The Islands of Indonesia

15th to 24th October - Denpasar & Gili Trawangan

Early into the evening we had arrived in Indonesia, after a minor panic about bringing alcohol/tobacco into the country we discovered it was alright and we headed through security with reasonable confidence. We split the tobacco between ourselves but even when it was clearly seen, nobody flinched. The first guy we saw attempted to hook us for a taxi and even after clearly stating “we’re ok thanks”, he followed us out of the airport, stood with us for ten minutes and then when we got in another taxi, for some reason he appeared shocked! I was placed with Ingham, Ronchetti and Jenny and we set off to our new home in Denpasar. I don’t think i’ll ever in my life have a more histerical taxi drive than that day, the driver instantly riddled us with questions which is quite normal but he continued to point women out on the streets and telling us how to pretty much hook up with people. He defiantly didn’t shy from details but the best comment from our new friend was that some Australian girls drink far too much beer, Bintang to be precise and because of this, they’re often ‘larger’. His words not mine. As you can imagine this conversation for over 20 minutes broke us up into laughter continuously. We didn’t even reply to much!

Denpasar was not quite what i was expecting at all, in some fashion it reminded me of Thailand, which worried me, it seemed like there was one large strip littered in bars, tourists and locals selling everything under the sun. We dropped our gear off at Pop Hotel and ventured to get ourselves grounded, luckily we discovered quite quickly the crowd was much nicer but hawkers were definitely in full force. After a few casual beers and a superb carbonara me, Paul and Jenny broke from the group and got an early night. It had been my graduation back in England the same day and i had a Skype call with the university group, it was brilliant to see everyone so happy and with that the next morning i had planned absolutely nothing, purposely. I wanted a day of just sitting on the beach, drinking some gin and eating fresh fruit. I did exactly that! Four of us sat there and watched the day go by pretty quickly, we spoke to some interesting people, one in particular that Paul for reasons unknown bought a blowpipe with darts from. This man told us about how it took him two weeks on a boat to travel from his home country Papua New Guinee where these ‘weapons’ are made by his uncle and sold to tourists as something for the mantle piece! Not a bad story at all. The rest of the group began to arrive into the late afternoon and we sat and watched the sunset on the beach, one of the best i’ve seen out here! The sun illuminated everything in an orange glow and its outline in the sky was visible as it disappeared over the horizon. The night continued with bars, pool and conversations before we arrived at yet another rooftop club, people opening doors for you, marble everywhere and Western priced drinks. I didn’t actually see much of the place before i needed taking home, i had enjoyed my graduations too much it seems! Thanks Ben for getting me back!

We wasted the next day with just relaxing by the pool at our hotel and heading out for a good meal knowing we had planned Waterbom the next day! It’s the third largest waterpark in the world, first in Asia. An early morning and off we set, we were far from disappointed when we arrived to see huge, spiralling slides across our peripheral. We started with the lazy river, something i’ve never given much time but they’re brilliant! Floating around a designed course on a tube where you bounce around gently through little water features and greenery. Afterwards we began on the larger attractions and almost all of them were brilliant but theres on in particular, Dan and Robin went on it first whilst i was busy on another, they came over afterwards and convinced me to follow them back up the stairs to this specific waterslide. Turns out it was a trapdoor kind of system where you stand at the top of the slide and after a countdown the floor opens up and you pretty much free fall into this ride! Obviously nervous i get in and prepare for the drop, i wasn’t disappointed! Apparently as it opened i screamed “like an old man” was just one of the quotes. You crash land onto the slide at good speed then thinking i’m about to come out the other end i began flying upwards from the momentum, around a slanted loop. Best ride there by a long shot, and literally zero people there all day! The staff there were also incredibly friendly, couldn’t do enough for you and actually had a laugh with you. I’d recommend the place to anyone else heading this side of the world.

       Travelling to Gili T was relatively easy with a travelling package bought at a tourism office, a quick taxi followed by a few hours on a ferry beached us on the island, we jumped into the shallow water with our bags and once again felt the horror of wet feet and sand combined. The island was nicely quiet with only horses and carriages going past us because engines are banned! I’m always most fond of the peaceful places we’ve visited on this trip. We booked our bungalows and headed down to the beach for a quick swim, snorkel kit attached and under i headed to have a look for some fish. Literally only 30 meters from shore the ground disappeared beneath where i swam into this infinite dark blue sea, it was an eery kind of emptiness that surrounded me! As i’m not incredibly fond on deep water that was enough  and back to the beach with an iced coffee i headed. 

Our next few days consisted of mainly late nights and zero sightings of the morning, well deserved! Finally we pulled our act together, stopped wasting our time and got a boat hired to take us on a few hours snorkelling trip. Alas not everybody woke up so just me, Robin, Paul and Jenny appeared at the docks ready to go. Once again the trip was brilliant! We saw yet more sea turtles including me managing to swim quite far down for a better look, it was great for Paul and Jenny who i don’t believe had done this before. Later on we were told to jump in before our driver pointed further down the coast and he set off, luckily we can bloody swim! It was a good 30-40 minute journey through the coral gardens  which was crowded in both fish and colourful coral before we reached a huge ship wreck that the driver spoke about at the beginning of the day. We saw loads of scuba divers swimming below us exploring the boat but even from above it was very interesting. 

We arrived back later in the afternoon and told the group of our trips success and with that we headed back to the beach and booked a longer, better sounding trip for tomorrow. Five hours of both snorkelling and fishing and we got it for a bargain as well! I’ve never tried fishing and wasn’t by any means fully committed to what the day would hold but the morning came and we began at first with snorkelling. Unfortunately the current was strong meaning staying in one place was very difficult, you could even see the fish struggling as the zig zagged between the coral but to top things off my goggles kept leaking and there was nothing i could do about it, our driver had moved the boat and he wasn’t brilliant with English so i got nowhere. But still, swimming around is not the worst way to spend the day.

We began fishing later on in the day which by all means started brilliantly, i got myself sat at the front of the boat in the baking sun and with a quick tutorial cast my line with a tasty chunk of tuna into the deep blue, my competitive streak instantly came through and i was game for catching the first fish. A good 20 minutes passed before my chance of victory was shattered by both Ingham and Jenny screaming out they had a bite, reeling it in to our amazement it was fairly big! The day went on and alas beginners luck didn’t kick in for myself and i ended up catching absolutely nothing, from my knowledge everyone else did very well and by the end of the day we had a good haul! When we arrived back at the docks we said our thanks to the driver and he bagged up the fish and left, guessing he was going to have a good BBQ later on at our expense. The next morning it was time to leave and we arrived at the beach nice and early, after a horribly long wait on my own with a very uninterested staff member he finally told me we couldn’t get on the boat as it was already full and we had to come back the next morning! I’ve been stuck in worse places so we spent our extra, unexpected day at the beach relaxing on bean bags and planning our next destination, Ubud. 

Paul & Jenny 

 Preparing for our first scuba drop

 The happiest photograph of Robin i've ever seen!

 The beach at Gili Trawangan

 One of our overly friendly bar staff

 Can't beat beanbags!

 Paul & Jenny highjacking my camera

 Biggest catch of the day by Ingham and Jenny. Rep Snapper i believe?

 Robin fishing

 My first and probably last attempt at fishing

From one side of our boat

The Malaysian Beaches

29th to 3rd October - Perhentian Islands

Our day began still on Koh Phangan with a ferry we were told arrived at 10:00AM, turns out our information was completely wrong and getting down into Malaysia was going to be a lot more difficult that first thought. With a wait near the ferry until 3:00PM, on the mainland of Thailand it didn’t get much better, we waited a few more hours until nearly 8:00PM before catching a night bus for a further 11 hours to the boarder! It was the longest day we had endured yet racking up well over 24hrs. A brisk walk at sunrise got us to the Malaysian boarder and through we went, ready to begin yet more travel to the Perhentian Islands. I don’t know how but i began speaking to a local guy, he was quite possibly the happiest man i’ve ever seen, he had travelled loads himself and went off telling me about his journeys to England, Canada, Italy etc. He gave us loads of tips for our destination and after we failed at bartering a taxi to the right price he actually argued for us and got a price everyone was happy with! His wife wasn’t too happy for waiting around whilst he helped us, i think they were off to Thailand themselves for a little holiday. I felt like i was back to real travelling once more, Thailand sapped that drive i had in other countries, everywhere we visited was built for tourists and you don’t see the real people of the country. After an hours drive there we are again sat on a tiny speed boat shooting towards what could only be described as paradise! The two islands looked beautiful with white sand beaches and crystal clear waters, in comparison to other islands we had visited there was nothing on Kecil, the smaller of the two. We chose this as our home and grabbed somewhere with air conditioning for the first night, mainly to recover after the journey. 
     What came over the next two days was such a shame as we had high hopes for Perhentian, every meal we had on the island was average at best, as an example, i ordered a spaghetti carbonara one evening, i know that typically Western food is worse but its never horrendous. The cream and butter had split making it look grim but half way through i decided to tilt the plate and sure enough i managed to pour around 100ml of oil straight out of the pasta. I wanted to complain but with the staff being so relaxed they just wouldn’t of cared even if i did. One restaurant actually turned us away because the chef “couldn’t be bothered to make anything”. We were in paradise but angered at the lack of enthusiasm the people there had. Luckily on our third and final day the entire place was redeemed with the smallest of things. We simply booked a snorkelling trip which turned into one of the best activities in Asia so far. Our boat driver and guide topped it off with generally being great! He couldn’t of been better and instantly glued with the whole group, tormenting me with the fear of sharks and even throwing bread at us whilst were in the water so fish swarm at us! It was a great laugh. The coral and array of fish was insane, i’d never seen anything like it and we had so much time there. The fish in a multitude of colours would swim all around you, hundreds of them. Each time we got back into the sea we thought it couldn’t get any better until i scratched a big thing off my bucket list, our guide took us to turtle point and went around gently until he spotted one about 10-12 meters down and in we got. I got the chance to swim literally side by side with this huge turtle, i kept up with it swimming for some time before the turtle began going deeper. It was absolutely amazing and even now i’ve a smile across my face that i got to do it! To top the whole day off i moderately conquered my fear of sharks! After a few moments of panic stood in the boat, our guide threw fish heads into the sea to lure the sharks and shortly after i was in as well. The black tip sharks never got too close thankfully and i’m so glad i did it! At one point i saw three swimming together with the largest being around a meter and a half. Sure they’re not great whites but this will do for now! 
     I felt like i could now leave the island happy in knowing i’ve got the most out of it. I’d still advise anybody to visit just for that experience, the near no wifi, electricity blackouts for up to six hours and the feeling of being cut off from the outside world was actually really good. It allowed you to remember the fun of exploring and just lounging around. Wifi i’ve found out here is typically just a distraction. If i could access my blogs and photographs just once a week, i’d be happy with that!

The 'almost' deserted island we planned to stay on for a few days! 

And our 30 minute boat journey to the island was on a fairly small boat

 This is just to show how crystal clear and blue the water was

 We were literally surrounded by thousands of these fish whilst snorkelling

 Me after just jumping in!

 One of the turtles we swam by throughout the day

The Islands we Craved

12th to 29th September - Phuket, Koh Phi Phi & Koh Phangan

As we flew into Phuket i was gob smacked at the beauty of the green islands scattered through the light blue sea, it looked absolutely amazing, that was me itching to get exploring! After a short taxi ride we arrived at the best accommodation we had yet, big rooms, comfy beds and a damn good pool, best thing was it was all below budget. With me being far from healthy and the guys just wanted to relax thats exactly what we did for several days, hanging out by the pool and eating at the hotel. Our second night however, we decided to go to a quiet bar and have a few drinks which i was just about feeling up for. After a cheap sweat and sour chicken we were directed to a place called Bangla Road, even though i'd researched Phuket i'd never heard of it and wow we were in for a surprise. The place was more hectic than Bangkok! Instantly we had 20+ vendors offering us ping pong shows, night clubs, you name it. We settled down in a bar on the far side where you get offered matches of connect 4 and jenga for free tequila shots from the staff which in turn made our 'quiet night' into a much bigger event. We spent hours going from bar to bar laughing with people and getting the main part of our drinks for free, i'd admit this was the best night we had in Thailand so far, much better than what Bangkok had to offer. For the next two days of our stay in Phuket i stayed in, trying to eat plain food and try to get back on track. Several of the guys headed out for yet another round of bars and told me of their crazy antics the morning after, at times i was glad i stayed in, not to mention how bad the weather turned, a tropical storm had come down from Vietnam and began battering the surrounding islands of Phuket.
     We set sail once more to Koh Phi Phi via a quick taxi followed by two hours on a ferry. If you've ever watched the film 'The Perfect Storm' you'll understand around how choppy and dodgy the ferry was. Waves were bouncing off both sides to the point where the window next to me began leaking! Ingham hates the sea and generally anything to do with it, he slept for the first half of the ferry thank god but woke up half way through and quickly went pail! I don't blame him, even i was a little on edge! We jumped off the boat into the relentless rain and quickly found our new home for 7 nights, it looks absolutely nothing like what we booked but it was a bed and air conditioning, got the basics at least. The first two days it rained again none stop and we struggled to do anything apart from eat and sleep but finally the clouds began to clear and we had the choice of two very different beaches within a 5 minute walk from us. Firstly an incredibly shallow and slightly murky water bay which was good to just lay in, where as the other side was deeper and very clear. I didn't drink a drop during my stay at Koh Phi Phi as i began to get even worse, one night whilst the guys went out to the parties on the beach i was getting stomach cramps and started to actually pass blood... Sorry for the information! But this obviously got me incredibly worried and the next morning i went straight to hospital, they took a blood sample and asked a million questions, thankfully i was told my chances of survival are very high and with some antibiotics for a stomach infection i was on my way and within a few days i was beginning to feel my real self again.
     Nearly two weeks of feeling horrible got me quite down in the dumps as i'd done next to nothing but we finally headed out and began sea kayaking which was awesome, i bought myself a snorkel kit and parked up our kayaks at a place called Monkey Beach which, you guessed it, had loads of monkeys on it, that was fairly cool but the actual snorkelling here was much better! I'd never done it before and to be swimming with these fairly large, colourful fish cheered me up no end, only panicked once about sharks as well! We did the same on another day because we enjoyed it that much and later on hiked up to Koh Phi Phi viewpoint, nice and easy hike with a cool view of where both bays almost meet in the centre of the island. We bought most of our food from this restaurant called Cosmic which did surprisingly, really great Italian food for damn cheap, it sorted me out in terms of staying away from spice and grease whilst recovering. It was a good place for a none alcoholic drink and a few card games. Our time, even with a week there passed very quickly and before long we had planned our trip over to Koh Phangan for the biggest party of the month, the full moon party!
     Koh Phangan mainly consisted of sitting around the pool and drinking beer, that was our aim for the island and it was definitely achieved, its not something i’d do again on this trip but with five of your best friends you’ll struggled to have a bad time! It was nice to chat to other people as well, they had mainly arrived just for the Full Moon Party but because of that they brought a different, fun vibe with them. The beach was littered with bars and loud music every night we went down but the best place by far was Mellow Mountain, a really relaxed place where everyone sat with cushions on the floor. After one of the nights we jumped into a pick-up truck for our lift home, about a 30 minute drive with crazy roads and fast speeds... It was once way to get an adrenaline rush! All six of us were bouncing around in the back whilst the driver couldn’t care less, great fun though, it was like being on a rickety roller coaster. The Full Moon Party itself was like any other night on the beach but with 10 times more people, getting anywhere became a struggle but the atmosphere was brilliant, everyone was in high spirits and there to generally have a good time. We sat on the beach and watched the sunrise in the traditional manner of the party, it was a good ending to a great night. 

 Sunset at Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint

 Enjoying the beaches for the day

Monkey Beach which was only a short 15min kayak away

 Leaving the islands and heading off to Malaysia