Dave and I have active holidays. Usually, our only real rest days are days when we travel to a new area and are forced to take it easy.
In the last year, we’ve worked really hard to get into a better lifestyle. After all, we love our life and the last thing we want is to be suffering from health issues prematurely. We started exercising regularly, eating better and looking at food as medicine & fuel instead of simply as an indulgence.
So with this mindset, I naturally planned a more active holiday than usual too and by the end of our Komodo Islands tour, my body was well aware of it!!!
So… After nearly 3 weeks of hiking, walking, swimming, trekking, climbing and scrambling through caves, we finally decided to put our feet up, and relax a little!!
Today was a fabulous day of nothingness!! (Followed by dinner on the beach!!).
I always think I’m going to lack writing material on travel days, but the great thing about being in a writing mindset, is that you look at everything a little differently. It’s one of the reasons why I love writing (both in my journal and in blog posts) while we travel.
We’re at Bali airport with a 4 hour layover today. This is the closest we’ll come to Indonesia’s most famous island.
Yeah…. Because who wants to go there? It looks absolutely… Disgusting…???
If you asked me why we’re not going to Bali, I might give you a quick answer and say that I hate tourists, but that’s not really it. Honestly, I feel like Bali has been done. I’ve seen the pictures, I’ve heard the stories and I’ve read the articles. Everyone’s already written about Bali, so what’s left to say?
The other problem is that when you go where everyone else wants to go… There are a lot of people there!!
I mean, don’t get me wrong… Places like Bali do what they do very well. Bali is beautiful, comfortable and a bit kitsch, and for a lot of people, that makes for a perfect holiday!! But that’s definitely not what Dave and I seek anymore.
The longer we travel, the more we realize that we aren’t looking for the same things many other tourists are. We’re ok with the 8 hour drive to Bukit Lawang. We’re alright spending the night sleeping on a rock in the jungle. Even my sunstroked boat experience was worth it because there was a chance I’d see something really rare!
Like Manta Rays, for example :). (not my picture… Sunstroke robbed me of this opportunity…)
This is not to say that Bali and places like it aren’t wonderful, and it’s certainly not to say that everyone should want to do the things I love. What I’ve learned over the past 4 years is that you should do you… Don’t follow everyone else’s dreams… Figure out what YOU want.
For me… It’s meeting Thomas and Juni in the Sumatran jungle.
A Thomas Leaf Monkey, found only in the northern Sumatran jungle. (This one was eyeing my bananas)
The last 18 days have been wonderful. We’ve really loved being in Indonesia and the biggest reason for this has been the people we’ve met.
Whether we’ve been in touristy areas or areas more remote, people here have been polite and seem to be genuinely friendly; both to us and to each other as well.
Unlike on most of our holidays, we haven’t been traveling with Westerners so much this year. Instead, we’ve been visiting the sites with Indonesians from other areas of the country. The rainy season seems to be when the locals explore their amazingly diverse country.
I know I’ve shared this picture before, but it’s still one of my faves. These were Indonesian tourists, on holiday, visiting Bukit Lawang. Everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve seen this smiling faces and happy greetings!
Today, we stopped at a little shop on the side of the road to stretch and I decided to get some pictures of the beautiful scenery while Dave ordered some snacks.
The Little shop where we stopped for a stretch and some snacks
I saw a couple taking some photos of one another at this lovely viewpoint so I offered to take one of both of them. They broke out in the biggest smiles, thanked me profusely and struck a super cool pose with their gorgeous backdrop.
In the background, you can see the ocean
Then, the woman said “now, one together!!”, And we huddled together and took a picture with each of our cameras. It wasn’t the usual “get a picture of a foreigner” either… Those situations feel very different (I would know…I frequently experience those moments in China.)
This felt more like a nice moment we all wanted to remember.
Definitely one I won’t forget anytime soon!
I love this country.
The woman who owned the little shop where we stopped was so nervous about helping us when we arrived, but as soon as she realized we were easy customers who knew how to converse through body language and smiles, she warmed right up and even gave us a big bowl of fresh bananas….on the house!
Life on a boat can be tough. It can be especially tough if you’re dehydrated and fighting the urge to throw up. I spent most of today sipping sprite and staying in the shade, where the sun couldn’t get me!!!
By the end of our trip, I’d come to the conclusion that I do not belong on a boat for 3 days… I’m more of a single-day-catamaran-trip type of gal….
Murphy’s law of course meant that the day I was sick happened to be the best day of the trip for snorkeling and diving. Today…we visited Manta Ray Point.
I did get to see one Manta, from the shade of the boat, and I’m glad I at least got that… But it was a real bummer spending the day inside a rocking boat while everyone else had fun!
Dave, heading out with Andreas to find some Manta Rays. We met some really awesome people on this trip!!!
Now… I’m back on land, and back in dry clothes (you simply cannot ever stay dry on a boat!!) and I will be thoroughly thrilled with my air conditioner tonight!!
The big pull for us when choosing to visit Flores was Komodo National Park. As you may have guessed, this is where Komodo dragons are found! What’s neat though, is that the park is not simply the islands where the dragons live… It also includes the waters surrounding the islands. The whole area and all the plants and animals in it are protected.
That’s right, dragon…. It isn’t ALL about you!!
One of the highlights of this tour (for me, anyway), was the amazing sunsets we were lucky enough to see.
By the end of our first day, I was already struggling quite badly with Sun stroke, so the climb up to our viewpoint was a bit of a challenge for me.
The climb felt absolutely endless, but luckily, I survived.
Our 4th stop in Indonesia has been Labuan Bajo. It’s a small fishing village on the island of Flores, which is “near” Bali.
We came to Flores for 2 reasons: to see komodo dragons and so Dave could dive with Manta rays. We’ve seen some truely gorgeous sunsets here and we had a chance to enjoy some fantastic fresh red snapper in the fish market our first night here. I’ve been in culinary heaven with all the seafood!!
Unfortunately, the town of Labuan Bajo itself has been a let down. Everything is very overpriced and people are pushier here than we saw in Jogyajarta or Sumatra. I don’t think we’ll ever be back in this little town, though I do think it’s going to continue to change in the next little while.
Tourism is only beginning to become part of the economy here, and from what we’ve heard from the French dive master on our tour, people here are stubborn. They don’t have much desire to change the way they do things to accommodate tourists. This makes me think that Labuan Bajo is destined to limit its appeal as a tourist destination. But who knows… We’ve been to much worse places that are far better known and more popular!
We had a shorter holiday this year but still wanted a long vacation, so we opted to take some rather crummy flights to save on holiday time. One of those flights was this morning.
The flight itself only left at 6:10, but we always try to give ourselves enough time, so we aimed to be at the airport for 4am. Unfamiliar airports can be tricky, and so can traffic in unfamiliar cities.
We arrived slightly ahead of schedule, and I was right…Jogjakarta airport IS different: it doesn’t open until 4:30. Even when there are flights departing at 5:30.
Quite a crowd formed in the half hour we waited. By the time the security guard unlocked the doors, Dave and I were standing right at the front, ready to go in. As a result, we made it through prescreening, check in, baggage drop off and security within 10 minutes flat.
I got a bit of sleep on the plane, but woke up when Dave pointed out that we were flying over a giant volcano and able to look into its crater. I was too busy watching to think of getting a picture, but I found this one online that’s pretty close.
A few minutes later, we started flying over all of Indonesia’s tiny islands. This is where we saw the most spectacular views.
Now, we’re on one of these gorgeous islands (Flores) and in the next few days we’ll visit 3 others (Komodo, Rinca & Padar).
Traveling isn’t only about learning about new cultures and experiences. It’s also about food!!
We’ve been loving the food in Indonesia and have definitely eaten our fair share of new dishes in the last few weeks. But Indonesian food isn’t all there is to discover.
It seems like every country on earth does Western food better than China does! I just enjoyed a fantastic smoked salmon bagel with capers and all in the tourist district of Jogyajarta. I haven’t had anything remotely close to this good of a sandwich in China in any of my 4 years living there, but every time we travel, we come upon these little shops that sell great Western soups and sandwiches.
Yet another reason I live to travel.
Ps… Yes, my bagel is missing a bite in the picture because I dove in as soon as the plate hit the table!!
Fairtrade:trade in which fair prices are paid to producers in developing countries.
Ecotourism:tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, especially to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife.
These two terms have become an increasingly important part of my life the more I’ve traveled. I discovered Fairtrade when I visited British Columbia in 2008. When you learn about Fairtrade, you also learn about “regular trade” and how companies like Walmart and Nestle underpay their employees and overpay their CEO’s.
Certain industries, such as coffee and cocoa are very in need of fair trade practices because without them, farmers are being forced to work for unlivable wages. In turn, coffee and cocoa farmers around the world are moving to different industries, which means less coffee and chocolate for the rest of us.
I learned about Ecotourism later in life. Dave and I “accidently” booked an ecotour because it came discounted with our hotel stay in Phuket, Thailand. The experience was amazing and I was hooked.
Our entire last week in Sumatra was booked through a company that is passionate about Ecotourism. As a result, our guides were paid a fair wage, they taught us about preserving the Indonesian jungle and they took it upon themselves to keep the jungle clean. We left nothing behind; we did nothing to disturb the animals around us.
Our time in Sumatra really left an impression on us, so today I did some digging and I found a fairtrade-focused store in Jogyajarta called Viavia. If you are on our “nice” list, there’s a good chance you’ll be receiving gifts from there this summer.
They even have a bar made of repurposed plastic bottles ?
Our time in Bukit Lawang has ended and I couldn’t be much more bummed about it! We had an amazing time and met some really great people. Last night we met up with Janine, Sardi and Jimmy at the restaurant to say goodbye and play some trivia. Our team won!!
Sardi also had a gift for me. He carved these orangutan necklaces out of stones while we were at the camp. I absolutely love them and think they’re a perfect representation of our stay in Bukit Lawang.
I can’t wait for the chance to go back to Northern Sumatra and see these wonderful people again!!!
