Here we go again!

    Re-reading that previous post from Amed, I realize how depressed we were feeling as we wound down our last trip. We were just going through the motions in Bali and counting the days until we got home. We didn’t really appreciate our subsequent time in Singapore or our return to Hong Kong. Both cities had some special moments (Jurong Bird Park and the ‘Big Buddha’ in particular) but also a lot of ‘blah’ (our fault, not the cities).
    Since then we’ve had short trips to British Columbia, Newfoundland and Cuba to catch up with friends and family and several visits to Atlanta to spend time with the grandkids (and son, and daughter-in-law). Now, we feel rejuvenated and we’re gearing up for another snorkel live-aboard with the crew from California.
    We almost passed on this excursion to the Solomon Islands as the initial announcement came during our darkest time in Bali. We were lucky that we recovered our wanderlust while there were still openings available. We have ten days aboard the ‘Bilikiki’ touring and snorkeling through the Solomon Islands. I have a new camera (Canon PowerShot SX240) and waterproof casing and a new waterproof camcorder (DXG Sportster) which should get a good workout. I’ll try to post a few pictures along the way.
    We’ll stop in Fiji on the way to and from the Solomons. On the way out, we’re spending a few days at Octopus Resort on Waya Island - we enjoyed our time there back in 2006. On the way back, we’ll have a few days on Mana Island (only a day trip there in 2006). We really enjoyed the snorkeling in both places at that time. It will be interesting to see how we feel this year after our experiences in Palau and Raja Ampat and coming on the heels of the Solomons.
    I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll be able to do. Hopefully, Fiji won’t be a problem but I’m pretty sure there won’t be any Wi-fi on the boat while we’re wandering around in the Solomon Sea. We have an over-night at a hotel in Honiara but I have no idea how the Internet connections are on Guadalcanal. We’ll see.
    We’ve already committed ourselves for 2014. We’ll be joining Wendy (our California travel guru) on another snorkel live-aboard in Indonesia. This one starts out from Bali and sails through the Komodo National Park area of the ‘Coral Triangle’. It will also feature a land excursion to see Komodo dragons in their natural habitat. Should be a great way to celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary.
    Time to get packing! 

An end in Amed

    After the quick visit to the medical clinic in Ubud, the driver, Salit, took us on to the eastern area of Bali. We stopped for lunch along the way at the Temple Café in Candidasa. It was a nice drive with stunning sea views but I was in no shape to enjoy it. The whole coast is called Amed but we actually stayed at the Coral View Villas in the village of Lipah
    For the first time we ran into a mosquito problem and Doreen’s face took a beating (or a biting, if you prefer) the first two nights. When the manager asked how things were going, she unloaded about the mosquitos and he subsequently sprayed the room. Afterwards, while cleaning up, Doreen counted upwards of 40 dead mosquitos in our room. For the rest of our stay we saw only two or three. Doreen was convinced the room hadn’t been used in a while and they hadn’t fumigated it before our arrival. She was not happy.
    When the doctor phoned on Saturday night with the results of the blood test, it was a great relief. But it was too late to save this trip. We had started in Pulah Weh with a major setback and, despite some good/great moments since, there had been a series of minor aggravations all along the way. We finally ran out of steam in Amed and now we’re just killing days until we fly home.
    We saw the spiritual side of Bali last year and I’ll always treasure that. This year we saw the tourist side of Bali and it isn’t nearly as attractive. Australians dominated in the Legian area, Germans in Pemuteran and French in Munduk and Amed. We’ve seen very few Americans and only one Canadian (the lady from Montreal via Texas). It’s been different. And, at our age, we’ve found that we don’t do different as well as we did in the past.
    The beach in Amed is a black sand, pebbly beach again. The hotel does not have any beach property as the whole coastline is crowded with boats belonging to the local fishermen. Not a beach for walking. Besides, Doreen’s foot is still bothering her and she finds it difficult even walking on the roads. There was some good snorkeling just to the right of Coral View Villas and we did three trips out there and one in Jemuluk Bay. Better than Pulah Weh and off-the-beach in Pemuteran but a far cry from Menjangan Island.
    The resort has a lovely, little, palm-tree lined pool but the emphasis is on little. They have so many trees surrounding the pool they can fit only four lounges. And the trees effectively screen the area so there was no place to get any consistent sun. A lovely setting but it grew increasingly boring. Enough already. I wanna go home.

To the mountains of Munduk

    A lot less threatening, and a lot greener than the mountains of Mordor. We left Pemuteran on Sunday morning with a driver to take us to Munduk, a small village in the mountains of northern Bali. We stopped along the way to see the monkey temple at Pura Pulaki and, again, at Melanting Temple. Both are fairly small temple complexes but interesting. Pura Pulaki was crawling with monkeys and the worshippers had a difficult time protecting their offerings from these foragers. We spent a short while watching one monkey try to strip a coconut while simultaneously avoiding the assaults of his fellow simians.
     At Melanting Temple we were approached by an old lady who wished to sprinkle us a blessing before we entered the complex. That was a first for us. Usually we’ve just had to wear the sarong. The further we walked into the complex, the more elaborate it got. In the innermost courtyard Doreen was approached by a lady who asked to have her picture taken. She was pleased with the result and Doreen soon found herself in a group of four women and one man. It was a special moment for her.
    We stopped at a supermarket in Saririt to stock up on some essentials before the final drive to Munduk as we weren’t sure what we’d be able to find in the way of ‘goodies’ in the village. We needn’t have bothered. I’m absolutely stunned by the number of small ‘corner stores’ that exist in these Balinese villages. I don’t know how they all survive and make a profit since it seems every second or third house contains a store. Incidentally, I even found one that had plastic ‘water jugs’ so I’m back to boiling water and making tea. (And it cost me about $3 - a lot less than that Austin House kettle.)
    We checked in at Aditya Home Stay. Nice people. The view is outstanding! Hope my panorama works out. Unfortunately we’re back to twin beds and little storage space. The bathroom has an interesting floor with little beach rocks cemented into the floor in a criss-cross pattern (not all of them securely anchored). Makes for a different sensation during a nighttime visit. :)
    We had come to this area to do some hiking so we set off Monday morning to visit two nearby waterfalls. You are encouraged to hire local guides and we had done so for our other hikes which were longer and involved more complex trails. The waterfalls were a short hike and we were told you could do it without a guide. At the time, I believed that. I no longer do.
    We set off with high hopes and a map furnished by Aditya. We actually found the first section of the trail with no problem but, as we ventured further into the forest, things quickly began to go south. You couldn’t tell the trail from the road to someone’s house and people lived in the most unlikeliest of places - and rode their motorbikes to them. We met a couple from Texas (she was originally from Montreal) who were attempting the same trek. Their map was actually worse than ours and it became a case of the blind leading the blind.
    We could hear the waterfall. We could see it through the trees. We just couldn’t find a path that would take us to it. I’m convinced the lack of signed trails is an attempt to ensure that  the guides don’t run out of business. Eventually we found ourselves on a section of the trail that the map indicated would take us to the upper falls so we abandoned the lower ones. It still wasn’t a smooth hike but we finally found ourselves at the foot of Melanting Falls. It was actually worth the trouble.
    Unfortunately, Doreen lost her focus for a moment as we reached the waterfall and  slipped on a bamboo log, jamming her foot so that she found walking on uneven ground painful. So much for our hiking plans. On the way back, we ran into the guide we’d hired, explained the problem and cancelled our hike to the lake the next day. We left the rice field trip open for Wednesday for the moment. Doreen’s foot worsened as the day progressed so it looked like a good decision on our part.
    It looked even better the next morning. I had gone to bed that night feeling fine (Doreen had even tried to convince me to do the lake hike on my own so as not to hang up the guide) but that soon changed. Suddenly I was burning up with fever while my inner core was so cold that I was shivering hard enough to shake the bed and my teeth were chattering. I alternated between fever and freezing all night and got very little sleep. I spent the next day virtually in bed with no energy and little appetite.
    I felt better on Wednesday morning and the guide, Made, and I set out to tour the rice fields we could see from our balcony. Doreen’s foot wouldn’t let her attempt it. Because of my energy level we did only the rice fields and didn’t attempt the hike to the banyan tree which is long and steep. The hike seemed to drain the last of my energy and I spent the next two days drifting in and out of wakefulness. The folks at Aditya Home Stay were wonderfully supportive.
    When we left there on Thursday, we had the driver take us to the medical clinic in Ubud for a consultation. We were afraid I had contracted malaria during our time on Pulah Weh. After a discussion with the doctor and some preliminary prodding, she suggested it was more likely dengue and ordered blood work to be sure. In the meantime she prescribed three sets of medication to fight a mild infection in my throat, to boost my immune system and to fight the fever. When she phoned with the test results on Saturday night it was a relief to learn that it was only the throat infection and not dengue or malaria. For that, the medications were already working. We did, however, lose the best part of a week.

Snorkeling in the Northwest

    On Tuesday morning we checked out of the Amaris Hotel in Legian and had a driver, Wayan Merta, take us to Pemuteran in the northwest corner of Bali. Pemuteran is a resort area near the marine reserve at Menjangan Island. Doreen had booked us into the Adi Assri Resort and had arranged a package of five snorkel trips with a local dive shop, Sea Rovers, who promised groups of six or smaller.
    It was a lovely drive up through the middle of Bali to the north coast and then west to Pemuteran. Wayan is the best driver we’ve had in Bali. His English was very good and his knowledge of the island and enthusiasm for sharing were remarkable. He made several suggestions for stops and they provided excellent picture opportunities. We stopped along the way for lunch at Sanda Villas, a lovely setting. We’ll use Wayan again when we get to Jimbaran.
    We had a big room at Adi Assri with a separate washroom and an outdoor toilet/bath/shower (the shower area was roofless). The room had plenty of storage space but was dominated by a very large four-poster (I think Doreen and I were in different area codes). What it didn’t have was a single chair. There was no place to sit except on the bed and there was no desk area where I could work on my pictures on the laptop.
    It was a nice resort with gorgeous views, two large pools with plenty of lounges, a nice dining area and a friendly. helpful staff. The beach was pebbly, black sand - not great for walking. Your feet got so dirty when you walked the beach that the resort provided foot baths at each beach access point. It was the only way to keep the black out. One trek of the beach for me and, from then on, it was a pool lounge.
    The trip took another major downturn on our third day at Adi Assri when my new travel kettle died (or fried itself). For years I’ve used a heating coil to ensure access to a good, hot cup of tea. That’s also why I always carry a supply of tea bags (PG Tips or Tetley). This year Doreen spotted a dual-voltage Austin House travel kettle at CAA and we decided to try it. Like an idiot, I didn’t bring the heating coil as backup. After a night of abject despair, I discovered that I can get lots of boiling water at the bar. All is not lost!!
    We ate most of our meals at the hotel (breakfast is part of the deal) but Doreen had compiled a list of recommended spots in the area from her enquiries on Trip Advisor and we got a chance to try several. We enjoyed a dinner at Warung Susa, a lunch at Taman Salini and a dinner at Frangipani was so good that we intended to go back for our final night. That changed when we went to Warung Tirta Sari for dinner on Friday night. The setting was lovely, the presentation was awesome, the food was delicious, the service was wonderful and the prices were outstanding. We were back again on Saturday night for another great meal.
    But we came to this area for the snorkeling and, so, much hinged on our experiences with Sea Rovers. On Wednesday we did our first snorkel tour to Menjangan Island and discovered we would have one diver as well as six snorkelers. At least they sent along two guides as well as a boat driver. When we dropped off the boat at our first spot it was very deep (great for the diver) but we quickly reached an area of great coral with lots of fish. The only drawback was an absence of soft corals but that’s nitpicking. A good start!
    After a beach interlude and a somewhat mediocre lunch, we went to our second spot. This was even better. Pretty much the same as the first spot but a little more coral, a few more fish and a lot less water. A great way to spend an hour and a half!
    The next morning we went off again with Sea Rovers to snorkel the local reef. This time there were only four of us with yesterday’s diver and his partner joining Doreen and I. This was the major disappointment of our five tours. It was a divers’ spot and the water never came close to snorkel depth. Everything was so far away I didn’t even turn on my camera. Then we came to a dead area and our guide seemed to disappear, leaving us swimming aimlessly over rubble for half an hour until the boat finally showed up again and we could get out of the water. That afternoon my kettle died. Talk about a bad day!
    Friday we were back at Menjangan Island. Again we had the diver along with three other snorkelers. Again we had a mediocre lunch, this time amid swarms of flies. Again we had a very rough, wet ride back. But, today, none of that mattered. Our first stop was marvelous, easily the best we’ve had in Bali and as good as just about anything we’ve ever done short of Raja Ampat and Palau. The second spot, after lunch, was a drift snorkel and, although not as good as the earlier one, was quite enjoyable. A great way to finish!
    So, five snorkels and, on a scale of 1(poor)-5(great), I’d say we had a 1, two 3's. a 4 and a 5. Can’t ask for much more than that. I wouldn’t rate Sea Rovers as high. I’ve mentioned the mediocre lunches–the boat leaves at 8:30 am, we eat at 11 and they’re serving cold, soggy french fries. They’ve dropped the fresh fruit. Too expensive I guess.
    More importantly their customer service was minimal. The owner with whom Doreen had corresponded was never around. The lady at the office was very friendly and helpful but the other crew did not impress.    There was minimal information about what to expect to see on each snorkel and where to look. Just basically–we’ll drop you here, pick you up later, there are fish and coral in the water. We were supposed to have a snorkel guide for each trip but the diver’s partner was an uneasy swimmer so she got a personal hand-held tour and the rest of us could follow along at her pace or go off on our own.
    After the last snorkel of the day, they never give you enough time to get settled away before they blast off for home. They pride themselves on their fast boats but they don’t adjust for ocean conditions. On the trip out in the early morning the ocean is glassy and speed gets you to the snorkeling quicker. With the waves up on the ride back, speed get you a sore rear end and a good soaking. Especially when the boat driver seems to be doing his best to get his buddies wet, to hell with the paying customers. Not very professional.

The surf side of Bali

    We flew from Yogyakarta to Denpasar with Garuda Air and took a taxi to the Hotel Amaris in Legian. This area is the surf center of Bali and very popular with Australians. The beaches all seem to run into each other from Kuta to Legian to Seminyak and you can stroll for miles if you’re so inclined. This would usually be right up our alley but Doreen has developed a real concern about sun exposure so our usual beach walks have been curtailed significantly.    Besides which, though the waves may be very enticing to surfers (and obviously so from the number of boards in the water and around town), the beach itself is not all that appealing. It’s definitely not the North Shore of Oahu. It looks great from a distance but, up close and underfoot, it is a light, sooty color and you come off the beach with very dirty feet. The sand is also strangely resistant to being brushed off. At low tide, the beach is very wide and you have to walk a long ways to get into waist-deep water. It reminds me somewhat of the beaches in northern Queensland or Daytona Beach in Florida.
    We went some time strolling the shops along the main road as Doreen looked unsuccessfully for batik material that she could buy for her quilting. The only batiks available were as sarongs. She did, however, find a couple of beachwear-type dresses so all was not lost. We also picked up a cell phone in Seminyak for use in Indonesia. It’s an unlocked phone so we should be able to buy a SIM card for Singapore if we need one.
    We did have some good meals particularly a lunch at Sang Ria and a dinner at Warung Patrick. Our last night we ate at Mozarella’s-by-the-Sea. Great food, great setting. Not the greatest sunset. The place is so underlit that, when the sun goes down, they bring flashlights with the menus so you can see the choices. Breakfasts were included with our hotel package so we ate there. The eating area was lined up along the pool so the ambience was a little unusual. Only one morning was anyone swimming laps.
    The food was pretty good once we got used to the routine. The first morning we took the omelet pieces that were displayed. Bad choice - cold and all stuffed with so many vegetables (including onions) you could hardly taste the eggs. We learned to wait a few minutes until an employee showed up who would cook your eggs fresh. Much better. Lots of fresh fruit and juice.
    The hotel itself was just a step up from a hostel (though a rather big step). Clean, modern look with an excellent staff. A fairly nice room but small with two twin beds and one chair. We had problems with the wall safe and when the desk sent somebody to fix the problem he blithely said the instructions printed on the safe were wrong and showed us the correct procedure for re-setting the password. I don’t understand why they don’t change the instructions. How often do they face this problem? Or are we the only paranoid travelers who use these room safes?

The best and worst of Java

    Sitting in the hotel room in Yogyakarta waiting until it’s time to check out and go to the airport to wait for our flight to Bali. The past two days have been interesting, frustrating and fascinating. We took some time on Thursday to wander around the Malioboro area of the city. This busy street is lined with little shops seemingly all selling the same merchandise and catering to tourists. Incidentally, most of the tourists are other Indonesians. With a population in excess of 230 million, there are a lot of Indonesians on the move. The airports and planes are crowded and the streets are teeming with humanity.
    The sidewalks are crowded with goods, vendors, shoppers/browsers and touts. The streets are crowded with cars, scooters, tik-tiks of every description and buses. Everything is in constant movement. Strolling is a chore and crossing the street is an adventure. Traffic amazes me. For all the crowding and lack of lane discipline, we’ve seen no accidents and no examples of road rage. The city may be grimy but there’s certainly a vibrancy in the streets.
    Yesterday we toured two of the major religious shrines in the area - Borobudur and Prambanan. Borobudur is huge. It starts out as a square with sides measuring 112m and goes up and in. There are four square galleries to start, then three circular ones and the final stupa. The carvings are impressive. It predates Angkor but its bas-reliefs are very similar. We had fun checking out the Buddhas which had been part of an ‘Amazing Race’ challenge. Incidentally, there were originally 504 Buddha statues on the site but some are missing and some are headless.
    We went early (picked up at our hotel at 5 am) but traffic was already a problem at that hour. When we left the site, crowds were still building. As with many tourist sites you exit through the gift shop. In the case of Borobudur, the ‘gift shop’ is a seemingly endless maze of tacky stalls. There didn’t seem to be an alternative exit which would let you by-pass this eyesore. We then stopped briefly at Candi Pawon, a small temple with interesting grounds.
    After a brief stop at a silversmith shop so the driver could see a ‘friend’, we made our way to Prambanan. It is the finest and largest Hindu sanctuary ever built in Indonesia. The style of this complex was more similar to Angkor. There are a series of temples in a vast courtyard. The three large temples in the centre are dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. By this time, crowds have multiplied and Doreen is having problems with her foot so she decided to imitate Buddha and find a tree to sit under.
    One of the interesting encounters we’ve had the past few days has been participating in a school project. Yesterday, on the street in Yogyakarta and today, at Prambanan, we were approached by groups of students who had been assigned the task of interviewing a foreigner. I wonder how they recognized us as foreigners? The group leader, in each case, had a list of questions (not exactly the same) and recorded our answers. Then they asked to pose for pictures. There were five other people in our tour group and, when we checked later, all had been approached multiple times. The students made a good impression. I hope we did the same.
    The drive back to Yogyakarta was just as bad as the drive from Borobudur to Prambanan. Traffic is horrendous, especially at stop lights. It’s not unusual at a red light to have five cars and eight to ten motorbikes jostling for space and all waiting for the green light to head for the available three lanes of highway. Then, there’s a period of give and take as traffic sorts itself out until the next red light. Of course, some bikes don’t bother waiting for the light to change. Several times our driver used the left turn lane to edge up so that he could make a right turn when the light changed.
    Most of the intersections have timers as well so that traffic knows how long before the lights change. The longest red light we had was 90 seconds and the shortest green light was 16 seconds. I’m not sure the timers have a calming effect on traffic. I’m sure they wouldn’t in Toronto. I can just picture the red light runners looking at the clock counting down and stepping on the gas rather than the brake.

Who designs these hotel rooms anyway?

    We’re here in Yogyakarta at the All Seasons Hotel. It’s a lovely, fairly new building with an excellent staff. The place looks great. Our room is nice and large with bright colors and wood trim (an IKEA look to it). The entry area and bathroom have eight-foot ceilings but the main room has a ten-foot ceiling so it has a feeling of real spaciousness. The bathroom has a great shower and the first square toilet I’ve seen. That goes well with the rectangular washbasin.
    But then you start to unpack and you realize there’s very little space to store things. There are a couple of shelves in the entry area for storing bags and shoes and there’s a shelf beneath the TV that functions as an office center. But that’s about it. There’s six feet of dead space above the bag shelf behind the door but it’s just blank wall. Potential storage. Wasted space.
    There’s a six foot area above the shoe rack where they’ve placed a hanging bar. That would give you plenty of space to hang things if only it were available. The problem is that they’ve run some plumbing pipes or electrical wiring or something and the resulting projection takes up most of the space. The hangers provided by the hotel can’t fit the space so you’re left with about a half-foot of usable space on each end. I guess you could try hanging clothes on a 45 degree angle. Or, five feet of ties or belts.
    There are only four electrical outlets in the room (all singles) and they all have assigned duties–lamp, clock, fridge, kettle. If you want to charge your computer, phone or camera battery, you have to start unplugging things. The only plug that isn’t in constant use is the one for the kettle but it is also the most inaccessible one.
    I mentioned at the beginning how bright our room was. That feeling lasted until night fell and we had to turn on some lights. The light level is good enough for watching TV but not nearly bright enough for any serious work. We haven’t been watching much TV. Again, fancy, decorative lighting touches but not practical lighting. It doesn’t help that burned-out bulbs haven’t been replaced.
    We’ve been seeing similar deficiencies in other hotels we’ve been using. The Dorsett Regency in Hong Kong was a lovely hotel but the room was small and had little space for luggage. The shower door did not do a good job of keeping water inside the shower area. The Grand Swiss Bel-hotel in Medan was another up-scale hotel with a large room. It had a fancy bathroom with a problem shower. It also was looking a bit shabby.
    Rasa Seni was nice looking but it has serious maintenance problems. The room was not clean, the mini fridge wasn’t working properly and there was little or no effort to control the bug  population. The Nagoya Inn gave us a nice, big room with a separate foyer/dining area. It had a fancy, marble-like bathroom with the shower centered in a large bathtub. But then they tried to enclose the shower with a chintzy, short curtain on a curved metal rod (think hospital room). It was impossible to contain the water which flooded the bathroom floor.
    The place we stayed in Ibioh Beach was, according to the owner, only a month old (I have my doubts). Arpen is a small businessman who’s just branching out into rental property. He’s built this two-unit bungalow and has plans to expand. His lack of experience in the tourist industry was quite evident. The unit looks good from the outside and has a nice balcony. It’s a nice, bright room with a large bed.
    However, half of his storage unit is already broken and he showed no sign of intending to fix it. There were no sheets/blankets on the bed - I guess it’s so warm he doesn’t think they’re needed. There was only one towel in the room and, although he kept promising to bring another, he never followed through. Doreen eventually went next door to the second unit (unoccupied) and took that towel. He provides a large water container which is good because the water from his well did not look drinkable. We also noted the absence of a mini fridge.
    The bathroom had a nice tile floor but a very small sink and no shelving. When you tried to turn the water on/off, the entire tap assembly moved so you needed to use both hands. The shower was not a separate area and wa ter from the shower (cold shower only) sprayed everywhere. That’s probably why there was no toilet paper in the bathroom (though that might also be a result of cultural differences since many Asians think our use of toilet paper a disgusting habit).
    How hard can it be to design a functioning, useful hotel room that people could use without complaints? And how difficult is it for hotels to implement adequate maintenance procedures?