Day 64, Long Ride Home, Melbourne, Australia

Arts student studying the Arts

Left Kuta the night before at 11pm, arrived Melbourne 7am (local time), went to art galleries to escape the cold, ate lunch with bro, back to airport, left Melbourne 5.50pm, arrived Christchurch 11pm (local time).

After a lengthy bit of sitting in airports/planes you would really just like to go home because you feel rather wasted. But I must have looked a bit wasted as I got pulled up by customs and had all my bags emptied and searched, and swabbed and tested for drugs. Gutted for them they couldn't find any, because I'm not stupid and stuffed them up my butt.

Thank You, and see you next travels
Shades of Invisible...

Day 63, Final Beach, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

The last beach of SE Asia I may ever see

Goodbye Kuta
Goodbye beaches
Goodbye sun
Goodbye warm
Goodbye jungle
Goodbye orangutans
Goodbye busy roads
Goodbye over population
Goodbye rubbish
Goodbye monoculture
Goodbye smelly places

Day 62, Snorkelling, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia

Mystical Beach Rocks

There are definitely better places around to snorkel than Bali, but for something to do that will pass away a day then it is not too bad. Lots of interesting looking fish of reasonable sizes. The coral wasn't up to much, which is probably because the ocean is full of rubbish and run off from all the development around.

Also Bali has come to be a rather lonesome place. There aren't really any hostels around, or guesthouses with a communal area to socialise. Seems things are more set up for the couple coming over on their summer break. So it has been rather difficult to meet anyone. This has meant things get rather tame at night but at least I have lots of movies to watch on my laptop. This might also explain all the rather empty looking photos of nothing in particular as of late.

Day 61, My final stop, a quiet beach, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia

Sleepy beach dreams

So this is the end of the road, from here on I'm heading home. A few nights in Padang Bai to go snorkelling and burn in my tan as much as possible. Then it is back to Kuta to fly out to Melbourne to Christchurch. But that is still a few days away and right now sitting on the beach talking to some locals who are practising their english is way more pleasant than thinking about life back in NZ.

Day 60, Police Bribes, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Balinese Traditional Dance

So this is from the Ubud Writers Festival street party. It was pretty small, but lots of fun for a short time. Some dancing and some reggae and some people doing monologues from their books they've written. This was after a photo exhibition in some flash resort, which was pretty impressive, especially one artist who had seemed to be a pretty conservative muslim girl, but had gone into a maternity ward in the Phillippines and photographed women having children. Needless to say the photos were rather dramatic.

But before this, I had rented a motorbike and drove up some volcano to see the volcano within that volcano which also had a lake beside the inner volcano. On the way there I happened to come across a rather informal police stop. After a very thorough check of everything the police could think of we came to the international drivers license. Of course I don't have one, so was informed that I would get a two million rupiah fine. But the friendly police man then says, 'well if you help me, then I help you'. *WINK* *....ie, asking for a bribe....*. Hmm I was really unsure what to do here. Police corruption is a terrible thing and obviously paying a bribe is only supporting this further. But on the flip side this is Indonesia where such cases as the Schappelle Corby drug smuggling case got here a life sentence. So the police man then says, maybe two hundred thousand rupiah should cover it. I'm like 'no..'. He then points out the two millions rupiah fine again, and so I reluctantly, mainly because I couldn't think of an alternative quick enough, said 'one hundred thousand' and flicked him the cash (in the most un-secretive I'm giving a police officer cash for no good reason way).

He was only too friendly on the way back, waving me right through the stop and tipping his hat to me...

Day 59, Book Club, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

A rice paddy field and its water source

In Ubud at the moment is a writers festival, which is a series of events that writers attend to increase their skills, network, and share their writings with others. I'm here while it is on, so attending a few of a free events is a necessity. I went to a pecha kucha night and listened to about ten people share their ideas. A lot of it was bands pushing their terrible music. Then it occured to me, that what South East Asia needs more of is synth. Everyone is jamming out on their guitars and drums producing music that belongs well back in the 90's. My question is, why aren't all the NGO's who are trying to save Bali (while sipping lattes in nice cafes and relaxing on white sand beaches) aren't getting donations from back in the west of synthesisers and bringing those street kids out of the 90's and into the nearly 2010's...

Day 58, The Cultural Side Of Bali, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

A man counts his earnings for the day

Not being near a beach in Bali sounds rather like a contradiction, but it is possible. The town of Ubud is at least an hours drive (if the traffic is good) to the nearest bit of ocean. So instead of purely relying on the waves to boost tourism they've put their money into producing a cultural experience. The streets are full of Balinese art galleries, chic cafes and book shops, which is pretty good after some stressful days surfing back in Kuta. The icing on the cake is that it is coincidently the Ubud writers festival at the moment, so I should be able to catch a reading or something while here.

Day 57, Water and Fire, Ulu Watu, Bali, Indonesia

When elements combine

Ripping along the Bali roads weaving in and out of traffic on a hired motorcycle was totally awesome. I rode out to Ulu Watu, approximately an hour south of Kuta Beach to check out the local sites, being huge waves and a Kecak dance. Surviving the roads got the blood pumping, but seeing huge ten foot waves pushed it a little further. I was well impressed by the surfers who manage to ride these beasts of waves, considering I struggle on the mellow stuff back in Kuta.

Then once the sun began to set I went up to the local temple which looks out from over a cliff edge to the sun setting over the Indian Ocean. Here I watched the local dance called Kecak, which is basically a lot of guys chanting this trance inducing 'cak, cak, cak...'. Then around them performers dress up in ridiculous costumes tell the story of some lovers and a white monkey or something. This ends in a big fire demonstration which seemed rather dangerous, especially when they started kicking the fire towards the crowd, but there were no injuries. This can all be seen on the film 'Baraka' which I saw a few years ago and have since wanted to see this live, and now I have...

Day 56, A Familiar Face, Bali, Indonesia

People strolling along the beach watching the sun set

Struggling to move for most of the day after getting worked by the surf from the day before, it was not really until sun set that I actually did something semi-pro-active. Walking to the beach to go photograph the sunset I walked into an old school mate. It is funny how you can randomly find people you've known for years in random parts of the world. After the sun set we enjoyed a nice dinner then planned to meet up later for some fun at some bars later on. I was at the meeting spot on time, but unfortunately failed to meet her again. I quickly averted the gazz of drunken Australians and beelined back to the safety of my nice hotel room.

Day 55, Surfing in Bali, Bali, Indonesia

Slightly uncrowded Kuta Beach

So when in Rome, try some surfing... Well I thought it was appropriate to go surfing seeing I'm in Bali. Turns out I'm pretty useless at surfing but I don't care, I can't be awesome at everything. But a little bit more practice (not just surfing the internet) and I should be the next Kelly Slater.

Day 51, 52, 53, 54, Bit of a Catch UP, Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia

Orangutan Reaches Out For Your Help

Mother and Child Orangutan, Child Glows With Pride

Result of Delayed Plane: Bedbugs

Consolation for Delay, A Few Pieces of Rice and Some Deep Fried Crap

So the last few days have been a bit of an adventure into the jungles of Sumatra in the search of Orangutans.

Things started off in KL on the 2nd of Oct, getting up at 4.30am to catch the stupid 1.15 hour long bus to the airport and then of course find out my flight is cancelled, and the next one doesn't leave till midday. So a fun few hours surfing the net in the airport....

Arriving into Medan was very interesting, after being ripped off purchasing a flight to Bali, I caught a ride on the back of a motorbike through the busy city, across the pot holed roads, and around the head-on approaching trucks to the bus station. Bus up to Bukit Lawang which takes 4 hours along a poorly paved road again full of pot holes. (pretty epic day of travel #1.)

The next day was what it was all for though, the day was spent criss-crossing dense jungle, bush wacking our way through primary rainforest in search of the rare Orangutan. It took nearly the whole day for our small team of three to find any, just before we were about to give up Firman, our guide, got word from his jungle buddy that some have just been spotted. We ran through some untracked jungle to find six orangutans, three mothers and their babies. A very rare accurance seeing they are solitary animals. For the next hour we watch in awe as the majestic creatures slowly make there was along the tree tops in search for fruit, seemingly oblivious of us below. It was one of those moments that make travelling miles on end worth it.

Numerous other sightings of gabons and various jungle insects were also made before heading back to the village for a well deserved rest.

The following day I was rushed out of Sumatra, maybe it was too soon, there is alot more to do here, but unfortunately time is of the essence, and Bali must be reached. So a long day of buses and flights was undertaken again. As is the way with all my flights, things were delayed for hours on end, and I arrived in Bali a nice and early 10pm after leaving Bukit Lawang at 7.30am (pretty epic day of travel #2.). This resulted in of course not being able to find a room in Kuta as everything in the decent budget range had been filled up. So it was either an expensive night in a flash hotel or going to a dive of a place. I took the dive, and a dive it was, the night was spent waking up from tingling sensations. The morning showed the results of bed bugs with my arms and back covered in rash like bites....

Day 50, Jamming In KL For The Forth Time, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

These are my feet

In KL once again, which is really annoying because KL doesn't have that much to offer except maybe some good eats. So it is a good time to catch up on some movies and go for pointless walks around town. Bringing me to the point of the above photo. My jandles, or flip flops as everyone else in the world calls them, are pretty good until it starts to rain. Then they became a death trap, after wearing them everyday they have worn nice and perfectly slick on the soles so that it becomes very slippery whenever stepping on a smooth surface, to which most of KL is covered in. Many a time have I slipped and either landed on my butt or pulled an amazing recovery act and remained standing. Yet I continue to wear them.