24 June 2011 - And the Adventure Begins
The long awaited return to Komodo. 3 years have passed, and much has changed, or so I heard. There IS ice on the boat now, but no sit down toilet. Pringles and potato chips CANNOT be found on Lambuan Bajo, but Captain Mat is a much better chef than Captain Adi. Dragons are no longer plentiful, but deer and water buffalo are. We found Poo Bay but the deer-grape-feeding-frenchman is gone. Same Same But Different.
The first difference we found was the surprise waiting in store for us when we arrived. Flights to Lambuan Bajo were SOLD OUT... Rickey's "We can show up at the airport in the morning and get tickets" was disproven early. There were no tickets on any of the flights over the weekend. The earliest flight out was on Morning morning... damn!!! We later found out that it was actually the school holidays in Indonesia. Note for future missions... Do NOT travel in June/July
As Horfun had changed her return flight to Wednesday 29 instead of Jul 5 as originally planned, we went back over to the International terminal to get her flight changed. Get this... within the span of time it took us to get our return flights changed (though it did take 3 hours...), the Monday morning tickets got sold out as well. Earliest flight... Wednesday morning. We tried our luck at other airlines with afternoon flights, and it definitely didn't help that Rickey got stuck behind the world's most annoying sarong-wearing-euro-trash-hippie. Kudos to Horfun who managed to find an airline that had flights out on Monday afternoon. Since we had all changed our return flights to Friday, we decided to buy the return tickets for Thursday instead of waiting till 'Thursday morning to buy tickets at the airport'.
I heard that the last mission, the guys were easily able to buy their domestic tickets on the day itself... Well, don't. Don't risk it. The return flight was full too. Might as well get all your tickets in advance and plan the boat trip around the flights.
Even buying the tickets was an adventure. First of all, their computer systems seem to be down, so it took 3 hours for the guy behind the counter to confirm our seats. Obviously, the credit card machine didn't work either, so we had to pay by cash. Thankfully, Rickey had 10 mil, and I had 5 mil. So we both forked out our wad of cash and paid up. The stack of bills was so thick and it wouldn't slip between the gap in the counter window. The guy was nice enough to give us a nice discount for paying in cash. Instead of paying 14 mil, he brought the price down to 12.5 mil.
That was 5 hours at the airport pretty much wasted. We got into Bali at about 5 and met up with Daan and Audrey, which will now be known as 'the inlaws'. Had our first beer of the day. and managed to catch the sunset over Kuta beach.
Rugburn, Swaine and Kristin arrived not long after, and we met up for another round of drinks while they had their dinner.
I have to say, Bali is not the shithole I envisioned it to be. I had always avoided going to Bali. My impression of the place was an Indonesian shithole equivalent of Phuket. Turns out, I was wrong...TBC
The airport is by the sea, and you can see the wonderful waves as you land. Beautiful.
The first difference we found was the surprise waiting in store for us when we arrived. Flights to Lambuan Bajo were SOLD OUT... Rickey's "We can show up at the airport in the morning and get tickets" was disproven early. There were no tickets on any of the flights over the weekend. The earliest flight out was on Morning morning... damn!!! We later found out that it was actually the school holidays in Indonesia. Note for future missions... Do NOT travel in June/July
As Horfun had changed her return flight to Wednesday 29 instead of Jul 5 as originally planned, we went back over to the International terminal to get her flight changed. Get this... within the span of time it took us to get our return flights changed (though it did take 3 hours...), the Monday morning tickets got sold out as well. Earliest flight... Wednesday morning. We tried our luck at other airlines with afternoon flights, and it definitely didn't help that Rickey got stuck behind the world's most annoying sarong-wearing-euro-trash-hippie. Kudos to Horfun who managed to find an airline that had flights out on Monday afternoon. Since we had all changed our return flights to Friday, we decided to buy the return tickets for Thursday instead of waiting till 'Thursday morning to buy tickets at the airport'.
I heard that the last mission, the guys were easily able to buy their domestic tickets on the day itself... Well, don't. Don't risk it. The return flight was full too. Might as well get all your tickets in advance and plan the boat trip around the flights.
Even buying the tickets was an adventure. First of all, their computer systems seem to be down, so it took 3 hours for the guy behind the counter to confirm our seats. Obviously, the credit card machine didn't work either, so we had to pay by cash. Thankfully, Rickey had 10 mil, and I had 5 mil. So we both forked out our wad of cash and paid up. The stack of bills was so thick and it wouldn't slip between the gap in the counter window. The guy was nice enough to give us a nice discount for paying in cash. Instead of paying 14 mil, he brought the price down to 12.5 mil.
That was 5 hours at the airport pretty much wasted. We got into Bali at about 5 and met up with Daan and Audrey, which will now be known as 'the inlaws'. Had our first beer of the day. and managed to catch the sunset over Kuta beach.
Rugburn, Swaine and Kristin arrived not long after, and we met up for another round of drinks while they had their dinner.
I have to say, Bali is not the shithole I envisioned it to be. I had always avoided going to Bali. My impression of the place was an Indonesian shithole equivalent of Phuket. Turns out, I was wrong...TBC
The airport is by the sea, and you can see the wonderful waves as you land. Beautiful.
Beer Bintang, the local brew. First of many....
25 June 2011 - Bali Food Tour
As per my usual travel habit, I got up bright and early and went exploring. There's nothing quite like taking a stroll down the quiet streets of the town to see it 'wake up', before the hustle and bustle set in. Seeing the locals go about their business, having breakfast, setting up shop, preparing for the day...etc. If you really want to get to the heart of a new city, just walk the streets at dawn and look for the nearest market or breakfast joint.
I found this amazing beachside beachfront makan joint. It was literally a little table, set up by a makchik with her family. A couple of tables and some absolutely amazing food. Chilli to die for...
Since our plans had changed and we needed to stay 2 extra nights in Bali, we managed to find a quaint little place right next door to our original Tune Hotel. It was called Nusa Indah, and its a really lovely place. It only has 12 rooms, but the rooms are proper, with baths, fridge and TV, and the place even has a pool. And for 400k a night, cheaper than the Tune. It even had breakfast thrown in. I would stay there again when I return to Bali.
With 2 extra days in Bali, we looked at things to do. I really wanted to try the Babi Guling (roasted suckling pig) that Bourdain had eaten while in Bali, so I suggested we rent a car, go grab some pig, then take a drive around some interesting sites. The drive turned into a food tour of Bali.
I was quite disappointed that we were brought to the 'famous' Babi Guling place... which was nothing but a tourist trap. It was NOT the place Bourdain ate at. Worst, it was a 2 hour drive from town. The food was decent, but did not have the 'wow' I was looking for after watching that episode of 'No Reservations'.
Rugburn suggested a nice dessert place post-lunch, that served the most amazing banana dishes. We heartily agreed, but the driver seemed to have his own agenda. He 'suggested' that we should drop by the Kopi Luat place instead. This was another hour drive from the lunch place, and the place was pretty much another tourist trap. They did offer a variety of teas and coffees (which was gratis), and it only cost 50k rupiah if one wanted a cup of Kopi Luak (Civet Cat Coffee...I've tried it before when I went to Yogjakarta). There was a couple of actual Civet cats caged on display though, and the entire process was shown from bean to cat poo to cup. The coffee did NOT taste as good as the cup I had in Yogya. I'm thinking that most of the Kopi Luak here is 'farmed' from the imprisoned civet cats, rather than harvested from the wild droppings. The main difference being that the wild civet cats would be picking the ripest, sweetest berries from the trees and producing stellar poo. Whilst, the captured cats would be eating whatever they were fed and pooing whatever crap the had previously shovelled.
After coffee, we headed to the dessert place. Kudos to Rugburn for finding and recommending this place. The banana dishes were superb. There was flambe, fritters, pancakes, fried, steamed and even split... All Banana... wonderful. By the time we got to the banana place, it was already 5pm, and even though we finished by 6, we only got back to town by 8. The inlaws meanwhile, had spent the day on motobikes, trailing us in the car.
We left town at 12, got to the lunch place at 2, got to kopi luak at 3, got to banana place at 5, back to town at 8... Just in time for dinner. Dinner was back at Wade's Warung, same as the first night.
Note: Interesting conversations of the day. E-Coli, stool samples, Self-serving dragons, 44 litres and cholera vaccine testing on humans/
Sunrise over Kuta Beach
And there was Macs, KFC, Starbucks, CoffeeBean, Breadtalk... and of course Bubba Gump Shrimp
The breakfast place on Kuta Beach
My breakfast, a little fried noodles, a small piece of chicken, an egg, some beef soup and the insanely good sambal. Eaten while sitting on a stool watching the waves crash on the beach.
The Indonesian govt is actually doing something about all the litter and trash on Kuta Beach. The effort is there after all the bad press the beach have been getting.
Nusa Indah. We stayed here night 2 and 3.
The InLaws on their bikes behind the car.
Horfun on her iPad. Her iPad was extremely useful for the trip. It helped us surf the net, check email and most importantly, keep score in Minimum.
Pre-Lunch
Tribute to Babi
Captive Civet Cats
Coffee beans, roasted and not
The long line of condiments that go with the coffee. There was even some tobacco to roll your own cigarette.
The gratis tea and coffee samples. I don't exactly remember what was served. I do remember there was some lemon tea, hot chocolate and balinese coffee.
I have to admit, it was a great view and wonderful ambience at the place that served the coffee.
Photographing the photographer - InLaw
Photographing the photographer - Rugburn
Rickey spilled the beans.
The Bali Food Missionaries
Photographing the photographer - Rugburn pt II
Overlooking the garden terrace.
I found this amazing beachside beachfront makan joint. It was literally a little table, set up by a makchik with her family. A couple of tables and some absolutely amazing food. Chilli to die for...
Since our plans had changed and we needed to stay 2 extra nights in Bali, we managed to find a quaint little place right next door to our original Tune Hotel. It was called Nusa Indah, and its a really lovely place. It only has 12 rooms, but the rooms are proper, with baths, fridge and TV, and the place even has a pool. And for 400k a night, cheaper than the Tune. It even had breakfast thrown in. I would stay there again when I return to Bali.
With 2 extra days in Bali, we looked at things to do. I really wanted to try the Babi Guling (roasted suckling pig) that Bourdain had eaten while in Bali, so I suggested we rent a car, go grab some pig, then take a drive around some interesting sites. The drive turned into a food tour of Bali.
I was quite disappointed that we were brought to the 'famous' Babi Guling place... which was nothing but a tourist trap. It was NOT the place Bourdain ate at. Worst, it was a 2 hour drive from town. The food was decent, but did not have the 'wow' I was looking for after watching that episode of 'No Reservations'.
Rugburn suggested a nice dessert place post-lunch, that served the most amazing banana dishes. We heartily agreed, but the driver seemed to have his own agenda. He 'suggested' that we should drop by the Kopi Luat place instead. This was another hour drive from the lunch place, and the place was pretty much another tourist trap. They did offer a variety of teas and coffees (which was gratis), and it only cost 50k rupiah if one wanted a cup of Kopi Luak (Civet Cat Coffee...I've tried it before when I went to Yogjakarta). There was a couple of actual Civet cats caged on display though, and the entire process was shown from bean to cat poo to cup. The coffee did NOT taste as good as the cup I had in Yogya. I'm thinking that most of the Kopi Luak here is 'farmed' from the imprisoned civet cats, rather than harvested from the wild droppings. The main difference being that the wild civet cats would be picking the ripest, sweetest berries from the trees and producing stellar poo. Whilst, the captured cats would be eating whatever they were fed and pooing whatever crap the had previously shovelled.
After coffee, we headed to the dessert place. Kudos to Rugburn for finding and recommending this place. The banana dishes were superb. There was flambe, fritters, pancakes, fried, steamed and even split... All Banana... wonderful. By the time we got to the banana place, it was already 5pm, and even though we finished by 6, we only got back to town by 8. The inlaws meanwhile, had spent the day on motobikes, trailing us in the car.
We left town at 12, got to the lunch place at 2, got to kopi luak at 3, got to banana place at 5, back to town at 8... Just in time for dinner. Dinner was back at Wade's Warung, same as the first night.
Note: Interesting conversations of the day. E-Coli, stool samples, Self-serving dragons, 44 litres and cholera vaccine testing on humans/
Sunrise over Kuta Beach
And there was Macs, KFC, Starbucks, CoffeeBean, Breadtalk... and of course Bubba Gump Shrimp
The breakfast place on Kuta Beach
My breakfast, a little fried noodles, a small piece of chicken, an egg, some beef soup and the insanely good sambal. Eaten while sitting on a stool watching the waves crash on the beach.
The Indonesian govt is actually doing something about all the litter and trash on Kuta Beach. The effort is there after all the bad press the beach have been getting.
Nusa Indah. We stayed here night 2 and 3.
The InLaws on their bikes behind the car.
Horfun on her iPad. Her iPad was extremely useful for the trip. It helped us surf the net, check email and most importantly, keep score in Minimum.
Pre-Lunch
Tribute to Babi
Captive Civet Cats
Coffee beans, roasted and not
The long line of condiments that go with the coffee. There was even some tobacco to roll your own cigarette.
The gratis tea and coffee samples. I don't exactly remember what was served. I do remember there was some lemon tea, hot chocolate and balinese coffee.
I have to admit, it was a great view and wonderful ambience at the place that served the coffee.
Photographing the photographer - InLaw
Photographing the photographer - Rugburn
Rickey spilled the beans.
The Bali Food Missionaries
Photographing the photographer - Rugburn pt II
Overlooking the garden terrace.
The InLaws
26 June 2011 - Surf's Up
No photos today.
Spent the day on the beach.
Surf lessons in the morning.
Bummed in the room in the afternoon.
Hit the water again in the evening.
Negliable meals.
Quote of the day: "Mommy Needs some Money". (Whispered into Rickey's ear by a half-blind 70 year old lady on Kuta Beach while she was rubbing the back of his neck)
Spent the day on the beach.
Surf lessons in the morning.
Bummed in the room in the afternoon.
Hit the water again in the evening.
Negliable meals.
Quote of the day: "Mommy Needs some Money". (Whispered into Rickey's ear by a half-blind 70 year old lady on Kuta Beach while she was rubbing the back of his neck)
27 June 2011 - Labuan Bajo
No LOD mission is complete without a ride on a turboprop aeroplane. Monday finally arrived when we got out of Bali to head over to Labuan Bajo on Flores. From Flores, it would be a simple 4 hour boatride to get to Rinca and Komodo... Land of the Dragons.
As we were on an afternoon flight, we would only get on the Tuesday morning boat, so we had to spend a night in Labuan Bajo. The town is literally a one street town. And they've 'improved' it by making the street one-way. So if for example, one wanted to drive to the docks from the hotel, one would need to take a 20min circuitous road around the town to get there. Though the docks are only a 5min walk, albeit in the wrong direction.
We were put up in the 'best' hotel in town. The hotel where all the civil servants and businessmen stayed. It was nothing more than a rudimentary room with a bucket of water for a shower and a small occilating fan for ventilation. I did think that compared to the other 'hotels' around town, this would have been my choice either way. It was the only 'hotel' that was in a gated compound with full time security. The gates were even closed and locked at night. And the room only cost 175k rupiah (strangely, if one wanted air-conditioning, the room cost DOUBLE)
Once we settled in, our fixer brought us to 'Paradise' Restaurant. The restaurant is famous for one thing. It has the best view in town of the sunset over the Flores sea. It was a spectacular sunset.
Time for bed... Off to dragonland in the morning.
As we were on an afternoon flight, we would only get on the Tuesday morning boat, so we had to spend a night in Labuan Bajo. The town is literally a one street town. And they've 'improved' it by making the street one-way. So if for example, one wanted to drive to the docks from the hotel, one would need to take a 20min circuitous road around the town to get there. Though the docks are only a 5min walk, albeit in the wrong direction.
We were put up in the 'best' hotel in town. The hotel where all the civil servants and businessmen stayed. It was nothing more than a rudimentary room with a bucket of water for a shower and a small occilating fan for ventilation. I did think that compared to the other 'hotels' around town, this would have been my choice either way. It was the only 'hotel' that was in a gated compound with full time security. The gates were even closed and locked at night. And the room only cost 175k rupiah (strangely, if one wanted air-conditioning, the room cost DOUBLE)
Once we settled in, our fixer brought us to 'Paradise' Restaurant. The restaurant is famous for one thing. It has the best view in town of the sunset over the Flores sea. It was a spectacular sunset.
Time for bed... Off to dragonland in the morning.
Dragon Airport
Nothing says LOD mission more than a turboprop plane.
Rickey with our fixer heading to get the final details confirmed.
There was a GAP.
Labuan Bajo Town
A sure sign that the tourist industry is picking up... Pizza, cooked in a wood fired oven...
Nothing like pretentious food to show that one has arrived.
Obviously I was more interested in the catch of the day.
Supposedly, most of Flores is Catholic. I couldn't find a church though... We need Ripken to sniff that out.
I saw the lady frying this and I just had to have some. It was delicious. Freshly fried banana fritters.
This guy was making little chicken balls fried with egg, Tako style. He had a loyal following of ALL the kids in town. He was literally being swarmed by little kids who would buy 2 sticks, dip them in those containers of chilli and eat it hot.
Case in point...
Paradise Bar and Restaurant.
The view of the harbour from 'Paradise'
Fisherman on his way home.
I honestly could not decide which picture was the best... So I posted 4 of my favourites
28 June 2911 - Rinca
FINALLY!!!
Finally on the boat heading out to the Land of the Dragons.
First stop, Rinca.
If not for some insignificant twist of fate in history, the dragons would have been called Rinca Dragons instead of Komodo Dragons. Who knows why it happened, but Komodo Dragons was the name given to these extra large lizards. And these extra large lizards can be found on both Rinca Island and Komodo Island.
Sadly, it turns out that the dragons are too busy fucking to make an appearance for our cameras. It was mating season... yeah... what the fuck... literally... fucking dragons.
We encountered a total of 6 dragons on Rinca (wait till you get to tomorrow's post). There was one waiting at the dock to welcome us... AND give us false hope for the day... 4 at the ranger station and 1 in the wild. None of them cared to fight, fuck or eat for our cameras... lazy fucking lizards. We saw more water buffaloes than dragons. We even took the longer 2 hour trek, in the hopes that we would encounter more dragons.
There is the old cliche about the silver lining... And we found our silver lining when we returned to the boat. We had prepared ourselves for a simple single-burner cooking from the boat captain and assistant (I even brought my own salt, pepper and spices), but like everything else that Rickey had promised. It turned out to be the opposite. The food was incredible. Captain Mat is a talented chef. We did not eat simply during this trip. Captain Mat wowed us at every meal with his culinary skills. All you could hear during mealtimes was the 5 of us going....'wow', 'delicious' , 'sedap', 'mmmmmm'. I would go back on this trip just to sit at Captain Mat's table and eat his kechup manis chicken and his incredible chapchye.
Post lunch was a short boat ride to Pantai Merah for a lovely afternoon of snorkeling.
Captain Mat finally brought us to a safe harbour for the night and we had another view of a spectacular sunset over the Flores sea.
Finally on the boat heading out to the Land of the Dragons.
First stop, Rinca.
If not for some insignificant twist of fate in history, the dragons would have been called Rinca Dragons instead of Komodo Dragons. Who knows why it happened, but Komodo Dragons was the name given to these extra large lizards. And these extra large lizards can be found on both Rinca Island and Komodo Island.
Sadly, it turns out that the dragons are too busy fucking to make an appearance for our cameras. It was mating season... yeah... what the fuck... literally... fucking dragons.
We encountered a total of 6 dragons on Rinca (wait till you get to tomorrow's post). There was one waiting at the dock to welcome us... AND give us false hope for the day... 4 at the ranger station and 1 in the wild. None of them cared to fight, fuck or eat for our cameras... lazy fucking lizards. We saw more water buffaloes than dragons. We even took the longer 2 hour trek, in the hopes that we would encounter more dragons.
There is the old cliche about the silver lining... And we found our silver lining when we returned to the boat. We had prepared ourselves for a simple single-burner cooking from the boat captain and assistant (I even brought my own salt, pepper and spices), but like everything else that Rickey had promised. It turned out to be the opposite. The food was incredible. Captain Mat is a talented chef. We did not eat simply during this trip. Captain Mat wowed us at every meal with his culinary skills. All you could hear during mealtimes was the 5 of us going....'wow', 'delicious' , 'sedap', 'mmmmmm'. I would go back on this trip just to sit at Captain Mat's table and eat his kechup manis chicken and his incredible chapchye.
Post lunch was a short boat ride to Pantai Merah for a lovely afternoon of snorkeling.
Captain Mat finally brought us to a safe harbour for the night and we had another view of a spectacular sunset over the Flores sea.
Captain Mat's Boat
The Labuan Bajo Harbour
Photographing the photographer
Beautiful boat that we were not on. Though I bet they didn't eat as well as we did.
We saw a dolphin on the way out.
Locals heading back to Labuan Bajo
The InLaws
Rinca or Komodo, we could not tell
The first Dragon, inviting us to the island.
The InLaws
Guard Post on Rinca
Ranger HQ, Komodo National Park, Rinca
Horfun and Audrey
Our 2nd Dragon.
Rickey telling stories of 'how it used to be the last time he was there'. The rest of us soon learnt that if we took the opposite of what Rickey said, we would not be disappointed.
Rinca Water Buffalo
Photographing the photographer
The ONE dragon we saw in the wild on our trek.
A Water Buffalo having a great time in the waterhole. Why, cos there were NO Dragons hunting him.
Horfun completed the mission, and both treks on flipflops. She put all of us to shame.
Turtle Island?
Not the boat we were on. Bet they didn't eat as well as we did though.
My FIRST underwater shot. Shooting underwater is tough.
Sunset over the Flores Sea, we had docked in a safe bay off Rinca.
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