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 We also tried to go on a hike but because the guide book we were going on was 4 years out of date it turns out the walk has been developed into some type of restaurant / museum.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