Indonesia Part 1

Day 1- Monday- Denpasar



I landed in Denpasar an hour later after watching “ I am Legend” several times on both legs of the flight. The flight was packed so naturally, I was cranky. I left Boston at 7AM on Sunday and landed 11pm on Monday. As the plane door opened What would be my first impression of Indonesia? Girls handing out flowers? And star filled sky? Nope, All that was over shadowed by the hot saturating stench of Disgustingness that permeated your lungs, much like sitting next to a 13 year old who baths in cheap AXE perfume. At first I described the smell like decomposing palm leaves and burning cigarette butts. Unfortunately, I was close, as Adam later told me, that smell was burning garbage, and “they burn it like there’s no tomorrow.” The smell was everywhere in the Island of Bali, and we wouldn’t find refuge from it until day 5 when we left the Island for Gili Islands.

Adam picked me up with an unknown blonde girl. She introduced herself as Maliana (cute Norwegian accent) and informed me that they were getting married this weekend and I was to be the best man. They talked about how they met in Australia surfing and she had busted her nose on the surfboard, and spelled out a story of love and passion that I do not have time to try to imitate for this blog. Naturally I was really excited, good excuse to hit up a fancy resort and party hardy. We got to a really nice hotel by Indonesian standards and then they told me they were lying and she was just a random girl Adam had met last night at the same hotel, who had nothing better to do at 11pm on a Monday then pick up some lanky white kid from the airport. I guess I am a very gullible/trusting person. The girl was there with 150 other girls “studying abroad”, and invited us to stay at the same hotel. Slightly disappointed about not being a best man, I went to sleep.



Day 2- Kuta and techno



I woke up early and had a honey melon shake for breakfast. Quite nice. We test fired the speargun in the pool and headed out to the local hotspot, a town called Kuta. It was then I realized that every Indonesian has two jobs. First they are a taxi Driver, store clerk, beach Trickett seller, or whatever, but also they are all Pimps. Taking the taxi to Kuta, our friendly driver asked where we are from, what we are doing, what we think of the country, then asked if we wanted to buy a “nice Bali girl”. Caught a little off guard I told him that I must of mistranslated what he said and to restate, to which he answered “pussie, pussie” in a broken Indonesian accent. This conversation was the first of many, to which even telling them I was a Gay and Had Aids, could not stop the onslaught. The beach had tons of Hawker (as they are called- people selling crappy stuff on the beach). From $1 rolex’s to bows and arrows. Walking down the beach a boy (about 18 or so) wanted to play Frisbee with us and then surprisingly DIDN’T ask us to buy women. Instead he asked “Do you remember dancing with me last night?” Confused as what he meant as we didn’t go out the night before, he offered his services as a man-whore. For a muslim dominated country where even Porno is illegal, they sure to love their prostitutes. Later that day we met with a Group of the Norwegian girls who were aflutter about some top ranked techno DJ coming to Bali tonight. I don’t like techno, but when 150 Norwegian bombshells begging you to go, its not a hard decision. The club was packed and had a bungee jump right on premise, however that would not make up for the ear-shatteringly loud noise, that Europeans call music. Even with my low expectations for the event, I was disappointed. As we only had one key, Adam and I were supposed to left together, but one of the girls had told him at around 2 am that I had already gone home, so he left. And I waited by that bloody door until 7am looking for Adam. I was not a happy camper. I got home and found him sleeping in the hall kicked him awake and started Day 3. No sleep for the wicked.



Day 3- Ubud- After a drowsy breakfast and a shower to get all the horrible memories of the prior night away, we hitched a Cap to Ubud. Ubud in a town in central Bali renowned for its woodworking and artwork (according to the lonely Planet, thanks Ma, good buy). The paintings were mostly generic crap, and the wood working wasn’t that amazing. As it was already late, we ate a fabulous meal for like $3 for drink, meal, and dessert (indo food is wicked cheap, it makes me very happy). We then left for our hotel, which was simply a room above a family, that was down some dark twisting creepy alley. Pretty cool.



Day 4- Ubud cont’d- Our first full day in Ubud we had breakfast. No matter what you order they give you something different and tell you “same, same, but different”. WE headed to the monkey forest where there was loads of awesomely climb-able trees. I was like a monkey in a monkey sanctuary (less the poo flinging). After being climbed on by rude pushy monkeys we met another traveling Alison. She was a make-up artist from Hollywood and worked on such culturally significant shows like the “jerry spring show”. She said it was disgusting trying to put make up head to toe and the strange people who grace that show. She was traveling alone, so we invited her to join us.







We took a long hike through rice field were we met with the locals and helped hoe a plot. However after climbing so many trees (especially coconut trees) I was all cut up and had a big gash on my foot. So was limping the next couple of days.







Day 5-7- All 3 of us left UBud and left the island of Bali for Gili. The 2 hour boat ride we paid for ended up taking 5 1/2 hours. Adam is not a boat person. Gili is an island Northeast of Bali which is only about 10 square miles. We met a group of Europeans on the boat and the next couple of days I spent in the water. I snorkeled with the hawklbill turtle and saw tons on scorpion Fish shich are gorgeous. I took a camera scuba diving with Varpu (a finnish girl we met on the boat) and 2 out people to Shark point. But curiosly, no sharks. We did see more turtles and lump-head fish and such.









Day 8- Adam and I bid farewell to Alison and Varpu and head back to Bali-Kuta so I could do the work I needed for my job ( as there is no good internet in the gili island). Another day spend on boats and buses. Not too much fun, but its incredible how reckless they drive.

There are no stop signs really and there might be 4-5 people on one scooter. I figured out that one honk in the road means you’re passing them, and two honks mean they are in your way and about to be run over. While we were waiting for the bus I local came up to me trying to sell me something. He complimented my t-shirt so I gave it to him. Huge mistake, out of the shadows a dozen locals appeared all grabbing and asking for the rest of my clothing. WE arrived at Kuta and ordered 3 meals each at the local restaurant. Despite having a Japanese-like beetle in the fried rice, it was good. It coust 74,000 Ruples, which is about $8 (for the both of us). WE now are in Kuta typing on the internet next to our 60,000 Rpl Hotel (about $6.50). I couldn’t have asked for anything else.