Indonesia without a set travel plan.
Accommodation
Where to start on this subject.
There is so much accommodation in Indonesia to suit every ones pockets that really unless you know where you want to be , booking ahead seems unnecessary . We only booked our first accommodation because we arrived at night, they picked us up from the airport and we figured we didn’t have the time to search for some.
I guess first off you have to consider the type of trip your on. If its a family holiday then you will probably want to book ahead , use some one reputable as until you get there you don’t know what you’ve got.
Lucas Hotel our first stay.
We got our bema driver usually to drop us at the type of accommodation we where after. They seem to have a good idea on that, although they may also get a hand back from places. So get them to wait while you inspect and decide whether its ok.
Cheap accommodation is exactly that, don’t expect miracles. Usually there will be something that isn’t to good. We found that the bathroom areas usually weren’t to great, but beds and rooms were generally good.
Some have air-conditioning others only fans, some swimming pools and others not. So do check around.
One we stayed at didn’t have a pool but was a good price, we solved that by simply drinking at another down the road, where they allowed you to swim as long as purchasing something, simple just ask.
It’s not a case of the more you pay the better you get, it’s just finding the best for the best price.
Money in Indonesia
In New Zealand trying to get a cash card of some sort already converted to Indonesi Rupiah was not possible.
The question was , do we take NZ dollars, get Indonesian Rupiahs, and carry all our cash with us.
I decided to carry all our money converted or not was to risky. If lost or stolen then we had trouble.
We new we needed 25 US for visa on entry to Bali so we got that. We also had a rough budget for each week we were there.
So for the first week we took NZ cash and converted there, using a reputable cash converters, many offered better rates but you couldn’t trust them, seems they can remove money right in front of you and you won’t notice. Most also dealt in 100 thousands , this was a problem when purchasing a getting change at most places turned out to be a real problem. Carry smaller notes.
After a lot of research on various card etc , I opted to just top my Visa card up with remaining budget and hope for the best.
As it turned out , even though the exchange fee was $8 NZ per transaction, I got a better rate than most money exchangers were offering. Machines where not hard to find although not all where working (1 out of 3). The maximum withdrawal was between 1 million and 1.2 million Rupiah so I only did 4 trans actions all up, not to bad. Machines use 50 thousand note which where easier to use.
Visa also have a Internet site for where machines can be located, so you can check before hand , I can tell you most places had them so it’s not a big concern finding them.
hope this is helpful and we did find this a concern when starting out.
Kuta Bali
Bali Bombing Memorial
We stayed at Kuta Bali , mainly because of its cheap accommodation and proximity to Airport.
This was a surf trip and we intended moving on.
With endless accommodation to suit any ones pocket, it was very much the easiest place to go on arrival in Bali. But you will either love or hate Kuta.
The endless markets for the shop acholic may suit some but the pressure from street vendors and shop owner is relentless, even at the beach you cannot get a break from it. I hated it and the having to bargain for everything is a pain. Ok you may get a really good deal but if you haven’t an idea on the value of stuff you will more than likely loss out.
As for the quality of the goods , again know your stuff, I’d say that 85% of the goods were fake reproduction and not good quality.
Plenty of night life though with the Sky garden being the most popular spot. And it never seems to stop.
As everyone should know, drugs are taken very seriously in Indonesia so don’t risk it. But strangely there are Magic Mushroom dealers every where, why this is ok I have no idea.
Although at first glance it appears reasonably tidy, with little rubbish around, having rats coming out of shops and wandering the drains was a bit much. Then when you travel more of the country side, it appears no one cares , rubbish is ever where.
One thing about Indonesia they have magnificent statues and temples to look at everywhere.
Trying to have a peace sit on Kuta beach seemed impossible. every time we went , people pested us to buy stuff it was relentless and even when told no in Indonesian they still wouldn’t go away.
Kuta Beach
It was to hectic for me but outside Kuta it was far more relaxed and enjoyable.
Nusa Lembogan
Only 25 minutes from Sanur, Bali this Island is beautiful. Well cared for beaches, lovely choice of accommodation to suit any ones purse.
Away from the pressure of sellers in Kuta with only the odd bracelet seller around you can enjoy the beach hassle free.
Good shopping still to be found and day trips around the Island revel more and more great places and bays to stay. Not much night life but there is some.
Take a snorkel trip to Penida and see the fantastic fish, huge corals and with luck a swim with Manta rays, a real highlight trip.
Crystal Bay Penida
Mainly a seaweed harvesting island you can still enjoy a nice swim at the beaches.
Surfers have a choice of around 5 breaks here although if large the outer reef breaks can be a bit dangerous for the inexperienced.
Take a scooter and cross the bridge to Chinigan to explore , blow holes , high jumps and more great accommodation.
I loved the placed and hope you will.
Indonesia trip review
We chose to fly Virgin Australia airline and sorted dates and prices using Sky scanner and then booking them with Flight Centre. This enabled us to get the best prices within the dates required. All up return $1250 to Denpensar Bali return.
So as to settle in quickly we also booked accommodation online with Hotel Lusa in Kuta http://www.hotellusakuta.com/ for 3nights which included pick up from airport. Slightly above our budget but well worth it.
Flight from NZ to Sydney went well but while on board our next flight we saw our boards and luggage about to be loaded on and our boards where blown off onto the tarmac. 7 hours later we finally got to inspect them, thankfully not damaged.
Day 1 we decided to arrange a car and drive to Uluwatu http://www.baliwaves.com/surfing-in-bali/surf-spots/uluwatu/ for a surf. I had the International license but after viewing traffic decided it was something I couldn’t do So Gary drove and I used the non existing brake peddle all day, what a scary business, there seems to be no road rules , little signs and hardly any traffic lights. Oh and when the vehicle was dropped off it was empty. So began the gas station search, to which we had no success till we noticed bottles in stands saying petrol every where, so desperate as we where we pulled up quickly at the next one we sighted and filled up via 1 liter bottles.
Upon trying to leave, we were set upon by someone claiming to be a parking warden demanding money for parking, as we had no small money he could change he became quite irate and started blowing his whistle in our ears. so we promptly just drove off LOL. When did 2 parallel parked cars and us, not parallel and half on high way become a car park?.
How we found Uluwatu and got there in one piece is beyond me. But anyway first surf and damage to boards already. 200,000 IR repair and all go again. Still have no idea how we found our way back to the hotel but what a relief when we did.
Uluwatu
Day 2 , Uluwatu again, quick surf then we tried to find Bingin beach, what a mission, long story short we did find it , god knows how. Then back to hotel, this time we somehow ended up on Kuta beach and got back ok. We then got rid of car , enough was enough , driving was far to stressful.
Day 3 and the decision to move was made so we got a van to deliver us to Airport and proceeded to get tickets to Lombok . No airline would take our lenght boards except Gurunda but we missed the first flight, fck. Next in 6 hours. Booked flight then decided we weren’t going to sit there all day so approached taxi driver and struck a deal for him to take us to Sanur
Sanur
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/bali/sanur, sit there while went out to reef on boat and surfed. Then he delivered us back to airport in time for flight to Lombok http://www.thelombokguide.com/. Landed Lombok just before 5pm that afternoon, hired a taxi to take us to Kuta beach, who took us to a cheap hotel where we were immediately approached by young locals trying to rent us motorbikes. it didn’t feel right so told them we would discuss with proprietor of motel and to come back tomorrow as we wanted to get booked in.
Seemed the proprietor wasn’t happy about these guys so we arranged bikes else were and left early to surf Mawun, when the boys turned up they where just told they where to late and we had made other arrangements. Lesson number 1 don’t say yes to anyone until you’ve checked it out.
The road to Mawun was ok but at the turn off a palm tree poking out of the ground revealed that the colvit had half collapsed and was big enough to swallow us and bikes, first lesson on road conditions. Mawun had a strong current and was quite hard to stay on the break and sea lice where in force.
Mawun
Kuta Lombok itself was pretty third world and we were forever asked to buy stuff. Information was hard to get and even people you thought were ok were on the take. One example was when we needed to change money, the motel was supposed to be a money exchange as well, but had no money. We where told they could get done tomorrow and the rate, lower than we expected. When ask if another they said no, only for us to find a real one later with far better rate.
Next day we set off to Grupuk for a surf, 2nd lesson on roads, if it had gotten any worse before we finally arrived we may have turned back. On the corner into Grupuk the surf boat operators (boys) wait to lead you into parking area where they proceeded to sell you a ride to breaks, again don’t believe the price.Here we meet Smiley our boat man for the time we were there. Days surf all good 50000 each, returned to Kuta. We did this for 2 days before we found accommodation at Grupuk and moved there giving up our bikes . Next mistake , we then had trouble getting more bikes and only visiting surf school there manage to get 2 for another surf at Mawun which we held onto for a couple of days.
Lombok is Muslin so every 6 hours a load speaker would blast the place with Pray. At 4am in the morning it got a bit much, this was then follow by wild dog fights on the beach, so needless to say we were out for our 1st surf pretty early. This place was very third world and if it wasn’t for the surf I’d doubt anyone would ever come here. We ate at a place called Sea Monkey which surprisingly was very good and we enjoyed the people and food there. We also meet up with a NZ surfer and 2 Norwegian surfer girls here that we enjoyed our time with. Oh we also found out the going surf boat rate was 40000 so Smiley got a pay cut, lol.
One afternoon I decided to go exploring alone on bike to see how far to Ekas, but was unable to find way. Weird day and ended by me giving 2 local kids left back to Kuta on scooter. 3 up lol.
Think we stayed 6 nights here, I got paranoid one day that we where going to get robbed our something an wanted out. Maybe the mushrooms in my omelet weren’t what they should have been. Anyway we stayed on then when the wind came in we decided to move on. We decided we would go to Timor, next trip era, according to local travel guys we couldn’t fly further south without returning to Bali, FCK!!!.
Decision time where to go. Out with surf book, swell forecast checked , location decided, Nusa Lombogan here we come. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/bali/nusa-lembongan
Nusa Lembogan
Conned again. After sorting transport to beach for fast boat in south Lombok were told needed to leave at 7.30 am , fine no problem. Then next morning on leaving taxi picks up a further 3 people, we apparent paid for there fares as taxi was taking them free as a business deal, pissed. We intended to get boat booking at departure beach but apparently this was not possible and we needed to book though our taxi driver, yeh right. So made arrangements anyway but refused to pay till we got there to see why.
No office at beach, so paid for booking , other people had gotten dropped off at prior beach for connection to Gilli Islands. 3 hours later sitting at shitty place our boat finally arrived, we’d actually only needed to leave at 7.30 so his free clients got to there boat in time, pissed off. Boarded and away only to go to where the other clients had gone 3 hours earlier, nice resort, double pissed.
Eventually we arrived at Nusa Lombogan and straight into accommodation where we had arrive, some good luck finally but to late for surf.
Nusa Lombogan is great, clean, great restaurants and places to stay and surf breaks at door step. We’d been informed that Chinincan had a good break so went to explore that, this involved crossing a repaired bridged with new bikes we’d hired, was exciting lol to say the least. Surf was ok and return to Losmen that afternoon.
One day a guy was serious hurt surfing chinican and it took some time to get him out and away to hospital. Then thinking of surfing again I didn’t like the look of it and made a call not to go out. So we return to Lombogan where Gary surfed shipwrecks only to suffer from a trip across the reef cutting his wrist , leg and nearly slicing through wetsuit chest area. Close call.
Some how I pulled my back at chinincan and next day after exploring Island needed to rest up. While I was Gary sat by boardwalk where he was approached by an Asian male , who’s name I’ve forgotten, after some conversation it turned out he was a trained Masseuse, chiropractor, unbelievable. So deal was done and I was massaged and realigned that afternoon.
Next day and another trip to Chininagan before surf dropped away completely, back just in time for lunch. Watching the world go by at board walk again when hotel proprietor approached us to see if interested in dive trip as they wanted to fill boat, cheap. Why not so off we went , what a great trip 4 snorkels at different bays ,all different, fish , magnificent corals and then to top it off we dove with Manta rays, awesome.
Not sure how long spent there, 5 or 6 nights , our fast boat ticket was a carry on ticket to Sanur so we booked our place to return the next day on 8.15 boat. Morning , breakfast done and ready to leave, ticket guy asks us to fill form out, ok, then asks where we are going once back in Bali, we say Kuta and he replies that our free taxi will be waiting. Bonus we didn’t expect. 10 am and where back in Kuta Bali.
First place we try to book at , proprietor goes all weird on us so we tell him to stick it and wander off down poppie2 to find another place. Gary leaves something and has to go back and in the mean time some tourists enter what just appears to be opening in a wall saying to friend " come back for swim later in pool"? . I poke my head in and its a motel, so when Gary arrives we check it out. Right price swimming pool, bar , Internet this place is huge and all hidden away. We book in, what a stroke of luck.
Wander round the street and next day Gary goes hires a bike to surf again while I go visit with a friend and play with some snakes
. Last night on the town and it’s the semi finals of Bali’s hottest woman at the Sky Garden Night club. This place was huge, 8 bar apparently although we only found 5, 1 entry exit , 5 stories high. Not a safety thing in site. Just a frisk at entry and in. A good night out was had.
Last day , final shop around and a long wait till time for departure. Once at the airport when we got to final gate we somehow walked straight past a security check and sat down not knowing. Every one else had bags searched and where frisked, we sat there and said nothing lol.
Apart from when exiting Auckland we got diverted at customs for drugs questioning etc, 2 males, surf board, Bali is only reason we can think for that all good and HOME.
Lots of other things happened and we both enjoyed the trip was great experience .
Vedio on trip