Indonesia - Bali and Lombok

After leaving Darwin I landed in Singapore about 4 hours later. Walking through the transit area I realised that this was my first time north of the equator in almost 5 months. I only spent a couple of hours there, waiting for the connecting flight to Denpasar which would take me south of the equator again. I arrived in Bali around midnight and was fairly exhausted. It hit me when I got into the arrivals hall that I was no longer in a western country. People harrassed the tourists to carry their bag to the exit only a few metres away, where they then demanded payment. I've seen this type of thing before, so I didn't allow anyone to touch my rucksack. When I exited the terminal of course I saw dismayed tourists arguing with these touts. I hadn't had to deal with this since south america and I was tired, so it was kind of annoying. I met an Aussie guy and a German guy at the taxi stand, so we shared a cab into Kuta. After about 10 minutes arguing with the cab driver over the price, because he wanted to charge per passenger. Josh (the German guy) and I searched for a hotel in the Poppies 1 area of town and found somewhere after being followed around by several people, trying to take us to hotels where they get commission.

The next day I spend walking around the town and the beach. People try to flog me all sorts of stuff on the way down the road. Not sure how many times I said no, but it felt like a thousand. This place was a tourist trap full of hawkers and touts, so I decided to go somewhere more peaceful. Josh and I got tickets to leave the next morning at 6am; destination Lombok and the Gili islands.

We get picked up at the hotel and drive about 1.5hrs to Padangbai. There we stop for the obligatory breakfast at the tour companies restaurant. We get hassled by hawkers the whole 400m walk to the ferry. Even on board they follow us up onto the deck and try to sell food and water. Now acclimatised to the way of things here, I switch off and ignore them. Shortly the ferry departs and we spend the next 5 hours lying in the sun and listening to music. Now slightly sunburnt we arrive in Lembar port on Lombok shortly after lunchtime and get on a minibus to continue the journey. The route takes us through Mataram and then the monkey forest to Pemenang. This is where we take the small boat out to Gili Trawangan, the last in the string of the 3 Gili islands. Pemenang is just a collection of a few houses and shops and hundreds of touts trying to rip off backpackers with various scams. This place was a true dump. After half an hour we finally left and arrived on the island 45 minutes later.

Upon disembarking at the beach we are met by a local who takes us to a small hotel he runs called Karisma, set back 100m from the beach. The village consists of one street with restaurants, bars and dive shops. There are also no police on this island, makingh it a hedonistic paradise. About 460 locals inhabit the island, with probably the same amount of tourists. There were the usual touts, but this time they were selling dope and magic mushrooms due to the non existent police presence. This practice would receive a very lengthy prison sentence on the mainland, but here it was accepted. There were definitely some crazy people hanging around there that had probably stayed too long...


After a few days relaxing on the beach and catching up on some sleep, I decided to start an advanced scuba diving course with Blue Marlin Dive. This would comprise of 5 dives over 3 days. 1 night dive, 1 deep dive to 30m, 1 underwater navigation dive, 1 underwater photography and a peak performance buoyancy dive. The course was fantastic and I passed it successfully. Unfortunately we didn't see any sharks this time, but there were loads of turtles and fish.




In the evenings I go up to the lookout on the hill and watch the sunset, a huge firey mass dropping into the ocean. I've seen a lot of sunrises and sunsets on this trip, but this one was the best by far. After a week on Gili Trawangan unfortunately I had to travel back to Kuta, another 12 hour journey. However I was thoroughly relaxed and had enjoyed my time there away from the hustle and bustle. I stay in Kuta for a few days more and then leave for Singapore on 23rd June.

Australia - Darwin and Kakadu

After the 4 hour flight from Perth up to Darwin, I was back into the tropical climate of the Northern Territory. The humidity was overpowering as I stepped out of the air conditioned terminal to board the bus into the city. I checked into Chilli's hostel on the main drag and went out for a drink with a few guys from the dorm. The nightlife in Darwin is good and there are a lot of backpackers. I head to bed relatively early though, tired from the travel.

The next morning was an early start as I got picked up at 6am to start a 3 day tour of Kakadu national park. The park spans a vast area about the size of Wales and we are going to cover 1400km on this trip. Apart from it's natural wilderness and beauty, Kakadu is famous for the outback film location of "Crocodile Dundee". We are a small group of 9 in the 4x4 jeep. Jamie is our tour guide, and there is Gabriele, Helen and Cathy all from Australia, Dan and myself from Ireland, Kees from Holland and Mike and Sue from England.

The first day we drive several hours to the park. The afternoon is spent hiking and swimming in billabongs (small freshwater lakes). There are freshwater and saltwater crocodiles in the park, but not normally in these billabongs. However, there are signs stating that swimming is at your own risk. We all jumped in anyway and the cold water was so refreshing as it was over 30 degrees. That evening we set up camp and cooked over the campfire. The sky was perfectly clear and the stars were incredible. We slept outside around the fire in our swags. It got fairly cold at night and the temperature dropped to about 6 degrees, so the thermals were on. I woke up around 6.30am when it got light. everything was covered in dew, so it was a chilly start getting out of the swag. After breakfast we headed off in the jeep again. The itinerary was fairly similar to the previous day with plenty of hiking and swimming. We also went to an Aboriginal area with old rock art, where we learnt about the history and symbolism. We also learned about bush food and some of the group even licked green ants, a source of vitamins for traditional Aboriginals. Later we collected firewood for the evening amid the acrid smoke of a controlled forest fire. Rangers do this to stop wildfires, but it was still quite worrying.

That evening we watched the sunset at yellow river which was stunning. Then we set up camp, had a barbeque and drank some of the now infamous goon. Again the sky was clear and we stayed outside in the swags. However the next morning I awoke with a slight cold due to the change in temperature. No worries though cause I was having a great time! The third and final day of the tour was spent at an Aboriginal cultural centre. This was a chance for us to learn about the Aboriginal way of life and how they survived out in the bush. It is incredible the uses they have for everything. What looks like a forest to us is an entire supermarket for them. We also got the chance to throw spears at targets and try a hand at weaving. After our cultural session we drove on for another few hours. We stopped by the river and went on a boat cruise to spot freshwater and saltwater crocodiles. As we went down the river we spotted about 10 crocs on the banks and watched as they moved swiftly into the water. Some of them were around 3m long. No one wanted to swim here ;) As the boat pulled up to the bank we were only a few metres away from these huge reptiles, which was quite scary. We were under strict instructions from the skipper to keep our limbs well inside the boat. This was a ruke that of course no one was going to dissobey.

It was my last full day in Australia and what a way to spend it. There was only one thing that was dissapointing...I had been in Australia for almost 8 weeks and had not even seen a kangaroo in the wild. As we drove back down the road at dusk, as if on cue, kangaroos jumped across the road. Perfect timing I thought. Then there were loads of them and we almost hit a few. Luckily Jamie's driving skills managed to avoid a collision. So now i could leave Australia happy. That evening we return to Darwin exhausted, but went out for a meal and a few drinks together.

The next morning I got up and packed my stuff to leave. Next stop Indonesia. However, I had to fly from Darwin to Singapore and then back to Bali Denpasar. This would take me around 7 hours for a journey of about 2, as I could not get a direct flight.

Australia - Perth

In order to use up some of the extra tickets I had for internal flights in Australia, I flew on to Perth on the south west coast. I didn't really have anything to do there, just check out the city. After arriving I went to a hostel in Northbridge, the more "happening" part of the city. It's a nice place and good to walk around, but 4 days there was enough. I used the time to chill out after the fairly hectic previous few weeks and met up with friends of friends.

Now into the final days of the Australia leg, and haven't even seen a kangaroo in the wild...

Australia - The Red Centre

I left Cairns early on the June 1st to catch a flight to Uluru (Ayers' Rock), in the middle of Australia. Uluru is the Aboriginal name and since the land was given back to them in 1995, the rock is now known by both names. Flying there took almost 3 hours, again making me realise how vast this country is. Cruising above the desert it is simple to see why it is called the Red Centre. The scrubland is bright red soil and looks totally inhospitable, with no dwellings to be seen for hundreds of km's.

On the approach to land at Connellan airport I can see Uluru (Ayers' Rock) below. It looks totally out of place, standing 300m higher than the flat desert plains all around. I disembark and the cool breeze is unexpected. Upon collecting my bags I get the free shuttle bus to the Outback Pioneer Lodge, where i will base myself for the next few days. On Saturday I get picked up by Dee, a guide from Australia Adventure Tours in a 4x4 minibus. This is the start of a 2 day tour around Uluru. We firstly drive off to the Olgas, a small range of rock formations about 50km away. There we hike around for about 2hours and awe the breathtaking scenery. Along the way Dee explains the variuos ways the traditional Anangu Aboriginal people survived out here. It's all very interesting, but eating bugs didn't really appeal to me... After the short hike we drive on to the Sunset viewing point at Uluru. The car park is like a circus with tour busses everywhere. We find a place away from the crowds, open a bottle of Champagne and watch the sun go down. The rock changes colour and it is stunning to watch as the bright red hue turns to dark red and finally to black. Later that day we arrive at the permanent campsite and are allocated tents. We are then cooked a fantastic steak dinner and sit around the campfire under stars, talking and having a few beers. It is such an incredibly stary night with a full moon, so i don't want to sleep inside. Dee organises some "swag" bags (outback matress/sleeping bags). Only 3 of the group opt to sleep outside and the rest retreat to the tents. During the day it is about 30 degrees, but at night time this drops to a chilly 3 degrees. However, with the thermal underwear on and inside a sleeping bag in the swag, I am almost too warm. In fact I get too hot at one point and wake up. the moon is shining bright and I have to pull the swag cover over my face to get back to sleep. I leave it part open though, just to keep one eye on the southern cross until I fall asleep again.

The next morning we awake at 5.30am and have a hearty breakfast before driving around to the other side of the rock to watch the sunrise. Again, it is very impreesive as the silouhette becomes bright with the rising sun to regain it's startling red hue. It's freezing though and we are glad that the sun is coming up to get warm again. We then proceed to the base of Uluru, where the base walk and climb start. There are a lot of tourists clambering up the rock. However, the Aboriginal people request that you do not do this as for them it is a spiritual place with great significance. I stand at the bottom an debate to myself whether to follow the hoardes and climb to the top. It is very tempting. However, out of respect fot the Aboriginal people who inhabit the area, I opt not to. Instead I hike 10km around the base of the rock and see some engravings on the way. I am happy with my decision not to climb the rock as for me it was the right thing to do.

After lunch I go bact to the Outback Pioneer Lodge and hang out for the rest of the day and Monday morning. At lunchtime I get the free shuttle bus back to Connellan airport and board a Quantas flight bound for Perth, another 3 hour flight away.