Yogyakarta

Ok, so after the crazy drive we arrived to Yogyakarta. YES !!

We found some cheap accommodation in the Sosrowijayan area. It is an area, where lot of stuff for backpackers like hostels and restaurants can be found. The main street of the area has very pleasant atmosphere. We discovered really nice restaurant with vegetarian burgers and very cheap (16000 Rupiah) arak coctails. Just one can make you extremely happy :D. 

The day we arrived we just put our stuff into the hostel took shower and went shopping for some presents on the Maliboro street (which is a big shopping street in Yogyakarta, where you can find there lot of shops with Batik and traditional stuff), went to internet, were eating and drinking... such a bitchy day - but we were exhausted though. And in the evening we took a walk  to the river.

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Indonesian traffic

I have just two words for Indonesian traffic - complete chaos.
In Indonesia the roads are either fucked up and the people drive like crazy, or the roads are more or less ok, but the people still drive like retarded, or!! the roads are almost empty... but then ... the people still drive like crazy.Anyway people here do not use brakes, they just use claxons to make the other drivers aware they are coming!! This is how the whole traffic works (at least seems to me).

After Balangan me and Lula took a quite nice air condition bus from Bali to Yogyiakarta (was supposed to be a DIRECT bus). The air condition was awful and the bus TV was playing 5 songs all over again (what a wonderful journey :). We took the very front seats next to the driver. We heard a lot of stories, how "bule" (that is how Indonesians call white people) got robbed in local buses, so I put my purse and my camera under my t shirt and we covered ourselves with blankets (we were maybe a bit paranoid :D - or at least I was). In the middle of the night the bus stopped and we had to change it (hmm wasn t it supposed to be a direct bus ?). Almost all the passengers from our bus were placed in a quite nice bus to Yogyakarta, however it was "full" when we were supposed to get inside. Some guy took us to another bus to Yogyakarta - this shit was a local bus stopping almost at every single kilometer. This journey was a complete nightmare. I had the impression that the driving style of the bus driver in the second bus was even more "free" than of the first one. The left indicator light of the bus was probably broken because there was a guy hanging out of the left front window next to the driver and always when we were turning lileft, he started to wave his hand like crazy:D. Finally, instead of 5 or 6 a.m. we arrived at around 11. Omg... never again !!!And I forgot - a bonus is that the second bus was a smoking bus  (actually almost all the local ones are)!

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Balangan

From Padang Bay me and Lula decided to go to Balangan, as our friend Sabine (we met her in Padang Bay) recommended us this place for surfing and for being really nice. Our Swiss friend Samuel (we call him Samko) - one of the diving instructors - joined us for few days. Balangan is a really nice place for surfing even though the coral reef can be a problem - especially for beginners. That is why we always had to wait for the high tide to be able to surf. Balangan is quite far from the civilization, there are just few guest-houses on the beach and no internet (that is why I am writing now so much). Anyway, we borrowed long boards and started to surf on the white water from the big waves. Finally, I managed to STAND UP - YEIIIII.)) I was so happy!!We also borrowed a motorbike and went to the Dreamland beach, which is suppossed to be quite famous (nice, but quite crowded). We wanted to stay there only two nights, but we had such a good time all together - surfing eating drinking etc. - that we stayed 5 days!!All in all: Balangan = highly recommended!

Balangan beach

Balangan beach

Lula surfing

Me and Lula in the wave at the Dreamland beach

Lula and Samko

After Gili we returned back to Padang Bay. We wanted to do the Manta dive with OK divers. Cause I started to feel really weak - got fever and quite annoying sore throat - I could not do the manta dive :(fucking hell). I was really disappointed - it is supposed to be really special dive and the chance to see the mantas is almost 100%. Luckily at least Lula could do and see it. They saw mantas flying in the ocean... - what can be better than to fly in an ocean... oh what a life they have (as Lula says) .)). After that Lula became a real manta freak .))

After two days of full-time sleeping I started to feel quite good. We decided to leave Padang Bay. And btw. on the White Sand Beach in Padang Bay we met the famous Jan Gordulic from the Sloak show "Posta pre teba" (LOL) .

White Sand Beach

Promised diving pictures .))

Bazhka

Lula and Andrejka

Lula again

Using finger alphabet for joking underwater :))

New Hairstyle

In Gilli We went really crazy. It started with Lula cause she wanted to get white hair. Then I said I will join (it is the best time: no school, no work... just for fun ). We bought a bleach and bleached our hair - Lula looked completely like a chicken cause instead of white hair she had orange head. We bought bleach again, but Lula s head was still quite orange. We wanted to save it s w bought pink color - but the result was communist grandma purple :D. Lula said one they she will keep it and than we will cut her hair rally short (3mm or so). On a beach there was a local guy renting surfs and his hobby was hair cutting :D. So funny (he did not even see movie Zohan)!! If u look for really funky hairstyle I recommend the guy from the surf rental "Surf Point" called Waian. He proposed to cut Lula s hair - insisted on punkie style.

My story is so much more boring. I bleached my hair and then colored them blue. Just had too little blue so needed to buy more color.
The result:

Sindang Gile Waterfalls

We almost literary ran away from Kuta, spent one day in Mataram and from here went to the Gilli Islands. On the way to the ferry to Gilie stopped in Senaru and hiked to the Sindang Gile Waterfalls. We took a little bath in the waterfalls.

Kuta Lombok

After Padang Bay we took a ferry to an island called Lombok. We stayed there in a home stay called "Tri Putri" (Three Women). The home stay was a good deal - cheap (60 000 Rupiah) and clean, with breakfast. However, it was connected to the center of Kuta by a dark road (10 minutes by foot) and in the courtyard, there were cockerels that could scream non stop - quite annoying.

We borrowed a motor bike and wanted to surf. While trying the motor bike I had a little accident - I fell on my knee with the machine. The knee got a bit blue/ purple, but after using a bit of ice I was able to walk. Some locals recommended us a good place for beginners called "Selong Blanak". The road from Kuta to that place was just awful. We were driving the motorbike for the first time, the road was very steep, up-hill and damaged... We were lucky and managed it, but it was such a stress - omg. We came to Selong Blanak. The waves there were quite okay for beginners though just local people were there (mostly Muslims). Nobody was swimming, they were just sitting on the beach, fully dressed. We felt a bit uncomfortable so we left the place and went to the beach "Maui". Maui was quite nice but, for very experienced surfers only. Finally, we did not surf that day but took a swim, saw really nice villages and rice fields and learned to drive a motorbike. Still quite successful day.

Next day we left to Gerupuk, cause some travelers recommended that place to be good for beginners. We came there and rent two surfs and a teacher. A local guy called Danker was our surf teacher, he took us to the open sea, where there were good waves for surfers were. Danker is really good surfer and really good teacher (I highly recommend him). First hour, I was just too scared of the waves. I took only three of them. Lula was very brave though. She even stand on a surf couple of times. After a little break in Danker s boat we tried surfing again. Somehow I lost my fear (though kept the respect) of water. I got a bit more successful and managed to stand for a little while, but still nothing impressive ( never mind.). I was at least happy to learn some tricks to avoid the wave to completely wash me and to stay calm. I realized that it is not my body, but my mind that builds the barrier for me to be able to surf.

In the evening we went for a dinner to a restaurant in the central Kuta. It was already dark when we were leaving the restaurant for our home stay. Lula was driving and I was sitting behind her, the street was almost empty. There was a muslim couple driving a motor bike infront of us. Suddenly the motor bike stopped, so we passed by. All of a sudden the motor bike with the couple speed up, the girl sitting behind the driver just took of a bag of my shoulder and they drove away. We tried to follow them but it was impossible, we were too slow it was too dark, too scary. The rest of the evening we spent on the police station making a report.... Creepy story. Luckily that day we ran out of Rupiah, so I had just 400 HD in my purse, but there were all my credit cards (my parents blocked them immediately) and my driving licence. I had there my camera memory card -all pics from Kuta are gone - so sorry for that. We were supposed to have lesson with Danker the next day, but were really not in mood, had too many bruises and it was raining .(
 To make long story short: Kuta Lombok = Puta LOLbok (our own tragicomic word game - Spanish speaking will understand.)).

Danker - found on some blog

Padang Bay

There is a little village on the east Bali called Padang Bay. Some Czech people run here a restaurant called No Name (in Czech /Slovak spirit - bit expensive, but really good food) and a diving center called OK divers. Dominika recommended us this place to make a diving course, cause of the good price and high quality - SO WE DID IT (The PADI Open Water Diver course)  and received internationally accepted certificate - UIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII !!!

At the beginning I was quite scared that in the depth my ears will hurt and I won t be able to bear the pressure, but finally I had  zero problems. Since I ve been young I ve had dreams (it felt so real) that I can breath in the water - and this was it. Diving is the best feeling ever ... ever !!! We did 4 dives - two of them in the Blue Lagoon near Padang Bay and two and at the Liberty Shipwreck Tulamben (we went 18 meters deep).

We spent 5 days in Padang Bay, met lot of interesting people and had really good time. We always spent evenings in a little local restaurant drinking beer, or some juice and having some sea food (best restaurant for sea food in Padang Bay) - called Padang Bay Cafe :)). I will upload some underwater pictures as soon as I will receive them !!!

And I cut Lula s hair !!!

 

learning for the exam