O_O JAVA O_O

Tras nuestro último buceo en Lovina, escapamos de Bali. El centro de submarinismo nos dejó en la carretera, cerca del puerto. Esperamos a que pasara un bemo (transporte público indonesio) que nos llevara hasta allá. Creyendo saber el precio exacto que debíamos pagar, le dimos 20.000 rupias al inspector, y como de costumbre, nos pidió más dinero. Al decirle que no, fue directamente hacia el conductor y comenzaron a reírse entre ellos, señalándonos con el dedo. Imaginamos que debimos pagarle de más. En fin, hasta otra Bali, hola Java.

We escaped Bali straight after our dive. The dive shop in Lovina had been kind enough to drop us off on the main road to get to the port to get to Java. They had given us an estimated price for the trip, so we knew we were not going over the initial price. To our surprise, after a rough hour bus ride, the ticket inspector came to us asking for the bus fare, we gave him a 20,000 rupia bill expecting to get some change back. The bastard looked at us and demanded 20,000 more. We looked at him with disgust, laughed in his face and continued saying "kami tidak bodoh" (we are not stupid). He took the 20,000, and went laughing to his bus driver friend saying something like "look, these tourists just paid 4 times more than the real price!… It's a pity I couldn't get anymore off them." (This is what we imagined they were saying, as they both nudged each other and laughed amongst themselves). They obviously never gave us back any change, but the satisfying thing was that this would be the last hassling we would be getting from any transport people in Bali.

BALI, QUE LA FUERZA DE GANESHA NOS ACOMPAÑE - BALI, MAY THE POWER OF GANESHA ASSIST US

BALI… 

Una isla sobre la que todo el mundo habla. Desde hace años, se nos ha bombardeado con imágenes publicitarias paradisiacas sobre Bali. Arena blanca, playas tropicales, buen surf, arrecifes de coral increíbles, gente amable y sonriente, comida exquisita, espiritualidad, "oms", ofrendas, incienso y hippies hablando sobre la paz y el amor. 

BALI… oh shit.

An island we have heard about since we were implanted this "advert style" image of paradise. The visions of white sand, tropical beaches, great breaks, amazing coral reefs, smiling locals, exquisite food, spirituality, oms & incense and a group of hippies talking about peace, love and empathy.

LOMBOK, UNA PERLA DESTRUIDA POR EL TURISMO - LOMBOK, A PEARL DESTROYED BY TOURISM

Llegamos a la pequeña isla de Lombok, situada entre las islas de Bali y Sumbawa, tras 28 intensas horas de mierda extrema en el barco Pelni. Si el primer viaje en este barco había sido de terror, este segundo fue una locura. Un barco mucho más grande que el anterior, lo que implicaba más carga y más gente. Luchamos para subir al barco con todas nuestras fuerzas, y por suerte o más bien por desgracia, solo encontramos dos camas en el piso de abajo. Peste nauseabunda que bloqueó nuestras mentes durante largas horas. Usamos el Tiger Balm (un ungüento para dolores musculares con un fuerte olor a eucalipto) para bloquear los malos olores que salían del cuarto de baño y quedarnos inconscientes durante un tiempo. Mierda y más mierda. No había ventilación y el calor era extremo. Finalmente llegamos a Lombok. Esta isla no solo tiene las famosas Gili, sino que ofrece mucho más. 

Leaving Flores behind wasn't going to be comfortable. The most economic way to get out of there was to take another Pelni ferry. If the first one had been enough shit to scare the average European, the second one was probably worse. This time, the 28 hour ship ride was a complete nightmare. A bigger vessel, which means more people and more load. To make things worse, the first hours of our trip were spent on the lowest deck of the ship. Shit… yes, this is a word that can summarize the whole experience. The heat, humidity and wretched smell of urine, sweet, shit a kretek smoke was too much. It has been the first time on this trip where we have gotten nauseous because of a particular situation. The only way to combat this feeling was by applying tiger balm directly underneath our noses. The burning eucalyptus, menthol scent made the situation slightly more bearable. To our luck, on the first stop, we managed to change to a higher deck with more ventilation, making the situation easier to cope with.

DAR CON UN TIBURÓN BALLENA… ES COMPLICADO - THE CHALLENGE TO FIND THE PERFECT WHALE SHARK

La verdad es que esta entrada no tocaba escribirla ahora, pero dado que Mango, el centro de submarinismo donde trabajamos en Indonesia, ya ha hecho sus nuevas camisetas con nuestros diseños, hemos decidido adelantarla.

We really wanted to wait for this post, but, considering Mango Dive (the dive shop where we worked in Indonesia), printed the new t-shirts we created for them, we thought it was time to publish the experience of working with them.

APRETANDO EL CULO HASTA KOMODO - NO SHITTING ALLOWED ON THE WAY TO KOMODO

Nos hubiera gustado conocer más de la isla de Sulawesi, pero para llegar a nuestro siguiente destino, la isla de Flores, necesitábamos coger un Pelni. El Pelni es el ferry más económico, y por consiguiente, más lento de Indonesia. Su frecuencia es muy limitada, así que cuando nos enteramos que el próximo Pelni partía a los 4 días, teniendo en cuenta que moverse por Sulawesi es extremadamente complicado y lento, tuvimos que sacrificar ciertas zonas de esta isla que nos hubiera encantado visitar. Así es, todo no se puede hacer.

We would have loved to have visited more of Sulawesi, but to get to our next destination, Flores, we had to take a Pelni Ferry. Pelni ferries are the most economic way to travel. On the down side, it's also the slowest way to move. Apart from being slow, these ships aren't very frequent either. So when we discovered we had 4 days to catch our boat to Labuanbajo in Flores, we were forced to travel back south as near to Makassar as possible. Let's face it, It takes a lot of time to move around Sulawesi in public transport which also meant we had to leave out a lot of things that we wanted to visit in the island. As we have discovered on our creative journey, you can't always see and do what you want.