Backpacking Around the World

Indonesia: Bali – Uluwatu – Seminyak

Hello Asia!

Uluwatu

We arrived into Bali’s capital from Cairns (check out our last posts for Australia East-Coast) pretty late so were keen to get on with our hours journey to Uluwatu. And evidently half of the Balinese taxi drivers were keen to take us…For a small fortune of course. At first we tried to get an uber but later realised they cannot get into the airport so had to go with one of the guys waiting outside. *

*Note uber is only effective in certain areas of Bali, it’s pretty taboo in general and the local taxi drivers will tell you it’s illegal. We will try and highlight where it’s good to use.

So back to the airport taxi drivers; after being hassled and heckled we finally managed to barter one of the drivers down to 150,000 IDR (approx £9). This is about reasonable, they’re starting prices are crazy! Don’t accept straight away.

When we got to our hotel there was no one at reception…as it was about midnight we started invisigioning a night on the benches. Luckily about 20mins later a man showed up on his moped and we sucsessfully checked in after a few communication issues. Sleep time!

Next day we wondered around and had our first Indonesian coffee…interesting experience. Try it once, then look out for the machines! We hired a moped in the afternoon and drove to the Uluwatu temple. Definitely go do this if your in Uluwatu it’s a good cultural visit, and you can experience the local monkeys. We had the moped the next day too so drove to the beach (1000 IDR entry fee) and had a little swim. Unfortunately we wernt in the right season for surfing but normally it’s a good surf spot.

In the afternoon we ordered an uber*successful*to get to our hotel in Seminyak, this cost 120,000 IDR and we had a really nice taxi driver from Java so he gave us some tips for what to do there.

Seminyak

Our hotel in Seminyak was nice and we went to a local restaurant for dinner that night, good food but tiny portions. *

In the morning we hired a moped and took the obligatory trip to Potato Head Beach Club. This took us a lot longer than anticipated as the location on Google maps is incorrect, look out for the Alia hotel and you will find it more easily! When we eventually arrived we ordered a cocktail (mocktail for Danielle) which was beaut, just watch out for the price tag, London not Indonesian.

Check out our next trip where we explore Ubud and the Monkey forest.

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur

We flew from Tawau to KL where we were staying for our last two nights of this crazy trip!

KL is a huge place and we should really have had longer here to explore fully, we also wanted to see our friend Calyn who we met in NZ but sadly didn’t have time 😦 sorry Cay! Hopefully you will come to London someday 🙂

We did manage to do a few fun things though, like explore the butterfly house and the Petronas towers.

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Malaysian Borneo: Diving Mabul and Sipadan

From River Kinabatangan we had a pretty easy journey down to Semporna (where we were heading to Scubadive).

The driver who had collected us from Sepilok, took us from the river to a lay by on one of the main roads where ‘his friend’ one of the local coach drivers picked us up on the local bus which was going to Semporna. This took about 4-5 hours.

When we arrived in Semporna, our main mission was to go and try to find Sipadan diving passes. If you have researched anything about Sipadan you’ll probably know these are pretty difficult to find, and there are loads of rumours about certain dive shops and whether the passes are legitimate or not. Also most of the diving passes come with accommodation packages as well, so anyway it was all a bit of a nightmare trying to arrange.

So we set off from the bus, sticky, sweaty, tired….the usual! and now semporna is not exactly the most glamorous of places which surprised us considering its the gateway to one of the most highly regarded dive spots in the world. There is a lot of poverty and as soon as we started walking through the town young children were clawing at us for anything, even the water I was drinking.

We traipsed around a load of the dive shops and eventually decided what to do….I won’t go into every boring detail but in the couple hours of walking back and forth we had to go through a fish market and by the harbor, anyway I started to feel really rough and starting throwing up on the side of the street. Danielle was really good, and checked me into the closest hotel which had a private bathroom sent me upstairs and carried on sorting out booking the diving trip! I was pretty useless in all of this.

But the next day we headed off to the island of Mabul where we were staying in the ScubaJunkie resort for three nights. Luckily I was feeling a bit better, and it was my 26th Birthday woop! I was too ill to dive that day but we just chilled out which was nice.

So the next day we started our PADI Advanced open water course. We wern’t really planning on doing this but as we really wanted to enjoy Sipadan it was recommended as its quite a deep dive (with the open water you can only go to 18m but with the advanced you can go to 40m).

Our instructor Phil was really great, and again we were lucky as it was just the two of us in the group. In this course you learn a lot more about buoyancy, getting your weight right, navigation and you get to pick a couple of specific dives. We picked the night dive and drift dive. The night dive was terrifying and I almost had a panic when we first went into the water, but I clung to Danielle the whole time and survived!

After three nights, when the course was finished we went back to Semporna and stayed in a hostel for a couple of nights.

We had managed to find a Sipadan pass but not with accommodation which meant we had to stay in Semporna and get the boat from there. The company we used were a ‘local’ company, so run by Malaysians. A lot of the dive shops are run by Chinese, Brits, Americans. It was really good, a tad dis-organised but all the equipment was decent! and we had a great guide who spoke really good English.

From one of the most beautiful (underwater) places in the world to Kuala Lumpur. Follow us on the last part of our amazing journey.

Malaysian Borneo: Sepilok and River Kinabatangan

From Mt Kinabalu we were going to make our way to Sepilok, the hostel told us that a coach passes just outside but after standing around for a while, and waving frantically at all the passing coaches we decided to go up to the bus stop outside Mt Kinabalu gates (only 500m up the road), we got a taxi as it was pissing it down and we had too much stuff to carry!

So we waited at the bus another couple of hours growing increasingly worried there was no such magical bus and trying to make other plans, a taxi was on stand by for us but at 100GBP compared to the 20GBP for the bus, so we were really hoping the bus would arrive, and finally it did just as darkness was coming. It was then another 5 hours to Sepilok so we were pretty dubious about making it in time to a hostel, we decided to stay right by the orangutan sanctuary to save any delays the next day as this was the whole reason for the journey to Sepilok! This meant splashing a bit more money but it was definitely worth it, we stayed at Sepilok Jungle Resort which included a big breakfast, there was a swimming pool and it was only a 5 minute walk to the orangutan and sun bear sanctuary 🙂 perfect!

The next day we had the most amazing time exploring the two sanctuary’s.

In Sepilok we planned the next bit of our journey, we knew we wanted to go to the river Kinabatangan but wern’t too sure how. Transport around this area wasn’t very good. Luckily the hotel; Sepilok Jungle Sanctuary, sold river packages which came with transport so we booked onto one of these and the next day someone picked us up and took us to Kinabatangan river where we would be staying for a night, this included x2 river cruises: an evening and a morning cruise. We drove about a couple of hours to get to the river. The driver dropped us off and then we got a boat (little speed boat) for about 5 mins to the accommodation.

The lodge we stayed in was really lovely, would definitely recommend! (Sepilok Jungle Resort Lodge) and we were super lucky with all the wildlife we saw 🙂 our aim in Borneo was to see as much wildlife as possible and after a lot of research the river cruises are the best way in limited time. I was unsure at first but they were really fun. Pygmy elephants, Macaque monkeys, proboscis monkeys, horn bills, baby crocodile……

Top 10 Things To Do in New Zealand

Ok, we tried to give these some kind of order, however it was just impossible. We tried nearly all of these things, however couldn’t go to Kaikoura due to there being an earthquake a week before we arrived.

New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth and we felt well and truly spoilt when going to see some less spectacular sights around Austral Asia and South East Asia.

We recommend to do New Zealand and Fiji LAST. New Zealand is best to visit around February/ March if you want warmer weather, otherwise be prepared for the rain.

Don’t forget to check bookme.co.nz as you may find trips cheaper, especially if you book in advance.

1. Bay of Islands (North Island)

Russell
Dolphin Tours/ Swimming
Free glow worm caves (just south of here)

2. Cape Reinga (North Island)

Sand dune surfing
Light house
90 Mile beach

3. Abel Tasman (South Island)

Canyoning
Coastal walk

4. Milford Sound (South Island)

Jucy Cruise
Milford Track

5. Hobbiton (South Island)

Hobbiton Movie Set (Lord of the Rings)

6. The Coromandel (North Island)

10. Kaikoura

Dolphin swimming
Whale watching

NZ: South- Mt Cook, Rangitata and Christchurch

Day 26: Mount Cook

We had a new driver for this last couple of days. Her name was ‘motors’ try and guess the reason why.

On the drive to and away from Mt cook are the most beautiful lakes and rivers you can see; full of sulphuric and glacial water which makes them ultra blue.

Here we went on a smaller hike (40 min return) where u can get a viewpoint of the glacier. Would recommend this one if your feeling a bit weary, all the others are min 2 hours.

Day 27: Rangitata

On the way to Christchurch we went to the rangitata white water rafting centre where we got into groups of 6(+1 guide) for each boat and had a two hour, grade 5 white water rafting session.

Our boat worked pretty well together and we all managed to stay in the whole time with no tipping! A few of the other boats had people fall out and one tipped entirely. This trip was great, such a fun time on the water and they also give you a decent lunch before you head out and a small BBQ when you get back. Sadly the photos are extra but if you get together with the people in your boat you can buy them together and save some monies. The trip was $199 so definitely worth it. Again, look on bookme!

Day 28: Christchurch

Our last day in NZ :(. We had a good walk into town to explore the sights; the free museum, free botanical gardens, shops in shipping containers. A small quiet place that is obviously still overcoming the devastating earthquake in 2011.

In the evening we caught our flight, next stop Melbourne!

NZ: South- Milford sound and invercargil

Day 19: Milford Sound

We would say this is one of the main must do’s in NZ. The scenic drive to the sound makes it so much more worthwhile too. Again check out the pics but you need to see it with your own eyes to appreciate the scale of it.

That night we stayed in a very remote location called gunns camp, quite cool but don’t bother with the journey if you’re not already on the Stray bus going there.

Day 20: Invercargil

There Isn’t a whole lot to do in invercargill but it’s close to bluff where you get the ferry to Stuart island and it’s also close to the catlins. We decided not to do Stuart island as we only had one night and you really need more time here to make it worth it.

The catlins are some really nice beaches. They’re normally meant to be a good place to spot dolphins, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be in our case. Also there has been known to be penguin sightings! Although we didn’t see either of these but we did see a massive sea lion :).