The Eye Glass Adventure

Saturday June 8 2013

A little back story: while on Gili Meno the arm, randomly,  fell off my glasses when I picked them up one morning.  I had packed some contacts but they are not ideal, between my very dry eyes and all the dust I don't last long in them.  (Although they did prove surprisingly great for snorkelling in!) I didn't want to try and have them fixed here and end up with a lot of hassel and my nice frames ruined for good.  We had seen glasses sold absurdly cheap in Bangkok, so I was hopeful that I could buy a replacement pair while on the go.  The trouble was finding a city on these small Indonesian islands big enough to have an Eye Centre.  I haven't seen any locals wearing glasses.  

We settled in the south of Lombok in a beach town called Kuta (yes, we also went to a Kuta beach in Bali - same name but different island).  Our hotel owner was very eager to help us get to Praya, where we could buy glasses.  He apparently had nothing better to do than drive two tourists half an hour on his scooter.  The $10 we payed him to take us is pretty good money, considering you can drive an hour on less than a litre of gas and a litre of gas costs $0.50.  We ended up having to take two scooters because after N got on behind him he declared it, "impossible" to take us both on one.  So his nephew, who works at the hotel was commissioned to drive a second scooter and off we went.  When we asked for helmets he assured us, "no problem." When we got up to 80 clicks I tell ya I was praying hard there would be no problem!  

The twenty year old nephew (who doesn't look a day old than 12) was very friendly and quite chatty.  When we stopped to fill up with gas he told me that he was from Praya.  I asked if he lived here in Kuta, now that he was working at the hotel.  He confirmed that he did but I wasn't sure if he had fully understood me so I clarified, "you don't drive here each day?" He threw his head back and laughed at the hilarious notion that anyone would drive half an hour to work every day.  And I laughed with him but not for the same reason. I laughed because this is such a different world where a half hour commute to work is obsurd.  

I'm not sure our hotel owner had ever been in an Eye Centre before.  He is a very friendly guy, missing about four teeth on the bottom.  He assured us that he would "help" us, meaning that he would prevent us from getting screwed over with me tourist price.  I'm not positive that he did help all that much but we we glad to have him because the girls at the Eye Centre spoke zero English.  

Double checking the prescription is right

There was very minimal slightly outdated selection.  It was kind of stuff that was popular when I got my first pair of glasses, ten years ago, maybe even later.  And I felt very rushed and silly for asking to try on more than one pair.  So I decided I was just going to go hipster and get the old man frames.  Our liaison said, they made me look beautiful because they matched my hair.  I have to admit all the way back I was singing in my head, "I wear your grandad's clothes, I look incredible".  Love that song!  

For $50 all in I was fairly happy with the resulted eye sight.  N is really pumped to try and claim this on our Health Insurance.  I'm optimistic that the place I got other pair will be able to repair them, when I get home.  So I am not wearing this kind of quirky look all the time. 

Love the wood arms on my new retro glasses

Sunday June 9 2013

Today we rented a scooter and toured around the coast of this island.  It is so breathtakingly beautiful!  We came across the illegal gold mining we had read about, which was kind of a rush (nice pun right*).  It's not nearly as sketchy as it sounds.  I'm not real sure what about it is illegal it was very out in the open.  And we checked a bunch of beaches that are normally supposed to be quiet but were busy with locals because it was Sunday.  We did find one lovely beach that was totally deserted!  It was really cool but there was something strangely eerie about being in the ocean and being so alone.  I can't really explain it, it was like something in a bad movie I was just waiting for jaws to emerge out of the ocean or the mafia to come from over the hill and kidnap us.  Tragic that my overworked imagination spoiled our romantic beach experience, although N felt it too.  It was just too quiet.  Still it was pretty sweet!  And we did stay there for a fairly long time but it just felt kinda weird to stay too long.  

Low season is just ending here so there are a smattering of shops that are open but they only have a dusty selection of left overs from last years stock.  Hotels are just starting to raise their room prices.  All the restaurants look closed but are in fact open, though most do not serve half of what is advertised on their signs.  We did find the most amazing pumpkin curry ever though!  I am going to have to find a recipe for it when we get home!

Finding Nemo in Gili Meno

Saturday June 8 2013 1:00pm

We took the "public boat" to Lombok at 8 am this morning. (I'm pretty sure it was the same boat we took over in the first place only we had to buy a ticket from an official booth.) Then took at shuttle bus that the other tourists came to call the musical shuttle because we seemed to keep dropping off and adding new people every five minutes.  After three hours, we got to the southern tip of the island to Kuta Beach.  I'm stationed at a restaurant again while N scouts out a decent place for a good price.  I wait sweating a little puddle and looking longingly towards the ocean about a hundred meters away.

I think we are really going to enjoy it here. It's still low-season, so it's slow, but it seems like there is also a little bit more going on here.  

Yesterday June 7 2013

We paid our hotel owner $20 to take us in his teeny tiny "day cruiser" to go snorkelling. Afterwards, we will check out Gili Trawangan (the party island of the three little Gili Islands).  I wish we could have had my camera along, but it would have been the end of it with all the sea water.  I never quite caught the hotel owners name though we grew quite fond of him.  

We go out much deeper in the boat than we had could swim on our own. I was thrilled that we got to see three tortoises!  I didn't realize how camouflaged they were,  I didn't even see the one until our guy swam down and scared it enough that it started to swim.  The other two we saw coming up out of the deep for a breath of air.

The whole time I had lines from Finding in my head.  "The butt!  Don't touch the butt!"  And then I hit my head swimming right into the thing!  And I just hear all those cute little voices as we swam near the "drop off".  

We were both really glad we went out with the boat!  

It was a good experience to visit Gili Trawangan, just to see it, but we were glad were not staying there—not our scene. It had much more going on and seemed like lots if fun but was nothing of the quiet paradise we enjoyed on Meno.  

Snorkelling and Cats

Thursday June 6 2013

I'm not so much a cat person but  I do really like snorkelling.  

In advertisements for Gili Meno Island they brag, "Tropical Paradise: no motor vehicles and no dogs."  This advertisement is not to deter dog lovers rather I think it is because the rest of Asia is so over populated with stray dogs.  Gili Meno though is over run with cats!  I think most of them have loving homes, although the shortened tails some of them sport make me wonder otherwise.  I don't have an issue with cats, in fact as a kid I much preferred them to dogs but these Indonesian cats are another matter.  These cats are just way too friendly, for my liking.  

Most of the restaurants have little covered cabanas, where you can recline for lunch (it's very relaxing).  And for most meals we have been joined by a feline companion to molest us with his company.  These cats have no manners, no fear and no respect!  They rub against you, attempt to sample your food and help themselves to your pillows.  No amount of shooing, swatting or gesturing deters them from staying.  All things considered they are a pretty minor pest, fairly cute and relatively clean.  The place we rented our scuba gear from yesterday had twin three-week-old black kittens. It brought me back to my childhood, when our slutty cat seemed to pop out a new litter every few months.  Oh, the funny things that remind you of home.  

Snorkelling is very popular in the Gili's because of the coral that is so close.  N and I have gotten quite into it the last few days.  You can rent equipment (mask and flippers) for $2.50 a day, almost anywhere!  It's pretty great.  When the tide gets low on one side of the island you just walk half an hour to the other side where it's still high and good for swimming.  The water is the perfect temperature, like a bathtub after you've sat in it too long.  And the ocean is lovely and calm most of the day.  There are periods where the wind picks up and it gets rough but then you can just move to a different part of the island.  

We were quite thrilled yesterday to discover how fun it was to go snorkelling.  We had briefly tried it in Africa N liked it but I had ended up with a mouth full of water and really hated the mask on my face.  Here the masks have something to prevent splashing water getting into the breathing tube, which makes a big difference.  

It is only about a 50 meter swim out to really cool "coral gardens".  The swimming is very easy with flippers.  The water is so salty you just float along the the surface. 

 I thought to myself when we first got out yesterday, " I'm in real life Finding Nemo!"  There is an amazing variety of tropical fluorescent coloured fish, huge schools dancing and spinning around.  And today we found the ship wreck that we had heard about, from the tour places.  I really wish I was about to take pictures down there but maybe it is more fun just enjoying God's wonders in the moment.  

Today N and I were in one spot and I saw this interesting fish  that  I had seen from a distance yesterday.  From far away I had been worried it was an eel.  Closer up it turned out to be a foot long skinny transparent/silver fish with a long pointy nose, kind of like a mini sword fish.  I got within about a meter of it and it just disappeared.  I stuck my head up to tell N, who was standing a short distance away, about it and it was  loosing his mind with excitement.  "A fish just jumped right over you!"  He was thrilled that he got to see it!  

Tomorrow we are planning to take a boat to another one of the Gili Islands to do some more snorkelling.  It will be our last day.  

On a side note: My glasses broke today (not sure how the arm just randomly fell off) so we kind of need get into a bigger centre and see if we can buy me some new ones.  We saw glasses for sale on the street, lenses included, for $15 so now I'm just kicking myself for not buying a second pair there for fun!  (For now I have contacts but with my dry eyes can only where them about 6 hours...which is kind of a short amount of time to have sight)

Paradise Found

Monday June 2 2013 8:45 am

Well getting to the Gili Islands is no small mission!

Yesterday we spent the morning with J and E.  We found a great little cafe with lots of tasty treats and hunkered down there for a torrential down pour.  

Then they headed for the airport to go on to Vietnam and we took at 2 hr cab ride to Padangbai.  There is a harbour there where we caught a ferry in the evening.  We bumped into another tourist from the UK also trying to find her way to the Gillis and she proved to be great company.  The journey over was less great.  LP warned that it wasn't but it also cautioned to take the biggest boat possible.  Sort of a remember your life is in your own hands here and no one else is monitoring your safety to make sure the boat you are in is sea worthy.  Bigger is better they said, so we went with the biggest.  Unfortunately that also came with it live kereoke style entertainment.  Were feeling really lucky that our seats were right next to the speaker.  And then we all got a good bout of sea sickness.  I was us our glad we weren't on a smaller boat though.  The waves were huge and it was a 5 hr trip.  After the kereoke they played some very strange Indonesian movies.  They were weird.  Oh and another little bonus our new friend caught a man peeping in on her in the bathroom!  So over all I wasn't very impressed with that but it did get us here (to the Island of Lombok)  in one piece.  

We spent the night in an overpriced little dive.  Even N who rarely has a complaint said, "these are the worst mattresses I have ever slept on!" It did have a bar through the centre.  Good thing we were tiered enough to sleep anyways.  

Tuesday June 3 12:30 pm

After a quick look around town and the beach N decided we won't spend extra time here, in Senggigi, so we will head to  Gilli Meno this morning.  

Yea we got here!  This morning we took an hour cab ride to a different harbour in Bangsal.  It was a beautiful drive around the coast of Lombok. I really enjoyed the view.  Once the can arrived we were informed we had to take a horse carriage draw my a poor sweaty malnourished creature to get to the harbour itself.  I could hardly stand to burden the poor beast except that we didn't know the way or how far it was to walk.  There we boarded what appeared to be a tiny cargo ship transporting eggs, coca cola, vegetables, strawberry milk and the people who wold them.  It was only about a half hour journey and a fairly nice ride.  Although I don't think our tiny boat would have survived any form of rough seas, had we encountered them.  

We arrived safely on the teeny tiny island of Gili Meno!

I am now sitting with my feet up enjoying an ocean view and an Orange Fanta (which i have apparently become totally addicted to on this trip) at a quiet beach from restaurant.  My official position though is guardian of the luggage,while N is out in search of suitable accommodation.  Not a bad gig for me!  

June 3 8:20 pm

Gili Meno is a minuscule spec of an Indonesian Island in the Bali Sea,  on the north west corner of Lombok, right beside Bali.   

You can walk around the whole coast in a couple of hours.   There are  no motor vehicles on the whole island. If you need a ride you can take a horse drawn carriage, although you may have to wait a while for one to show up.  We saw an amusing juxtaposition today as a carriage driver was chatting on his cell phone. It is a bit of a different take on the distracted driving.  It just struck me as so funny to see such primitive transportation along side modern conveniences.  

It is said to be the most tranquil of the three Gili Islands.  It's extremely quiet all you can hear in the evening is the sound of the crickets and the ocean.  It's lovely.  The stars are so bright because there are almost no lights.   N and I had to just stop and gaze and gaze.  The view of the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere is so strikingly different.  

When we were with J and E we watched the finale of one of our favourite shows "The Office".  It was quite a reflective episode looking back over the last nine seasons.  One of the characters (Andy, for those of you who are fans) made a comment something to the effect of, "I wish someone would tell you these are the good old days, when you're in them." The last day as they were leaving J said this to us.  And over the course of this evening N and I have just continued repeating it.  These are the memories that we willl cherish for the rest of our lives.  Sitting on the beach with a candle between us sipping hot chocolate and sharing our hopes and dreams.  It doesn't get better than this.  

 The Island really does give the impression of paradise.  

Beautiful Bali

Saturday June 1 2013   11:30pm

Admittedly the reason why I wanted to to go to Bali was because Elizabeth Gilbert wrote such lovely things about it in her book Eat, Pray, Love.  Apparently tourism here skyrocketed after the movie came out.  

We are having a wonderful time!  

We arrived in an area on the coast called Kuda on Wednesday May 29 and met J and E at the hotel.  The hotel was funny all decorated kind of cheesy with surf boards everywhere but the rooms were nice with the softest pillows ever!  

We checked out the beach the second day.  The guys rented surf boards for an hour and E and I shopped a little and then laid on the beach a bit.  The current was super strong and really close to the shore.  It may be good for surfing but it was a quite rough for swimming.  

N and I really underestimated the power of the sun.  In our excitement about the ocean some how we forgot to put on sunscreen (like idiots) and we both just fried.  I am still super burned three tubes of aloe vera layer.  

Kuda didn't really blow any of us away.  The food was relatively unimpressive (despite the fact that J and E really do their research to find the best eats - great travel companions!),  the shopping is mostly tacky knick-knacks and since we were burned so bad we didn't want to go back to the beach.  So the next day we had a great breakfast, took a quick dip in the pool and moved out.  We took a 2 hr cab ride inland to Ubud where J and E had been before and just loved it.  

I love Ubud!  I want to take all my friends and my family here!  It's so great! Not has AMAZING food and shopping!  And just tons of cool things to do!  You could just wander around for hours...and we have.  

J and E had read about this place called Chez Monique Jewelry that teaches you to make custom silver jewelry for a good price.  It was quite difficult to find it but after a long hunt we finally found it.  J wanted to make a ring that looked like his wedding band (which is beveled) to wear when doing labourer swimming in the ocean etc.  his end result looks impressively similar to the original.  I wasn't if I would bother making something but kind of wanted to try it out.  

Then I had the idea to make a magnet with the islands of Indonesia (N and I collect a magnet from every place visit).  Well I think I get this lovely over ambition from my mother and about half way through the task I realized I'd bit off a bit more than I could chew.  The crazy thing took me over three hours start to finish.  I was however extremely pleased with me final result and it was a super cool experience.  The owner is just the nicest, most helpful guy!  He was such a great teacher.  He showed you how to do it and then just let you figure it out, make mistakes and snap saw blades.  I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend it.  He kept joking that I should stay and he'd give me a job.  And I had so much fun I kept being temped to stay and take him up on it!  

  

J and E took us to a very good very neat little restaurant that they had tried out when they were first here.  The shop has only three tables.  It's just one guy who runs the place and you have to book a reservation the da before but the food is amazing.  

Today we rented scooter.  N had never driven one before so I was a bit nervous says the passenger but very impressed with how quickly figured it out. I tried it out to for bit.  It was super fun but I couldn't do it with N on the back because he was too big for me to balance the bike with my short legs.  We drove up to Bumbuaare Volcano.  

We ate lunch at a cute little place overlooking the rice terraces.  I somehow managed to order good Feduccini Alfredo!  

We had kind of an amusing/irritating run in with the corrupt Indonesian Police.  When we rented the scooters the guys said nothing about licence or anything.  He told us where the registration was "in case we were stopped by the police" but nothing more.  Now it seems super dumb to drive without a licence but everything in these places is so chill and low key we just didn't think of it, even though N does have an international drivers licence.  Anyways so we got stopped by the cops and oh we're in trouble because we have no licence so one cop take us aside and after quite a bit of annoying discussion tells us our only option is to pay a $25 fine, the receipt from which will act as an Indonesian drivers licence until we leave the country or for a "special price today" we could pay him now and just go and see the volcano.  Nice that a bribe in Bali is only $5 so it was tempting but as we thought we'd likely rent scooters again N and I opted for the fine/licence.  I will never get used to police corruption.  

The volcano was stunning!  It was about a 2 hr to get there and overall just a super fun trip!  It looked like it was going to pour and the drive was a bit tiring so we didn't want to hike all the way up and you have to pay a guide to go up at all so we just stuck with the view from below but it was very impressive.  (I don't think the photos really captured it.)

We came back and ordered this absolutely amazing wood oven pizza that we stumbled upon a few days ago.  Then we went for "the best ice cream in the world," as N puts it.  And finished off the evening with lattes in a little second floor lounge cafe with lay down pillows and funky art.  

J and E leave tomorrow to meet up with family Vietnam and we will likely stay another day or head over to the tiny neighbouring Gilli Islands.  We plan to be in Indonesia for two more weeks. 

This is how you know

Soo mostly I just wanted to post this really hilarious photo of myself and I've had way too much time in the airport with nothing better to do.  And had I to laugh at the ridiculous things that we so quickly accept, when you on the road for very long. 

 

You know you've been travelling too long when:

1. A hemp headband is your solution to your bad hair

2.  Your cosmetics bag is a ziplock bag

3. You discuss the hygiene level of bathrooms with total strangers regularly 

And you hear yourself saying things like, "I prefer squat toilets, they're just cleaner"

4. You read back through your recent travel blogs and read yourself bragging about having dry toilet paper, like its a rare thing

5. Your husband voluntarily carries Kleenex and band aids  in his fanny pack...Your husband is wearing a fanny pack (the same "hip-zip" in fact that you relentlessly mocked your father  wearing on family trips)

6. You think$50 is too much to pay for a hotel and $10 is an outrageous price for a restaurant meal and your whole outfit is worth less than $5

7.  You think things smell good that actually smell very bad

8. You are constantly counting the number of pages left in your passport to make sure there are enough left

9. Seeing a rat run across the restaurant floor does not alarm you, cause you to stop eating, demand a refund or leave.  

10. You willingly go out in public dressed like this...and think it is ok

Orang-utan Obsession

Tuesday May 28 2013 9:15 am

In the airport once again.  This is becoming an excelling place for writing and reflection for me.  

We arrived in Kuching in Saturday May 25 in the evening.  Some of the funny little things that I enjoyed on MASwings is that they served complementary Milo (chocolate milk) and because you have to walk outside from the plane to the airport staff hand you an open umbrella as you leave the plane that you return as you enter the shelter of the airport.  Certainly cheaper than those movable boarding gate hallways that they have at home! 

We found a pristinely clean hotel with hot water, A/C, and dry toilet paper!  N went exploring and I crashed.  A system that he apparently really enjoys.  I always feel bad that I tier so much more quickly but he says he gets the best of both worlds travelling with someone and freedom to explore on his own.  I have still been feeling lousy during our time her but thankfully no more vomiting.  (I am not pregnant for those of you who are wondering.  After meeting a Dr who told us the type of malaria pills we are taking could cause serious issues to a fetus, I checked to be sure.  So all rumours can now be dispelled).  

We went to see the orang utans Sunday afternoon.  For a dollar you can take the local bus to the Semenggoh Nature Reserve.  It is about a hours drive outside the city.  Entry for non-Malaysians is about $3 each.  It was raining quite hard but  was still very cool.  We walked about ten minutes down a little path to a feeding area totally surrounded by jungle.  You can hear the orang utans coming through the trees and shaking in the distance before they arrive.  We were glad to have the zoom lens  because they are quite far away to get photos without it.  No flash is aloud. You have to be very quite,  no eating or drinking or kissing (apparently they interpret it as fighting).  On our walk back down the path one of the younger curious orang utans came across us in the trees, only then his branch broke and he fell out of the tree not far from us.  I was pretty nervous to be so close to him and also disappointed at the camera card was full at that point.  It felt pretty wild to be within five meters of a mostly while orang utan.  

The orang utans are semi-wild, meaning they live in an enormous jungle area, we aren't sure if connects to the rest of the Borneo jungle or if it is fenced in.  They do feed them here though, which is really the only way you'd be able to see them.  There are 26 orang utans that live here and they don't all come for food every day.  It seemed like the ones who came were mostly young or mothers with young or the very old male (didn't see until the second day).   

In the evening we randomly bumped into a guy from Argentina that we'd met at our hostel in Gunu Mulu and talked with he and a Dr from USA, living in Botswana, that he had just met.  She specializes in maternal mortality and was there for a conference.  We sat with the and talked for a big long time.  She was great!  

The next day (Monday May 27) we went back to get better photos (1000 of them!) with her.  I was glad we went back because we got to see another mother baby pair and the big male, who the park staff said was 52 years old.  

This female was a bit of a show off.  This was right over our heads connecting the main jungle are to the main feeding area

   

The park staff deliver the bananas in there for a size reference.  The park staff seem to have some relationship with the orang utans, since they bring food every day but they. Were still very caught opus with them and did not touch them at all.  

The big male.  All the others cleared out when this guy arrived for breakfast.  He moved pretty slow but he could obviously hold his own if it came to it.  

We had planned to go see some other monkeys, with long floppy noses, that only live here but I was to sick.  And we were hoping to see the worlds largest flower but unfortunately it wasn't in bloom.  It only blooms about 30-50 times per year for a few days so we weren't banking on seeing this one.  

I wasn't feeling well after the orang utans so I rested and N went exploring again.  In the evening we went to a movie theatre and saw Gatsby and then still feeling like garbage I went to bed at 8:30 pm.  

I'm hoping my health cooperates for our last month in Asia.  I didn't feel like I got to see as much of Kuching as I would have liked to. It's a really cool city.  N and I think it's really the perfect mix of developed and undeveloped.  It's very cute and there is tons to do and eat.  I was disappointed I was unable to eat so little.  Every few steps there is a little food stand with candy corn, hamburgers, waffles, iced coffee or noodle soup.  The river front is very attractive and we enjoyed walking down it in the evening, after dinner.  You can just mosey along listening to the buskers and buying snacks for less than a dollar. The people are very friendly and helpful!  When we were trying find the bus to the reserve an elderly Muslim woman set down her four bags of groceries in the middle of the sidewalk to guide us to the information booth and then point us to the right bus.   We were kind of blown away by this hospitality from a complete stranger.  We didn't experience any scams in this city either, which was great!  To me from our brief stay it seems like quite a nice place to live, a great mix of the familiar and the more interesting flavours of Asia.  Really enjoyed our time here!  

Now we're headed to Bali (after a long layover in Singapore) where we will join some friends who are off on their own adventures.  I'm really  looking forward to familiar faces and easy conversation!