Indoblog*

After the wild party that was Singapore, I departed with Dan and Jen bound for Ubud in Bali, that most famous of Indonesian isles. We arrived in the late evening of November 5, and unfortunately I was a bit out of sorts for that night and most of next day, thanks to some serious Singapore-lag after all the revelry and some general freaking out about only having six weeks left of the trip. Dan and Jen were lucky enough to have to deal with my completely insane self, and for this I am both extremely grateful and very apologetic! I imagine they are now thoroughly sick of me gate-crashing their holidays, though I like to think of it as 'chaperoning'.

Anyway, once I was back to normal-ish and had relocated to my own room at the Ubud Sari Health Resort (oh yes dahling!), I joined the ever-fabulous Whites for dinner and we made a plan to do some sightseeing with a driver the next day. Wayan (as those who have read Eat, Pray, Love will know, there are only about four names for both men and women in Indonesia) picked us up in the mid-morning and we set off to see some of Ubud's incredible sights. Although I was a bit of a dummy and didn't write down the names of everything we saw, we visited a few temples and what's considered the most impressive ancient site in Bali, Gunung Kawi. We were having a lovely wander around when, suprise surprise, we got monsooned on! (Seriously folks, if it starts to rain when I'm around, blame me. I appear to have carted rubbish weather around the world with me). We figured it would pass in, oh, maybe ten minutes. Nope. An HOUR later we were still crammed into a sheltered pavilion with a number of local holy people, who had been praying at the shrines just as the rain hit. Wayan must have either thought we'd gotten lost, drowned or been converted to Buddhism or Hinduism or whatever! EVENTUALLY we made it back and the rain had stopped by the time we settled down for lunch overlooking beautiful terraced rice fields. It was breathtaking and romantic, and as we chowed down on classic Indonesian fare (satay and rice and pumpkin soup) I thought to myself, 'I REALLY cannot win! I end up in the most romantic places in the world either with my brother or alone, OR with a super-in-love, gorgeous couple like the Whites!' Sigh. My time will come, eh?

Later that afternoon we made more plans with Wayan for sightseeing the next day, and wrapped the day up with a dinner out followed by some hookah-smoking to cure my withdrawal! The following morning Wayan was there bright and early to pick us up and we set out to see some gorgeous lakes around which we planned to hike, but guess what? It started TIPPING down. (I'm sorry I'm sorry!) So, no hike. Instead we went to see the famous floating lake temple which was lovely, and followed that by another delicious lunch overlooking more stunning rice fields. To burn off our luncheon, we spent the remainder of the afternoon hiking through some MORE rice paddies, which was fabulous. Beautiful terraces of rice plants as far as the eye can see.

In the evening I did a little gift shopping (recipients of these gifts better freakin' love them, given that I've been carting them around for almost two months, AND we all know how rich I am. Just joking- I love buying pressies- really!) and then it was time for the FINAL DINNER with the Whites. I was very, very sad to say goodbye to them- as Dan pointed out we have now partied in FOUR countries! Quite a feat, methinks! Though I imagine they were glad to see the back of me, I want Dan and Jen to know what a FANTASTIC time I had with them and how lucky I feel to have them as friends. You guys rock- I will pop up again in your lives again as soon as I can! (Evil cackle)

The next morning I was up at an un-Godly hour to start my journey to the much-celebrated Gili islands. This little trio of tropical loveliness consists of Gili Meno, Gili Air and Gili Trawangan. The last, Gili T (as it's affectionately known), is the party island and my destination!

At 6:30am a lady called Ayu, through whom I had booked my journey, came to pick me up on her moped. I looked from her to the vehicle to my GIANT backpack in disbelief- how were all three of us (yes, the backpack is BASICALLY a living thing at this point!) going to get down the road to the bus on her little scooter? Ayu, however, is a pro at this- she clambered on, then I clambered on, backpack tightly strapped to me and me clinging to her, and we wobbled our way down the bumpy street to the minbus. Phew!

It was then a two-hour ride to the port, then a VERY bouncy two-hour speedboat ride to Gili T. The boat pulled up to the beach and everyone waded ashore across the beautfiul white sand in the dazzling sunshine, holding backpacks and suitcases above their heads. All the passengers were then bombarded by locals yelling at us about accommodation, and in the confusion I found myself following a local boy (man? He was definitely young) named Yudi down a dirt track to a guest house. It was decent enough, though a tad out of my price range, so I haggled a bit and batted my eyelashes and wore Yudi down, with the approval of his boss.

After a little nap, I ventured out for lunch and to hang out on the beach but GUESS WHAT? It started to POUR with rain out of nowhere! Luckily I entertained myself at the restaurant with three Aussies from Brisbane who gave me lots of tips for my upcoming trip to Oz. In the late afternoon the rain eased off and I did manage a bit of beach time before heading out to meet the Aussies again for the evening, during which much bar-hopping and beer-drinking took place. Standard.

The following day was more beach laying, and in the evening I took myself out to a yoga class. Ah- heaven! The class took place in a beautiful outdoor studio and began just before the sun started to set. Relaxed and happy, I then went to meet the Aussies and some other travelling friends of theirs from Austria and Italy. We went to a massive beach party at the local Irish bar, where I THEN met travelers from San Diego! Having not met any Americans for a while (other than the Whites, but I expected to see them!), it was actually good fun to chat about the homeland. In fact, when one of the Cali guys and I started singing the Fresh Prince theme tune at the top of our lungs, another guy ran over to us and said, 'You guys MUST be American!', and he turned out to be from D.C!

The next day was, guess what, more beach and more yoga. I had plans to meet the Italian and Austrian girls for dinner, but when I couldn't find them, I ended up joining the San Diegans instead after running into them on the street. That's what I love about travelling- no fixed plans, just go with the flow. Gili T very much encourages this too- there are no cars or anything on the island, and no police force, so everyone is just strolling around, high as kites (but not yours truly- am far too good a girl!), up for anything.

After dinner and a few drinks, I turned in early because I wanted to take a yoga class the following morning. I strolled back to my guesthouse and upon entering the bathroom, noticed I had a little friend in there- a scorpion. Now, under normal circumstances I might have freaked out, but a Bintang or two too many meant that actually, I stayed pretty calm. 'Hmmm,' I said to myself, 'I know the little ones are the most dangerous, so what do I do?' After musing on this for a minute or two and watching the little guy (he didn't move), I thought, Aha!, and ran for my family-sized bottle of bug spray. Well, big surprise, that did nothing but agitate him! He took off running around the edges of the bathroom while I did a crazy dance to keep him from under my feet, going at him with the bug spray every couple of seconds.

OK, I thought, new plan- I'll drown him! I managed to fill a bottle of water from the sink while lil Scorps was on the other side of the room and then proceeded to pour the whole thing on him. Nope, that didn't work either, he just ran away. Moving on.

During the water attack, some toilet paper that was on the floor had gotten soaked, which led me to my next idea- 'I'll suffocate him!'. I then proceeded to start throwing wet toilet paper at Scorpi, which drove him NUTS and his little stinger just kept curling up tighter and tighter.

All right, I thought, time to get serious. I closed the door to the bathroom and went outside my room, where I looked around for a rock or something. It was about 1am at this point, but luckily, Yudi happened to be walking by and I told him I needed help. Though I'm pretty sure he was stoned out of his mind, he came into my room with the end of a broom handle and proceeded to mash my venomous little friend to death with it. I was relieved that I would be able to sleep in peace, but as Yudi unceremoniously carried little Scorpi's body outside in an empty toilet role, I actually felt a bit sad for the wee creature (the scorpion, not Yudi!). I mean, with a November birthday I'm a scorpion myself. Had I just set myself up for a horrible 27th birthday and unlucky 28th year? Mehoped not.

Despite the scorpion episode, I did manage to get up for my yoga class the next day and spent my last day on Gili T just lounging in the tropical paradise. In the evening I took myself out for a goodbye drink and met some lovely Irish folk at the bar. I turned in quite early again that evening (carefully checking for poisonous things in my room!) as I had an early start and a LONG journey to Sydney the following day.

All in all, my short time in Indonesia was a real treat. The people are lovely, the food is delicious, the scenery is fantastic and I was lucky to spend part of it with great friends. Selamat tinggal, I'll see you again.

*A word on the title: This post has been on my to-do list for ages as 'Indoblog' and now I can only think of it as such!