We had a pretty crazy itinerary for Theo’s two weeks in Indonesia and except for a few moderations, we repeated much of the same route I had traveled when I was seven years old. Get ready for a long, long blog post:
Theo arrived on a Monday afternoon and after a detour to see MONAS (Monument Nasional), we went straight to one of the best Chinese restaurants in Jakarta: Angke. If you ask pretty much any of my family members which is their favorite restaurant in Indonesia, the answer will likely be Angke. It’s delicious! If you are ever in Jakarta, make sure you go to the original Angke, not the new (and not nearly as good) one in Kelapa Gading. We ordered all the usuals plus some randoms since we had some extended family with us. I think my favorite is the kodok goreng mantega (deep fried frog legs in a butter sauce)! (Not pictured below - they were gone before I had a chance to get a picture...)
Bali: Less than 24 hours after Theo arrived in Jakarta, we were off to Bali! The last time I was here was in 2008 and I wasn’t impressed: I remember there being a lot of traffic, a lot of rain, not-so-impressive sights, and an annoying tour guide who talked too much. This time was a lot more fun! The traffic was unavoidable, but the weather was good, I planned a great itinerary (if I do say so myself), and Pak Rudi was helpful when we needed him to be (and otherwise unimposing). We hired Pak Rudi to be our driver for the two days in Bali and although (at 400,000 rupiah (~$45) per 10-hour day) it wasn’t as cheap as in Egypt, I think it was a great deal! I’m sure that Pak Rudi thought we were insane on the first day as we went to four different restaurants: Ibu Oka’s for babi guling (roasted pig), Bebek Bengil for their signature bebek bengil (roasted duck), Naughty Nuri’s for baby back ribs, and Bali Nikmat for amazing tim kerapu (steamped garoupa), sapi lada hitam (black pepper beef), udang kipas (lobster), and kangkung (veggies). In between food stops, we did manage to see the rice fields at Tegalalang:
Day Two in Bali: Theo saw the must-sees: Kuta Beach, the 2002 bombing memorial on Jalan Legian, Tanah Lot, Nusa Dua, Uluwatu Temple, Kecak Dance, and Jimbaran Bay. I felt like I was experiencing many of these things for the first time because with Tanah Lot, for example, our guide in 2008 took us to the temple at high tide (so we couldn’t access the temple), and I definitely don’t remember what it was like here from when I was seven...
We had to wash our hands and faces and receive a rice blessing before approaching Tanah Lot.
@ Tanah Lot
Relaxing @ Nusa Dua
Kecak (pronounced kuh-chahk) dance is a performance in which repetitive use of the word kecak (kecak-kecak-kecak) provides the musical background as actors perform various scenes. We saw a performance during sunset at Uluwatu Temple.
The chanting and shaking was a bit eerie and some of the costumes were a bit disconcerting as well. One of the “slapstick” characters approached the audience and a little girl burst into tears! Poor thing! The female performers had these really intense (and, well, creepy) eyes too!
Towards the end of the performance, one of the characters was put in a circle of fire…. As he stamped/kicked the fire out, he accidently kicked a fireball at one of the kecak singers – the man’s hair caught fire! Exciting times at Uluwatu Temple…. It’s one of those performances you know you’d never see in the US – too much liability…
Jimbaran Bay (above) is a must for anyone who visits Bali. You can have an incredibly romantic candlelight dinner on the beach with delicious seafood! It is perhaps expensive for Indonesia’s standards, but we had a whole fish, two small lobsters, one crab, six shrimp, six clams, six squid skewers, rice, veggies, and beer for under $50! It was an amazing dinner!!
Lombok: I loved it here! I'd recommend it over Bali to anyone! It was the one place in Indonesia that Theo and I were discovering for the first time together and I can’t wait to go back! We spent the first day settling in, booking a snorkeling trip, getting $6 massages, having a $10 dinner, and watching an incredible sunset at Senggigi Beach. Great day!
We spent the next day on the famous (and beautiful!) Gili Islands! Our boat trip out to Gili Trawangan cost 10,000 rupiah each (~$1). Luckily, we refused a guy who tried to make us think that taking a private charter boat to the islands (200,000 rupiah) was the best way to go given our “late” 11am departure. We spontaneously booked a diving trip with a dive operator and about an hour later, this massive storm came in. The once-sunny sky was covered in dark grey clouds and you couldn’t see more than 5-10 feet out on the water. The rain was also falling so hard that, with the super strong wind, it hurt upon impact! I think we were lucky though because we got in a good half hour of snorkeling pre-storm and by the time we were ready to dive, the storm had miraculously cleared! Pretty good diving too…
There are three famous Gili islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air. We got a taste of all three because after snorkeling on Gili Trawangan and diving off Gili Meno, we took the island hopper to Gili Air. Gili Air is the least developed of the three and it almost felt like we had the island to ourselves. We sat enjoying a delicious grilled fish dinner with no one else around to disturb us. We ended up having to take a private charter back to Lombok because the posted public boat schedule is just plain wrong! It lists an 8:15pm departure from Gili Air to Lombok but the “pm” is a typo! Theo had even received verbal confirmation (or so he thought) that the evening boat exists. Hmpfh! It all worked out though: I was able to bargain a bit in Indonesian and we ended up meeting some nice people who chartered us safely back to Lombok and later dropped us off at the hotel.
Unfamous Gilis: There are less popular Gili islands in the southwest off of Lombok – these were wonderful too! Theo and I snorkeled the entirety of Gili Gede and then had the most amazing time on Gili Sudak.
This island is a paradise(!) that thankfully, other tourists do not frequent. We had the place to ourselves and I for one loved every minute of it!After about three hours total of snorkeling, Theo and I wandered merrily along the beach picking shells, unaware of the devastating sunburns we would later discover. Ouch.
Stopping by the Sukarara Weaving Village… Using traditional weaving methods, the women are only able to complete 10-15cm of these cloths per day!
Bandung: On Christmas morning, we took a 6am flight from Lombok back to Jakarta, and then drove straight to Bandung. Unfortunately, Bandung was less fun than I wanted it to be. Because of the holiday, it was way too crowded and traffic was a nightmare! After visiting one of the jam-packed outlets for instance, it took us about an hour to move approximately three blocks. Ridiculous! Visiting Tangkuban Parahu 18km away took two hours (each way) to get to! Although it smelled like sulfur, it is quite beautiful here. I had no recollection of being there as a child…
Leaving no time to rest, we took a flight to Jogjakarta the morning after we got back from Bandung. The famous dish in Jogja is Nasi Gudeg (rice, chicken, boiled egg, boiled jackfruit, crispy (and Spicy!) beef skin, and either tempe or tofu):
Eh. I didn’t love the food in Jogja/Magalang actually…. Not to complain, but Magalangan (a mix of fried rice and fried noodles) was too sweet… Nasi Kambing (goat kebab) was too fatty… Tongseng was just not worth eating... (too much coconut milk)… and Mie Kakap (noodles made out of fish) was too oily.
I think the only thing Theo really disliked was the durian...
A view of the Merapi Volcano anddevastated land from the lava flow...
It was raining pretty heavily for most of our visit to Bandungan so Theo and I only saw three of the nine temples. They apparently all look the same, however. The highlight is probably my 70 year old aunt getting on a horse, screaming nonstop, and getting laughed at by her younger 62 year old sister. :)
Prambanan was equally rainy making the trek up the temples’ steps wet, slippery, and muggy. The rain was a bit miserable to be in, but we are all smiles:
And then there was Borobudur! it is amazing! Despite the destruction (from an earthquake I think), it is still an impressive site:
It's supposed to be lucky if you can touch the buddha... I did it!
Theo’s Last Night:The day after getting back to Jogja was New Year’s Eve and Theo’s last night. He’s always wanted to stay at a Four Seasons so as a Christmas present, I got us a room there to celebrate the New Year.
This was an amazing decision!! We watched movies, ordered room service, and at midnight, we saw about 15 different fireworks shows from our 14th floor balcony. I couldn’t have asked for a better night! We spent the next morning swimming in the rain and then relaxing in the spa at the Four Seasons.:)
Theo also got to try padang food before he left... SPICY!
(They lay out all the dishes you might like to eat and you pay only for what you take...)
*I’m playing a bit of catch up again because I’ve just left Indonesia and have finally made it to Continent #7!!! Australia, Here I am! I leave Cairns tomorrow to spend a few days on a liveaboard diving the Great Barrier Reef!!!
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