July 11, 2016 – July 18, 2016
Jakarta, Lombok, Gili Air and Surabaya, Indonesia
After leaving Malaysia I headed to Jakarta, Indonesia. I met a French lady in Semporna, Malaysia and we had very similar backgrounds and had really good conversation so I decided to travel with her in Indonesia. She had a round-the-world ticket and had been traveling for about 6 months when we met. This was her last destination before making the journey home. We started with a night in Jakarta and we stayed in a truly terrible hotel. The taxi driver couldn’t find it because the address was not listed correctly, there was poop in the hallway and the room was gross, hot and stinky. It was a poor choice but luckily we were only there one night. The next morning we decided to move on to Senggigi on Lombok Island. The change in accommodation was such a welcome change. We did AirBnB and it was like heaven compared to the place we stayed the previous night. We stayed in a room in the house of a lady that was a few years older than us and had a young daughter. She was so kind and welcoming that we decided to stay an extra night. She was also the first to introduce me to tempeh…a fermented soy based food that they eat in Indonesia. She simply fried it and served it with a fish/ chili sauce. It’s yummy…I’ve learned to prepare it a different way and it’s sooo good. Anyway, we really didn’t do that much in Senggigi but eat some food, go to the beach and chat with the AirBnB lady. Oh and we booked a trip to Gili Air.
Gili Air is one of three Gilis. They are three little islands off the coast of Lombok. The other two are Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. We had heard that Trawangan was a party island and Meno was super mellow. Gili Air was the middle of the road choice so we went with that. It’s a cute, super flat island and very tiny. You can easily walk the whole circumference. We stayed in a little bungalow there that was right across from the beach and we ate banana pancakes on the beach every morning. I went snorkeling on the other side of the island and one night we went to the fancy pizza place on the island. I mean it was no Antico Pizza but it did the job. I think I walked pretty much the whole island, which was just lovely.
After Gili Air, I parted ways with the French lady and headed on to Surabaya which is on the island of Java. It’s a big city like Jakarta and there really isn’t much to see there. It is however an access point for a couple of volcanoes and Bali. I ended up staying there for several days however because I had a call planned for a volunteer opportunity in Tanzania and needed to be near wifi. The good thing is I got lucky with the hostel where I ended up. It was owned by an older gentleman that I think was retired or semi-retired so he spent a lot of time at the hostel and he loved telling people about his town. One day he loaded a bunch of us in to his car, took us to lunch, to the cigarette museum – where women still roll cigarettes by hand!! and the port. It was a fun day. I met a couple of sweet dutch girls that I played cards with and I also ended up meeting a very nice British guy, Will. I don’t know what brought this on but one evening we sat in the lobby area of the hostel and decided we were going to save the planet. We sat there for a long time coming up with ideas. People contributed ideas as they went by. It was an inspiring night…it’s a shame we didn’t follow up on the ideas. The next night, Will, another guy and I went to the movies at the mall! We saw the Star Trek movie…this was the first movie I saw in a theater while traveling. I wanted to see Finding Dory but it wasn’t playing anymore so we went with Will’s choice. It felt really nice to do something so mundane. Afterwards, we all went for some drinks and shared stories of heartbreak. It sounds really sappy but it was nice and normal and it made us happy.
I’ve run out of space to upload more photos on here so I’m going try linking to my Google Photos. Here are pictures from Surabaya, Indonesia.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nvT55k1z72iRssNC2
The phone interview for the volunteer gig went well but because I needed to be near good wifi, I wasn’t able to go to the volcanoes nearby. There are two that most people go to Mt. Bromo and Mt. Ijen. Ijen has the sulfur mines and you can see the miners walking up and down the mountain with their loads of sulfur. This volcano is also famous for it’s blue flames which you can see when it’s dark. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see it but it’s now on my list. On the plus side, I was heading to Sulawesi island next where not as many tourists go :-).
nomadshak 