Garnerbiker's Journey on planet Earth

This blog started as a trip journal for the summer of 2011 Europe trip of 69 days. My wife Katherine, and I decided to use the entire summer break that teachers get, and go crazy. Everything was new to us. I was surprised at the blog's following. It has now become a tradition to travel on our breaks and blog about it. I write mostly as a journal for myself and students, but also give travel ideas to others that might want to travel like us, or go to the places we have seen. Take a look at what's on here. The experiences that I have had through travel are continuously shaping my life. I recommend you get out there and do it!

Translate

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Tulamben, Bali


Our departure from Ubud was relaxing.  We leisurely ate breakfast in the courtyard and chatted about our next location.  While eating, we noticed a little photo shoot going on with two young ladies.  This was the second time that we saw "modeling" photos being taken at the guesthouse.  It was more involved than your usual selfie and took ample time, so we all watched and were intrigued.  These were not professionals, and the whole thing seems quite ridiculous to me.  

We were rolling by 10:00 am, and started the 2.5 hour trip up the east side of the island to Pemuteran.  Along our road we could see rice fields and beautiful landscapes.  Mountains were everywhere and in a few places we even saw monkeys along the side of the road. 

View from the taxi taking us from Ubud to Pemuteran.

Katherine enjoying the ride.


When we arrived at the Liberty Dive Resort we were ready to dive.  We signed the necessary paperwork and headed right to the USAT Liberty.  Not to be confused with the "Liberty" class of ships, this is a United States Army Transport ship named the Liberty.  It is a WW2 wreck right off the shore of the resort and is covered with life.

We loaded our gear here into bins that were then put on the truck.

The dive was amazing!  Pics are below.

Lunch with a view of the pool.

Tommy noticed two police trucks.  Not really, but the name Mr. Popo just sounds funny.

Each morning the trees dropped beautiful flowers.  By lunchtime, the workers had swept them up only to fall again the next day.  

Kleine Maus enjoying the local beauty. 

That's me on the USAT Liberty wreck.

 Photo bomb!  Michael was trying to take a picture of us and then this happened.


Right off the wreck, on the return to shore, we passed through the eel garden.

Never seen this nudibranch before.  


More nudis!

Cleaner shrimp


All the diving we did in the Pemuteran area was shore diving.  Diving here was not the same operation as we are normally used to.  We were assigned two guides (Made and Agus) that took us wherever we wanted to go, whenever we wanted to go, and would point out anything we specifically wanted to see.  Each dive cost $30, and included Nitrox.  Our first full day of diving we loaded up and did a four dive day.  That really makes you tired, but with great food and time to rest, it is pretty smooth.

After each dive, we would come back to the resort for an iced tea or water, watermelon slices, and a dip in the fresh water pool.  There were a few other dive groups coming and going and we would occasionally cross paths trading stories about what we saw.  It was easy to change out camera batteries and jot down the info in our log books.  Our guides made sure we knew exactly what we saw and were able to name it.  

One of the things that is interesting about the area is that each dive site is set up with a range of facilities.  Now remember, this is Indonesia, so the facilities have a rustic look, but to have them there at all felt downright fancy to us.  There are fresh water showers, squat toilets, refreshments being sold, benches and shade, and even women that carry your tanks and gear for you and help you don it.  These women are very tiny, and sometimes no longer young, and they strap your BCD with all your weights onto their back and then hoist a tank, or two, onto their heads and then balance it all as they walk through rock gardens to the shore.  Very impressive!


After the last dive and dinner on our first day, we opted to get massages at the resort.  Whew!  We are sure glad that we did.  They had open air massage tables set up on a terrace above the pool which made for a wonderful atmosphere.  This became a "must" at the end of each day we were there, all for the bargain price of $15 per hour.  We might as well take advantage of this while we can since back home there is no way we can afford it.

This dive site was only a gentle sloping black sand bottom with scattered rocks.  But under closer inspection, there were small gems to be found everywhere.  It was so good that we came back a second time, and then third time.


A leaf scorpion fish

 Can you spot the frog fish?


Mantis Shrimp with a clutch of eggs


Katherine descending over the bow of the Kubu wreck.




Anemone fish in his humongous anemone 

 Humphead parrotfish



Two of the days while diving Tommy could be seen doing this above.  Yup, snorkeling like a madman checking out the sea-life in the shallows.  It was exciting to hear his stories since he was seeing new critters everywhere.  We traded information and much of what he saw was blowing his mind.  He was able to get down to a lot of the Liberty wreck and see some of the same stuff as us.  The only bad thing about floating up there is the sun can wreck you.  He had to cover up and watch out.


The Liberty Dive Resort has a huge menu and great food.  They even had three large TV's with World Cup soccer.  Can it get any better? 

Some folks were doing night dives.  Normally, we would too, but sometimes we wimp out since we are so tired. 


The resort at night was quite stunning.  My favorite is checking out the Southern Cross constellation.  It is only visible from the southern hemisphere which is a nice treat. 


Now it was time to say goodbye to the Liberty Dive Resort and say goodbye to Michael.  He had to head back to Denpasar and catch his flight to Singapore and then to the USA.  For Katherine, Tommy, and myself, we were headed to Lombok, the large island to the east of Bali for some surfing and fun.  Diving at the Liberty and surrounding dive sites is something to come back for!  We were very impressed with the macro life.  During Katherine's research for the trip, she read several times that the diving in Bali is not very good, and to skip it and head to one of the other islands.  We were seeing leaf scorpion fish, giant scorpion fish, pygmy seahorses, harlequin shrimp, mantis shrimp, wonderpus octopus, and many more weird and wonderful creatures during a single dive.  If this is bad diving, I cannot wait to see what the rest of Indonesia has in store.  We highly recommend both the Liberty Dive Resort and the sites around Tulamben.  If you decide to skip it though, that will be OK with us, since we like to have the sites to ourselves.  Next time, we plan to drag our other dive pals and make a giant underwater party out of it.  

Monday, July 16, 2018

Ubud, Bali Travel and Mt. Batur



Once out gear was packed, we headed to the front of 2 Fish Dive Resort to square up our bill and get going.  A taxi took us to the fast boat ferry, and we rode back to the big island of Bali.  The crossing was smooth and comfortable with a gently breeze blowing through the boat.

We arrived at Sanur and found out that our ferry ticket included transport all the way to Ubud, a city in central Bali.  Bonus!  For $35 we had transport of over an hour on both ends of the return boat trip, which we thought was a pretty good deal.  From Ubud, our first order of business was to hike up Mt. Batur and check out the active volcano.  This is an extreme early hike and the taxi would be there to get us at 2:30 AM!!!  The days get very warm, so to beat the heat, do it early.  Also, it makes for a great sunrise viewing.

K on the ferry from Nusa Lembongan to Sanur, Bali.

View from our room at Sania's Homestay in the center of Ubud.

Our homestay was right in the middle of Ubud, close to everything.  The housing arrangement was quite interesting.  Just like most places we had seen, there was a temple area for offerings and a fancy entryway.  But, what I found a little weird was all the rooms.  This place was old and not built for tourists.  It was more like a family commune with lots of rooms for small family groups.  

Tommy being awesome at dinner.

Everything around is beautifully decorated!

K cruising down one of the main roads.

More fancy offerings.  I guess these are there to keep the driver safe?

Typical street view.  The drooping bamboo posts were all over the streets, no matter where you were on the island.

K with a bucket of rice.

The taxi driver was there promptly at 2:30 am.  We loaded into his car and started the long journey to the volcano.  Driving at this hour on Bali, no one is out!  These drivers like to drive fast, but when no one is on the road, they really open it up.  I didn't feel unsafe, but if a dog were to have jumped in front of us, we would have surely demolished it.  I was watching on my phone's map just where we were and which route we were taking.  The driver knew all the secret roads the fanned out from the volcano.  

Once we got to the trailhead, we met our hiking guide, Jerorald.  Our driver said he was going to take a nap, since it was 4 am, and he would be waiting there when we finished.  Understandable, but we had to hoof it up to the top of a volcano!  He had plenty of time to get some rest.

The hike was smooth and cool due to the altitude.  At times, motorbikes would pass us on the steep dirt trails.  The locals will charge to drive people up as far as they can, making the hike faster and much less strenuous.  I noticed that many Balinese people were on the trail, or even riding the motorbikes up as tourists.  This mountain is popular with the locals as well, we were told. 

Looking east for the sunrise with Mt. Agung in the background.

Tommy, Katherine, and ME!

Cool panoramic shot of the sunrise

Kleine Maus says, "I need my sleep!"

G+K

Michael, Tommy, Katherine, and Garner on the very top.

The sunrise was truly spectacular!  We were in location to watch it so early that we actually got cold.  Our guide brought us coffee and a breakfast of bananas, hard boiled eggs, and egg sandwiches, which was nice and unexpected.  He said that he has hiked this volcano every day for 2 years straight.  Wowza!  That's a lot of sunrises.

From our viewing location, we continued to hike around the rim of the volcano.  On the rim, there were exposed steam vents belching out hot and moist steam.  It was super impressive and we had to check all of them out.  The trail was moderately crowded as it is a sight to see!

Michael and Tommy

Katherine doing her steam vent model pose.


This is looking into another caldera basin off the main mountain.  Pretty cool stuff!  You can even see the early morning mist hanging around until the sun burns it off later in the day. 

At times the trail was narrow.

Jeroald insisted on helping K down the crumbling steep trail.  The volcanic sand got in all of our shoes.


Tommy thought is was cool to get up close with the monkeys.  One of the monkeys immediately jumped up onto his shoulders.  It was all good fun for the first couple of seconds until he tried to take a selfie with his new friend, and the monkey went right for the USA passport in his zippered backpack.  Luckily, he wasn't trying to go to the USA and just threw it on the ground.

Good move Tommy.  Way to let your guard down!

On the way down the trail we ran into a mini chicken farm.  The roosters are used for cock fighting in the local area.  The locals found it strange and interesting that we wanted pictures of their beautiful chickens.  

Hey, these guys had the swastika first!

At the end of the successful hike, we had to take the obligatory "groupie."

We arrived back in Ubud around 11 am and were beat up!  It was time for a nap before we could do anything.  So we did.  Once we woke up and began to feel alive again, we thought it would be a good idea to get massages.  I was waiting for the perfect time to give the Balinese massage a whirl, and now was the perfect time.  My legs were a little torn up from the hike, but "oh well," let's give it a go.  

Massages on Bali are an interesting thing.  Everyone, everywhere gets them.  You can pay anywhere from about $7 an hour, up to the 5 Star resort price that will be more expensive than USA prices.  We decided to go for a middle priced place that came highly recommended all for the bargain price of $12 for an hour.  Yes, please!  It was relaxing and pleasant.  We kept going back for more each day we were in Ubud. 

These flowers were everywhere!


At Sania's Homestay, the place was littered with carvings. Unbelievable!

Let's talk coffee.

We have all heard of coffee from Sumatra and Java, but Balinese coffee is a treat as well.  Right next to our guest house we frequented a special tiny coffee shop.  On our last day there, we ordered a large amount of coffee since it was so good.  Specifically, the luwak coffee.  You may know this coffee as the most expensive coffee in the world.  You may also know it as poop coffee.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Wild luwaks eat the coffee beans which are then partially digested, and then excreted.  The bean are then collected, cleaned, and sold.


You might be saying "Animal poop coffee? Ok then.  No, thank you."  You should giving a try though.  It's great!  Plus, we bought a kilo of the beans for about a third of the price we can get it at home.  The local Bali coffee and the Toraja coffee from Sulawesi are both excellent also.  For the price we could not resist picking up a kilo of each of them.  They each have a distinct flavor, which tastes even more divine after drinking the powdered coffee that is served all over Bali.  It is quite maddening that some of the best coffee in the world is grown on the island, and yet it is not served everywhere.   

The crew with the local barista.  He asked us twice, "You want how much coffee?" Seven.  Yes.  Yes, we are sure.  He made sure to take our money before roasting up that load of beans.

While we are on the subject of buying things, if you would like to pick up some souvenirs in Bali, Ubud is a great place to accomplish this task.  There are handicrafts galore.  The wood carvings and teak wood products really caught our interests.  There are many very neat shops and street market stalls for every budget.  Shoppers can be kept busy for days.  Be sure to ready your bargaining skills.  Everything is negotiable in Bali.

The backyard area of a restaurant we stopped in for brunch.

On our way to Tulamben, Bali, on the north-east coast, where the Liberty Dive Resort is located.  Back to the ocean!