Mountains & Monkeys

The Josh Franco Section
We saw monkeys. We climbed a mountain. We went swimming.

Gulungan not Gulungu. Gulungan. I think Gulungu may have been some kind of Football Manager youth player destined for mediocrity. Apologies for insulting your sacred holiday with my bad spelling Bali.

Previously - We'd just arrived in the town of Ubud. Famous for its arts and crafts.

And Now....

Gulungan was a nice time to stay in Ubud. The fact it is such a big thing meant the pace of life was slowed down to accommodate festivities and there weren't quite as many people trying to push souvenirs as there might have been. We saw some traditional Balinese dance which involved lots of staring eyes and weird hand movement. Some of the moves I'll incorporate into my repertoire. We also tried to go on a hike but because the guide book we were going on was 4 years out of date it turns out the walk has been developed into some type of restaurant / museum. Sigh. The highlight of our stay was definitely the Monkey Forest. Unlike, Koh Phi Phi's Monkey Cove there were actually a stupid amount of monkeys running around completely wild. We spent about 2 hours there and during the time saw a monkey steal and eat a box of matches, two monkeys having wild monkey sex and best of all a monkey pick pocket a man of a 100,000 Rp note. You weren't allowed to touch the monkeys but they were allowed to touch you. Nic had two on her head and one on her lap which of course she loved. I thought for a minute we were going to end up with a comedy monkey sidekick. Sadly not.

After Ubud we set out toward the mountains to the town of Toyah Bungkuh. Helpfully the bus company dropped us nowhere near the town at the top of a hill. After teaming up with some nerdy American girls we managed to get a bus down but not before a gang of middle aged women singled me out for some serious Sarong pushing. The town itself was kind of creepy like the type of place the gang would go to investigate a mystery in Scooby Doo. However, it is the base for people trekking up Mount Batur so we found a fleebag motel and prepared ourselves for some physical activity with a dip in the healing hot spas. Night-time was weird it's the first place we've felt cold because of the once again creepy mists that roll in over the lake. The climb itself involved a wake-up at 3.30am for a 4am start. I psyched myself up by listening to Fightstar. Nic psyched herself up by mocking me. The guide rated the trek as moderate and going through the forests at the bottom it was pretty moderate. Then we reached the mountain (which is an active volcano) it wasn't moderate anymore. The climb was quite vertical and the paths where all gravel and stone meaning it was difficult to get a footing. Still we pushed on and although we both felt a little like vomiting we reached the top in about an hour and a half. The sunrise was an incredible sight and worth the near sickness. Because the volcano is still active the guides cooked our breakfasts on the rocks. I should also mention Nic and I wore fetching matching fleeces. The climb down was similarily difficult because of the paths but it took about the same as the climb up. At the bottom we wanted to get out of Ghost Town as quickly as possible. This proved difficult as the people of Toyah Bungkuh seemed to have formed a pact to merk people who come to their town by making getting out extremely expensive. 150,000 was the price quoted for just getting up the hill and 600,000 to our destination of Lovina. Luckily one beautiful soul took pity on us and flagged down a truck which we got on the back of. This got us to the top of the hill where a local gangster took a liking to me and pushed his private taxi service. We didn't want to pay his extortionate prices so we continually refused which he took as bartering. When we continued to refuse he got a bit aggressive so we walked away. 5 minutes later he flagged down a cheap public bus for us. I think maybe he was testing us and we passed. After one more bus and an incident involving a basically asleep Nic nearly freaking out as she had no idea where she was (I didn't help) we made it to Lovina for 180,000 Rp total. We were very proud of ourselves.

In Lovina we enjoyed a bit of luxury (hotel with a swimming pool) and some great cheap food. We tried going down the beach but it is low season now and we were absolutely mobbed by people selling various shit and begging us for our business for such diverse things as dolphin trips and coconut oil. We also helped a class of children with conversational English. I felt good until their teacher tried to sell us a tour. Most of the time was spent just relaxing and planning the next stage (Oz) in more detail.

We are now in Kuta and fly out to Sydney tonight. It's a lot busier here and the beach is great with perfect sets of waves rolling in at a steady pace. Yesterday we went to the Waterbom water park which had a great variety of slides. We were almost first through the door so we got on everything before most people arrived. There was one incident where we maybe pushed it a little far and flipped our tube in a dark tunnel but Nic got an ice pack for her injury and we're good if a little sore today. In many ways she is a hero for braking my fall.

Today we're just milling about by the beach and trying to score a few last minute bargains. To be honest I'm quite excited about going back to the Western world. I've developed a sort of sense of dread when anyone talks to me here just waiting for them to reveal exactly what it is they want to sell to me. The other day I even thought Nic was going to try and sell me something or other. I think a set price economy will help my fragile psyche.

Missing you,

Steve & Nic

xxxxxxx

You Better Balieve It

The Josh Franco Section
We are in Bali. Bali is an island. You live on an island.

I took a while debating which title to use for this blog 'Balieve it Or Not' came a close 2nd but I thought the one I chose was more threatening which is always good.

So we are on the Indonesian island of Bali. So far our stay has been very pleasant. There have been things we've had to get used to such as breakfast serving ladies and pretty much everyone else in every profession trying to push a relatives transport firm on us and bartering for pretty much everything including hotel room prices but I think we're settled into the flow of things now. The culture seems quite similar to Thailand and once again everyone has been friendly and very helpful (especially with suggestions for transport).

We started off in the beach side resort of Sanur and spent a couple of days lazing on the beach. Our first hotel let us down slightly by allowing a Balinese band to practice outside our room every hour of the day and night and failed to inform us of their rooftop pool but we soon found a better place at a better price. They told us about their pool too.

From here we bussed it through rice paddies and small villages to the town of Padang Bai. Much smaller than Sanur it was basically one seaside street. Over our two and a bit days here we again gravitated toward the beaches. There are some great hidden beaches here - one we had to climb through a construction site to get to. Still it was worth these little treks to find these nearly deserted cubby holes of sand, rocks, waves and old women with hard-ons for coconuts and pineapples. We also had an incident with our first hotel here. I say incident but the right word would be infestation. The head board of our mattress was filled with tiny bugs that crawled and squirmed their way onto our bed. To make matters worse there was no staff around so I had to wake the kiwi owners on any door I could find. Needless to say we only spent one night here (Nic is still slightly traumatised) and went on to find better accomodation. The place we stayed last night was a restaurant with deck filled with comfy chairs and hammocks surrounded by rooms and with views looking out to the sea. Nic loved the place as it fulfilled a childhood dream of living in a treehouse and I think it's set the standard for places to come. Basically we're going to try and get wood.

We are now in Ubud which is a small-ish town away from the sea and the base for arts and culture in the island. Galleries are everywhere as well as a giant market selling pretty much every type of small wooden sculpture you could imagine. We've planned some walks as well as a visit to the Monkey Forest for the coming days. Excitingly it is also Gulungu (The Balinese equivalent of Christmas - Something to do with goods victory over Evil). The main celebration is tomorrow and the streets are adorned with palm leaf weaving and small basket offerings to the spirits. I guess that makes today Gulungu Eve so Happy Gulungu everyone!

Missing You,

Steve & Nic

xxxxxxx

Shane & Other Primates

The Josh Franco Update
We went to the zoo. We saw monkeys. Monkeys like bananas.

Quick update from Singapore airport courtesy of Free Internet.

We have spent the last couple of days in the big cities of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. They were quite the contrast to Bangkok because it seemed someone actually put some thought into designing them rather than them just happening through a series of unconnected events. It also helps that they had clean and convenient public transport. Singapore's had a bonus rap about courtesy before you get on which scored it major bonus points with me.

So Kuala Lumpur and the Equator Hostel were our first stop. Once we got over the shock of everyone looking a little bit like Shane we managed to go to Malaysia's largest indoor theme park, the world's 4th highest telecommunications tower and a strange, small underground zoo where a monkey aggravated a komodo dragon and a guinea pig lived happily side by side with turtles. We also went to the finals of The Malaysian Open Tennis Championship. Here Tiger Davydenko overcame Tiger Verdasco 6-4 7-5 in what was a really fast paced and competitive match. It really is one of those sports where you have to see it live to understand the speed of thought that is actually required to play at the top level. It was also quite shocking just how much better the singles players were than the doubles players. I think maybe Davydenko could have taken the doubles champs. Another highlight for me was when we saw a B-Boy crew break dancing outside a free Asian pop concert whilst the Asian N-Dubz were onstage. I wanted to battle them but Nic wisely advised me not to as when I embarassed them with my clearly superior moves they might pull a blade or a shooter.

After KL we trained it down to Singapore. We only really had one day in the city but we managed to do a quick tour of China Town (where Nic tried on dresses and I faked interest) and Castle Quay where I fulfilled my life long dream of eating at a Hooters restaurant. It wasn't too sexy (Though there was a waitress paying no interest to tables but instead just hula hooping) and it was 10 SGD for three courses and a drink. Apologies to Germaine Greer and Angela Carter but it was good eating. After this we headed to Singapore Zoo and the attached Night Safari. Even for a child raised on Durrell it was extremely impressive. The pygmy hippos were a favourite for both of us. Too dense to float and unable to swim they kind of tip-toe along the ocean / river floor like fat underwater trotting horse-pigs. The Night Safari was another experience entirely. Set in a different park it involved tram rides and shows with the nocturnal animals. The best part though was just walking around the paths and observing the animals in a more natural habitat. It was amazing the simple change from day to night had on their behaviour allowing them to be less inhibited (though not in a sexy way) and just act almost as if we weren't there watching them.

Today we are flying to Bali. We thought we were flying this morning but apparently the airline had contacted the travel agency in July to tell them the time had changed. This message was not passed to us. Here lies the folly of not phoning to confirm your flights. We have heard about the earthquakes and things in the neighbouring areas but it seems from what we can find on the internet that Bali hasn't been affected too much and should be safe (Don't worry Mum!) and we're looking forward to hitting the beaches again. Two weeks and then it's Australia but I'm sure I'll be hitting you kids up before then.

Be good.

Missing you,

Steve & Nic

xxxx