No Place Like Here - Cris and Felipe Round the World

When we left Bali we were happy, lighter and more tan than when we arrived, with the peace of the certainty that we are coming back to this magical place someday.

Felipe with his collection of injuries: the bike accident that yielded an infection, the board that cut his head and a “Bali kiss” - common burning on the bike’s exhaust pipe. People say he probably had a “karma” with the island, I think that after all the debt must be paid! Another theory is that he’s already used his whole “quota of bad luck” of the trip during this single month, so from now on it will be all about joy! I like this second one… and I hope that my “quota of bad luck” doesn’t exist. hehe

I leave with my new passion, which later, in Brazil, my friend Carlos explained that there is nothing new about it, this love story is old, and that makes me even more delighted.

During the last week we spent in the Bukit we realized that the majority of surfers who come to Bali leave the airport direct to Ulu Watu or Padang Padang, they spend one, two months surfing here and return home without knowing Bali. We saw and heard many Brazilians and Australians, speaking different languages but wearing the same brands and behaving in similar ways.

I am happy we’ve had a different experience though, I’m happy to have by my side a surfer that came to Indonesia dreaming about it’s waves but also loved spending an entire week in the incredible Ubud, far from the sea.
And crazy about the beach that I am, I was surprised to see that despite the heat and the turquoise blue sea, the beach is not the best of Bali. I’ve learned two things that I didn’t even know that existed before: the language and a kind of energy that makes you wake up at  6am smiling every day.

It was an incredible month. We thank Aline and Luiz for receiving us in Sanur and for all their help and tips! The company of Pasqual and Ale was more than special all the time, without them it wouldn’t have been the same. If I already knew I loved these two before, now I love them even more.

We left Bali with the feeling that one month was the ideal time. We are willing to get the plane toward the next destination.
The trip to Singapore was not part of the “Round the World” package, and the cheapest fare we found was with Jetstar Asia - US$ 130 each - a 2hs only flight, the plane was old, with leather seats that were everything but comfortable and no snacks, but it was 10pm and I was so tired that I slept all the time anyway.

**Tip: you must pay a departure tax of 150k rupees at the airport. We had already passed through the  police x-ray and everything when we found out and Felipe had to leave the airport to get the money from an ATM.

Oriental Bay - Wellington

Before going on with the stories of our round the world trip I’m going to quickly update where we are now and what we have been doing.

We’ve been back in Wellington (NZ) for two and a half months but we are so settled that it feels like we’ve been here for longer!

During the first week, still on holidays, we could enjoy a little bit of what had remained from Summer and went to the beach.  But just after that Winter rushed and passed over Fall.  That Fall, which generally is great in Wellington, dry, sunny and not so windy simply did not exist this year… the Winter came with everything, strong freezing winds and rain, a lot of rain.  I confess that this has been a bit depressing lately.

We’ve already rented a house (which I love!), I am back to the my old job and Felipe’s started at a new job… with that we’ve fallen in the routine home-work-home… what sometimes can be quite boring, specially after living 7 months without any routine.

We still haven’t got a car, but whenever it’s possible we rent one and flee somewhere around for a little change of landscape, mostly we go to Wairarapa, where Fê and Otávio go surfing.

Ah, Otávio is Felipe’s brother (and oficially my brother-in-law now.. hehe), he’s been living with us for one and a half month, what’s being really nice.
He arrived during Easter holidays, we went to Auckland to pick him up and drove in a “road-tour” across the North Island which I am going to tell and publish some photos over here afterwards.

He’s and oceanographer and next month he’ll leave us for a six months internship on construction of artificial reefs in other New Zealand cities.

We’ve already been able to see everything we were missing in NZ, to see our friends that live here and to start itching again for planning the next trip.
But wait, before that I’m going to finish telling what happened in the last one.  :)

In the surfing world the search for the perfect wave is like a pilgrimage that every year makes surfers from all around the world travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from their place. Bukit (the region where are the main Bali breaks) is probably the most famous surfing destination in Asia and of course the region’s economy revolves around it, you see surf shops, photographers, surf camps, workshops, boat trips, restaurants, music and of course surfers from all corners of the world, North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, all searching the dream of the perfect wave.

Continue reading »

Yes, we are already in Chile, and we have only four more days to finish our journey. In the past 5 months we passed by Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, England, France, Spain, Morocco, Brazil and Peru.. Meanwhile, NPLH is standing in Lombok. But why did we stop writing? Here are some reasons:

• We were writing with one month delay when we stoped
• We have too many photos (actually tons of it), and selecting the best photos to our posts is not an easy task
• We usually take on average 4 hours to write, translate, correct, diagram and select images for each post and ,believe me, stopping for 4 hours was not on our agenda, which was always full at each location
• We went through many faraway places as South of Lombok, the Rajasthan Desert, the Himalayan Mountains, the Sahara Desert, etc.. and in those places where there was internet (which was very rare!), it was expensive, slow and hard to access
• Writing in a rush we end up producing something that does not fully satisfy us
• There is no much sense to be traveling in the desert of India and writing on the paradise beaches of Thailand

After much thought we decided that it would be better to forget the internet, take our journey, taking many pictures and recording important data on our notebook. After the trip when we’ve finished we could review all the information, and devote more time to write something at the same time relevant and useful for us to read it

So yes, we are super outdated.. but we are alive and very happy.. and we’ll tell our stories in detail. From the infernal heat of Singapore, the trains in Malaysia and Thailand, entitled to fried grasshoppers and armed soldiers on the streets.. through the beaches of Ko Phagnan and the madness of Bangkok, the 3 days in Hong Kong and the best month of all in India, it would not be the same without the company of Duda (Cris’ brother) and Drica who are living there and led us to the most incredible country that seems to be another planet.. the visits to friends living in Europe, the two intense weeks in Morocco, without knowing either French or Arabic languages. The arrival in Brazil after 2 years away.. Rio de Janeiro, which is more beautiful than ever… the two months at home, Curitiba and Parana’s coast, with our families and friends.. Christmas, New Year, our wedding.. And finally the spectacular mountains of the Andes in Peru, where we’ve just left.. we are in Chile and weeks to come back to Wellington, our home in New Zealand, where we finally will organize all the photos and information.. there is nothing more favorable than New Zealand winter to sit in front of the computer and tell stories!

Ferry from Padangbai (Bali) to Lembar (Lombok)

According to the official at the Ferry terminal there was a Ferry every 90 minutes and took up to 5hs to Lembar, in Lombok, one of the islands of Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. First lesson in Lombok: things here are not always as they say. We arrived at the terminal at 9 o’clock the morning and got in the queue of bikes waiting to board for 2 ½ hours. When we arrived there was Ferry there, which left behind a small queue. After a long time another Ferry came, lowered the door, raised the door, everyone in the queue got prepared, put helmets, turned the bikes on, but no one went aboard and the ship left again. Only 11:30 AM we could embark on a Ferry, with many other bikes, trucks and cars. Under the heat of midday, the Ferry still took almost another hour to move. 5 hours travelling… leaving at 12:30.. our hopes to arrive in Lombok and hit the road in daylight had already disappeared.
During all this waiting a looooot of very insistent vendors trying to convince us to buy their products, from sunglasses to take away nasi campur (fried rice with pork and chicken). In a normal situation we might have got irritated with this, but there in that queue, where we had nothing else to do but wait, it was even fun.

The Ferry is huge, has a variety of accents, and 5hs inside it were ok, although we could already feel the difference in behavior of the people from Lombok to those from Bali. The sense of security and tranquility we used to have in Bali had already begun to change in the queue to board, and for the first time since I left NZ I was concerned about the backpack on my back while I sat on the motorbike waiting. During the trip, not even for a minute, we left the backpacks on the bench without any of us watching them. It is difficult to explain this feeling of insecurity, and why it comes so suddenly, but coming from Brazil we know how these things are, we feel the threat in behavior, in the eyes of people. When we were arriving in Lombok a group of boys jumped inside the Ferry, began to roam all around talking loud and going through people, one of them stopped just behind me and it could have been a bit of Brazilian paranoia, but I thought it was better to lean on the wall and prevent him to open my backpack.

The bathroom’s Ferry also is worth remembering… it was the squatting style one, with marks to put the feet, a little buket steeped in water to flush.. so far so good, nothing that I was not expecting … another lesson that I had learned in Bali is always carry toilet paper in the bag.. I just was not prepared to the floor flooded and a tap dripping 30cm from my foot, causing the “water” from the floor to splash on my leg at every drop ..I was also not prepared to target the hole in the pot with the boat shaking to one side and another.. But everything was all right in the end of the day… I should have taken a picture of that toilet..

The exit of the Ferry was a hell… Felipe and Pasqual had gone ahead to get the bikes while Ale and I left the boat walking later. There was no exit for pedestrians and we had to go down and walk in the middle of the trucks, breathing diesel smoke in a closed and dark place… when we finally found Felipe and Pasqual on the bikes, they were impatient with the crowd around them … we climbed on the bikes and left without quite knowing which way to go until we found a peaceful place to stop and look at the map.

First impressions of Lombok

Lombok, as the vast majority of Indonesia, has the Islam as predominant religion and we arrived there during the last week of Ramadam, the holy Muslim month of purification. I got in the Ferry wearing a sleeveless summer top and skirt and got out wearing pants and a scarf around my shoulder.. that I just felt comfortable enough to take off after arriving at the hotel. We saw many women wearing veils on the head and none, absolutely none, Muslim or not, was showing the shoulders. Second lesson of Lombok: the vibe here is much more tense.

Our destination was Kuta, a beach in the south of Lombok that, in addition to the famous Desert Point, is the region where are the best waves of the island and also has a certain structure for tourists (hotels, restaurants, etc.).. All we had was the Lonely Planet map and a few tips that Luis had given us. It is very easy to get lost here, the roads are confusing and there are very few signs. We stopped several times to ask, everyone was always very helpful, but did not speak English… then we asked in Indonesian how to go to Kuta, or to the next city that was on the map, and tried to interpret the gestures of the answer, indicating the direction. On the first stops I’d already learned the third lesson of Lombok: women do not speak to men. The few times I took the initiative to ask a man something, or he completely ignored me or gave me a angry look… ok.. we are no longer in Bali, from now on no more smiles or conversations to anyone, let the boys speak first… unless the initiative to talk to me comes from the other person.

From the Lembar to Kuta we took about 2 hours on the road. It could have taken half the time if we had not got lost at night in the middle of nowhere and without anyone to ask for information.. and especially if the roads were not so bumpy.. A stretch that has no road, only holes.. It seems that they are building a parallel road that is supposed to be a good one, but we have seen no sign of works and there are even some houses in the middle of the way where the road should be..
Meanwhile we had to ride through the huge holes.. My butt and my back have never suffered so much!
We saw a motorbike accident on the road.. Around here nobody uses helmets (which is compulsory in Bali), we haven’t seen traffic police anywhere, we saw entire families on one bike, father, mother and two children, and adolescents love to speed while riding the bikes.. Fourth lesson in Lombok: is not so much fun riding a bike over here. We wanted to visit other parts of the island, go to the Gilis, but because of the situation of the roads, we preferred to stay only at the southern part.
We went through several villages on the way, all very poor.. Lombok seems to be abandoned by the government of Indonesia… houses made of wood and bamboo with straw roof, a lot of garbage all around, children playing on the garbage..

The lost hotel

When at last we arrive in Kuta it was about 8PM and for the first time on the journey we had booked our stay.. From Bali we called two hotels that Luis knew, and both of them were full.. Then we called another one that was in the guide, and we finally managed to book two rooms at fair a price.. The place was called “Melon Homestay” and the details of the guide to get there were not very accurate.. We wandered around Kuta (which is not very big) and did not find it, we were super tired.. then we stopped at a restaurant to ask… Opan, the boy who works in that restaurant, is the one that saved us this night. He led us up the Melon Homestay personally, arriving there the guy who barely spoke English answered and he was helping us to translate what meant that there was no rooms for us. They had booked two rooms that they thought that the guys in these rooms were going leave that day, but they didn’t.. So there was no vacancy, it was full. Pasqual wanted argue and discuss with the guy in the inn, I was so tired that I just wanted to find another place to drop our bags, eat something and sleep. Recalling the first lesson: things here are not always as they say, especially with Melon Homestay. Then Opan led us to another hotel that had a few rooms available, but we thought they asked a too high price for the rooms they were offering and that none of us liked.. Then Opan said “okay, I will lead you to a place that you will like the room and the price” .. and he was right, finally we found “Segare Anak,” a hotel in front of the beach with simple rooms (cold shower), a restaurant in front and a swimming pool at the backyard for 80,000 Rupees (approx. US$ 4.00 each) per day, including breakfast… and people working there were all very nice people.. who needs more than this? We spent our 5 days in Lombok hosted there.

Continue reading »