Why did I stay two months in Indonesia? Well, I was more or less forced to by LionAir, back in Singapore... As always on my travels here, I only had a one way ticket to Indonesia, and most likely it wouldn't have been a problem to fly in like that with any other airline. But as LionAir is Indonesia's main airline, they seem to enforce their rules more strictly.
When I checked in, they confronted me with having no return ticket, which supposedly is required if you enter Indonesia for the first time ever. I have never read about this and later on many other people confirmed to me that they had no troubles getting into the country with just a one way ticket, but using other airlines. So they said, they wouldnt let me board my flight if I could not show a flight leaving the country, so I had to book at that very moment.
It was very annoying, I was holding up the line, trying to book a flight on my phone real quick and on the go deciding if I wanted to stay one month or two months. I thought to myself, Indonesia is so large, I will for sure fill up two months easily. So I booked a flight, two months from my date of entry. This later turned out to be a mistake. I just absolutely hate being bound by flight dates, hotel/hostel reservations and so on. It just is inconvenient on my kind of trip. I need the flexibility.
After getting in to Jakarta, I was underwhelmed by the city. I did not expect much, as I actually just got into town for a few days to do some sight-seeing and then planed to move on anyway. But to be honest three days in Jakarta is way too much. It is seriously the most ugly, third world city I have seen so far on all of my travels. And I compare here with certain cities in Myanmar which were also quite terrible in appearance.
On the upside, their people were very friendly, and as there were barely any foreign tourists, I was once again stared at like some movie star. People trying to get pictures with me, to have conversations or random girls yelling stuff after me. Quite fun, actually. But I was happy to leave for Bali.
Getting to Bali, I had to go through Jakarta's airport again, and only in departures, you realise how terrible their airport really is (arrivals seemed ok). It seems to have been built in the sixties, with no security standards whatsoever. Unlike any other airport, you can bring almost anything through security. Three 1.5 litre bottles of water - no problem.. And they have two terminal 1... which makes no sense. I queued up on the first one, had to show a security guard my ticket and he told me its not the right terminal.
He however did not manage to tell me where to go and there were of course no signs to be found to show me the direction. So I wandered around for 20 minutes to find my gate. Always fun if you gotta catch a flight. But it all worked out. I got to Bali after all.
And you know, Bali is painted as the most beautiful place on earth, the island of the gods. It might have been like that 10-20 years ago. Now its a mass tourism spot, mostly invaded by Australians, English, Germans and French people. So you can imagine, its all about party, drinking and fucking. It has become as bad as the local government actually is trying to get a law through that makes extra-marital sex punishable by law..
So beautiful Bali was a let-down from the first minute.. I must say, I got to Kuta first, which is close to the airport and the party hub of the island, so of course it was also a terrible place to start. But luckily I met a few nice German guys at my hostel (Kayun Hostel - Nice Pool!) to hang out for a couple of days. With one of them, Flinn, I went on a day trip to a north western water temple called Tannah Lot. It was pretty nice, but unfortunately the weather turned a bit just after we got there, so we didnt manage to get great pictures. Also the place was swarming with tourists. Literally hundreds of them.
Unfortunately, this always turned out the same on each of the nice places I wanted to visit in Bali. We always ran into hundreds of people. So it was impossible to just enjoy a place, or even just to take a picture, as even if you had a shot, someone would just walk into the frame. Or people were just sitting in the nicest spots to take a picture of for half an hour and not move..
Well, I realised my need to work on my university essay due to the upcoming deadline, and thought to myself, Ubud should be a nice quite place from all I read. Haha, how wrong I was.
I got to Ubud, and booked a week in a nice Hostel, which was supposed to have a great pool and outside area to chill out in the quite of the nature and there to work on my essay. Too bad, this hostel was just part of a bigger hotel down the street and just featured the pool area etc on their pictures, but it would cost $10/day to go there and actually use it. This trip really got better and better.
Ubud seems to have been a very tranquil and beautiful place in the past, but as always, tourism has ruined it in just a few years. Its now a town full of noisy traffic, bars, restaurants, stores, aggressive salesman and taxi drivers.. Not at all what I came for.
I met up with Flinn and his buddy again and decided to spontaneously join them on a volcano hike. So I had at least done something exciting. It was supposed to be a seven hour track up the volcano, during the night, to see the sunrise on the peak at 6 AM.
Just too bad that our driver showed up over one hour late and we then had a huge discussion with them because they told Flinn they could take a third person for free. So all in all we were nearly two hours late when we started the hike. And our guide was pushing it hard to make it in time.
I can tell you, Mount Agung is pretty damn steep, and should only be climbed by experienced climbers as we found out a few days later. So me being terribly out of shape and a heavy smoker, I had to quit half way up as I simply couldn't make it, and did not want the Germans to miss their peak moment. Even those fit guys told me after, that they barely made it themselves and you could see it as they had troubles even walking normally after that.
Alright so fleeing from Bali, I went to the Gili Islands on my way to Lombok and well Gili Trawang turned out to be a party island. After nearly two weeks of not going out, it was a nice change of pace for a few days but I was also happy to flee to Gili Air then, which (at least for now) is still a beautiful tranquil island to relax and just do nothing all day on the beach (Except if you'd like to try a mushroom shake or some local hash :)
It was the first place I really liked in Indonesia, and that being after almost three weeks, you might understand why I was more than looking forward to the end of my Indonesia experience.
I headed to the island of Lombok, which was highly recommended to me by my buddy Stefan, who absolutely loves this place. And he wasn't wrong. It was much nicer there than in Bali. A bit less lush in the south, as it can be very dry there, but very beautiful in the north!
Lombok was amazing, and much more what I was looking for. Much less tourists, which is always a good thing. Much less traffic, which is good for me, as I love to drive a bike around. Super friendly People, Spicy Food, beautiful beaches and lush vegetation to name just a few other things I liked.
To hold it short and come to an end here, my time in Lombok consisted of these major points:
-Extension of my Visa in Mataram (Super easy, much less hassle than in Bali).
-Exploring a different beach every day and just chilling there.
-Driving around and just see the nature, the villages, waive at kids and say hello to adults excited to see a foreigner.
-Meeting a great random group around this Canadian guy, Josh, which was a lot of fun to hang out with
-Having nice discussions, an afternoon out and a great time with Harry and the other staff from the amazing Tempatku restaurant in Senggigi (Seriously, eat there! Best food I had in Indonesia!)
-Saving a lone, four week old puppy from dying, getting her checked out at a Vet's and finding her a safe home in just two days despite Lombok being Muslim and not liking dogs for pets.
Additional notes:
-I missed out on Java and much of the other places in Indonesia which must surely be amazing from what I heard. I honestly must say, I was just so dissapointed by my experiences in Jakarta and Bali that I simply was happy to be in Lombok. Lombok made my stay here in Indonesia a good experience after all, but I honestly can't recommend Bali to anyone.
-Unfortunately, the tourist development in this country seems to be really fast so Lombok could be the same tourist trap as Bali in just a few years. Gili Air is already being developed heavily and will surely be much like the party Island of Gili T very soon too, so go now if you still want to see it. Otherwise tourism anyway always will slowly shift to new, non developed islands, as lots of people don't come here for party but to enjoy the beauty of this country.
-Indonesia is rather expensive compared to other South-East-Asian countries. At least in the tourist hotspots you easily pay $10-15/night for a hostel and spend $3.50-15/meal. Be aware, they often add taxes and service charge on top of the shown price.. Always clarify.
Now of to Tokyo - I am so excited. Just two weeks of Tokyo, meeting old friends and so on but I absolutely love Japan!
Pictures will be added when I get to Japan, as the Internet is way better there.
