Singapore and Tokyo

Short update here since I wasn't in either of these cities for too long. I also have no pictures from singapore since they are all on Daniela's camera. Its been a few weeks since the last posting, but I have some time this afternoon to finish asia, then this week I can put together some pics from Iceland.

We landed in Singapore and checked into the hotel. As its singapore, everything went very smoothly except the cabbie had no idea where the hotel was or even where any of the streets were. He eventually took us to queen street which is nowhere near the Aqueen hotel. We eventually found it and he only charged us half the fare on the meter on account of his poor sense of direction. Nice guy. The room was ultra-modern and minimalist, as is typical of singapore. All kinds of fun buttons for lights and stuff that could be programmed automatically.

After that we headed down to little India to grab a bite to eat and have a look at a few temples. After that we went to china town to see a buddhist temple and then to the waterfront area for dinner. The waterfront area is interesting because its very classy and extremely well done, but its clearly all new and purposely built at the same time. I think thats a rare combination that a local government can decide to create nightlife downtown and have it spontaneously be really fun and well done. In any case, there are mushroom like roof structures that shelter a lot of the area if it rains, lots of out door dining on the water and no shortage of bars and clubs on the street. Not cheap, but somehow it has a sense of character that is very singaporean. The next day we went up to the zoo which was impressive. They allow a lot of the animals to roam free so you can feed a giraffe, sit and have lunch under a tree full of monkeys or have a kangaroo walk across your path. The animal enclosures are also quite large and well designed to give the animals privacy and space yet also allow good views. It did rain quite a bit during the day but by running from hut to hut I don't think we really missed much. There was quite the variety of tropical species which was cool and different from more temperate zoos. When there is no real barricades between you and the animals you get to see their personality a lot more. Giant tortoises just do not care and do not seem to be even aware of your presence which monkeys definitely know whats going on. Late in the day we also took a short elephant ride. That was pretty sweet. The most interesting thing was the feel of the hide. Its tough, like leather and the hair is very bristly. One of the people on the elephant in front of us dropped a shoe and the elephant kindly picked it up and handed it back with its trunk. After that we headed down to the airport and went our separate ways. On to Tokyo for me.

Andrea and I landed in Tokyo and jumped on the next train to the city. The express isn't cheap, like 30 bucks each way, but Narita is also about an hour and a half from the center of Tokyo. The trains in Tokyo are about as sweet as one would think. We went to Ginza which is kind of a business center. Its where the stock exchange is, but also the fish market and the palace. The city felt a little older than I thought it would. A lot of stuff seemed like it was 80's vintage when it was constructed which I guess makes sense if you look at economic growth. Its clearly modern, efficient and well run, but at the same time a lot of the infrastructure is clearly a bit older.

This is a park near the palace in the middle of the city. Well maintained, which is not surprising. Everyone working around us seemed to take their job very seriously. Quite a difference from New York.

There is the palace in the background. At the very least I thought there would be a visitor's center of some sort but there isn't. Just a gate, a moat, a high wall and a bunch of people getting their pictures taken in front of the wall. Can't really see anything and it was a long walk in blazing heat to get there.
At this point we rearranged our priorities and decided to head down to the fish market in hopes of finding something more organic and exciting than the business district. Jackpot. We ate lunch at a hole in the wall diner under the train tracks and continued until we hit the fish market, which was a hubbub of activity.
After walking around a bit and by the many tiny stalls selling fresh sushi, we decided we needed to get some. While in Tokyo...

Establishment of choice. There were about 10 restaurants in this maze of activity, 3 or so which are visible in this pic. Like indonesia, I don't really fit to well.
From the pictures we deduced what salmon and tuna were and we figured that was pretty safe so we got a bowl of it and split it. Needless to say it was outstanding. I'm not really a big sushi eater, but it tasted pretty good. The fish market was within 100 feet or so of this place, so it can't be bad. It was also busy with Japanese people, another good sign.
After that and some more wandering over towards the stock exchange, our time in Tokyo was up and we went back to the airport to catch the flight to NYC. Which, by the way, was amazing. I watched a movie, ate the food they gave me, watched another movie, then fell asleep for 8 hours with no waking up. When I did awaken, I had breakfast in front of me and 40 minutes until landing. Perfect, and in an economy class seat. The key was the perfect window/plastic bulge positioning of my window seat that allowed me to slump over in a very comfortable spot.

And back to America.

Ubud

Upon leaving Lembongan we went to Ubud which is somewhat the cultural center of Bali. This is a good picture of what most hotel rooms look like in bali. They have double door entryways and windows. It might be hard to tell from the picture as well, but you have to step up and duck to get through the door. Interesting.

Soon after checking in we went down to the monkey forest. It is exactly what it sounds like, a forest full of monkeys. All the people feed the monkeys so they are mostly fat and lazy although they get into a frenzy if they suspect you have food. There were also temples and other sites within the forest. There was a ceremony going on while we were there so parts were off limits and there were people in traditional costume everywhere.

Next to some pretty sweet lizards.
Locals entering the ceremony area.
Part of the temple in the forest.
More parts of the temple. Everything was decorated, presumably for the ceremony. Ubud is much more touristy and upscale than lembongan so there were groups of foreigners everywhere.
Monkey got fed.
Monkey on lookout for banana.
We then went to the market where we picked up a few gifts and souvenirs. There are no great deals here but if you really put on your haggling hat and walk away a few times you can squeeze them down. Here is me telling this shyster that his price is outrageous. (it was)
After that we stopped by the Ubud palace for a few pictures.
That evening we had a very nice dinner at a local indonesian restaurant and met Andrea and her friend Pat for a few drinks. The next morning we bargained down a morning spa treatment and returned to the market to try to squeeze a couple sellers a bit more. Massages and such are so cheap in bali you can't not do them. Even the upscale places are so cheap it even enticed me. I was on a roll by this time on the negotiation. Hot off decent deals at the market and a 40% markdown at the spa, I started negotiating our transportation back to kuta (airport area). I was insistent I wasn't paying more than 15 bucks for the hour+ trip and I got my price... However the vehicle had no AC (cool day thankfully) and the driver had no idea where he was going. Real nice guy though. For 20 I could have had AC, but 5 bucks is 50,000 rupiah which is enough for a good day's work.

That evening we walked Kuta beach and then got dinner in the area with the strip of bars and clubs. Crazy. This is where you go to have a good time in Bali (especially if you are aussie), but its packed. Think OOB. Everyone was ignoring these traditional musicians but they were very good and i recognized their style from west java. They were happy to get a pic taken.
The next morning we flew out for singapore.

Rest of Lembongan

For those of you that maybe haven't checked my blog in a bit since I haven't updated in awhile, now that I'm back in NYC and I have fast internet, I'm putting up a bunch of posts.

This is leaving the beach on our snorkeling expedition. The boat was a solid piece of wood hollowed out into a canoe with dual outriggers. Pretty sweet and it really handled the huge swells well. The captain didn't speak english but we got along fine.

Here is cruising by the beach next to ours. Pretty sweet spot.

This is heading toward our second snorkel spot. The first was great. We were dropped off and just floated with the current, the captain picked us up after a little while. The reefs are amazing. Every type of coral, full of colorful fish. We had some bread as well that caused the fish to swarm all around us. The water was also exceptionally clear. I wish I had an underwater camera.
This was our second snorkel spot. It was a secluded bay off Nusa Pendia. It looked like it had a great beach but we didn't go ashore. Nusa Pendia is the least developed island in this area. The snorkeling here was also unbelievable. It was a little deeper so we didn't have to worry about getting cut up and the fish were a little larger. What a spot. Hilly cliff lined bay with green water.
On our return trip the captain took us around the other side of the island which is exposed to the open Indian Ocean. The waves were HUGE here but the boat handled them. We snapped this shot of an archway near crystal bay off Nusa Pendia.
We arrived safely back to our beach and the captain pulled the boat ashore. The rest of the day we just relaxed and did some more snorkeling right off the beach which was also excellent.
For sunset, we just relaxed on the beach with our drinks. Naturally, there are no rules here so you can do things like this and walk out of the restaurant with your drinks and take glass on the beach.

We walked a little bit inland after sunset and ate at a local establishment. Service was slow but it was half the price of beachfront and the food had a more indonesian flavor.

The following morning we finally took a stroll over to the next beach and onto the rock buttress that separated the two.

Mushroom Beach
Other side of Mushroom beach. Swimming was better on our side but this part was always empty.
Outcropping.
Sad to leave! Our hut complex is in the background. The lady at the desk for our entire stay was just so friendly and helpful the whole time. I tipped her a bit at the end and she kindly arranged for our trip back to the mainland to be free!

Nusa Lembongan

So after hanging out on the beach for awhile we sat down for breakfast which was included with our room. I really can't imagine a better deal, beachfront hut with AC for 65 bucks per night.

Morning. Its a tough life.

For the days activities we decided to rent a motorbike and put put around the island. To my delight it was only 8 bucks which included gas. I don't know how they pay for gas at that price.

Our first stop was a beach about 10 min away called Dream beach. The name is fitting.
We hung out here for the morning, swimming and checking out the cliffs. The warung in the distance served lunch and drinks. That was the only development on the beach, although it looks like they are putting in a few huts and a pool behind the warung.
Nearby there was a thunder hole type thing called "devil's tear". In reality the waves that aren't broken by the reef are so huge, almost any rock outcropping makes a huge splash. Here is me summoning a wave.

Oops.

After lunch we decided to move on from dream and check out the rest of lembongan. We went through the town where most of the local population lives. At first I thought we were coming upon a temple complex, but its actually a town. Or maybe more of a temple-town as every house has a shrine and the temples are built right into the residential areas.

A little later we crossed over to Nusa Cenigan over a pretty sweet bridge and happened upon this temple. It was grown up and in a total state of disrepair. Perhaps this deity is out of favor with the locals.
After crossing over to Cenigan we started going down little dirt paths to see what we could find. We came upon this terraced area that led down to a little cliff hole type place. We were definitely the only ones here this far out into the rural area of the islands.
It had a small temple at the bottom hidden in the bushes.
We continued cruising around looking for beaches or neat things to see. We met a guy (scammer) who showed us this place in exchange for a few bucks. He wanted 20... lol. He also showed us "secret beach" which was a pretty neat little place although it was getting late and we didn't stay long.
On the way back we passed the swampy areas where the locals were farming seaweed for the Hong Kong cosmetics industry. This is the aforementioned bridge that you drive across to get to Cenigan from Lembongan.

Cruising back through town. We passed some locals betting on cock fights. Sad.We started looking for a nice spot to watch the sunset. We went over to sunset beach but we couldn't get the best angle at either of the restaurants. We eventually drove up to some villas on an outcropping. Several were unfinished and clearly victims of the world financial crisis as no work had been done in years. We sat down in the yard of one and watched the explosion of water as the sun dipped below the horizon. Just before sunset a few local Indonesian workers walked over and sat beside us to watch the sunset before they called it a day. That kind of thing is really great and so typical of the type of people Indonesians are. They never forget to appreciate the simple pleasures of life. I don't think you would ever see a group of male laborers all go to watch the sunset together after a long day.
That evening we had a nice candlelight dinner on the beach ($10 total) and I arranged a private snorkel trip to some reefs with a local captain. ($35) Really breaking the bank here.

Bali and other loose ends

I had a busy few days during the end of my time in Indonesia. I was rushing to finish some materials detailing CPT and the contents of my summer work. In addition, I tried to see all my new friends before I left. It was hard to say goodbye. I'll miss all the kind people that made my time in Indonesia so memorable. The guys at #5 threw me a great bbq and kindly declined to give me a birthday surprise. (thanks guys). Daniela also arrived in Bogor for a day before we took off to Bali. I gave her a quick tour, going to the office, botanical gardens and the outlets. I also achieved my goal of not getting sick before bali.

Botanical garden orchid.

I then packed up and hopped on the short flight to Bali. Fortunately I bought the baggage upgrade for a couple bucks as I only had a couple kg to spare at the 30kg level. When we landed there was a driver waiting for us to take us to Sanur. Sanur is a quieter area of Bali with more family and retiree activities than the rest of the island. The beach was ok, nothing to impressive but we were really just staying there to catch the morning boat off the beach to Nusa Lembongan.

Beach at Sanur

Our hotel was also pretty sweet. It had hindu shrines and nice gardens as well as a bar and a pool. (what else do you need). The doorway was also like stepping through a window as there was a double door. You had to step up through the door and it was ornately decorated. I don't have a good picture of this or the hindu shrines but rest assured that I have later example pictures.

In the morning we hopped on the fast boat to lembongan.

That is the dark sand of Sanur beach in the background. We could have taken the crowded public boat that takes 90 min to get to the island but that's not how I was rolling in Bali after eating meals for 60 cents for 2 months.

Upon arriving at Mushroom Bay in Nusa Lembongan, we checked into our hut. The bay is perfect, with green water, coral break and a cliff lined white sand beach. Its also utterly uncrowded as we were usually one of about 15 people on the beach. Our hut was on the beach with a nice ocean view and a private patio.

Notice the shrine in the corner.

We then sat down at the restaurant next to our hut to eat some lunch. This was the table we usually ate at for breakfast and lunch. The beach is a working beach, so up until midday the bay is somewhat busy with fishing boats and transport boats. Later in the afternoon it quiets down.

For the rest of the afternoon, we walked the beach. The beach is full or colorful corals from the break offshore, however, they are not sharp by the time they wash up.

I'm going to cut this here since I'm in class, but the rest of the trip is coming up.

Gede

I'm glad I'm writing this a couple days after I got back when I've calmed down a little bit, because I've been really excited about this trip. Gede is definitely the most exotic hike I've ever done. It has almost 6000 feet of vertical, passing through several climate zones. Ever since Gito showed me some pictures of the last time he was up here, I've been on a mission to get this trip done. About 6 in the morning, Gito, Sisi, Andrea and I met at CCROM to head out. Gito and I had rented the gear we needed the night before so it was waiting for us in the office. We climbed into one of these Angkot minibus thingys that was supposed to take us over puncak pass to where we would begin the hike. I thought it was a bit crowded with 8 or so people, but we squeezed in. I will never call 8 people in a minivan a "squeeze" ever again. The driver added another 9 people to that for a grand total of 17 people in this minibus/minivan. Terrible. Here is andrea sticking her thumb up from the scrum. The guy wanted to tie my bag to the roof with some suspicious looking rope, but I nixed that.

Upon arriving at the park, we couldn't get our permit because all of the employees of the building were out in front doing some kind of aerobic exercise with the base pumping on the tunes. So we hung around for an hour or so and waited for them to finish.

After that, we had to fill out a couple of hours of paper work and us being foreigners and all seemed to cause a hullabaloo. The park was full, then it wasn't, then we needed a guide because we are foreigners, then we had to show our passports and write down every single thing we had with us down to the granola bar. By 11am or so we finally got a move on with our guide who only packed a fanny pack of food, a shell and a thin sleeping bag. He doesn't sweat and seemed to run on cigarette smoke. Could be a prototype model for the T-1000.

The locals weren't worried about too much, mostly milling about this sleeply little mountain town. The primary business in town appeared to be flower growing for sale, so the place was quite pretty.

This was the trailhead, we took an angkot to get up here, which thankfully cut off 1000 vertical feet or we would have been well over 6k vert on the day.
Here is me, being pretty stoked and ready to get moving. I'm currently unfazed by the heat, but that wouldn't last. The good thing about hiking in tropical countries is that you are exhausted by the heat at the bottom, but as you get higher, I just felt stronger and stronger as the air got colder. Its like a shot in the arm.
These guys will drive their motorcycles ANYWHERE. Hiking trail to pick up a bag of rice? No problem.
We continued walking through beautiful terraced fields as Gede rounded into view.
The trip really started off well as the fields were incredibly lush and full. Children were running around the paths and adults were in the fields weeding. We got a lot of waves as we went past.
Couple of women working the terrace.
The fields were quite extensive up here and with a steady source of irrigation water off the mountain, probably quite productive too. The scenery was breathtaking.
A little higher it started to get steeper and patches of jungle started to appear. This cliff here is completely obscured by vine and tree growth.
A couple women were working way up on the high terraces. As usual a wave and a smile got a pose for the camera.
Exiting the fields here and entering the forest. So far the trip was just stunning and we hadn't even really gotten anywhere yet. Gito smirking in the foreground.
The trail was easy to follow, but heavily eroded. The soil is deep, rich and soft so anywhere without vegetation erodes quickly. The landscape on java is extremely active, changing constantly with the heavy rains, volcanic activity and winds.
I sure was glad I brought the tank top at this point.
Our guide is beside the tree for scale. Some of the trees were quite impressive and the growth was thick, although no thicker than a sugarloaf spruce thicket.
We kept leapfrogging these guys for most of the day. They were heading to camp at a similar area. I snapped a few pics with them while waiting for the rest of the crew.
We continued uphill in this jungle terrain for a number of hours. They have 5 checkpoints set up, usually with some stone to sit on and a roof to wait out a t-storm under. Those were good places for snacks. Eventually the trees started to get smaller and the weather started to get cooler. This is a pic of the higher elevation forest before I break out. Thankfully this part was flat as we had just finished about 2-3 hours of steep uphill.
Our first chance at a view since the farm. These flowers are called Edelweiss and were scattered all over the alpine meadow. This is probably about 8000 feet.
At the edge of the meadow where it drops into the abyss, the view was amazing. We were above the clouds and neighboring peaks dotted the landscape.
The mountain is massive with huge steeply walled ridges extending in many directions. It looks and feels like the active volcano it is.
Gito in the distance grabbing some pics.
By this time the Indonesians had broken out the hats, gloves and parkers. I was having none of it. It was a perfect summer day. Warm in the sun and a little cool in the shade. By this time I was fired up by both the scenery and the temperature.
The meadow extended around the summit cone out of view on the right. Neighboring peaks are on the left.

The sun was beginning to get lower in the sky so we figured we had better get moving on a summit push. But it was hard to leave the meadow even though the wind was coming up and it was getting cooler. A number of people were camping in sheltered areas here.
With light fading and racing to reach the summit before sunset, I forged ahead to catch the end of the show. I got there just in time to see the latter part of a wonderful sunset with a cloud capped Pangrango in the foreground. I was situated on a narrow rim of the crater with the wind howling over the edge. Every few minutes I heard a zzzzzzzzzziiiioooooo over my head that sounded like toy rocket. After a few of these, I realized they were bats riding the air currents and zipping at what seemed like a few feet overhead at maybe 40mph.
When everyone had arrived we set up camp. It was kind of a strange site with quite a bit of trash and a fallen radio tower about forehead high hanging across the site but we managed to get 2 tents up and light up some paraffin bricks to cook dinner. By this time I had my sweatshirt on as it was getting quite cold. Our guide was freezing. By morning he was shivering hard. I thought I would have no problems until I went outside to relieve myself before bed. It was COLD. I guess it frequently gets down into the low 40's at night at this elevation and I came back in with quite the chill. I quickly put on my rain coat and crawled into my sleeping bag. I think this sleeping bag would be good for temperatures around 70 degrees not 40. It was extremely thin and was sized for someone around 5'6". Thus began a tough, cold night on a wafer thin sleeping pad. I eventually got to sleep but not before hearing some animals rustling around. I have never zipped my bag up to the top, used the hoodie and slept in every piece of clothing I had, and I was still cold. I think that is both a testament to how adjusted I have become to the hot weather and to how cold it can get at elevation.

Upon waking up in the morning I heard the familiar call of "Nasi Uduk". Somewhat puzzled about who could be selling seasoned rice at 9000 feet, I asked Gito and he said some guy had hiked all the way up last night, cooked some rice and was now trying to sell it to the 25 or so campsites set up around the summit. Surreal. He was selling rice for 50 cents. These rice sellers will go to any lengths to sell you a palm leaf wrapped bundle of rice including hiking all night.

The morning view was amazing. The clouds were socked in for sunrise but about 30 min after they cleared out intermittently. This is the wall of the crater.
This is neighboring Pangrango shrouded in fog. You could see the fog rolling over the peak.
A little later the peak had cleared and poked its head up.
The clouds were starting to clear lower now, exposing some of the steam vents on the north wall of the crater. Notice the shockwave berms on the right of the picture from a previous volcanic explosion.
Soon after, almost all the clouds cleared and the moon came out on the horizon. The cliffs on this edge of the crater were huge. The trail down leads along the rim, around the crater in this picture.
Another view of the crater with the larger steam vent visible.
This is taken while hiking from the edge of the crater rim. The town below is at about 1500 feet making this a huge 7500 vertical rise right here. Massive. The meadow below drops off the edge of the mountain.
Up here the trees were pretty stunted from the winds and harsh conditions.
Looking back along the crater rim trail.
Another steam vent was visible from this lookout point. This may have been the hot spring waterfall we saw later, hard to say.
Looking back at the crater and route travelled.
After descending for a little while through the usual elevation cold forest, we entered a dense, steaming tropical jungle. The vegetation was extremely thick here and every time we broke out of the forest, the views were spectacular of all the growth. Vines hanging down everywhere, mist in the distance. Steep walled canyons thick with growth. Tough travelling if not for the trail.
A bit later the air started to get heavier and hotter and we approached a cloud of steam emanating from the forest.
It was like being in a steam room. I couldn't wear my glasses and I just started sweating like crazy as we walked into the cloud. Hot water was pouring out of the rocks to the right of the trail, and just inches to the left of the trail the water was pouring over a huge waterfall. Its not just a waterfall. Its a hot spring waterfall. The hot water had encouraged the growth of all kinds of mucky algae.
This is a view over the falls. It didn't seem dangerous at the time, although maybe it was.
I mostly couldn't see anything from in the steam room, but periodically a gust of wind would come up and clear a bit of a view.
The last falls to traverse.

Hot Spring waterfall video. It wasn't that hot.

It continued like this for awhile, periodically getting nice views. I've never really been IN the jungle, so this was a neat experience. Its cooler than you think. The humidity is high but you are always in the shade and cool running water is everywhere. Quite pleasant as long as you dont exert yourself.
Down towards the bottom there were 4 waterfalls to see. As this is close to the trailhead, it is quite the attraction for people. The waterfalls were great, just pouring off these huge cliffs onto moss covered slopes. Very lush and full.
Another falls. There are no barricades or anything so you can walk right under and behind the falls if you want to. I didn't feel like getting soaked before the ride home.
These are the last 2 falls far back in the canyon. This dude was super stoked to see me there and he really wanted to be in my pic. I was quite popular in this area and I had pictures taken with scores of Indonesians. Several clearly well off youngsters were trying to get me to give them money. Nice try. Punks.
Right before the end, there was this pond that had a deep blue color. Very cool. There were also some monster catfish swimming around too.

We were exhausted and a little banged up when we got back but very happy with the trip. Both Gito and Sisi had turned their ankles on the way down. We finished at about 3pm and got back to bogor at about 7:30. The distance was about 35 miles. Yes, you saw that right, 4 hours of traffic to go 35 miles. That is traffic in Puncak. Huddled in the back of an Angkot with a bunch of other people. I'm currently in a traffic jam right now to pick up Daniela. Ah well, traffic. That's Indonesia.