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Final Destination - Gili Trawangan

Final destination - a little glimpse of paradise. Our last two days were spent in the ridiculously chilled and laid back Gili Islands, three tiny islands just off the North West coast of Lombok. These really are three little droplets of heaven, and whilst only staying on the larger of the three, Gili Trawangan, we did catch a brief look at the other two, Gili Meno and Gili Air. The rhythm completely drops to nothing here. There are no cars, horse drawn carriages transport you round the islands, and the islands themselves are each surrounded by the whitest of sands, and the turquoise-est of waters, revealing a kaleidoscope of multicoloured and multi-shaped coral. Gili Trawangan is the busiest of the three, the “party island” but is still relatively quiet. Despite being the largest, Gili T’s circumference is only around 8km, which I discovered on my one and only morning run that almost finished me off (sooo not running weather!) We’ve eaten superb seafood here, watched sensational sunsets revealing Bali’s volcano Mount Agung peaking out of the horizon, and sipped many Bintangs. We could have spent a least a week here so our two days seem rather cruelly snatched, but an excuse to revisit and a great end to the trip.

And a great trip it was. The stunning light installations, staple cocktails and monumental mechanical manmade trees in Singapore feel a million years ago. Then to Indonesia’s cultural and spiritual core with Javanese Buddhist and Hindu temple complexes, and gritty street art in the city of Jogjakarta. More temples in Southern Bali (accompanied by mischievous monkeys), and mountainous Ubud with lush green rice paddies and coconut groves. All that combined with a general splattering of amazing beaches, beautiful oceans, and what has felt like a perpetual-pilgrimage to some sort of Gastronomical Mecca. It’s been an absolute blast! So leaving Indonesia feeling relaxed and fortunate to see an incredible bit of the world with my man. I personally return severely sunburnt, overweight, but seriously refreshed and ready for life back home.

#Gili Trawangan #Indonesia

#Bali #ubud

#Bali #nusa dua #jimbaran bay #uluwatu

Bali

We've spent the past six days on the Island of Bali doing very little - much needed respite and downtime after a slightly hectic few days in Jogja and Singapore respectively. Our time in Bali was divided equally between North and South of the Island, the latter in the southern peninsula 'Nusa Dua''. Nusa Dua is amongst one of the most developed parts of Bali and home to some of its grandest resorts. Not an enormous amount to report from here. We stayed in an absolutely palatial hotel, amongst one of the nicest places I've ever stayed in, and spent our days lounging around the pool, swimming in the Indian Ocean etc etc - It's a hard life! It's incredibly pathetic but an absolutely vital component of this part of the trip was being confined to the hotel room where there was sufficient WIFI to watch the Game of Thrones finale! We did venture out of town, to visit the famous sea temple at Uluwatu. 'Uluwatu' meaning 'divine place at the end of the land' is one of nine directional temples in Bali designed to protect it from evil spirits, and the temple is perched at the edge of a cliff where it guards over the ocean. Whilst the temple itself is somewhat unremarkable, the stunning views its location affords are, on the contrary, not. The temple is home to hoards of legitimate shaped pilgrims, alongside tourist fake ones like us, and additional squatters in the form of monkeys. Grey long-tailed macaques in their dozens occupy the cliff top roads, mischievously making their own offerings to the gods in the form of tourists' cameras, sunglasses, phones, go pros...these items can of course be exchanged back for more useful souvenirs for the little beasts, food. Seriously cute! Near Uluwatu is Jimbaran Bay, a stretch of glorious white sands, blue seas and home to a little fishing village, which we made just in time for sunset, beers, and fireworks on the beach. It was this evening we had our best meal in Indonesia so far - Grilled Pork Ribs with Balinese BBQ sauce, Crispy Fried Homemade Tofu stuffed with Seafood, and Shredded Chicken with Shallots and Lemongrass. Bloody amazing, and despite my dislike of repetition whilst travelling we're seriously considering doing round two with this place on our final night. Our time spent up North was much less tranquil, but enjoyable all the same in the town Ubud. Ubud is considered Bali's cultural core. Located high in the mountains it's known for its temples (sooooo many here, but most unimpressive), rice terraces, coconut groves, and more monkeys. It also boasts a plethora of arts and crafts, galleries, and traditional goods. Ubud is made of fourteen little villages and its centre hosts hundreds of tourists who head here for day trips. It was nice to potter around here, we walked through lush green rice paddies, and it's a little cooler here being so high up, which helps. Had some super Indonesia coffee, and maintained our staple liquid diet of Bintang beers. We went on a brilliant and hilarious cooking course, where an incredibly energetic 'Pous-pa' took us on a gastronomic DIY tour of Balinese cuisine. "OK honey, start your engines" we spent the afternoon making chicken and coconut curry, chicken sate, bean curd 'tempe' in Peanut sauce, coconut and snake bean salad, and steamed tuna in banana leaf parcels. Very entertaining and delicious, coming to a table in the North of England soon. Whilst really enjoyable, upon reflection we think we cold have cut a day from Ubud. It is more commercialised than we anticipated, the arts and crafts more generic than led to believe, and just generally a lot more busier and bigger. Regardless, nice to stop here for a bit. Very sad but excited to venture to our penultimate stop tomorrow. Off on a boat to the nearby Gili Islands, just off the North West coast of Lombok.

#Bali #Indonesia #ubud #nusa dua #Uluwatu

Temple Raiding - Jogjakarta, Prambanan, Borobudur

To my knowledge, my only previous encounters with Java are limited to use of lynx deodorant canisters aged circa 14, and nespresso pods for my coffee machine. Much to learn and discover therefore, and the last couple of days have lived up to all expectations. Java is the heart of Indonesia, and is the most populated island in the world. We bypassed the country’s capital, Jakarta, and instead ventured east to the region of Jogjakarta, the island’s cultural and spiritual home. If Jakarta as capital is its political and economic epicentre, Jogjakarta is said to be its soul. The region is located at the foot of an active volcano, Mount Merapi, and stretches to the waters of the Indian Ocean.

The kota (city) is classic backpacker fodder, with guest house after guest house and bars/restaurants at every step. We’ve eaten well here, with traditional Javanese grub - soy jackfruits, fried tofu and noodles, dollops of chilli ‘sambal’, yellow chicken broth, and many a beer bigger than the size of our heads. One thing that strikes you when wandering around the city itself is the street art. Splashes of colour are revealed on every turn, from small graffiti scribbles to full-scale murals, much of which is motivated by political sentiment. I don’t think it would be uncharitable to say that Jogja isn’t beautiful as such, gritty perhaps, but crucially it serves as a pragmatic base for exploring some of Indonesia’s most important religious sites and temples.

The magnificent Hindu temple complex, Prambanan, is the largest Hindu structure in south east Asia. Built in the 9th century, the main candi (temples) are dedicated to Brahman the creator, Vishnu the sustainer, and Shiva the destroyer. These spectacular monuments, the highest reaching 47 metres, sit within beautiful lush green parks, and the temples themselves are clad with intricate carvings and vibrant scenes from the stories of the gods. On writing this I’ve since discovered we stupidly missed an enormous chunk of the temple complex, there are 244 temples on the site and we only did the largest few, a handful near the entrance. We can attribute this school boy error to a pretty quick turn around, heading there almost immediately after arriving at the hotel. Serves us right for not doing our homework but serious OOOOPS! Regardless, pretty magnificent stuff and absolutely glorious as the sun was setting over the temples in the early evening.

If sunset was the temporal location for temple exploration on our first day, sunrise was to dictate the agenda for the following. Borobudur sits in the shadow of misty Mount Merapi, enveloping a large mound amidst steamy and dense jungle, and is one of the world’s great treasures. For centuries Borobudur lay undiscovered, abandoned and buried by volcanic ash, and it was Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore who rediscovered what is now one of the most important buddhist sites in the world. This was supposed to one of those magical once-in-a-life-time experiences, as we left the hotel at 4am, and ascended the mound in pitch darkness with torchlight to witness the rays of sunrise slowly bring the temple to live. This turned out to be somewhat of a damp squib as the weather was poor and the sun struggled to peak through the dense clouds. Instead of navigating the compound through pink and orange hues, we instead did so accompanied by eerie and misty lowlight conditions. Whilst not as magical as anticipated, it certainly didn’t deter from the temple’s magnificence. The structure features six enormous terraces, which when taking a birds-eye view takes the form of a monumental mandala. Almost 3,000 decorative carvings clad the structure, revealing the stories and teachings of Buddha, and 500 statues of Buddha himself are placed around the temple. The colossal structure is adorned with a huge dome and enormous 'bell like’ stupas, each containing representations of Buddha, (albeit in various forms of dismemberment, most were headless!) Seriously impressive, and the advantage of doing it at the crack of dawn meant we had the rest of the day to wander/eat/drink our way around Jogja.

Another cracking couple of days, but like Singapore, it felt a little rushed. We’ve not really stopped and have already fit a lot in since arriving on Wednesday. Consequently, we’re now dropping the pace dramatically - currently on a flight over the Indian Ocean, and outside the window mountains are peaking through the distant clouds. Off to the Island of Bali to relax and do very little for a few days.

#jogyakarta #Borobudur #prambanan

#jogyakarta #java #Indonesia #streetart

#Borobudur #Indonesia #java

#prambanan #java #indonesia

Singapore

Deviating from travel blogs of the past, made the decision that as this trip is slightly reduced in scope (relative to previous incarnations, travelling for just over two weeks), and I’m not travelling solo this time, rather than blog daily I’d instead post a brief reflection on each place we visit. So welcome to Singapore!

Upon arrival banners around the city informed the ‘Lion City’ celebrates its 52nd birthday this August, and this is in fact the third time I’ve visited this bustling modern metropolis, previously being here in 2014, on a whistle-stop-tour of South East Asia, and in 2003 enroute to Australia. It’s therefore lovely to be back briefly (we’re here for a mere two days) and for Rob to visit for the first time. Given the brevity of our stay we’ve packed a fair amount into the past 48 hours, and according to Rob’s FitBit have walked a little short of half a marathon - which is rather fortunate considering we’ve consumed at least double that in calories!

Our trip happened to coincide with the Singapore Night Festival, where art and culture spill onto the streets after dusk and the city is transformed into a nocturnal extravaganza. Featuring portraits projected into trees, immersive multicoloured domes scattered around various parts of the city, it was a real feast for the eyes. A highlight was “Convolutions”, a light installation that spectacularly transformed the Singapore National Museum. Designed by a French artist, a dizzying array of projections and lasers were mapped onto the building, as the installation moulded and warped the architectural facade of the museum into shifting 3D structures. Accompanied with a thumping electronic soundtrack, this was seriously cool.

Albeit in a different way, dinner was also seriously cool this evening. A kind of pan-asian tapas, enjoyed in the leafy surroundings, neo-classical courtyards and marble waterfalls of a converted convent called Chjmes. Triple noms a plenty here with, amongst many other things, soft shelled crab with salted duck-egg yolk sauce, charcoal grilled lamb chops with a harrisa and chilli paste, and avocado ice cream. The proprietors are seeking to establish a restaurant in London, so hopefully won’t have to come all the way to Singapore to gorge on this fine fare in the the not too distant future. An awesome feast!

The following day we visited Singapore’s spectacular botanic gardens, a tranquil respite from the buzz of the city, and a sensational showcase of tropical flora spread over a whopping 74 hectares. A highlight was the stunning orchid garden, nestled on the highest hill of the garden where three hectares contain over 1,000 species of orchid, where we plunged through dripping “golden showers”(!) and a kaleidoscope of colours. A nice feature here was the VIP garden, where new hybrid flowers are dedicated to notable figures attending the city on state visits. This included flowers dedicated to the Obamas, the Queen, Wills and Kate, Margaret Thatcher - and a rather lovely “Fairy Wong” dedicated to Princess Di.

The afternoon was spent in bustling China town, taking in a sweet little temple and the city’s largest hawker market which boasts 260 food stalls. Here we neglected to munch on advertised “vagetarian” cuisine on this occasion and instead sampled the baked goods(!) A group of men were drinking red wine which seemed slightly insane in this heat. Our alcoholic fix was instead consumed at the Raffles Hotel, where we stepped back to former colonial remnants for a classic Singapore Sling. Sacks of monkey nuts are left on tables to chew on, and you discard the casings on the floor as the likes of Rudyard Kipling et al would have done back in the day.

We concluded our second and last evening here with a trip to the impressive Marina, a stunning plethora of skyscrapers shining brightly in the nighttime. New to me this time, and a real highlight of the stay was a visit to Gardens by the Bay and Supertree Grove. This is a man-made mechanical forrest, featuring colossal vertical solar power structures designed to mirror the function and form of actual trees, covered with over 160,000 tropical plants and climbers. We were first made aware of this in the recent David Attenborough 'Planet Earth II’ series, so was amazing to see this superb urban oasis in person. A real spectacle!

And so ends our stay here. Short and sweet, but a great start to our trip. Back to the airport today where we head to Java, Indonesia. Off to do some temple raiding!

#singapore