i had to give myself a few days to digest the month and get my head around the occurrences that happened along the way. after a short debate, i thought i would go over some of the highlights and lowlights of the journey.
i figure i will start at the beginning with the lowlights, better to get the negatives out of the way and end on a positive. so here goes...
1. after bidding farewell to lib and jenna, we headed to canngu for a few days which you are all well aware of. we, did however forget to mention the small detail of a scooter crash that happened... after hiring a scooter and giving me a 30 second lesson and test drive, kurt certified that i was scooter ready. within ten minutes however i had crashed into a local on the road and was on the way, no longer driving, to the nearest hospital. the lady we drove into needed immediate medical attention. oh roughly about three hours later, we were in a hospital in the middle of nowhere watching the lady getting eight stiches in her foot. in the end it took visits to three different families, three different consults to mechanics, repairs on both bikes and about 750,000IDR later, that we were finally able to put the two day drama behind us. we went without injury on the majority, just a few bumps and bruises. well with the behind me, i can outline of more lowlights...
2. the never-ending touts and smartarses comments; hey misses i remember you from last night, oh sexy, you a spicy girl, oh la la... and the list goes on
3. rubbish; the smells, look, flies, piles of it everywhere – sometimes getting buried in the sand, getting hosed down the street or simply lying in piles on the side of the road, never in bins
4. rip-off/ con artists who can conveniently don’t understand english, although they were talking to you in perfect english a few minutes before you started bartering the price down
5. stray dogs and cats
6. squat toilets
now onto the more positives. i think that its important to note that seeing so many unique places and cultures in one short trip instilled a real sense that there is room for everyone, their beliefs and ways of life, with this in mind some of my favourite things were...
1. watching tropical storms rolling in the green rice fields in the afternoons, in both canngu and nias
2. watching the surf at the many different breaks we visited; even more so when i could see that kurt was having a good session
3. watching the sunsets with a cold bintang, which were amazing wherever we were in indonesia and reflecting on the day
4. watching the fishing boats come in from sea at nusa lembongan and selling their catches to the locals who would wait to greet them at the shore
5. seeing the willingness of people to help when they could see you are irritated, hot and at breaking point
6. sampling the amazing tasty and fresh food on a daily basis and diversifying my pallet
7. seeing the smiles, hearing the screams and watching the joyous behaviour from local village children when you wave at them out the taxi window on the drive from the airport to lagundri bay, in nias
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