The Eastern Wanderer

36 hours after having returned from my very first foray eastwards to a place already plenty visited by people from all over the globe, sitting in a cafe typing this, it feels a wee bit like I had never really left at all. But yes, type I must, for it has been quite awhile since the last time I did this...

"Mohon perhatian, para penumpang Garuda Indonesia penerbangan GA254 tujuan Denpasar...", the voice announced, breaking me from my reverie as I gathered up my stuff and made my way to the boarding gate. After such a long time in Indonesia, it had seemed quite unthinkable that I had never visited the famed tourist destination which was Bali, but here I was, finally making that maiden visit.

Opting to skip the overly touristy region of the many beaches which include Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, etc that make up the southern portion of Bali island, my first destination after stepping off the plane was to Padangbai. A nice little town on the eastern side of Bali which in the past was a sleepy little fishing village, now slightly transformed by tourism as it has drawn a sizable number of scuba enthusiasts owing to the magnificent coral formations, marine life, and clear waters. Five-star tourist destination it is not, but it certainly is a good place to base yourself if you like to dive, other than the excellent sites immediately in the vicinity, it also is a convenient place to launch trips further to Tulamben, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida.

In line with its main attraction, is it of any great surprise that it is here that I will begin my virgin exploration of the underwater world. Signing up with Geko Dive (one of the older dive establishments here in Padangbai, which by now have several, e.g. Absolute Dive, Waterworxx, Q-Dive, just to name a few), I spent 6 glorious days in the waters off Padangbai slowly discovering what I soon started to find was becoming an addiction. An addiction to diving! And what my instructor Irene said really rang true, that no matter how many times you dive, even in the same location, the novelty never wears off, there is always something new to see. This coming from someone who has clocked some 900+ dives in the waters of Padangbai alone, it can't be very far from the truth.

The best thing I like about such locations for a holiday is that there is just that right amount of balance between a little bit of creature comfort, local culture, food, etc. I grew up in a big city. Going to yet another big city for a holiday would surely bore me to tears. Places like these are right up my alley for what I would term a holiday.

As the saying goes, time flies while you are having fun, and this was certainly true as I boarded the slow ferry to cross over to Lombok for part two of my trip. In the blink of an eye, a week had flitted by. Having done 9 dives, plenty of theory in between, interspersed with exploratory walks and some photo taking in the area around the bay area, sampling the local food, etc, it was time for me to bid farewell to Padangbai (for now, for I would be passing by again for part three, but more on that later).

The slow ferries run on a 1.5 hourly interval, departing Padangbai for Lembar harbour on Lombok with the crossing taking some 4~4.5 hours depending on the conditions at sea. Perama has a direct boat that runs between Padangbai and Senggigi (more on that later. I took it for my return journey), taking 4 hours. And finally the most expensive of the many options are the speedboats that run directly to the Gili islands from Padangbai, taking only a mere 1.5 hours.

Sitting on the top deck of the ferry during the long journey was actually pretty pleasant, with both sheltered and open-air areas to park your bottom. Many of the caucasian tourists took the opportunity to sunbathe during the long crossing, well cooked lobsters they were! Me? I found a nice shaded spot with the sea breeze coming in, and just made myself comfortable and did some thinking. I had much to think about and reflect in fact, not so much about trials and tribulations, but about what had transpired in the past 2 months or so. Oh how much things have changed, and I had found myself in that strangely familiar yet foreign, though certainly welcome, sensation of being in love again. Close friends have certainly marveled at how things have progressed, and frankly, so have I. But yet there is no real feeling that we are rushing things. Perhaps there is reason to be suitably optimistic as we make plans and take steps to make that uncertain future a little bit clearer to us. For that, I am glad. To know that we're both putting in effort to make things work out, maintaining a long distance relationship is certainly not an easy task, much less a relationship that actually started as such, although there are certainly some quarters what would say that it is actually easier to transit from "not being there" to "being there" than the other way round, but the reality of things is that, there is no right answer. Every scenario is unique. But at least with some sort of plan, there is some sense of direction for us.

A short blast of the ship's horn alerted me to the fact that land was in sight, but any hope that I harboured (pun intended) that this long journey on the sea was coming to an end was going to be sorely misplaced as we got closer to Lembar harbour. Apparently there were some construction works going on at the docks, leading to a massive "traffic jam" of sorts with three or four ferries just aimlessly floating around awaiting their turn to disgorge their loads on the pier. By the time I finally set foot on Lombok's ground, I had been on the ferry for almost 6 hours, and I was not even close to my eventual destination of Senggigi yet. From Lembar harbour it was about another hour by shuttle bus before I finally strode into the huge walled grounds of Senggigi Beach Hotel.

Located right on the frontage of the main beach in central Senggigi, the hotel is certainly very nicely located. Perhaps even more so then the other big resort (which I forgot the name of) in central Senggigi. Of course, heading further up north you will find the huge international hotel chains, but they're not really the kind of accommodation I was looking for (or afford). With a wide variety of rooms, from beachfront bungalows to villas, Senggigi Beach Hotel certainly caters to a wide variety of customers. While not fantastically beautiful, it was certainly a very nice place to relax in. Restaurant and bars within the hotel's grounds were also diverse and good enough to keep one within the resort's grounds with no real need to head outside.

Exploring the area around in central Senggigi didn't seem to turn up anything "happening" by any standards. There appears to be a couple of small bars and what looked vaguely like a disco, but suffice to say it wasn't good enough to entice me to come out again at night to give them another look-over. I was pretty contented with just lazing by the beach on a deck chair, listening to the rolling sound of the waves. Did I mention the waves? They were just about right if one is a complete newbie and wish to learn. Watching the local kids riding the surf, I was almost tempted to give it a go. With the beach facing westwards, it was really an ideal location to view sunsets from, although luck and weather was not on my side. If the weather was clear, we could supposedly see the majestic Gunung Agung on Bali from here!

Plenty of dive operators could be found here in Senggigi, but they are mostly satellite offices for the main ones on the Gili islands. About an hour north of Senggigi. If one likes to stay in comfy resorts, then this would definitely be the option to take. Staying in Senggigi, then doing day-trip dives up in Gili. Because the accommodation options there are much simpler. But for me, if there is going to be an intention to dive in Lombok, I would definitely opt to head straight to Gili by the speedboats from Padangbai. The hassles involved in getting to and fro from Bali to Lombok is one I could do without.

Fed-up with the delays that involve the ferry crossing, I decided to give Perama (a bigscale tourism transport solution company here in Indonesia) a go. I could not have possibly made a poorer decision than this for my whole holiday. Shock number one came when I was led to beach instead of a pier. Shock number two came when I was instructed to remove my shoes and roll up my pants! Apparently we had to wade into the water a little bit to climb onto a small boat which would bring us to the Perama boat that was anchored further out. Notice that I had mentioned "boat" and not "ship". The Perama vessel was pretty small.. .about 25~30m in length. Getting on, I knew I was going to be in for one hell of a ride across the choppy sea, and boy was I right, having the passenger area right up near the bow didn't help any. Alternating between struggling to keep my breakfast in and looking at my watch, I somehow miraculously survived 4 hours without upchucking. Seeing a pod of dolphins and some flying fishes along the way helped somewhat I suppose, but the nausea made it rather difficult to enjoy the experience. Not having been seasick before, this was a totally new (and unwelcome!) experience. I guess I will put up with longer journey times and take the slow ferry in future, not to mention it being significantly cheaper, coming in at slightly less than a third of the cost of a Perama ticket.

Stepping on terra firma once again at Padangbai, I could have kissed the ground. Bus transfer to Ubud was straightforward enough, with me arriving in the cultural heart of Bali after slightly over an hour. The influence of tourism had not escaped my notice with the heavy traffic choking up much of the narrow roads here, and also the multi-national crowd that walked up and down the streets of Ubud. Comparing one cultural center with another, Ubud certainly has much more appeal than Jogja. Not only in terms of catering to the international tourist trade, but also the scenes and sights on offer. One can't help but realise why Jogja has bemoaned lack of growth and development in comparison to Bali. Without the right amount of supporting infrastructure, it just wasn't going to happen. Hopping onto an ojek (that's a scooter-taxi for the uninitiated), we zipped through the traffic from the Perama office in Ubud to my hotel, Champlung Sari, which was nicely situated just a stone's throw away from the famed Monkey Forest of Ubud. At S$89 a night, I must say the rooms at Champlung Sari were remarkably good value for money. Though a far cry from the luxurious villas offered elsewhere, it was clean and comfy. It also featured a rather interesting layout with the bed right smack in the center of the room, meaning you can actually walk around all 4 sides of the bed.

Walking down the main streets of Ubud, I realise one thing, that I have to come back here again. There are so many things to see that my extremely short one night stay here could not possibly be sufficient. Beyond that, there were also a wide variety of knick-knacks and artwork on sale that would look great in a home (once I get one of my own that is). In a way that could be a highlight for me, would be meeting up with Jo and Charles for dinner. Imagine that. Some 2000km from home and with some stroke of luck, our schedules coincided right here in Ubud. It was also quite a different way to spend CNY as compared to previous years, away from home but yet in the company of friends. Nice though.

Running out of things to say already... but to sum it up, Bali again in future? Definitely. Lombok? Maybe.