The most epic adventure ever!

Sydney, Australia

The walk from our hostel in Kuala Lumpur to the station was not that easy as the sidewalk sometimes disappear all of the sudden. We made it to the station and into the shuttle bus. It left a few minutes late, but we arrived early enough as there was no traffic in the early morning hours. We checked-in and went through real security this time. Our eight-hour long flight was uneventful and we arrived on time in Sydney.

On our first day in Sydney, we woke up around lunch time, thanks to our jet lagged bodies. We spend the day visiting some of the touristic sites. We walked towards the old Sydney and the Opera house. The city is very nice, clean and modern. The port is also beautiful.

Sydney Skyline

Seraya Island and Kuta Lombok, Indonesia

Seraya Island

The day after our Komodo dragon experience, we followed the group going to the semi-private Seraya island, in a nice line through the village. The boat ride was only one hour to reach Seraya with its white sand beach and little bungalows. Once we arrived on the island, we enjoyed the view for a few minutes before deciding to rent masks and snorkels. We went in the water but it was not easy to get a proper fit with the equipment, and AA wasn't feeling as brave as the day before, especially when some jellyfish swam right in front of her eyes.

Our few days on Seraya were spent snorkeling, relaxing and playing in the sand. Seb saw many fishes again and even some stingrays. Unfortunately the high tides brought in many jellyfish everyday during our stay. We played island explorers a few times, walking on different sections of the island, where we found a lot of garbage. We celebrated the new year with a German family and a European couple around a nice fire on the beach.

The small bungalows, basic but very nice view and location.

The only way to get there!

The deserted beach of Seraya Island

Storm coming through

From the top of our island

Kuta, Lombok

On our last morning on Seraya, we needed to get a ride from a small motor boat to the main boat as the water was very low. When the guy was loading one of the suitcases on the boat, he went straight through the flooring, into the inside of the boat where the motor was located and we could see some water in there. Needless to say we didn't feel very safe once again... we kept the flippers close by and ready to use just in case!

We left our almost private little paradise island and went back to the smelly port of Labuanbajo. We walked under scorching hot sun back to the airport. The airport is being worked on so anybody coming in has to get through a big puddle of mud. Obviously one of us had to slip and get his feet a mud bath before getting in the airport... We cleaned up as much as possible in the grass and made our way in, through "security". At no point in the process we were asked for a piece of ID. It had been the same on our flight from Bali to Labuanbajo. We had a good laugh when we saw the metal detector not even turned on and the ladies working the security actually playing Majong on their computers.

Our flight from Labuanbajo to Lombok had a good connection in Bali but as it was late leaving from Labuanbajo it was much shorter than planned. When the plane landed, everybody walked out on the tarmac and waited for the bus to arrive and bring us to the main building. When we walked in the building there was a very small sign saying "Transit", so we thought we would follow it, but it led outside, by the conveyor belt. We were very confused. We came back inside, double-checked with a security guard and went back outside. Finally a bus arrived to take us to the departure building. We went through the area where people pay their departure taxes, but as we were flying with Garuda Indonesia, the taxes were already included with the ticket, so we just walked by and went through security. This time the metal detector was on, but people working there didn't seem to care more about security. We checked the status of our flight on the screens, but it hadn't been updated so our gate number, and flight information where not even on the board yet, with only 2 minutes to the boarding time. We were starting to wonder how to find the proper gate when we heard the last call for boarding our Garuda flight to Lombok. We rushed to the right gate, hopped on the bus, who then drove us right back to the same plane we had just left!

On the tarmac at Denpasar International Airport, Bali

Our friends had told us that the easiest way to get to Kuta on Lombok was to take a taxi and buy the pre-paid ticket from the boots before getting out of the airport. They were asking 84 000 Rupiah (8.40 CAD) to get to Kuta. We had read online that it should be less than that, but at 8 pm we didn't feel like shopping around with taxi drivers. All of the process from the airport to the room was so easy, we kept wondering where was the catch. But no catch, it was just that easy!

In Kuta, we woke up the first morning to the sounds of the mosque at 4:30am. The mosque being visible from the guesthouse, is was very loud but earplugs did wonders for the other nights. Kuta could easily look like any other Indonesian village but the beach was different. The sand was more of a golden colour and the waves much stronger than the other beaches we've visited so far. It is a well-know area for the surfing community. We walked on the beach for a while, meeting women and kids selling sarongs and bracelets, but also locals enjoying the water. During every lunch and dinner, we were interrupted every few minutes by kids selling bracelets and sarongs.They can be pretty persistent with people not knowing how to say no firmly. We spent about a week in Kuta catching up on work, sleep and movies.

Kuta Lombok Beach

Kids selling jewelry on the beach

The last night we tried to phone Blue Bird Taxi in order to book a taxi to go to the airport the next morning. We got through and even got somebody that spoke English. The only thing is, they can't come to pick up tourists anymore as the locals won't let them. Locals will block the roads for any empty taxi coming in. We were expecting an answer like that coming from hotel staff, but never would have expected something like that from the biggest taxi company in Indonesia. The local businesses charge between 120 000 and 150 000 Rupiahs, when the going rate with a meter should be around 50 000. The hotel owner called his "friends" and got us a private car for 80 000. While waiting for the friend to call back, he said that the other option would be a motorcycle ride, which he could do for the same price. The price of gas or any other excuse doesn't hold up if the price they say is the same for a car or a motorcycle. Indonesian attitude and felling ripped off all the way to the last night...

Kuala Lumpur 

When we landed in KL, we knew exactly where to go this time. Between the traffic and the rain, it took a while to get to downtown, but by the time we arrived the rain had mostly stopped. We were again very impressed with the customer service skills of the receptionist, reminding us that we were back in Malaysia. She showed us the hostel and our AC room, with WiFi! We spent a few hours looking into our next crazy adventure before going for supper in the Central Market. We spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur, enjoying the warmth in prevision of our next expedition. We also booked our flight tickets for the first legs of this new adventure: Kuala Lumpur to Auckland via Sydney. Exciting times!

Ceningan Island to Komodo National Park, Indonesia

Nusa Ceningan

We decided to spend Christmas on a small island, a short distance from the main island of Bali. We took a minibus from Kuta to Sanur where we followed the driver to the beach. We stepped in the water to hop on the very basic and no so fast "speed boat". It took about an hour of boat to reach Lembongan and just before reaching the island we saw some dolphins swimming nearby. We crossed most of Lembongan island on our way to the yellow bridge leading to the tiny island of Ceningan. The hotel had a small saltwater pool and only two bungalows. Our bungalow had a huge bed, a balcony overlooking the pool and a small ocean view. The bathroom was located just at the back of the bungalow, outside with only half of it covered by a roof.

December is rainy season in this area, so we had many rainy days. We relaxed, enjoyed the swimming pool and the stress free island life.

Nusa Lembongan

Our bungalow for a few days over Christmas

The view from the neighboring restaurant

Where the restaurant ends and the ocean begins...

The hotel's pool

Bali

After a few days of quiet holidays, we had to leave our little island and get back on the main land. The two guys working in the hotel gave us a ride to the boat on their scooter. The sea was a little rougher than on our way to Lembongan, but this time we saw some flying fish. As soon as we started walking in Bali we remembered quickly what we didn't like about it the first time.

Labuan Bajo, Flores

The morning of our flight to Flores island, we woke up slowly before our alarm. We were looking at things online when Seb saw an email from Rina Kembar (using a yahoo address) with "info SKY" as the subject line. He opened it and it was saying that instead of 11:30am, our flight would be departing at 9:40am, it also included a reminder that we needed to be at the airport two hours prior to departure. When we saw the message it was 7:50am. We never packed our bags so quickly! We had picked a hotel located about 10 minutes walk from the airport so we were able to make it on time.

The views from the sky were very pretty; turquoise water sprinkled with green lush islands, exactly how we had envisioned Indonesia. We landed in Labuanbajo earlier than we had first expected, and decided to walk the two kilometres to the beachfront. We hadn't book a room before so we walked around, asking for prices before settling down on the little bungalows of the Gardena. We were walking in the village as the sun was setting when Seb's foot fell right in the whole left by missing bars on a sewer grid. Luckily only his knee was bruised, it would have been really easy to break a leg with the depth of the whole.

The next day, we had decided to book a four-day boat tour to Lombok. The owner was there and he told us that because of the rough sea his boat had not made it back, so it would not be leaving the next day. We were quite disappointed especially as we were already debating leaving Indonesia earlier than planned. We decided to take the one-day tour on Rinca island and then spend the following three nights on a semi-private island owned by the Gardena before flying to Lombok.

Aerial view of Bali

Labuan Bajo

Nice small island viewed from the plane

Labuan Bajo

Our anti-flies friend

Rinca Island, home of the Komodo dragons

The boat was very small, and didn't look too sturdy with its two wooden benches. The engine was so loud, we had previously thought it was helicopters making all the noise. Once we left the quay we realized there were also no life jackets on board. The ride to Rinca took about 2 hours, following the coast, in the slow and very noisy boat.

The scenery was very nice with many green lush islands and some white sand beaches. When we arrived on Rinca island, we met the local rangers who quickly showed us on a map the path we were going to take. As in Nepal, the guides where only equipped with wooden sticks, but this time it was the 2.0 version, with a fork end. We went toward the few houses of the locals as some Komodo dragons like to hang out there and eat food scraps. After looking at them for a few minutes, we went on the main path where we were lucky enough to see three more dragons. Everybody took many pictures with the guide encouraging us to go one by one to have our picture taken near the dragons. We were walking in the forest when suddenly AA noticed a small funny shaped branch on the ground. It was a baby dragon, about 1 m long. Up to the moment they are tall enough, the babies live in the trees in an attempt to protect themselves from the adult dragons. The Komodo dragons are not fussy eaters, they will eat whatever they can catch, ranging from small animals to deer or even water buffaloes. They can smell food from 5 to 10 kilometers away. Apparently it is very hard to get data on them because as soon as they die, other Komodos will feast on the dead one and leave nothing behind.

The tour then continued on through the forest and up a hill to a nice viewpoint. The tour was a little short for our liking, but as it was very hot, coming back on the boat allowed us to cool down a little thanks to the breeze. We moved on to Pink beach, a small island, about an hour of boat away. We stopped there for our hour-long snorkeling session. The coral was very cool, filled with many fishes of all the different colors and patterns one could think of. Seb also saw a black and white stripped snake swimming close to the surface. It was a nice snorkeling experience.

On the boat to Rinca

Small fisherman village

Indonesian transport

Komodo Dragon

Viewpoint on Rinca Island

Dragons hanging out under the houses

Then, we just had to go relax for the evening and get ready for our trip the next day. We are going to spend New Year at a very special place.

To be continued...