12:05:519S 96:52:985E Two weeks in Indonesia
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Tue 23 Sep 2014 13:14
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After checking into Bali with the usual customs run
around on Saturday we headed to Villa Sagita that Sue had arranged in the
mountains near Ubud. We were laden with not only our luggage but also some 60
bottles of specially selected New Zealand wine that Sue and I had collected on
our wine route road trip earlier this year. We had it stored under the
floorboards of the boat so that it was not confiscated by customs. They did not
even come to the boat!
  What a great place the villa was. We
settled in to wait for the girls who had just flown in from South Africa via
Singapore. That evening was spent catching up while sipping sundowners and
relaxing in the infinity pool. The villa was fabulous. We each had our own rooms
and congregated on the patio by the pool playing scrabble, reading and chatting.
The villa staff made us breakfast every morning and cooked local Indonesian
dishes for dinner.
  Bali is one of 17,500 odd islands that make up the
Indonesian archipelago sitting just 8 degrees below the equator between Java and
Lombok in Southeast Asia. Whilst Indonesia has the worlds largest Muslim
population, Bali is 95% Hindu. A gentle and devout people whose culture is one
of tolerance and consideration for all things. There is a contradiction in this
as they are denuding the rainforests to produce wonderful Balinese wooden doors,
friezes carvings etc. The condition of the dogs, cock fighting, caging of wild
birds and general squallor is pitiful to see.
    We were not going to let this hinder us in our two
week holiday and were soon being driven around Bali by Ketut, the girls taxi
driver from the airport. He was to become our tourguide for the week on Bali. We
visited Hindu temples, art galeries, wood carving and silversmith
jewellery stores. We even tasted the worlds most expensive coffee, Lewak coffee.
The beans are harvested on the ground after they have been passed through the
digestive sytem of a civet cat! Best of all Ketut found us wonderful places
to eat lunch in the rice padi fields and in the middle of Ubud. Needless to
say being foodies we enjoyed the Indonesian fare, washed down with good
Kiwi wine and for some of us the local Bintang beer.
     Driving here is not for the faint hearted with
literaly hundreds of motorbikes weaving in and out on both sides of the road
with up to four passengers at times. Madness, but we never heard a hooter blown
in anger or saw any road rage. Everyone just sort of blended together and got on
with it.
  The following Monday we left Ubud in two taxis, one
for us and the other with the luggage bound for the little port of Padang Bai on
the east coast. Here we boarded a fast boat that took us to Gili Trawangan, one
of three small islands off the north west of Lombok. Getting on the boat was a
challenge in itself as they dont have any system for getting passengers off the
boat while those getting on wait. A bun fight. On arrival at Gili Trawangan we
were in for another surprise as there is no jetty to disembark. The boat noses
up to the beach and a ladder is put over the bow onto the
beach.
  There to meet us were Wayan and Arya from The Gili
Beach Resort, our villa for the next week. The island has no motorised transport
and getting around is by pony cart. There were three waiting for us. What a
journey. The coast road has been washed away between the ferry port and North
Beach where our villa was located so we were taken across the island on a sand
and gravel track through the local village. The cart goes like the clappers and
what with luggage, wine and us it was a bumpy and wild ride. We arrived at our little place of paradise and all concerns
over getting here evaporated. Sue had again done us proud. We were overlooking
the sea with our own private beach. The villa was fabulous.
   Decisions to be made in the morning were do we swim
in the pool or the sea. Where should we laze away the rest of the day, on the
sunbeds on the beach or by the pool. We ordered lunch from the retaurants just
up the road, delivered to our villa. Sundowners on the beach watching the sun
setting behind the volcano on Bali across the channel. Ambling along the sand
road deciding which of the many restuarants to eat dinner. They all had tables
on the beach.
    The island is only 3km by 2km and is ringed by a
path alongside the sea. Roger and Ted took the villa bicycles and cycled around
the island buying some groceries for a spaghetti dinner. We walked to Central
beach where it is hip and happening. Here are the backpackers, tourists, dive
shops, restuarants and most of the locals plying their trade. It is not the
place to be, hectic and grubby. But we did find a couple of very nice
restuarants where we had great seafood, steaks and Ted's lamb
shank.
   All too soon the two weeks were over and we were
climbing back up the ladder onto the fast boat from the beach back to Padang Bai
on Bali. Here we said our farewell to the girls who were catching flights out of
Bali that evening while we headed back to the boat. Tom had prepared Shaya Moya
so that we could leave immediately. By night fall we were well on our way out at
sea, while the girls were sipping Hendricks gin and eating lamb chops at the
Inter Continental near the airport.
A fitting way to end a great holiday.
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