Lembongan Island, Indonesia

Having lived in the desert for over a year, our first thought having left Newman was to put our feet up on a beach somewhere. We landed in Bali on the first night at midnight, got through customs, and it was ON! Taxi Taxi Taxi? Where you stay? Where you stay? You need a room? You need a piggy back ride? RUUUNNN! We jumped in an unmarked taxi a bit worried we were about to have our kidneys removed, but in the end made it safely to a hotel in Sanur, Bali just a bit overwhelmed. We had a walk on the beach the next morning in Sanur, and decided that we were looking for something just a bit further off the track...i.e. less t shirt shops, but still having refrigeration for cold beer. Lembongan, a less visited but still popular island just off the coast was the answer...we boarded a boat for the 30 min crossing...Hello Paradise!


The local boats (left) take people, building materials, chickens...just about anything across to the island, but frequently sink in the deep waters between Bali and Lembongan. As one had sunk just off the beach the day before, we elected to take a speedier passenger boat with life jackets...






Within just a few minutes of hitting the beach we got set up with a nice cheap bungalow on the beach with a sunset view...Ahhhh! That evening, with cold Bintang in hand and kidneys in place, we got our feet up on the beach for our first sunset in paradise.The next day we rented a motorbike and set out exploring the island...beaches on one side and really impressive cliffs on the other with crashing waves, blow holes, and tide pools. Then there was a lot more putting our feet up.

The best thing we found was a snorkel spot on the back side of the island where manta rays come to feed. A boat drops you at a u shaped cliff where water from the depths wells up and crashes on the rocks and the mantas come to filter feed. The guide / captain from our hotel got us there very early, and as there were only a couple of us in the water, they would swim wide circles around us with their mouths open, and sometimes turn and swim right at you only to lift a wing and sweep off in another direction at the last minute...a very cool experience.

 For our last day on the island we decided to step it up a bit. There was another island (Nusa Pedina) behind the one we stayed on which is rarely visited...we thought it would be a unique experience to catch a boat over and check it out. Our friendly guide Ketut from the hotel who had done the manta swim for us agreed to run us over on his boat and arrange motorbikes to show us some interesting places on the island. It was a refreshing step back to just before tourism takes hold...no souvenir shops, the people seem friendlier, and the kids make you feel like a celebrity offering up as many high fives as you could return.


Our first stop was one of Indonesia's most sacred temples inside of a cave, which people (Hindus and Buddhists, but not the Muslims...as Ketut put it) travel from afar to visit and make offerings. Everyone going in was asked to cover up with sarongs, and then we squeezed into a small opening in the rock behind the temple which opened up into a massive cave with several different temples and areas for prayer. It was particularly interesting to see two religions coexisting and sharing some of the same spaces. Services continued as we passed through mostly unnoticed and made our way to a different exit in a cliff face at the far end of the cave. As we exited, I asked Ketut if the monks minded the intrusion by non Hindu / Buddhists into what was a very important place for them, and was told that it made them feel as though their temple was well renowned. 



We then rode to the far side of the island to see the high sea cliffs and a tempting but decaying stairway descending down to the waves. As no one else wanted to go down, I made a hurried but careful descent by myself. Knees shaking, I put a toe out to check the strength of each next rusted step and slowly crept halfway down only to find local workers below carrying massively heavy sections of a new pipeline down the steps as if it was nothing. Not too keen to try to climb over them, and knowing that Krista was imagining all the ways I could stumble and fall, I headed back up full of adrenaline. I was also reminded of how a year of office work and no exercise can take its toll as was evidenced by 10 full minutes of sucking air at the top which cast a doubt in my ability to hike to the Mt. Everest base camp as a climatic end to our travels...we'll see.

  Anyhow, the day was getting late, so we made our way back to the pier to head home and I decided that everything had gone a little to perfectly, so I decided to crash the motorbike in some gravel going around a corner. Having ridden these quite a bit by now, I had assumed that this would happen to me at some point, and I finally got my chance...and just when Krista was starting to trust me as well...bummer. Luckily, we were going pretty slow with the roads being in awful condition and came away with only minor scrapes and bruises to the pride...oh well. Ketut got us off the hook for the scratches on the bike for a small fee to the owner, and all in all we left felling pretty fortunate. On the up side, I did get to leave a little bit of myself on Nusa Penida, which was well documented by Paul, an Australian that joined us for some of our adventures, and if I can get ahold of his photos I'll add them later.

 After that we were pretty well done with the beach and island scenery and got ready to head to our next stop in the heart of Bali, Ubud...

LEMBONGAN ISLAND PHOTO SET 

On the Road Again: 2013

Hello? Is anybody out there? It's been a while...so I don't blame you if you drifted off over the last year or so, but we're back in action as we make our way home from Australia by way of SE Asia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. There is so much from our last year of working in Newman that there is no way to share it all, so we'll try and put a slideshow of our favorite memories together and post that up soon.


We wanted to ride off into the sunset, but that didn't prove to be very practical...so we sold all of our stuff including our faithful car (baby b), and flew out instead...but this is how it would have looked...

Goodbye Newman! 

Keep an eye on the "trip photos" link to flickr at the top of the page...tons of new photos added (from last year...lazy, i know), and more to come...We'll be back in the states on November 10th!

ESCAPE !!!!

Well HI there all of you who are probably no longer reading! We don't blame you...things haven't been that interesting, but we have been working at the red sands for 3 months now and it's time for a break! We're taking 10 days off for a taste of the outside world before heading back into the red wasteland for another 3 months. So...two days ago we flew to Perth (the big city), and everything has been going great since then. The plan was to buy a cheap car and make our way up the west coast back to Newman. We were worried that car shopping could drag out, and every day it took was a day off of our vacation time, but we lucked out and found the perfect car within a few hours of landing in Perth! Her name is Baby Beluga (Baby - B for short). She is a 1996 Holden Apollo Wagon and she looks like a big white whale! After finding the car we managed to return the rental car without smashing it which was good. Then we set out to outfit it to be a comfy "motor-home". We lucked out again and found a foam warehouse, and they had the exact piece we needed for 75 % off. The car is now more comfortable than our bed back at the red sands and we're off on a nine day adventure...will post photos upon getting back to Newman!

Cheers!

Newman, Western Australia

Hi Everybody!

We're well settled here in Newman now and it's high time for an update, wouldn't you say? We were both ready and reluctant to put Perth in the rear view mirror...it was a very cool city, and the third most expensive place in the world to live. Despite what we heard elsewhere about the golden streets, the job market was competitive and it wasn't a great recipe for re-lining the pockets with cash.

Road Train on The Great Northern Highway

So we got a ride share, said goodbye to our new friends, and headed 12 hours north to Newman, rocking out to aussie music hits of the 80's all the way. The drive itself hinted at the isolation of Newman...the Great Northern Highway is a thin, 2 lane strip of asphalt that cuts a lonely path through thousands of miles of vast emptiness. We saw a lot of kangaroos and wallabys along the way, although most were not alive. Apparently they aren't the brightest when it comes to traffic and will often hop right into it. They're a big problem out here and many people don't drive the freeways at dusk or dawn because the chances of hitting one then are really good. Passing the road trains felt pretty dangerous, but we arrived safely all the same.

Mt. Whaleback Iron Ore Mine

We reached Newman in the late afternoon. It is a smallish mining town in the heart of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Mt. Waleback (the largest open cut iron mine in the world) is it's only reason for existing...and it is pretty obvious that there is a lot of iron in the ground here...even the dirt rusts. The closer we got to Newman, the redder everything got. Nothing that was meant to be white (street signs, walls, etc.) stays that way and everything here has a red tint to it. Some days it has a post-apocalyptic feel to it...especially when the dust kicks up and the sky turns red as well. The town is basic and is honestly pretty uninteresting. It is big enough for a full sized grocery store, a Chinese takeaway, a hotel, and of course, The Red Sands Pub / Restaurant where we are now employed.

Karijini National Park

It's only geographically redeeming quality is it's closeness to Karijini national park, which is said to be Australia's most beautiful and unique, so that is high on our list of things to do. It's about 2 hours away by car so we're not sure how were going to get there...we may wind up buying a junker car to get around with and do some exploring. Keeping in mind all the while that we are here to refill the bank and are just going to work as much as we can without going nuts.

A Standard Donga !

So far the job is going well...the Red Sands is a clever three in one business, with a large pub, restaurant, bottle shop, and soon to be coffee drive through sharing the same location. With so many hats to wear there are a lot of hours to go around, and the pay is good. We work with a great group of people and things are going pretty well. Rent is the reason that people don't come here to find jobs...on average 1,000 to 1,500 a WEEK for a very basic place. Because of that situation, you would wind up earning very little, so the pub has put up dongas (basically a shipping container for people) out back for the staff. So we have a place to stay, a hot meal most nights out of the restaurant, and as long as we don't go nuts, we'll do well here.

It's a very strange and interesting place...a modern frontier really, and the amount of money and opportunity surrounding this town in the desert is incredible...but more on that next time...

Easer Sale: Discounts on Life Lessons

Happy Easter everyone!

It was a beautiful sunny Easter day here in Perth. We got up early and packed our things for a trip to the wine growing region down south to start new jobs at a vineyard. Unfortunately this evening we are right back where we started, a bit more guarded and with slightly lighter wallets. It turns out that there was no job and we (and 40 others) were scammed by a pretty impressive con artist. The upside...if you can be famous for getting conned out of 300 bucks, then I am definitely famous. TV, radio, print...you name it, I've done the interview. I want everybody and their mom lookin' for this guy. Autograph requests can be sent to Jared Holm, Crimestopper.

The story: Backpackers conned out of 300 Large

The worst part of this mess is that we and everyone else quit their jobs and checked out of where they were staying for this, and most people had nowhere to go. Finding a place to stay in Perth is hard most days, let alone Easter Sunday. We were very fortunate to be taken back in by the people we have been staying with, and have been tirelessly looking for a job over the last week. In a complete change of direction, we are now heading to the outback town of Newman where we have bee hired to work in a bar. This job came through a legitimate recruiter, so we can rest our scam detectors on this one.

It's been a fun and difficult two months trying to decide where we'll settle in to recoup our travel funds, and it looks like we've found it. It would have been nice to work and live in Perth, but it's so expensive that I'm pretty sure it would have been in one pocket and out the other. On to Newman...