After 12 hours of flights I cam back home to Warsaw, next journey was completed. I saw 4 countries, but one of them for the first time (Indonesia). So many different places from very touristic like Kuta in Bali to remote and empty places (Island Sumbawa, Bima). Again some unexpected adventures (earthquake in Bima). Now there is a time to look at my 1 500 pictures and select the best ones.
Nov 14, 2009 12:00 AMCity of the angels
From the early morning we went to see the highlights of Bangkok, we started with temples like Wat Pro (very beautiful) but it was so crowdy that any contemplation in theese places is impossible. The toursit are pushing themselfs so we were in the stream of the people... Then our group has splited, my friends went to see others temples in Bangkok and I went to soak up with the atmosphere of the city. When I was going through Khao San I saw some street theatre performance - childrens in the tigers dress, dragons, group singing and pretending the fights .... They were pyramids made from the people (they were falling down few times). At the end huge stormm came to Bangkok, lightning and heave rain. I just thought that we were very lucky not having such weather during our trip (it was the rainy season). And that was the last thing that we did during the trip. Next step was only the airport.
Nov 13, 2009 12:00 AMOne night in Bangkok
Time to start my way back home, but in the meantime we have 1.5 day in Bangkok, so we took a flight with Air Asia from Denpasar to BKK and we landed in the early afternoon. Transfer from the airport took us more than an hour, whole city was in traffic jams. Then we checked in our hotel and went to see some city. But we started from the restaurant. I love Thai cuisine - spicy but very very tasty also great seafood. Then we took a walk through Khao San Road, a place where most of the tourist meet. At the end of the evening we went for foot massage (tomorrow we are going to visit some temples so we have to be in a good shape :)) and we decided to see little bit of the night life in Bangkok. But the things I have seen were beyond my expectations....
Nov 12, 2009 12:00 AMBali - not a paradise for me
We had one day for us in Bali. We took a transport and went to Nussa Dua beach. In the guide book they wrote that is one of the best in the island but it wasn't. Shallow water not the nice sand and unfriendly people, so after two hour there we took a taxi to go to Tanah Lot temple (taxi costs us 250 000 rupias for whole way with come back to Kuta). To the temple was quite scenic raod through the rice fields but when we arrived to the temple (entrance fee 11 000 rupias) I was shocked. A 500 meters road with stands with the souvenirs for the tourists. Then the temple which is located on the rocky island just close to the mainland (when is low tide you can reach the island) was closed for the visitors, we couldn't get into... So we come back to Kuta and went for the Balinese body massage (lombi - lombi if I am correct) and then went for the dinner at the beach. Nice end of the day. But I personally more prefer places less touristic. I am alreay tired of Kuta. But tomorrow - Bangkok :))
Nov 11, 2009 12:00 AMEscape from Bima
We slept in Bima in Lambhiu Hotel (275 000 rupias per double), not nice place but the best in the city. In the early morning I went to change our flight tickets I could see little bit of the city. Nothing interesting, small dusty, without any places to see. As we could change the resrevations we went to the airport to do standby for the flight to Denpasar (the girls were really desperated to leave Bima asap). Lady in Merpati office told me that the flight is full but after 40 minutes of the negotiation Miss Lily found for me 4 tickets in the plane, but then next problem appeared - no snacks for us in the plane. We were trying to convince the Merpati office that we will survive without them but at the end we had to write a notification that we will get no claims from this reason. When they were putting our datas to the system insted of write my name and surname they put Rafal Rafal (twice my name) and we left Bima like that (during the filght I saw from the windows biggest volcano on the island who had biggest erruption in 1863 in Indonesian history). So in the effect airlines in Indonesia don't know who is flying with them..... We reached Denpasar in afternoon and checked in the hotel. Kuta is very touristic place, I don't know is it better than empty and dusty Bima for me (maybe more things to do), but girls were very happy.
Nov 10, 2009 12:00 AMKomodo dragons
We woke up early and quick arranged a visit in the Komodo National Park (price per person is 190 000 rupias + fees for the guide). We choosed a longest path to see the famous Komodo Dragons (according to the guide they are living only here, nearby Rinca Island and in few places in Flores). The path leads throught the forest and hills (from where are great views over the island and the bay) but we didn't meet any dragons. We saw other animals like deers, wild pigs, parrots, but not the most importants. I was very dissapointed, when we come back to the rangers station finally we meet few dragons who were sleeping under people houses !!! We got crazy with the photos but anyway it was not the same thing as see this wild animals in their natural enviroment. Dragons (Warans) are amazing, huge (3 meters long), heavy (up to 100 kilos) and dangerous (normally the don't attack the people but we heard about such cases). After we decided to come back to Bima, so we took our boat we had a short stop for snorkeling on the Pink Beach and then we took a way back to Sape. We could see Komodo Island during the day, they are stunning and very beautiful. Our way back was only 4.5 hours and we reach Sape at 8 pm. As I hated this place we wanted to get away from there as soon as we could. We took a taxi to Bima. In the meantime the nasty people from Sape were trying to get as much money from us as they could. It was the worst place during my travels, if you can avoid it.
Nov 09, 2009 12:00 AMReaching Komodo Islands
We left Padangbai in early morning, then we took a flight from Denpasar (with Trigana Air 90 USD one way) to Bima. We landed quite early in Sumbawa and took a taxi to get to Sape. This was the only chance to get from Sumbawa to Komodo Islands. But shortly after landing we found out that exactly the same day was earthquake here in Bima !!! But we haven seen any of the signs of the earthquake also people here were very calm. When we get to the taxi we asked our drive to take us at the begining to Tourist Information (according to Lonely Planet it should be one in Bima), but we didn't found any and taxi driver took us to some general who was tourist authority on the island. When we finally reached Sape (small, ugly and not interesting port) we found out that the ferries between Sumbawa and Flores don't stop in Komodo. The only chance is to hire a boat. From the very first moment we had some touts who were annoying and trying to cheat us. Finally haven't any other solutions we rent a fisherman boat ( 2 500 000 rupias for retourn journey and the boat was waiting for us). But the things are not so quick here so we had to wait 3 hours for departure. Then instead of 4 hours journey took us 7 hours and we reached Komodo after midnight. We woke up the rangers and went sleep in Camping run by them. That was long and exhausted day.
Nov 08, 2009 12:00 AMKings of the road
We wanted to go to Gili Islands today but there is no chance to go there and come back in one day, also ferry tickets are quite expensive (50 USD OW), so having nothing more to do we decided to rent a motorbike and see more of the island. We decided to go to Virgin Beach in Candidasa. We went through mountains, villages, rice fields. But the biggest adventure was to drive the motorbike here. Other drive rules as in Poland (or often lack of rules :). Virgin Beach itself is small, hidden and white beach (also to go there we had to paid entrance fee 2500 rupias per person). We took a sunbath, we had a time to read little bit and rest. Very nice afternoon. When we come back we got our flight tickets for tomorrow and in my opinion the biggest adventure for this trip will start tomorrow.
Nov 07, 2009 12:00 AMDiscovering "the Liberty" wreck
That was second diving day for my friends. We went to Tulamben where is a great divers attraction, the Liberty wreck. It was a ship torpeded by Japanese during IIWW, after it was on the beach until 1963, when was a huge eruption of the Gunung Agunug volcano, which put the wreck into the water. From that time it has been taken by corals and divers. But also during the snorkel I could see some part of the wreck. Great impression, I was feeling as a great discovered. Then on our way back we saw some places in Bali like Culik, rice terraces around Gunung Agung, Candidasa and we went back finally to our base at Padangbai. We went againg to our travel agent and after long time we had a tickets from Denpasar to Bima (in Sumbawa), from where are also trips to Komodo Islands but much more difficult to organize. At the end of the day we joined local people who were celebrating a victory in cock fight. It was a great end of the evening drink a beer and listen to live songs.
Nov 06, 2009 12:00 AMBlue Lagoon
As I am not diver as my friends I had this morning only for me, they went for diving. I took the time to read little bit, go to the internet cafe, make a laundry.. But whole day without doing nothing is too much for me. On the second diving I went with them to do snorkeling. Coral reefs were not so spectacular as in Philippines, but anyway I saw some corals and very colorful fishes and I paid almost nothing for that trip - only 5 USD. After coming back to the city we were trying to book our flight tickets to Komodo Islands - and uppss, we had a huge problem. First of all you can only reserve a flight ticket for Indonesian airlines in the internet if you have Indonesian credit card, secondly the only travel agent in the city had no computer so he was calling all the time without any results. So we were very frustrated when we found out that there is no places in the plane for Labuan bajo. He promised us to find the solution, but we didn't saw any results of that. When we come back after an hour he forgot completely about us. So if somebody will need for the future: They are directs filgts from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo (Flores, close to Komodo Islands) daily. Flights are done by Trans Nusa Air and the price is 90 USD one way.
