Traveling With Laura

I cannot believe that in two weeks this time I will be back in Finland. And not just for a short time but for good…or at least for some time. Or at least I will be back in Europe - if not in Finland. You know what I mean!

Tuesday was supposed to be my main day for diving. Sipadan island has been rated as one of the best places in the world for diving and that was the reason I went to Semporna. They issue only 120 permits for the island per day so I had booked this day already couple weeks earlier to ensure that I will get there. So I got up at 7 am, had breakfast and got ready for three more dives. Waited at the dive shop with other divers and when it was the Sipadan boat list, waited to hear my name but it was never called! I was quite surprised as I had checked in with the dive shop on Sunday and I had been on the list. I went to the Sipadan dive master and the only thing she could say was that I was not on the list. We went to the office and talked to one of the guys in charge and he told that I was not on the list as I had not checked in on Sunday and had not showed up for diving the day before. This was funny as I had done three dives with them the day before. (more…)

First of all, from now on the posts will probably be quite short and after this week I will not post too many things until I am back in Finland. The time is precious and I do not want to spend too much in the Internet.

After lazy day in Sandakan, the day before yesterday I decided finally to go to the Organgutan Rehabilitation Centre in Sepilok. It was a short minibus ride away from Sandakan without any exciting events. I got to Sepilok around 9:30 am, and was told that the morning feeding time is at 10 am so I headed there straight away. The rehabilitation centre works with orangutans that have been found in bad conditions. Most of them are brought in as babies after the mother has been killed or taken by local people and sold somewhere. Up to 3 years the babies stay in special cage but after that they are reintroduced to the jungle and the aim is that they become completely independent. Some of them need feeding for few days after they are put back to jungle, and some stay in the area for the rest of their lives. (more…)

Yesterday morning, the sound of alarm was the worst in the world. I could not believe that I had to get up and at the same time I could not believe that I still felt exhausted even after ten hours of sleep. I got up, went to brush my teeth and when I saw myself in a mirror, I realized that, once again, I had not slept by myself. My whole upper body was covered in some kinds of bites. I had a quick shower, in case the bites were from bed bugs, packed everything that I had worn in bed into a plastic bag and went down for breakfast. Walk down to the first floor breakfast area was not nice, my legs hurt so badly every single step.

After breakfast, I headed to the bus station where I was met with overly excited bus company touts. I refused to give my bag to anyone and follow anyone and went to all the different counters before buying my ticket to Sandakan. The bus was supposed to leave at 9:30 and we left a bit before ten so I guess the bus was somewhat on time. The bus ride itself was very uneventful but nice. Air-con, I had two seats for myself and so I slept through most of the journey, which was a pity as the bits that I saw were beautiful. Borneo jungle with so much green that it almost hurt my eyes. (more…)

I managed to do few decisions the other night, I had just a salad for dinner and did not wash my hair. I was very indecisive about Mt Kinabalu so decided to make that decision later. That is my new hobby, postponing decision making.

On Monday morning the weather looked perfect for a beach day. I headed to the islands at 10 am and decided to go to Manukan, as it was the one where the next boat was going to. Bad choice, full of Asian tourists. I tried snorkeling for a bit but there were more Japanese and Korean tourists than corals or fish. So gave up on that and found a more quiet beach. Enjoyed the sun, the relaxed feeling and…suddenly very cold drops. It started raining all of a sudden. Quietly, without any warning, a massive thunder storm was on the island. I gathered my stuff, looked for a restaurant with a roof and sat down. Perfect time for lunch then. Usually thunder storms pass quite quickly but after two hours I was still reading my book in the restaurant, getting a bit cold and very very very bored. I was supposed to go back to KK only at 4 pm, but I heard that there was a 3 pm boat so jumped in and decided that I don’t care if I am taking someone else’s seat. (more…)

One more new country (I do not count the 24 hours spent in KL) for this trip. Sniff, sniff.  But after another long travel day yesterday, I cannot really say that I mind this being the last country.

On Friday night I went to see a traditional Ramayana Ballet show. It was…interesting. In the beginning, the story was explained in English but as I was not concentrating, the whole thing was a bit of a mystery. Some kind of love story with tears and thoughts of betrayal in the middle and a happy ending. The thing that I found the best was a little kid who was, for some reason, part of the cast. Or more like a little brother of one of the kids on the cast. This kid was totally out of control. Every time the kids came on stage, he would just do his own thing, climb on the stage, get on the way of the actual dancers, steal their props, basically he did everything possible to ruin the show. I found it hilarious and was waiting him to show up more often. So I guess this tells that I was not exactly an instant fan of Ramayana Ballet. (more…)

Some weeks feel like being on an emotional roller coaster. This week has been one of those weeks. In the beginning of the week, I was happy to be off the beaten track and now I cannot wait to get to somewhere with a western toilet and more tourists so people don’t stare me that much. I guess I have also been a bit moody as I know that my last month started this week, I am a bit homesick and ready to go home but still not ready to face the real world and make any decisions. And I am not ready to give up my freedom. So it has been ups and downs but…well, I would like to say that I have faced this emotional roller coaster like a good little soldier but not really, have been complaining a lot and have now decided that enough complaining, I will try to enjoy the last weeks.

Two days ago I spent quite a few hours trying to make sure that I have accommodation for the whole stay here in Yogyakarta. All places that I visited were full - except the real dumps and I was not ready to get a room in a place that I felt was a bit unsafe. I went to Ibis hotel and checked that they had rooms available and decided that if worst comes to worst, I can always pay unreasonable amount and stay there. I tried to see some of the sights but everything was closed as it was the first day after Ramadan. I did not really know what to do so I walked around for quite a bit, had an afternoon nap and an early dinner at McDonald’s. Once again, I was in bed relatively early as had a bad stomach and as had signed up for a day tour that would start at 5 am the next day. (more…)

The last few days have been quite strange, I am not sure what happened and what was just a dream. After sleeping through 12 hours, I feel better although have a new ‘problem’ at hand. The Ramadan ended today (good good as the hour long prayers from the loud speakers are over) but it means that literally the whole of Indonesia is on the move (bad bad) and I have my room only for tonight and have not been able to find another hotel for tomorrow night. So might have to sleep on a park bench (so far have not seen parks…not such a good plan then).

On Monday I took a flight from Bali to Surabaya. I was a bit worried as the flight left about half an hour late due to ‘operational problems’. The Indonesian airlines do not have the best reputation in the world so I was very glad when we landed 45 minutes later to Surabaya. At the airport, my plan was to take a taxi to bus station and then figure things out there. I went to the taxi stand and somehow 15 minutes later was sitting in a taxi to Probolinggo - the city where I had meant to take the bus to. Well, this is what happened, they told me the price to the bus station and then they told me the price all the way to Probolinggo. I was not sure how many buses go daily to Probolinggo and thought that I would spend some extra to make sure that I get to the destination for sure. (more…)

Back in Bali - more specifically in Kuta. But luckily for one night only. If I had planned things a bit better, I would soon be sitting in a night bus but well, cannot win.

I was a bit sad to leave Flores and Labuanbajo behind today. It was really amazing place and I would love to go back one day. I think I liked it so much because it was not so crowded with tourists and it felt almost like a real Indonesian town. And the diving was amazing!

Yesterday Ned and I went to see the Komodo dragons. We had a bit of a late start as two Italian guys, who were diving with us the day before were supposed to join us but at the end decided to stay in Labuanbajo and sleep. So with the waiting and discussing we left a bit later than we wanted to. We had been given a name of a boat that could take us there. We spent some minutes trying to find “Alba” but could not find the captain. Two other guys offered their boat for 400 000 rupias and we gladly accepted their offer. Of course, it is not as simple as that. We had to pay half before we left so that they could buy petrol and then we had to wait around for port manager’s stamp. I think we finally left around 11 am. The boat was quite slow, it took us 2,5 hours to get to Rinca - which is closer to Labuanbajo than Komodo and has also the dragons. I did not mind the slow traveling that much as at first I sat front of the boat enjoying the sun and then the crew put some mattresses on the floor and I had a morning nap. (more…)

Again I wonder what happens to the days here. It was just five minutes ago that I sat here at the Internet Cafe but apparently it was already two days ago. Wow.

The last few days here in Labuanbajo have been really nice. I enjoy this little sleepy fishermen town, it is not that touristic but very nice. On Wednesday, after the Internet and other running tasks, Ned and I walked to the harbor and hired two local guys to take us snorkeling for the afternoon. We were on a small local boat for about fifteen minutes and then arrived to a beautiful white sandy beach. The snorkeling was amazing, the corals beautiful and I saw almost all the fish one sees on a normal dive. Sometimes snorkeling is better than diving as the colors are a lot brighter, the deeper one goes, the less colors one sees. It was amazing! After about an hour of snorkeling, I was done and spent another hour just enjoying the sun and nearly empty beach. (more…)

New week, new island. It took awhile to get here, but so far it looks like the trip was worth it. I travelled with an English guy, Ned, and it was good to have company as Monday and Tuesday were massively long days.

We left from Gili T on Monday morning around 8:30 am with a tiny boat to Bangsal on Lombok. I had taken a sea-sickness tablet in the morning and that was a smart move as the 45 minutes on this small boat was very rocky. The waves were quite big and sometimes looked like they are just going to wash us away with them. I was very glad when we got to Bangsal and hoped that the other boats on the way would be bigger. From Bangsal we got a minibus to Mataram, the ‘capital’ of the Lombok Island. (more…)