So…Chapter One: INDONESIA

So...one country down and about seven to go. Indo was great, a combo of surfing, chillaxing, beaches, cities, ancient architecture, volcanoes and jungle. We survived four earthquakes at last count, a motorcycle crash courtesy of Lisa, we both received and conquered ‘The Belly’, tracked down orangutans in the wild, surfed with the natives, wandered around 12 000 year old temples and thankfully dodged a bullet courtesy of Lisa’s smile for overstaying our visa for a day. But already we’re realizing, time is gonna be tight on our big adventure.

The 12 days in Bali proved to be the perfect start to the adventure, preparing ourselves, pampering ourselves and for me getting some much needed surfing under my belt before the overland adventures began. Got some great waves on Nusa Lembongan, mainly at Lacerations and also had some fun surfs around Dreamland-Balangan and Uluwatu. Kind of takes away from the experience when you paddle out and say things like, Gday, getting a few…and people reply in the same aussie drawl that you left thousands of miles away.

I faced up to the fact that we are traveling in Asia for seven months and got out on the psycho roads almost immediately. No hesitation. Started with the moto and came out unscathed so upgraded to a car soon afterwards which helped us to get around the more pristine areas of Bali, into the mountains and rice paddies. Was a great change from the hectic tourist strip and a chance to see the other Bali. You wouldn’t read about it but on the return to Kuta with the car, within 10 minutes of the agency we had the luck of getting a visit grom Mr. Polisi. I’d heard about it and half expected it at any point whilst driving but the managed to avoid the inevitable until the final lap. I blame Lisa’s blonde locks!! He wanted to fine me a million rupee (AU$125) and so the bartering began. We settled on 200,000 and a handshake and a ‘did that just really happen’.

So our romantic plans of traveling overland throughout Asia didn’t last long. A flight from Bali to central Java seemed unsurprisingly appealing given the price and the alternatives and our ever looming time schedule. Flew into Yogyakarta and found it appealing enough to spend a few days there adapting to the Islamic wayof life in contrast to the carefree Hindu state in Bali. By adapting I mean choosing a Losmen (cheap hotel) a stones throw from a makeshift mosque and being awoken at around 0230am with the call to prayer that sounded more like a cat being strangled. Ahhh the pleasures of traveling through the world’s largest Muslim population during Ramahdan!

The fact that we were traveling during Ramahdan only became aware to us on the eve of our flight to Java. Despite the warnings and advice and concerns from others I feel that it was more positive than negative. Sure it was tough to find breakfast and lunch in many locations and our sleep was broken due to prayer a countless number of times but crowds were wafer thin and it was a real experience.
Around Yogyakarta were some great sights including the 9^th century temple of Borobodur and our night spent at the base of the still active Merapi Volcano. I’ve always had a slight fascination with volcanoes and to see one in the flesh with smoke billowing and all was a real blast. It’s rated as one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

The ocean was calling as always so I managed to coax Lisa into a trip to the coast of central Java. It proved fruitful for me but a little anti-climactic for Lisa who got stuck with ‘THE BELLY’ so spent most of the time doing you know what. It was my first meeting with the Tsunami aftermath, the first of many no doubt. The lovely peninsular of Pangandaran lost 406 lives here and there is still a huge amount of debris and rubble to strike a vein. The surfing community here was amazing. So friendly and keen to get out in the water with you, even after only knowing you five minutes. On one day we organized a little gang and headed to a little hamlet an hour away with amazing results. About 8 of us headed off with surfboards tucked under arms and white smiles beaming. The destination was Batau Karas, a tiny fishing village that happens to have a remarkable resemblance to a tiny Noosa Heads. The waves were enough to have me physically salivating for my longboard but equally thirst quenching for the lone playful thruster I’ve been lugging around. This place has SERIOUS potential for super fun surf and only 6-8 local surfers to share it with.

Don’t go to Jakarta. Enough said.

We flew out of Java, again opting out of overnight bus travel after hearing horror stories of Sumatran road travel… stories I am now capable of telling on a first hand basis (well get to that). We flew to Padang in central Sumatra, shaving an invaluable 3 days of miserable bus travel off our journey. From there we had to face the horrible reality of only eleven days in Sumatra, an island which by rights should be given 2 months at least to explore. We’d had the beach, had enough of the cities and now it was time for the jungle.

Our first road experience in Sumatra began as you would expect with a sardine can journey through equatorial jungle roads that had Lisa and I sharing frequent looks of utter bemusement. Ten adults and one baby crammed into a family sized van in the sticky Padang climate. “What about the surfboard and luggage?” you may ask? No problems, we’ll just get some little kid to hop on the roof and hold them down and till we can find somewhere with some rope (around 10km up the road). And then it wasn’t rope but some old inner tube, never mind…it only snapped once on the way through the mountain pass!!

The jungle was worth it though, smack bang on the equator and so lush. Spent most of our time up on the high volcanic lakes of Meninjau and Toba, created when huge volcanoes collapsed and now house huge lakes up to 90km in length and 500m in depth. Now that was once a big volcano! Without the time up our sleeves we were unable to go with our intended plan of visiting Nias and Banda Aceh, that will have to come next time. We did manage to one thing which I’ve always longed to do which was to see orangutans in the wild. We spontaneously organized a two day trek into the forests surrounding Bukit Lawang and got our wish. Amazing jungle and such beautiful creatures. Around 10 000 orangutans live in the 900 000ha national park which is still in its pristine state thanks to its declaration as a reserve in 1936. Sleeping in the jungle was a great buzz too, just myself, Lisa and three local boys who make a pretty decent living of the tourism that floats through the area.

So there you have it…one country down and seven to go. Now I’m in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia and already things are remotely different. Things are clean, no one is shouting , “Mister, Mister” at me and gawking with jaw open at Lisa every time we walk down the street, it’s not deafening at night and there are other tourists around. Thailand next where we are going to travel far and wide to avoid the tourist trap and hopefully get some diving and trekking done.

I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Tim.