkshakes whilst watching people learning to surf and had the obligatory photo requests from the local tourists.

 

 

Around midday we were taken to our new lodgings at Buta Karas and once checked in we were given a welcome mango fruit and a large knife to cut it up for ourselves.  The only problem with this accommodation was that there was no Wi-Fi at the hotel.

The nice thing about Buta Karas is that it has a lovely little beach with a consistent surf break on the right side, only a handful of restaurants and it was more of a local’s beach with only a few westerners knocking around.

 

After getting settled in we headed for the beach to catch a few rays and watch the surfers, who were pretty good, we thought we would leave it until tomorrow before we had a go and build up some courage (Shel not Glenn!)

Whilst sitting on the beach it started to rain so we headed to a nearby restaurant where we sat and had a couple of drinks until it stopped.  Unfortunately the weather didn’t look like clearing up so we went to the posh hotel next to ours and had a drink there so we could use their Wi-Fi and in the hope that we would be in range to use their connection from our hotel.

In the evening we headed to one of the restaurants and had some food and a few beers before turning in for the night.

Day 2 – Surf’s up!!

Today we were rudely woken up by a knock on the door at 6.00 to give us our breakfast pancakes – WTF!!! (Just because they get up at 4.30 for Morning Prayer it doesn’t mean we’re up!) So we went back to sleep and had cold pancakes for breakfast when we awoke at a more sensible time.

For the rest of the morning we did a bit of blogging and trip research using the stolen internet link from next door’s hotel, which meant sitting in the gardens right next to the dividing wall.

After watching people learning to surf in Lombok we regretted not giving it a go, so now we had the chance to rectify that.  We headed to the beach to where a rack of surfboards for hire was and asked about getting a lesson.  The guy we spoke to did not seem that enthusiastic but we agreed a price with him and he rounded up one of his friends to assist him.

 

 

First of all he arranged a broken board on the sand and went through the basics of going from paddling and lying down on the board to springing to your feet, or in my case struggling to my feet.  This training drill lasted all of five minutes then we were heading out into the surf with long boards tucked under our arms and leashes’ around our ankles.

Once out in the surf with our separate instructors we then had to lie on the boards whilst we waited for suitable waves.  When a wave came along the instructor would tell us to get ready and then push our boards up to speed to catch the wave (saved us trying to paddle up to speed) and then when we were on our way they would then shout at us to try and get up.

The first few wave (maybe 10!) the result was not good with us both of us struggling to get to our feet and falling off in a multitude of directions.  But eventually I finally managed to get to my feet and ride a very small wave for about 5 seconds, quickly followed by Shell doing the same (she didn’t want to be beaten!).

 

 

We did this for about an hour with both of us managing to get up a couple more times with a maximum ride time of around 8 – 10 seconds!!  But to be honest we were pretty happy that we managed to get up and ride a wave at all, before long we will be hanging ten dude!!!

Feeling pretty ecstatic about our new found skills we then went to a restaurant for a few celebratory beers whilst we watched the professionals doing their stuff on the waves we had just tamed!!!

Later in the day we went back to the room to have a shower before going out for dinner, we tried a different restaurant and the food was pretty good.

After dinner we went back to our room and watched TV and whilst lying there we discovered that our bodies were starting to ache from our days exertions.

Day 3 – On our own!

The pancakes turned up at a more reasonable time this morning after we had a quiet word, however we were still woken up fairly early by a local family that had checked in next door to us and had opened their own personal kitchen outside their room, complete with cooking rings and wok.

We also discovered that our bodies did not particularly like surf with both of us aching, especially in the ribcage area where we had been jumping on and off of the surf board.

Running a bit short on money I arranged to scooter a bike from the hotel and rode out of town for around ten miles to find a ATM so we could afford to pay for the hotel….and a few beers.

Once I had returned from the cash run and although our bodies were protesting around mid-morning we thought we would try out our new found skill again (no pain no gain!!).  So we headed to the beach and hired a long board between us and headed back out into the surf.

 

We took it in turns to launch each other into the waves, me first but with very little success, then Shell who managed to get up on a couple of times.  But whilst launching her onto one wave I suddenly discovered I had the board leash wrapped around my arm which quickly turned into a tourniquet that dragged itself down the length of my arm whilst Shell rode the wave until she fell off.  Checking my arm I discovered that it was very red with all my veins standing out and looking very angry.

Despite this set-back we still continued and eventually after getting angry with myself I manged to catch a couple of waves and ride them into the shore.  But it was Shell who stole the day as on her final session she managed to get up and ride three successive wave into the shore with most probably the longest standing time of 10 – 12 seconds – totally rad maaann!!

Once again after drying off and sunbathing/reading for a while we headed to the restaurant for some more celebration beverages whilst discussing and big-ing up our new found surfing prowess!!  Also keeping an eye on my injured arm which was starting to change to a very interesting colour!!

 

 

After a few drinks we went next door to the travel shop and arranged a transfer and a train to our next destination, this time opting for economy class on the train as it was not such a long journey and economy was half the price (we thought as the trains seemed OK this wouldn’t be too bad).

Again it started raining so we headed back to our room, on the way past we saw our neighbours and their extended family cooking their evening meal on the porch.

We then went back to the restaurant from the previous evening for dinner and a few beers before taking our aching bodies to bed.

Day 4 – Surf Fatigue!

We had opted to stay for one more day in Buta Karas as we liked the vibe here and thought we would relax for a bit before hitting the cities again.

Once again we had pancakes for breakfast and the neighbours and their family were doing their own breakfast next door in the wok.

Despite our aches and pains we headed to the beach to try our hand at surfing again.  We hired the same board and headed out into the waves but after a short time we were feeling very weary.  Shell after getting wiped out by a cross wave decided she had had enough and was ‘not feeling it’ so she went to sunbathe whilst I persisted but without much success.

 

Shortly after I headed up the beach and joined Shell where we spent some time relaxing and reading whilst watching the other surfers doing their stuff, they are very keen on ‘hanging ten’ here.

Later on I headed into the sea for one last surf and to try and get a photo of me up on a wave, but I was still tired myself and after I managed to catch one little tiddler, which Shell caught on camera I decided to call it a day.

 

We then headed up to our regular restaurant for beers before heading back to our room again, noting that the neighbours were yet again cooking (maybe we should take note and save on our food budget!). At one point they even had a local food stall outside serving them, no joke!

In the evening we went out to eat and then returned to watch a bit of TV and an early night, we were moving on tomorrow.