Vagabonding : 2009 April |

Jumping islands

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Despite me finally starting to see the charm in Ubud, being on an island inland away from the sea is a small torture in itself. I decided to head one island over to Lombok by catching a minibus to the village of PadangBai on the east coast of Bali.

Padangbai was quaint, very chill and relaxed. Colorful wooden boats line the shore here and there isn’t really a proper beach for swimming without walking a while. I only intended to stay the one night and booked my passage on the ferry to Lombok for $5.40. To celebrate being so close to my
beloved sea again, I ate grilled barracuda caught earlier from the same dark ocean I was sitting beside.

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Posted in Indonesia |

Going for a ride

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A cacophony of horns was the perfect soundtrack to what could only be described as exhaust sputtering road rage and chaos.

Trucks overloaded three times over with dirty cargo had clogged the narrow intersection and motorcycles were buzzing in a swarm through every possible opening (including the sidewalks).

It wasn’t even rush hour, this was a normal intersection in Indonesia at a normal hour on a normal day. Even more interesting, I was sitting on one of those motorcycles sweating as the equatorial sun rose in waves off the asphalt.

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Posted in Indonesia |

A monkey attacked me today!

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Throw poo - who me?

Well, not really.

But it sounded fitting since my last post was dramatic and fraught with bad luck.

I decided to escape the drunk Swedes and Australians in Kuta and head north by minibus to the little town of Ubud. This place is still very touristy, but sleepy (things close around 22:00) and tucked away in the middle of a scorching hot jungle. There are probably more family vacationers here than budget travelers, that will probably change when everyone finishes with Uni soon.

It may be lacking backpackers, but there are monkeys. LOTS of monkeys. More monkeys than I feel comfortable having circled me at one time! For $1.50 I took a stroll through a peaceful, shady monkey sanctuary which is literally just across the street from my $5 a night guesthouse.

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