Bali Day 14 (Sat 20th June) - Canggu Beach Day

For our last day, we both felt pretty depressed. We had enjoyed Indonesia so much that we were really sad to leave! We decided to have a relaxed day, and so Van and I headed to the beach after breakfast and packing. Van negotiated a surfboard (cheaper than Kuta!) and I got a sun lounger. The waves were pretty big and Van was a bit out of his league, but still he enjoyed his last chance in the ocean!

We were soon joined by Dad and Uncle John, and we relaxed and watched the surfers and people. When it was time to go, Rama picked us up and we stopped at a 'Warung' (small local shop restaurant) to try Babi Guling or suckling pig, the only Indo delicacy we had not sampled yet. The babi is infused with a spicy concoction typically involving turmeric, coriander seeds, lemongrass, black pepper and garlic, and traditionally spit-roasted. We waited while they prepared takeaways for us and headed back to the house.

While we enjoyed the Babi, it wasn't one of the highlights of the food we had tried. The pork was nice, quite spicy. It was served with very crispy crackling, stir fried green veg and mung beans ('urap'), rice and pork sausage.

After this, our time came to an end, and we had to say goodbye. Bali was definitely one of our favourite places and a real highlight in our travels.

Bali Day 13 (Fri 19th June) - Beratan temple and Lovina

Started the day early with a quick cereal and fruit breakfast, Rama picked us up at 7:00 while we were still trying to decide the itinerary for the day. We headed North, through the villas and rice paddies of Canggu and eventually through more rural and lush surroundings. We started climbing higher and higher, and the weather became a little cooler and cloudier. We stopped for a photo opportunity and then needed to find a bathroom... The place we stopped at randomly ended up exceeding expectations. It was a coffee and spice plantation with beautiful green terraces. They showed us the famous Luwak civets, which produce the most expensive coffee in the world - Kopi Luwak. The civets eat the raw coffee beans and digest only the fruit, leaving the beans, which are then collected and made into coffee...

The lady at the coffee plantation let us try all of their varieties of coffee and spiced tea: Luwak, Bali coffee, ginseng coffee and ginger coffee, as well as ginger, lemon and mangosteen tea. We picked one each and took a takeaway to continue our journey. The Luwak coffee was 50,000Rp, seemed a standard price everywhere we had been. It is a very mild and smooth coffee, very enjoyable. The ginseng coffee was really delicious as well.

We reached a town and Rama decided to stop so we could show my mom a beautiful orchid stall, and walk around a small market area. It was a bit after 9:00AM and many of the stalls weren't even open yet, those that were open were a mix of food and souvenirs. We spotted a family on a beautiful but old army style motorbike, complete with sidecar and just had to take a photo.

We continued our journey into the hills and the clouds and eventually reached lake Beratan after around 2 hours of driving. We paid and went in, Rama acting as our guide. The entrance had beautiful gardens, immaculately manicured and decorated with some rather random fake animals! We continued walking and reached the temple, set on an island just off the edge of the massive lake. It was the most beautiful one we had seen, with its many tiered roofs. Across from the photogenic temple there was a real active temple, with a Hindu "service" in progress and we enjoyed watching as they went about their rituals. A really old man with a long white beard rang a bell and chanted while ladies made offerings and children sat cross legged behind them.

We walked around a bit more, doing some shopping at the ubiquitous market stalls and then moved on. We drove past another huge lake and then reached the Git Git waterfall. John, Dad, Van and I decided to walk to it, leaving the ladies to relax by the car. The whole path the the waterfall was lined with sellers, crying "Only twenty dollars, twenty dollars". A tiny little girl even tried to sell Van some bangles so we gave her some coins, she was too adorable... When I showed the slightest interest in one stall, the ladies grabbed my hand and wouldn't let me go. But she still wouldn't take my offer for her vanilla so I had to extract myself.

The waterfall was quite cool - very high and quite thin. We got some photos and checked out the bridge, then walked back to the rest of the gang. Next we headed to Lovina beach, in the far North of the island, where I had pre-planned for us to go to Spice beach club. The club was great - really beautifully decorated in whites, and we got a nice table on the deck right next to the beach. They had pools, sun loungers and a bar, it was a good choice for us to spend the afternoon. We had Bintangs and some interesting dishes, my triple fish stack (club sandwich with tuna, crab and salmon) wasn't that great but Vans fish was good.

Lovina beach was pretty disappointing, the black sand wasn't the problem but the sea was murky and scummy and there was a lot of rubbish on the beach. The beach club was very quiet and the whole place had a very different vibe to other areas in Bali. We relaxed for quite a while, swimming in the sea and pools and suntanning. I paid for the meal as a thank you to my Dad who had arranged the whole holiday and paid for the first villa.

We headed back for the almost three hour journey, just stopping once to photograph the lake and tried to avoid the monkeys. Since it was our last night all together, we decided to go to a nice restaurant in Canggu. We picked "Eternal" and even though it was only a few streets away, it took nearly half an hour to drive there, because of the layout of the streets. The restaurant was quiet but beautifully decorated. Dad and I decided to share a 'rijstafel' - an Indo feast of different dishes, sometimes up to 20. Ours wasnt quite that many, but we still enjoyed the gado gado and rice and rendang and other tasty things.

Bali Day 12 (Thurs 18th June) - Canggu, Bali

After a great sleep, we met Uncle John for breakfast at the dive centre. They had arranged a 7:30 taxi for us, so it was quite tight timing, getting breakfast cooked and eaten before he arrived, but we just made it, and enjoyed our breakfast burritos and fruit salad. The trip to the airport was super quick and soon we were back inside the immaculate airport, so much space for barely any airport counters. Everything went fine except for some dodgy tourists who looked like they were high, and an overly friendly Indonesian with no concept of personal space...

We flew Lion air back to Bali, and were pleased to see Rama's familiar face waiting for us at the airport. He took us to the new villa in Caggu, just north of Seminyak, to be reunited with the family. Canggu is a bit more rural than Seminyak, and is probably still an up and coming area. It certainly has its share of nice restaurants, but not quite the same as Seminyak's high end offering. The villas, shops and houses are interspersed with rice paddies, the workers tending their crops or burning for the next season.

We arrived at the villa and were warmly welcomed by everyone. We found mom in bed with a swollen lip, unknown cause! We caught up with them and shared stories, and toured the impressive villa. It had a big pool, outside 'yoga' platform, koi pond, poolside en-suite room (ours), big kitchen and dining area and downstairs and upstairs bedrooms.

We went for lunch at Milk and Madu (honey) restaurant down the road, which was excellent! They had amazing healthy smoothies and we all had interesting burgers, including a tempura softshell crab burger!

After lunch the ladies felt like relaxing and the rest of us (me included) felt like a walk. I always like to walk to get my bearings in a place. So Rama drove us up to the 'famous' Echo beach and dropped us so we could walk back. Quite why the beach was famous we never found out, but we guessed it was for its waves, which were pretty impressive.

The sand was slightly blacker than Kuta, but still nice and soft. We walked for a while and then just sat and watched the surfers, riding with such skill. It is only after you have tried surfing yourself that you realise how tough it is! There were two kite surfers and these guys were even more amazing, sometimes ramping the waves and flying high into the sky!

We walked until we reached Canggu beach and took the road back to the villa. We spotted an ice cream 'laboratory' called the Creamery on the way and popped in to see what it was about. We picked two flavours, and then watched in awe as the two ladies put scientist glasses and and began mixing interesting chemicals to produce a huge amount of smoke, liquid nitrogen we guessed! The ice creams were really delicious, and we then headed back.

We had a swim and relaxed with beers on the yoga platform as the sun set. It was a wonderfully relaxed evening. We had decided to try cooking for ourselves, and had bought some groceries at a beautiful shop down the road. I offered to cook, and made two yummy roasted chickens with french farmstyle potatoes and broccoli cheese. Auntie Bev shared the amazing Pod chocolate she had bought at the cocoa farm and most of us ended up snoozing out on the couches before retiring for the night.

Bali Day 11 (Wed 17th June) - Komodo Liveaboard and Labuan Bajo

The boat was quieter as we woke up without the company of Ally, Mike and Echo. Darryn had promised to save some of the best dives for last and he didn't disappoint. First we went to Batu Balong or Hole in the Rock. Here we saw thousands and thousands of schooling fish, moving beautifully together as if they were one organism. Blue streak fusiliers, golden damsels, sergeant majorfish... There were also some HUGE fish: giant trevallies, dogtooth tunas and napolean wrasse. We saw turtles, sharks, nudibranchs, giant puffers... What a dive.

Our last dive of the trip was called "Mawa", it was dive 50 for me and Werner and it didn't disappoint! It was without a doubt the best manta dive ever! The first two we saw were doing a sort of mating dance, very graceful and beautiful. Then later we were surrounded by 5 mantas, all swooping around like the birds of the ocean, riding the currents. One manta flew directly over Uncle John, and he raised his hand and almost touched it, holding his breath so as not to scare it. We also saw a teeny weeny yellow whipe coral shrimp, I have no idea how Darryn spots these things, lots of squids, and many other amazing fish.

After finishing our dives, Ronnie cooked us up a last feast: chicken and his excellent chips. We had a beer to celebrate our wonderful time on the boat. Darryn became very pensive and quiet, clearly concerned about what was happening with the repairs of his boat and the impact it might have on his upcoming tours as well as his planned holiday with his Aussie girlfriend... We motored back to Labuan Bajo and said goodbye to Ronnie and the crew, then headed up to the dive centre.

We had booked rooms at the dive centre itself, just out of convenience really, and it ended up being a great decision. Labuan Bajo was a bit of a dump, with very few accommodation options, and the rooms at the dive centre were really fantastic! Big, very clean, great balcony and lovely view out to the ocean. It felt amazing to have a real shower and a lie on the cool clean sheets.

  We chilled most of the day, having a beer at the pool and chatting to Uncle John, who was feeling much better and regaling us with his stories as always. Once it got cooler, we went for a walk, looking for the night market we had heard about, but with absolutely no idea which direction to walk and not really caring. I wanted to get a feel for this town and see more of it, scruffy as it was. We ambled past small shops and stalls, chickens and children running in the streets.

We turned towards the pier and dock around sunset and eventually asked some tourists if they knew the way. They pointed us in the right direction and we walked quite far, finally reaching the fish market. Interestingly, most of the fish was dried, and the market stall owners were quite proud to show us their wares and be photographed. Once we had had enough of the smell, we continued walking and found the night market, where small restaurants displayed their fresh fish outside. You can choose your fish and they prepare it freshly for you. Tourists and locals alike sat at the plastic tables overlooking the ocean. My stomach still wasn't feeling great, so we decided to rather not eat at the market, although it would normally have been something I would be keen to experience.

Instead, we walked some of the way back and found ourselves in the "best" restaurant in Labuan Bajo. Strangely enough nearly all the restaurants were Italian! So we ended up in Made in Italy, high up some stairs and also with a great view. Uncle John and I shared a huge pizza topped with delicious shellfish - big prawns! Van had a yummy pasta dish. Van was feeling really tired, so we finished our evening with ice creams we bought from a shop as we walked back to our comfy rooms for a real nights sleep.

Bali Day 10 (Tues 16th June) - Komodo Liveaboard

Started our day off early and the boat made its way to castle rock bomi, one of the best dive spots in the Komodo area. We dropped in in front of the rock, with the plan to dive straight down and let the current wash us onto the rock. John had some problems getting down, first his alternate went into free flow and then he couldn't purge his BCD and ended up chugging a lot of air in order to swim down. Once on the rock we could look up and enjoy the spectacle. Massive fish such as dogtooth tuna, Napoleon wrasse, and giant travelly sailed though the water. We caught sight of at least 6 white tip sharks. Large shoals of fish came together, feeding on the rich currents flowing over the bomi. Furthermore we also spotted an eel, blue spot ray and a couple of giant puffers. The dive was ended a little early when John realised he was almost out of air, and ended up using Darryn's alternate. Darryn was chuffed as he had never needed to use it!

We surfaced and the boat made its way to the next site, Crystal bomi. This one had a lot less current for once and we had an amazing dive. The highlight was a large eagle ray that really seemed to like us. He looked a little like the mantas, but with a spotted back and a face and large nose. We also saw three sharks, an octopus, and lots more.

Next dive was Tetawa Besar where we spotted 2 reef sharks, 2 turtles, 2 nudibranchs, 2 lobsters, and lots of fish and beautiful coral. We had a really relaxing day, resting and sleeping or sunbathing and chatting between dives.

Darryn asked if we would like to do another night dive and we were all keen. Uncle John joined us this time as we went to Siaba Besar. We were warned by Darryn that we might be stalked by lionfish and he was right! Very soon after descending, he spotted them - a huge black lionfish and a smaller one. They liked our torch light as they wanted to us it to hunt. I had never seen them so active - during the day they just hang around... We tried to move away from them, but soon we saw them again, they were following us! They are pretty poisonous, so none of us wanted to risk a sting. We settled onto the sea floor and waved our torches around them, spotting some small fish. They stalked and attacked the fish, eating them in one go! The big lionfish went for one fish that was a little big than he was used to, and he half choked. After that he left us alone, but his little friend continued to follow. We saw other amazing things like a sponge carrier crab, purple frogfish, huge moray eel, 2 sleeping turtles, crocodile flathead, blue spotted ray, etc.

Bali Day 9 (Mon 15th June) - Liveaboard and Komodo islands

After sleeping out on deck, I was stirred by water droplets dripping on the sheet I was under, I just tried to ignore it. Turned out to be some condensation from the semi cover over the chill out deck. Shortly after, we were properly woken from our slumber by Darryn yelling "Guys, check it out!". A huge Komodo dragon was walking right down the pier our boat was tied to, and he had almost reached our boat by the time we spotted him! Probably 2.5m long, he was certainly the biggest lizard I had ever seen! He stumbled down the steps to the section closest to us, his yellow tongue constantly flicking in and out of his mouth, smelling something good to be sure. He wandered around for a while and then headed back. The captain of our boat was pretty freaked out as he was going to sleep on the pier, and luckily picked a spot a bit higher up and out of reach of the deadly bite of the dragon!

After a quick coffee, we ourselves walked up the pier around 7AM, the first tourists to alight on Rinca island, the second of two primary Komodo dragon islands which are dedicated nature reserves. Darryn explained that the dragons on Komodo island were larger, but Rinca was more guaranteed to see them... We arrived at the ranger station, paid our entrance fees (Rp30,000) and met our guide. He explained that we would be taking a short walk around the island and up to a viewpoint. Within 5 minutes of walking, we already spotted a large dragon basking in the sun and we were able to get pretty close to him. He didn't move much, and it was hard to believe the dragons can run up to 18km/hour. He had saliva hanging from his mouth and the guide explained that their mouths are extremely dangerous, with many different bacteria, including septicemia. This is how the dragon kills its prey (monkeys, buffaloes, pigs, deer...): by hiding in a bush and biting the animal. The bite is almost always fatal, so the dragon follows the animal around until it can no longer walk, and then will devour it. They usually only eat once a month. They are often cannibalistic and will even eat their babies!

We continued walking, and saw some monkeys with a baby, a Komodo dragon egg den, and a beautiful female deer. The trail got steeper and we headed uphill towards a gorgeous viewpoint, where we got a great group photo. Up there, we found another Komodo sitting on a rock, a bit like a statue. We headed back and found a last Komodo close to the ranger station - quite active walking around and looking for tidbits to eat. We got some great pics with him before going back to the boat. 

Darryn was determined to follow dragons with Mantas, the Giants of the deep, so he took us to "Makassar" - Manta Point. Here we did our first extreme drift dive. The current was so strong that no amount of swimming was necessary or helpful, we just got whooshed along. Soon we spotted our first manta, a huge, dark and amazingly graceful creature. I struggled to grab onto something to stop long enough to admire and video it. Through the dive we saw 6 more mantas, the most we had ever seen in our lives, and one stopped right in front of us to be cleaned of parasites by the small fish. The current didn't seem to bother them at all! we also saw sharks and other interesting sea life, but there weren't many corals here.

We did two more incredible dives that day, the first was the Cauldron. Another exciting drift dive, we dropped down into a sheltered area called the first bowl, filled with thousands of trevally and fusiliers. When Darryn gave the 'shotgun' signal, we popped back into the current and rode it all the way. We also saw three sharks, three different shrimps in one place, a blue spot stingray and hundreds of garden eels popping their heads up from the sand.

The last dive China shop was amazing corals, and we saw our first turtle, as well as two leaf fish together, pretty rare! And lots of other exciting sightings.

Then Darryn had another sunset plan for us... He had arranged for a friend with a dingy to take us to a nearby sandy island, to walk up the hill and watch the sunset. Indonesia rewarded us with another beautiful sunset, this time framed by a smoking volcano, which had erupted a year ago, and a cool black pirate ship below us.

We ended our day with a night dive at Gili Lawa Darat Bay- a real first for us! We really enjoyed it, and Darryn was amazing at picking up some of the tiny small things that come out at night, plurobranch (huge nudibranch), flounder, shrimps, crabs, cuttlefish, octopus, lionfish and scorpionfish. As we did our 5m stop, we switched off our torches and it was pitch black. But when we waved our arms around, we were amazed by the bio-luminous plankton lighting the water up!