3. In the jungle then across the equator ….

Having seen some of the islands, done some diving and experienced the local ‘culture’ of Manado, I decided to venture a bit further afield and organised myself a day trip to the Tangkoko National Park, at the base of the Dua Saudara Volcanoes. The nice people that transported me to the diving earlier in the week took me on the 2 hour drive through the villages and around the volcanoes to get to the park. Once there, a guide met me (you have to have a guide to go into the park) and off we went. It’s just as well I had a guide as apparently we were following a known trek although it seemed mostly to me that we were trampling randomly through the jungle. I had trainers and trousers on and had showered in bug spray in preparation for my trip. I also followed the example and tucked my trousers into my socks. I was told this was because the mosquitoes and/or ants are known to bite the ankles but I was more concerned about the snakes and spiders, including tarantulas - TARANTULAS!! - that are residents of the park.

I’d been told to expect up to 4 hours of jungle trekking while we tried to spot the park’s most famous residents but in fact, it seemed, I was very lucky as we spotted everything within 2 hours, which is just as well as it was exceptionally hot and sweaty in the jungle. Well, it was exceptionally hot and I was exceptionally sweaty! I know - terribly pleasant and I made it through the entire litre of best squash but it was worth it as we saw the animals (labelled in the photos). The guides all have a fancy contraption that allows them to attach your phone to a zoom telescope thing to take really close up photos, which was cool. We also saw many lizards (classically impossible to photograph) and some famous resident birds, the maleos - they are ground dwellers that nest underground and look like little black chickens! There was also a tiny snake, one even I felt I probably didn’t didn’t need to worry would inflict instant death by squeezing me to death like a python. When I asked it’s type, the guide said ‘it’s a small snake’.Turns out this is more of a description than an accurate species. Google suggests it could be a flying snake, which is native to Sulawesi. I’m bloody pleased we saw it once it was on the ground and didn’t have what would have been an extremely screamy encounter with it mid tree-leap-fly! Once back the hotel, I immediately rehydrated with several delicious cups of tea, had a lie-on-the-bed nap to aid my recovery then spent an hour at the pool in the cooler sunset temperatures!

After a disgustingly early 2.40am wake up to get to the airport, I was there and ready for my 5am flight to Bali. Terribly upsettingly, I was so early, my favourite airport shop was still shut … I am devoid of souvenirs from Sulawesi. They’ve not understood the value of a magnet, a thimble for Grandma and something lovely for Ivy that they should be offering the tourists. Mind you, there weren’t that many of us away from the main diving / national park attractions. It’s hard to believe the locals wouldn’t also like a nice magnet though!

A smooth flight, followed by the ridiculous Indonesian inability to stand by the baggage carousel in a way that doesn’t include them all completing trolley dodgems with a minor assault course each time one of their cases arrived, and a car transfer later and I was in Ubud. This is an inland town on the island of Bali - arguably one of Indonesia’s most well-known islands - and for this island location, well in to the southern hemisphere. Ubud was historically known as a chilled-out, backpacker spot, made more famous by Julia Roberts’ film ‘Eat, Prey, Love’ and now, more realistically an over-touristed and busy place catering almost entirely to western tourists. The roads and traffic throughout Bali are dreadful with way more cars and scooters than the infrastructure can really handle with all journeys between areas taking hours in mostly crawling traffic. There are millions of tourists every year who come to enjoy it (over 16 million a year in recent years, to the island which has a resident population of around 4 million). It is busy, they’ve not discovered the joy of pedestrianised streets (and even if they did, the scooters would tear up and down them anyway as they apparently count as pedestrians!) and there is hardly enough room for the cafes, market stalls, people selling you stuff and tiny pavements, which are littered with the offerings to the spirit gods. These are a major part of the Balinese culture and unique religion based originally in Hinduism. The offerings must be respected, never stepped over and care taken around them. It adds a further obstacle to the pavements though!

Having said all of that, I bloody love Bali. It is busy but it is beautiful and has one of my most favourite general atmospheres, cultures and lifestyles anywhere in the world … this is my third visit - and probably won’t be my last!

I arrived at my hotel by 10.30am so had to dump my bags in their care and ventured off out to explore the town. The joy of finding that my hotel is up a little street dedicated almost entirely to market stalls and souvenirs obviously gave me absolute joy. It was also slightly rainy so I had no choice but to dash into a cafe to enjoy a very non-Indonesian but delicious breakfast, which came with a complimentary side of crisps. I don’t think it could get any better! More walking and another stop in a lush cafe where I drank coffee (with an excellent although entirely inappropriate decoration, given the in-land location) and enjoyed various juices so I could while away a few hours … and indeed write part of this most excellent blog! Once I got to my room, I was thrilled to find quite the shower feature, complete with opaque brick wall separating it from the bedroom, a beautiful view from my balcony of the pool and forest beyond as well as an excellent and female guard statue at my front door alongside a lovely water feature. It does have a constant trickle of water that’s the type of noise that makes me need a wee though. It’s also flowing into a little stream just to the side of the pathway that you’d need to be careful if staggering back to your room late night after a cocktail or two! Could result in an impromptu bath!

For the past couple of days, I have spent time exploring the town. It is rammed with people which would be less of an issue if the previously described traffic with uneven, narrow and often nonexistent pavements didn’t combine to form quite the hazardous element of jeopardy to extra outing. Aside from that, it is a fab town with endless busy streets, quieter side streets and markets to browse as well as cafes and restaurants to frequent. I visited the Water Palace, which is just at the end of my road, both in the daytime to look around and then in the evening to see a traditional dance show. There was a full gamelan orchestra who played for the show and a number of dancers in incredible, traditional costumes. The dances include some really terrifying contortions of the hands and fingers as they dance too and full make up which makes the dancers almost look like those china dolls, with facial expressions and dancing eyes. Quite amazing but I’d imagine, the stuff of nightmares if real-life painted doll figures aren’t your thing! There were always between one and four doll dancers on stage for any dance. I was quite surprised when they all came out together for a clap at the end; I definitely thought there were only 4 people who were doing costume changes in between numbers!

During the day, you have to have your knees and shoulders covered to visit as the palace is part of a temple (not at night though - perhaps the gods can’t see so well in the dark so it’s ok!). Rather than let you wear your own clothes, they insist on dressing you in standard wraps and sarongs, which is nice as you really get a feel of the shared sweaty tourists and previous visitors! The rules are otherwise the standard ones of look but don’t touch, don’t pick the orchids (why on earth did they need to actually write that down as a rule!? People can be such dicks!), be quiet and peaceful. Oh, and women who are on their period are not allowed to visit the temple! Fortunately they don’t go as far as checking this one but I’m not entirely sure of the reason for this rule. Perhaps it’s because those women can’t be trusted to behave or maintain a quiet peace when we’re rampaging about the place like loud, monstrous menstruating beasts?!