Day 79: University of Sydney and La Traviana

As has been per usual during my time in Australia, I woke up around 11 and left the hostel around 12. I took the metro to University of Sydney to see the campus and relive my glory days as a university student. At first I was a bit salty about the whole thing because the University of Sydney's Wikipedia page claims it was voted one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world, but the source cited failed to mention my alma mater in its review. The Wikipedia page even had the audacity to claim that USyd was conveniently located near the Redfin metro station, though the station is still a kilometer away from campus (known affectionately as the "Redfin Run" by the students of USyd). 

But by the end of my visit I had learned to like the campus. The university has a more classical "Quadrangle" than the ones I've seen at other universities, a rectangular courtyard surrounded on all sides by grandiloquent buildings in Neo-Gothic style. The only access to the courtyard is via short passageways in the sides of each building. Like most public research universities, USyd has multiple libraries, but unlike the public research university I attended there are multiple 24-hour libraries (even on the weekends!) and more spacious desks with outlets at every spot for individual work (at least in the libraries I visited, SciTech and Fisher). This BYO philosophy is in contrast to the University of Washington (main campus), which fills up the majority of its only 24-hour-during-weekdays library with large iMacs and unnecessarily many bookshelves, leaving everyone with their own laptop (i.e., almost everyone) to jockey for the few remaining group tables on the first floor -- which often share outlets with other tables -- or the individual desk spots on the third floor, which either lack outlets entirely or only coincide with an outlet because they share a space with yet another iMac. You could argue that this eliminates the dependency for students to bring their own laptop to school and encourages more robust cloud file storage, but when anyone can buy a laptop for the price of an intro level textbook, the reasonable seeming assumption that the proportion of people who forget their laptop at home on any given day probably isn't "the majority of seating spaces in the library", and very few people need the power and flexibility of an iMac for their day to day schoolwork, I hope it's understandable why I prefer USyd's setup to UW's.

A typical weekday for the students of USyd

Another interesting trait of the USyd campus is the number of food venues on campus that serve alcohol. The drinking age in New South Wales is 18, meaning that most people enrolled in college are of legal drinking age. You can also order a meal past two in the afternoon, unlike UW's beloved Housing and Food Service restaurants; prepackaged food at Suzallo cafe and the circumferential "markets" excepted.

The 6th floor of the law building offers good views of downtown Sydney

Leaving USyd at six after scarfing down some Thai food, I took the train to Circular Quay in anticipation of the performance of La Traviata at the Sydney Opera House. I had bought tickets the night before. It was still a bit early, so I sat down at a cafe just outside the station and ordered a 5 AUD latte. A lone busker harping a slow tune on his saxophone sat just outside the cafe. To my left, Radiance of the Seas blew her horn three times before pushing off from port, out to sea. To say that it felt like I had walked into a bohemian novel would be an understatement.

The performance was a good time -- my first ever opera. We were in the Joan Sutherland theatre, underneath the second largest sail of the opera house. I had a seat in the middle of the upper balcony. I was surprised to hear that performances were nightly, and production runs lasted about a month. When your instrument is your voice, I can imagine performing night after night is a bit of a marathon.

A view of Sydney Harbor from the upper balcony viewing deck

The whole thing lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. When it was over I walked uphill to St. Martin's Place to take the train back to King's Cross and the hostel.

Day 78: Bondi Beach

To get to Bondi Beach from King's Cross it's fastest to take the metro to Bondi Junction then hop on a bus to the beach. I'd been adamant up to that point in not buying a permanent OPAL card because of my short time in Sydney, but it wasn't possible to buy a single use ticket for the bus, so I was forced to buy an OPAL card from a convenience store within the station. The card itself turned out to be free, unlike the 6 AUD necessary to buy a MYKI card back in Melbourne, so my adamancy was for nothing after all.

The beach looks exactly like the photos you see in the brochures.

Seeing as I visited on a Monday, it probably looks like this every day the sun shines. There's a promenade that circumscribes the beach that I walked along. At the north end of the beach you can walk down onto the sun dried sea rocks during low tide. There are some tide pools there and a 235 ton boulder (commemorated with an inscribed plate) that was washed up onto the rocks by a storm just over 100 years ago. The day was 26 degrees and breezy, and the sun and walking by myself made me hot, tired, and bored. I had lunch at an open-air restaurant before taking a bus directly into the city and deboarding at the state library. I left an hour or two later in search of food on my way back to the hostel.

St. Mary's Cathedral during the blue hour walk back to Darlinghurst

Day 77: Sydney Opera House and Hyde Park

After being awoken by a bunch of punk ass kids at 10:40 in the bright and early morning, I washed up and picked up breakfast on my way out of Darlinghurst. I knew the Sydney Opera House was north of the hostel, and I wouldn't get too far before hitting Sydney Harbour. And so I started walking.

I got stuck by Pott's Point and walked west along the waterfront before stumbling into the Royal Botanic Gardens.

A residential street, Sydney

At some point a path spit me back out onto the waterfront and there she was.

(Click to enlarge)

Walking along the pathway leads you to the base of the opera house. I'd always imagined it was bigger.

From the opera house I began walking south along Macquarie St. until I ran into a large parade being held for Greek Day. I followed the parade back down to the opera house before turning around again in search of a cafe to rest and recharge my gadgets. What I found instead was the State Library of New South Wales. The social scene on its front lawns was nonexistent (unlike State Library of Victoria), but inside looks like an excellent place for reading or studying.

Ground floor

Reading room

When the library closed at 5 I continued walking south and passed through Hyde Park.

There's a number of WWI monuments there, along with fountains, buskers, a cathedral, and plenty of opportunities for people watching.

The entrance, looking south

St. Mary's Cathedral

From Hyde Park I walked southwest, ordered a kebab that was really just a mix of ingredients wrapped in a tortilla, then found a breezy cafe to sit and enjoy a milkshake in before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Mmm, yeah

Day 76: To Sydney

I was on the tram to Southern Cross Station at 7:40am and had plenty of time to scratch my head at the signs in Southern Cross until I found my train. The train stopped at a number of smaller towns before arriving in Sydney 11.5 hours later. Tickets are cheap -- economy from Melbourne to Sydney cost me 66 AUD -- but make sure to pack a lunch and dinner, or else pay 20-25 AUD for meals and drinks. For those wanting to get there sooner and willing to travel light, it's possible to find budget airline tickets for a comparable price. If you're a super saver, you can take a night train and save money on accommodation for the night. The trains allow you to take up to 40kg (!!) of luggage if you so wish, potentially opening a loophole where you may stuff your small child in a suitcase and save yourself some money.

Within 50km of leaving Melbourne, cell service is nonexistent except when passing by small towns. During the first 6 hours the view out the window doesn't change much. Large, flat, dry plains with lone trees dotting the landscape.

The next 4 hours are a climb in elevation until you are surrounded by forest.

The very beginnings of mountainous forest. Within the forest it was too dark and enclosed to snap clear photos.

The final 2 hours are a descent into Sydney, though you won't see an increase in population density until the final hour.

Once at Central Station, I bought a ticket to King's Cross and found my way to the proper terminal with the help of a bored looking security guard. From King's Cross I was able to alight directly to Darlinghurst Rd. and to the hostel.

Once inside, it was readily apparent that I would be spending the next four nights in a party hostel. If I'd done my booking properly, I would have seen that Mad Monkey King's Cross Hostel is located on the liveliest street in all of Darlinghurst, but to be honest I just booked it because the name was funny and the ratings were good. Although I was tired, I knew there would be no sleeping for a few more hours, so I sat down at an outdoor cafe with a cuppa and did some people watching before returning to the hostel around 12 to try to get some sleep.

Day 75: Southbank

For today's uncomfortably inefficient check-out/check-in cycle, I decided to be productive and go to the state library to begin making arrangements for my trip to Japan. I was slated to fly into Osaka which, as I soon realized from the already fully-booked hostels, is yet another extremely popular place for travelers to visit. I managed to book my first five nights at a homely looking hostel, and decided it would be a good idea to also book at least the end segment of my Tokyo stay. Choosing a hostel to stay at in Tokyo was incredibly difficult, as there were nearly a dozen hostels with 9.0+ ratings on hostelworld. It took me a while to decide who to give my money to, but I eventually booked my last 4 nights in Japan at the hilariously named "Hostel Bedgasm". After agonizing over Japanese accommodation and transportation options, I hopped on the circle tram, cruised by the Docklands, and hopped off across the Yarra River from Southbank.

Southbank is noticeably more upscale than the spunky shops and restaurants of Fitzroy and Carlton. There was a festival along the waterfront that featured Australian Grand Prix booths on one side of Queens Bridge and Korean cultural booths for the Korea Week Festival on the other. I crossed back into Melbourne CBD via Sandridge Bridge where they have a really cool art installation called "The Travellers". It features 10 abstract scultures along the length of the bridge, and below them a collection of 128 glass panels. Each glass panel corresponds to a country, and have written on them the primary occupations of immigrants from that respective country during different time periods. It was interesting to see ethnic groups initially migrating to Australia as manual laborers, then 100 years later as students and skilled professionals.

Looking northeast from Sandridge Bridge

From Melbourne CBD I took the circle tram as close as I could get to my hostel and walked the rest. I'd been meaning to visit the nearby jazz bar ever since I became aware of its existence. Being my last night in Melbourne, I dressed up, put shoes on for the first time in weeks, and walked to the bar for dinner and drinks.

I arrived in the middle of a set, and after a $20 cover charge, $10 tiny beer, and $12 8-pc sushi rolls (actually not a bad price), I emerged from the bar a mere 40 minutes later. Shortly after I arrived the band had taken a 30+ minute break (I didn't stick around to find out exactly how long), and, at risk of sounding too Catcher-in-the-Ryeish, the crowd seemed like a bunch of stiffs. (Not to mention my train left at 8:30 the next morning and I had almost nothing but soul-crushing isolation to keep me company during the drawn out intermission). I slept lightly that night in anticipation of my 7am alarm.

Day 74: A Stroll Around Melbourne CBD

I'd been researching the best and cheapest way to get from Japan (where I would be 2 weeks from now) to Bucharest (which I hoped to be at before May 1, in about 5 weeks) and realized that Japan has a long national holiday, called "Golden Week", lasting from April 27 to May 6 where both international and domestic flight prices go up dramatically. And so, after a few hours of trial and error that is the inevitable process of filling in an open-ended flight itinerary, I was lucky enough to find tickets from Tokyo to Chengdu, fit in a few days exploring Chengdu, Chengdu to Bangkok, a few days pause in Bangkok, then a flight from Bangkok to Bucharest with an overnight layover in Dubai. All of these flights leave and arrive at reasonable, late morning to early evening times (with the exception of Tokyo to Chengdu, which arrives in Chengdu at 12:40 in the morning -- although there are visa-on-arrival laws that make this a potential pro rather than a con). All together, these flights cost me about $550. That's $200 cheaper than doing a multi-flight sprint from Japan to Bucharest just before the holiday price spike. And I would expect the additional airport transfer expenses to cancel out with the cheaper food and accommodation expenses in the worst case. The downside is that I spend a week less in Japan than originally planned, but just over two weeks still seems like a fair amount of time to begin exploring the Kansai/Tokyo areas. Overall, I think I was extremely lucky to be able to put together such an itinerary at an affordable price, as in some cases -- like Bangkok to Bucharest -- there was only one carrier (Flydubai) offering a flight for much less than $450 (and AirAsia, the $450 carrier, wanted to fly down to Kuala Lumpur before going to Bucharest, even though they didn't sell a cheaper ticket if you were to leave directly from KL. Really AirAsia???).

All of this research happened yesterday afternoon and evening, and I didn't get around to buying the tickets until this morning (didn't trust myself to make such large purchases when tired). After circumventing the usual crappy airline websites and payments not processing for no reason at all, I had my tickets and went out to explore more of Melbourne CBD for the rest of the day.

Looking towards the Royal Exhibition Building, just south of Melbourne Museum

My first stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral, the tallest and largest church building in Australia.

On my way down Spring St. past the parliament buildings, I stopped at The Old Treasury Building, now a museum with free admission.

Of the interesting things I can remember from my visit, I discovered that:

• An old court of Melbourne's was designed by a 16-year-old after the gold rush drained the older, skilled workers from Melbourne. This 16-year-old got the position after being hired into an intern-like position at age 15.
• Postage used to be very expensive, so to save money people would cross-write by writing to the end of the page, rotating the page 90 degrees, and beginning anew from the top of the page. Of course, they would repeat the process on the backside as well. This astounded me because even when written "straight", handwriting from that period is nearly illegible to my eyes.
• Melbourne began when John Batman traded aboriginals blankets, handkerchiefs, tomahawks, sugar, among other things for 600,000 acres of land around what we now call Port Phillip. Interestingly (the museum didn't mention this, but Wikipedia does), the treaty was the "first and only documented time when Europeans negotiated their presence and occupation of Aboriginal lands directly with the traditional owners". This deal was probably not fully comprehended by the aboriginals, who did not share our concept of land treaties and ownership. Nevertheless, the then governor of New South Wales shortly thereafter declared the treaty void under the assumption that the area had been under the Crown's ownership the entire time and that the aboriginals had no claim to the land when the deal was made.

From Parliament Hill I hopped on the circle tram and jumped off a few stops later at Flinders St. Station. Nearby there is a neat alleyway reminiscent of Post Alley near Pike Place Market in Seattle, but with fairly priced food and drinks.

After sitting down with a cuppa I popped out the north side of the alleyway and into the nearby Melbourne City Library (not the State Library of Victoria).

I picked a random book off the shelf ("Misfit Economy" by Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips) and a few dozen pages in found a page about my old employer!

Copyright someone else (please don't sue me!)

Leaving the library in search of food, I found a surprisingly cheap Vietnamese restaurant along Elizabeth St. and caught the 96 tram back to the hostel for the night.

Day 73: My Bed Was Reserved While I Was Sleeping On It

The Nunnery in Melbourne is unlike any other hostel I have stayed at to date in that 1. It used to be a nunnery, and 2. If you don't reserve a night sufficiently many days ahead you may end up getting kicked out of your own bed. This, as you might have guessed from the post title and foreshadowing of the previous sentence, is exactly what happened to me. I tried extending my stay two days before I was set to check out, only to find out that someone had already booked my bed for that night and all through the weekend. And so I arranged to book a more expensive 4-bed dorm for Wednesday and Thursday and (my new dorm already booked full over the weekend), an 8-bed dorm for Friday. I wanted to check out on Sunday, but the entire hostel was booked full for the Australian Grand Prix that weekend. So I bought a train ticket to Sydney rather than move to another hostel in Melbourne (which, as I've just learned, is pronounced "Mel-bun" by locals).

After the bizarre waiting game of checking out of my room at 10:00 and waiting until 1:00 to move into my new room (why don't I just take my sheets with me directly to my new room?), I went to make good on my IMAX movie voucher that I had bought jointly with my museum entry ticket yesterday. I saw _, a 40-minute, highly mediocre "film" about our search for life in space. Even by American cinema standards, this gimmicky 3-D NatGeo-esque episode was not worth the 14 AUD (10.5 USD) I paid to see it. 0 out of 5 Keplars.

Day 72: Melbourne Museum

My leg having by now healed to the point where I could walk up stairs using both legs and even fake a normal gait if I fancied, I decided to cross the street and explore Melbourne Museum.

I bought a museum entry + IMAX movie voucher combo, but only had time to see the museum exhibits. The museum has really excellent natural science galleries on the ground floor which cover time periods from 600mya to present day. A few interesting things I learned: only about 50mya, whales evolved from this (possibly) semi-aquatic animal. And about 30mya this awkward thing roamed the earth, an awkwardness that intensifies when you realize that it was nearly 10 times as massive as a modern-day rhinoceros.

The second floor galleries feature art, design, and cultural exhibits which were also quite interesting. Although I spent over 5 hours exploring exhibits, I didn't have enough time before the museum closed for the day to see all there was on offer, or even to see everything on display in any single exhibit. I may go back at some point (an entry ticket is only 14 AUD). My movie voucher is good the entire time I have planned for Melbourne and I'll probably take advantage of it one of these rainy evenings.

Day 71: Another Easy Day

I'd almost forgotten that this day happened! I overheard some guests in the lobby talking about discounted Monday movie tickets at the nearby mainstream/art house theater Nova Cinema and I decided to buy tickets for the not-so-recent release of La La Land.

By the time I swung by Cole's to grab some snacks/lunch and crossed the street to the state library, it was already four in the evening. At eight I caught a tram to Carlton and partook in a meal of tacos and wine before the screening. I must have gone in an unconventional entrance to the cinema, because after following a labyrinth of signs I walked into the correct theatre without ever having shown someone my ticket.

Overall it was a pleasant evening.

Day 70: Cafes and Gardens

My leg has the double effect of causing me to walk slower, but also to tire more quickly from my awkward peg leg gait. So I decided to take most of today from a sitting position, first at a cafe in Fitzroy and then at the state library. Just before I left the cafe, a contingency of nude bikers rode up the street towards downtown. Around 5:30 in the evening I decided to catch a tram from the library to the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

The day had been sweltering -- not dipping below 34 degrees Celsius for most of the day -- and by the time I left the library it was not much cooler. From the tram stop there is a path that leads to the Shrine of Remembrance, a memorial for those Aussies that served in WWI.

To the right lies the botanical gardens, which were nice to walk through in the evening, but I tired quickly and found a bench to enjoy the view from a more comfortable sitting position.

A popular rendezvous spot for couples

After catching the tram back to Melbourne CBD I grabbed dinner at a Korean place near Chinatown (where I tried ginger beer, a non-alcoholic drink popular in temperance bars) and afterwards took a moment to enjoy the Sunday evening buskers before catching the tram back to the hostel.

Day 69: State Library of Victoria and Melbourne University

Melbourne: a warmer, more British Seattle. At least that's the impression I got after walking around part of Melbourne CBD, visiting the state library and Australia's most highly rated university.

After hunting down another plug type converter (my "universal" converter I bought in Malaysia wasn't so universal after all), I plunked myself down in the first floor reading room of the State Library of Victoria for a chargefest and to catch up on my blog.

An aerial view of the first floor reading room

The library has 6 floors accessible to the public. One of my favorite parts of the library was its front courtyard. Being a Saturday, there were a lot of people lounging on the grass, meeting up with friends, or playing with the giant chess sets in front of the library!

The steps leading to the State Library of Victoria

A crowd gathers around a game of chess in front of the library

I don't know what this is, but I like it

From the library I walked across the street to a mall/supermarket/metro station combo to pick up PBJ sandwich supplies to save myself money on breakfast and snacks. 

Overlooking the streets of Melbourne

I thought having a metro station within a mall and supermarket was brilliant, and would love to see something like this in Seattle. After getting my supplies (My loaf of bread was only 1 USD, can you believe that?), I hopped on a tram towards the nearby University of Melbourne (informally Melbourne University).

For having near the exact same enrollment as University of Washington, the main campus is considerably more walkable than UW. There were few students on campus, except for a graduate event going on in UM's quad. 

"unimelb", an even more informal name for University of Melbourne

Buildings overlook a cricket field

From the other side of the cricket field you can see Melbourne CBD

Residential units within Queen's College, an academic residential community

The day's last rays of sun leak through a church window

One of the things I like about Melbourne's public transportation is the "Free Tram Area" which allows anyone to ride any tram for free as long as their trip resides exclusively within the downtown area. I imagine this helps decrease downtown traffic and increase consumer mobility so that shoppers don't feel they need to bring their car with them downtown. King Country Metro I hope you're paying attention!

Days 67-68: To Melbourne (and a PSA for all people who own bags with wheels!)

My flight left at 1:30 in the afternoon. The first leg of my journey took me to Kuala Lumpur for an overnight stopover and the second leg to Melbourne at 10:30 the next day. Some genius had the idea of opening a hostel (Moon Eleven Hostel) one train stop away from KLIA (which is otherwise an hour by train from the city) and saved me quite a lot of commuting time and a bit of cash, too.

While boarding my DPS to KUL flight someone with a roller bag suddenly stopped in front of me, causing me to blunt my injured toe on their bag. At first I blamed myself for not paying attention, until it happened AGAIN on my KUL to MIL flight, and later when deboarding the MIL to Southern Cross Station express bus, after someone thought it was a fantastic idea to roll their suitcase off the bus directly from the luggage rack, running my toe over in the process. Is it really that difficult to carry your bag in cramped quarters, people?!

Besides giving my toe PTSD whenever I see a bag with wheels, my flights went smoothly; and after the seven-hour flight from KL to Melbourne, an express bus to Southern Cross Station, and a taxi ride (after failing to find a place with a working MYKI card machine -- Melbourne's public transport pass), I made it to The Nunnery Accommodation in Melbourne's hip Fitzroy neighborhood shortly before midnight.

Apparently, they celebrate St. Patrick's Day much the same way in Australia as they do in America. Some using it as an excuse to dress up and/or go drink, and most completely ignoring its quizzical existence. The Nunnery has an interesting mix of guests. Some, like the hostel I stayed at in Singapore, have guests living there long-term while they look for jobs and/or housing. Others book a single night just to have a place central to the bars to crash at after a night of partying. And, of course, there's a few fellow travelers spending a week or more in Melbourne.

Day 66: Return to Denpasar

When I checked the evening before, the weather forecast was calling for a high chance of rain in Lovina by noon, and a high chance of rain in Denpasar by 10. Eager not to get caught in any of it, I woke up at 7 and left Lovina at 7:30. This time I took an altogether different route than when I arrived via Padang Bai. The road adjacent to Santhika B&B can be taken north, to the main, coastal road, or south, all the way to Mount Bratan and associated lakes. It's rather surprising that this is possible, because the road south initially looks like any other residential road in the Lovina area. As you go along it, the surroundings only become more rural -- to the point that you're certain that it will peter out and end in a dead end at any moment.

Theoretically, this will take you all the way to Mount Bratan from which it's a straight shot to Denpasar. But since this supposedly main road looks like any other residential road, whenever the road split I had to make a judgment as to which road looked less "residentially". At some point during the navigation process I checked my map and discovered that I was off course. Some locals pointed me down a road back to the main highway, a road that didn't exist on Google Maps. It did eventually get me back to the road I was looking for, but not before I made the biggest mistake(s) of my trip thus far.

At one point, the road turns into concrete where the tire treads and grass and earth in between. I was being careful, but not careful enough! I took a corner rather slowly, about 5 km/hr, but misjudged the concrete and slipped into the median. The rain from previous days had made the earth soft and my scooter slid out from under me just enough for me to lose my balance and fall slowly and pathetically on my side. It was enough to cut up the big toe on my left foot fairly badly and put two large scrapes on my knee, among some other smaller scratches.

Needless to say I was not amused with busting myself up in the middle of the wilderness, but I picked myself up and rode my scooter back to the main road. I washed the worst of my wounds with the only liquid I had with me, Kratingdaeng Pro (Indonesian Red Bull). I then applied antibiotic cream, but left my reperations at that, as I didn't have any bandages with me. Although I can't remember doing so, at some point during this process I dropped my scooter key into the under seat pocket and closed the seat, locking it in place. It took me 5 minutes of checking my immediate surroundings and digging through my backpack before deducing that I had, in fact, unconsciously locked my key in the seat. To put it lightly, I was extremely frustrated.

I tried breaking the lock, considered looking for help, but then noticed that if pulled from the side, the seat was rather pliable. And lucky for me, I had plopped my key atop the plastic bag containing my trip rations, so it wasn't buried too deep in the recesses of the seat pocket. Peeling back the seat and reaching inside, I was able to snatch my key and was once again on my way to Denpasar.

I stopped at one of Mount Batur's lakes to take this photo

The route I was supposed to take (and in actuality just approximated) is possibly the most direct route one can take up into the mountains of Bali. As a result, the ascent was very steep. Which resulted in constant mind-numbing views on the way up and, at times, me questioning the abilities of my automatic scooter. If you happen to be heading back to Denpasar from Lovina I would actually recommend taking this route, as it's relatively traffic-free and the views are fantastic. Just make absolutely sure you know where you're going! The route as a whole is undoubtedly safe if you stay on the main road and the road is in relatively good condition.

Once back in Denpasar I washed my wounds and one of the hostel staff was nice enough to dress my cuts in gauze tape, and change the bandages again the next day before my flight. I spent the rest of the day in bed resting. At the least, I had avoided being caught in the rain that afternoon.

Days 63-65: In Lovina

Most of my time in Lovina was spent lounging around Santhika B&B, working on classes, reading, and solving Nikoli puzzles! Nikoli is the Japanese company that was first to publish Sudoku puzzles, but they have plenty of other types of logic puzzles as well. Two of my favorites are Norinori and Nurikabe.

On day 64 I went with a new Polish friend to nearby Banjar Hot Springs.

When I arrived (I was on a scooter, my friend had taken a shuttle bus), it was amidst another downpour and I had the entire hot springs to myself for one brief, glorious moment. The warm water felt great, and the rain combined with the hot springs location in a tropical enclave was a lovely experience. That night, there was a communal dinner at the B&B that was served on giant palm leafs. As part of the "experience" we ate with our hands, taking a little bit of each item from in front of us and molding it into a conglomerate. You're supposed to then use your thumb to shovel it into your mouth, but I was much better at using gravity to drop the food in my mouth and on my shirt.

Bone app the teeth

Day 62: To Lovina

Staying only one night in Padang Bai, I took off on my scooter for Lovina in the north of Bali.

(My actual route took me through Besakih and by Mount Batur)

Before leaving, a German and Canadian girl (where are all the guy travelers?) convinced me the white sand beach, a 10-minute walk from the main road, was worth seeing.

I can't tell if this is paradise or just the shoreline of everywhere I go these days

The ride to Lovina took perhaps 4 hours and continued to cement my belief that Bali is just a giant web of interconnected small towns and villages -- and that whatever natural wonders the island contains are confined to not-yet-developed pockets or national parks. This is, of course, in contrast to Lombok where vast swaths of agriculture or lightly farmed hills often dominate the landscape. To be fair, I still have yet to see outside of the more heavily developed central strip of the island, and scooters can only drive on paved roads 😅

The drive offered this view of Mount Batur and its lake of the same namesake.

Mount  Batur, to the left, is not pictured

A rather difficult exposure for an iPhone to get in one shot! Click the photo to see full screen.

Apparently, no tubas are allowed outside of the observation point

The elevation is so great and temperature cool that coniferous trees are able to grow. Luckily, the rain clouds you see to the left in the above photo kept their moisture to themselves during my descent.

Lovina, technically an area consisting of six or so small towns that blend into one over 10 kilometers of shoreline, has a name that was coined in the 1950s specifically for tourism. Being on the north shore of the island, it's quieter than the south of the island or Ubud -- which was its main appeal to myself and my last days in Bali. But I didn't exactly get a sense of quietude after having men on motorbikes try to engage me in conversation while I was driving down the street to sell me an overpriced tour package on two different occasions. Another pulled up beside me while I was stopped by the side of the road consulting my map in an effort to sell me a dolphin watching tour for four times the going rate. Stay classy, Lovina.

I was extremely glad to finally make it to the bed and breakfast I had booked for the next four nights. After a wash and a meal I spent the evening lounging in the shade with the fan blowing on me.

Day 61: Back to Padang Bai

My agenda for today entailed checking out of La Boheme Lombok, riding my scooter down to Lombok's southern pier, and catching the ferry to Padang Bai where I would stay for the night.

As is usually the case in Lesser Sundanese Island cities, or anywhere with lots of poorly labeled roads, I was in essence driving blind through Mataram, but I managed to make it to the other side where the highway is a near straight-shot to the pier.

The ferry ride was uneventful, except I made a friend who offered to drive my scooter into Padang Bai with myself as passenger "in case your license is expired, or something". I hadn't realized that they check for license and registration going into Padang Bai as well as out, and the offer was a windfall for me. Safely on the other side of scooter immigration, I located my hostel (I had mistakenly booked a different hostel than last time, Lemon House), washed up, and went to visit my friends on the eastern peninsula again. Only Ketut (the "uncle") was there to greet me, and I had dinner there before turning in for the night.

From La Boheme Lombok that morning...

...to the steps leading up to Lemon House, 125 km away as the scooter and ferry travels

Day 60: Waterfall Hunting Round 2

I had originally planned to once again spend the day in bed, as resting sounded more appealing than going out to explore the island by myself again. But Abdu (one of the friendly staff at La Boheme Lombok) introduced me to two female Finns who had plans to search for a waterfall further west than I had made it two days ago. Exploring by myself wasn't sufficiently enticing to get me out of bed, but exploring with two new friends was!

All I knew (and I suspect all the Finns knew) was that the waterfall we were looking for was in this area:

After ditching our scooters in a surprise downpour to take cover within a roadside convenience store, we turned south after two hours of driving. The signs pointing to a waterfall ahead told us that we were headed in the right direction. Twenty minutes later we found ourselves taking cover again within a roadside restaurant -- but not before soaking ourselves after one last valiant effort to outpace the storm.

But the food and hot drink were needed, and after taking in the view while waiting for the rain to let up, we turned around and drove back to the hostel.

Mid downpour. The largest waterfall we saw that day is to the right.

The rain has nearly stopped

A stylized version of the above photo

That evening, Abdu showed myself and a Canadian girl the view from a nearby hill, and we watched the sun set.

Bye bye sunshine, until tomorrow

Day 59: ???

I'm pretty sure I spent most of this day in bed sipping tea (it was an unmemorable day, and I'm writing this days after it happened). I did finally get out to take some photos of the area around the hostel. Though, for some reason I didn't take any photos of the surrounding hills, which were one of my favorite parts to look at going to and from the nearly un-Google-Mappable village of Mentigi -- the town in which La Boheme Lombok resides.

 

Looking northwest through agricultural fields towards a mosque 

Mentigi Bay

Day 58: Waterfall Hunting

I set out in the morning with the goal of seeing most of the north coast of Lombok and cutting into the mountains once I was on the other side of Mount Rinjani during the hottest part of the day to find cooler climes. I ended up only making it about halfway there, but I saw enough. My first stop was Tiu Pupus, not because there's anything spectacular about it, but because it was the first sign I saw with "water fall" written on it.

A 10-minute ride off the main road and a 5-minute walk gets you to the falls.

Tiu Pupus

Next I stopped at Tiu Teja.

This one is 7 km off the main road and a little harder to find once the pavement ends. Without a guide, expect a 30-minute hike. But, seeing as the guides practically throw themselves onto you, you can expect a 10-minute scooter shuttle to the actual trailhead, then a steep, 10-minute descent to the falls.

Tiu Teja

Hi Mom. I'm still alive.

To be honest, there are waterfalls all over this island, and seeing two was more than enough for me. Despite these waterfalls being not very well-known by tourists, the people of Indonesia have ample free time to be your "guide" and point you in the right direction (or be more useful and shuttle you to the trailhead, take your photo, and save your sandal from certain doom after it slips off your foot underwater). They ask for a surprisingly fair price, usually about 15,000 IDR ($1), but -- being a tourist -- I have an overwhelming lack of denominations less than what the ATM dispenses (50,000 rupiah notes if lucky, 100,000 if not). And in general, the more informal and cheaper the service -- like a random teenager picking you up on his motorbike to take you to the trailhead -- the less likely they're going to carry any change. What this means in practice is if all you have are 50k IDR notes, that's the price you pay. And if you stop at a roadside food stand and try to pay for your 15k IDR meal with a 50k note, they'll ask first if you have any "small bills" before digging into their lunchbox full of small bills to break you change. As an American, it can be hard to believe that anyone anywhere would find making change on a $3.75 note inconvenient, but that's the way things seem to be around here. (This is perhaps more prominent in relatively poor areas where surplus cash is short in general and in touristy areas, at the rare restaurant or common convenience store that charges non-tourist prices, where tourists are constantly trying to pay for meals and services with 50k and 100k notes).

The paltry point of that wild discursion being: I countered the 15k offer of my guide at Tiu Teja with an offer of 50k if he were to show me a restaurant to eat at since I was just about running on fumes. After some confusion as to the term "restaurant", I was eventually taken to a roadside stall where I was served a meal "free" of charge. Afterwards my guide invited me to his home down the road. I accepted, and was taken to a small house containing a woman, a man, and about 8 boys between the ages of 10-15 (friends, I presume). They served me a cup of delicious coffee and one of the boys climbed up the tree in the front yard to grab us some rambutan to snack on.

Rambutan, the hairy grape of the tropics

I'm lucky to have gotten such an offer, because soon afterward there was a heavy downpour for the next 20 minutes. We exchanged the usual Q&A and I showed them my photos from the other cities and places I had been to. A few of them were returning to Mataram that afternoon so I rode with them as far as Pamenang before parting our separate ways.