This trip was the first time for us all that we were going to the Asian continent, we chose Bali for its climate in august. In Southeast Asia there was something authentic that attracted me.
Aproximately at noon, we got to the Denpasar airport, it was hard to find the car we booked before going there, although we found it and Sylvindinho started driving through the city with the best French copilote…
Driving through the city was a real shock for all of us even more for Sylvidinho because for the first time he was driving on the left, furthermore there were a lot of people, and these people drove bad, it’s pretty dangerous because it seemed like there wasn’t no rule… In addition, we didn’t have enough petrol to reach our house and we couldn’t find any gas station… That country was already putting us in a test. Finally, after twenty minutes driving, we found a market where there was petrol, but in bottle, I mean former bottles of vodka turned into gas jerrycans, but now we could keep driving with our square car (as they are in Asia) until our house up the city, after forty minutes we got the house and after ten minutes trying to park the car we discovered the villa.
About Kuta, Kuta is a city as are the cities, I mean there are a lot of bars, restaurants, shops, supermarkets… Over there we experienced a lot the streets and even more the roads, so increasingly Sylvindinho was driving better and got ready for any danger coming from all sides.
Even if we could smell the pollution because of the numerous cars or scooters driving over the roads, the fact to see so much people in the streets and on the roads was incredible. But we didn’t stay a lot of time there, so after two days we went back in our way to a small island close to Bali called Nusa Penida.
We took the boat for twenty-five minutes despite a rough sea, the island was so small that we discovered it in only two days, we stayed in cabins in a field where there were only cows and palm trees, a very calm place.
I remember that one day our scooter didn’t have petrol anymore, we were in a path and there wasn’t any shop to buy it… But fortunately, a man was passing by asked me: “You don’t have petrol anymore? no problem, I have a bit at home, get on the scooter and go pick it up at home”. So, I got on the scooter and we went picking up some petrol bottles, then we came back to our way to a beach called “Kelingking”, a beach hidden surrounded by cliffs.
In the path to go down, there was a slope, a slippery slope about a hundred and fifty meters, even though I know that today there are some crash barriers, when we went there, there only were some branches to hold us, in fact it was challenging to reach down but we loved it. When we got the beach the weather was so hot that we just were having an idea in mind: go swimming, even if there were so much waves. After less than an hour we decided to go back up where there were monkeys and Aurélien, therefore it took us less time than to go down.
We really loved walking through the island, not only on the roads where there were only trees on each side and where women sometimes were walking with buckets on their heads but also in the towns, towns that visually seemed poor but we could also feel that these places were deeply rich, with all its temples, like a well-hidden one, located in a cave whose entrance is guarded by monkeys … I remember that we had to crawl in a hole to go in.
Tegallalang, near Ubud in the Gianyar region was the first town we visited after our come back to Bali. We got to Ubud in the afternoon, a child on a terrace greeted us, peo-ple seemed happy to see us although at that time we still didn’t know our host … Finally, we got to Tegallalang, we met Joseph and his house, a very quiet place and only surrounded by rice fields, I really loved this place.
Joseph is a guy from Bandung, a city in the Java island. The first day there, we wanted to go out and eat, we were on the road when suddenly Joseph called us: « Hey, where are you going? Can I go out with you? » Of course he could, Joseph was a very funny and very positive guy, he’s one of the reasons why we had such a good time.
The rice fields of Tegallalang, a very beautiful place although there are many tourists because the place is well known, but we liked the atmosphere, it was also the first time we saw rice fields so we fell in love with the view.
In the Gianyar region we got lost many times, we wanted to go to a place and finally we ended up in another one, sometimes we found small towns near the jungle, like one where I remember that there were a hundred coconuts on the ground with chickens passing by¡Muy chido!
One day, something surprised us, we were on the road and there were some kids, a college class I think but I’m not sure, they were walking on the road, but like in the army, I mean in line and singing a « strong » song, a song that seemed « traditional » to me, we saw that many times, not only in schools but also in soccer stadiums.
The food in Ubud is known to be the best of the island, and that’s true, the best res-taurants in Bali are in Ubud, and I’m not talking about fancy restaurants, but very simple restaurants where you can eat the traditionals « Mi Goreng » or « Nasi Goreng ».
It was time to back on the road, this time to Ahmed, a town on the coast, after a few hours driving we were close to our house, but we took the wrong road, and we got to a place that seemed to us an indigenous town because it’s far away the coast where all the people are, also they all were naked, I mean more or less… They were looking at us because I think it was a surprise for them to see Europeans there, I tried to com-municate a little bit but nobody spoke English and I don’t speak Indo …
Finally, we found the house where we slept two days, the owners were very kind, I remember that we had just got there and she gave us a plate with fruits and other things and especially with bruschettas, we couldn’t believe it, bruschettas in Indonesia! We had to send a picture of that to Laurent who was at his home in southern Italy …
The first day we went diving in the deep around an American boat rest, we had a good time, I really like diving, but once again I didn’t find a dive as good as in Gwada which according to me is one of the best places for that …
At seven pm, we went out to eat but we didn’t want to go back home late because the next day we had to get up very early to take a boat to the Gili islands, we went out and I remember that this time it was windy, very windy, the first time there was so much wind on the island since we were there, in fact the weather was chilly, but finally we chose a small restaurant on the other side of our house, we had a sit at the farest table of the exit door, Sylvindinho wanted to try an « Arak ». Suddenly I started to hear a noise, a loud noise, a few seconds later, the earth started moving, the bottles were falling down and a piece of stone fell from the roof, the stone almost fell on the head of a singer that Aurélien was capturing with his cellphone only a few seconds before, but at that moment we had to get out of there without falling because everything was falling. When we were outside, it was a chaos, my friends were far away, I stayed in front of the restaurant, I don’t know why.
Many people were screaming, almost all the people in the neighborhood were outside, we already knew that there was a Tsunami alert because of the earthquake that was of magnitude seven, but I remember something, we were outside with all the people when suddenly we saw a dog running very fast on the road, but seemed to be trying to escape something, at that moment Sylvidinho told me: « that’s sucks », we decided to go home to check if our hosts were alright, on the way we couldn’t see anything because of the darkness, but we could feeling and hearing the roof tiles under our feet, we stayed with them waiting for an potential tsunami wave … Finally when the alert got up, the woman prepared a giant plate of rice for everyone: the real sharing. At midnight we went back to our rooms and we knew we couldn’t go to Gili because the island was destroyed … at night we had three aftershocks but less strong.
This experience was hard for all of us, although we didn’t get serious damage, in fact I only opened my foot, but I don’t know how that happened because I didn’t feel anything, I think I got so much adrenalin that fear never took possession of me, and I’m sure that’s why I didn’t feel my foot open either …
Before leaving Ahmed, Sylvinho and I went to a shop to buy something for the road. There were also many destroyed things, and we also had another aftershock in this shop, and I almost slipped getting out of there…
We decided to go back to Kuta because the city didn’t have much damage, in fact people didn’t feel much of the earthquake there.
The cities aren’t our favorite places except for Aurélien who is more like “a city guy”. On the way we saw many houses or shops destroyed but people were already rebuilding their houses, it was early in the morning but there were already some walls built. We were hungry, so we stopped at a shopping center for something to eat, once again we had a aftershock, not a strong one but people rushed out, us too, but it was the last time we felt an earthquake in Bali.
Back to Kuta, first we went for a trek in the forest, a trek passing through a river, we had to go by the rocks because at that time the goal was to stay dry, but I was the first to slip into the river, now I wasn’t dry anymore, afterwards Aurélien followed me and we all finished the trek swimming … On the way back, on the road there was a puppy, a puppy that seemed sick to us, the cars were only trying to avoid it but nobody was helping it, so I told Sylvidinho: » Stop the car! » and he stopped it in the middle of the road thus getting stuck all the traffic, you should know that getting stuck traffic is one thing, but getting stuck it in Kuta is another … So the car stopped and I went out to see the puppy, It was in very bad condition, I took it in my hands and put it on the grass and stayed with it for a few seconds before going back to the car. People seemed very happy with this gesture, the funny thing is they applauded me but nobody helped it before…
One day we spent the afternoon on a beach, that day Joseph called us: « Where are you? Ok, I’m coming! » Then we met him on the beach with beers, I remember that day there were dogs bothering a woman, and Joseph made the dogs run away, a hero.
But the most beautiful beach we have seen in Bali is Karma beach, to go down the beach the path is long, but I couldn’t get bored because the view from the top to the bottom was very beautiful. There, we met guys from Algeria, they had a ball so we played soccer in the sand, we had a great time, the funny thing is that with them there were children and all of us was afraid of hurting them trying to get the ball out of them … So every time the children scored…
One night, we wanted to have a party, one last together with Joseph of course, so we invited him home before going out, our house was out the city, we were in a quieter place, so that night, we were outside when suddenly we saw a cow in front of us, first she was just looking at us, but in a second she turned crazy and lashed out at us, only Aurélien and Joseph were lucky to get back home, but Sylvindinho and I had to find a tree or a wall to save us … Fortunately it was night, the cow couldn’t see us anymore and went back to her field… I think…
The trip is already over, in fact almost, because when we were on the way back, at the Doha airport Aurélien had a coconut in his backpack (like all of us), and I don’t know but I think custom officers believed it was a bomb or Another thing and they asked Aurélien to open up his bag, it was a surprise for them when they saw the coconut …
It was the first trip we had together, and for our first one we experienced many things, but I think that trip was the starting point of many other adventures, each trip is crazier than the last one, we always do things that make us go to a higher level but this is what we want.
Thanks for reading.
Lucas.
Black ace adventures 