Scams and rip offs in Kuta

Arrived in Sanur from Ubud on the bus which was only 30  minutes. Had an altercation with a local though who thought she could bag the best seat at the front of the bus with the most legroom for herself when me and Kath had claimed them for ourselves. An exchange of views followed with the bus driver getting involved trying to bully us off these prize seats. Obviously most younger travellers would have moved over due to peer pressure but up against the stubborn 'we're English and we were here first' Daz/Kath tag team they did not stand a chance and were quickly dispatched to second place when we refused to budge from the seats.  Lets just say the journey was low on conversation from the locals (until we got off at least).
     Next we were targeted by the Kuta petrol station rip off crew. A common scam with people who hire scooters. The dude who fills it up for you will distract you with a bit of small-talk while filling up your bike. Then he ask you to pay which looks like a large sum of money but it says it on the pump so must be correct, right? So you pay the man. WRONG! What has happened is he has not reset the pump from the previous punter and added your fuel to the previous fill up and after you pay he skims the money off that you have overpaid! Well he picked on the wrong dudes this time. We saw him do it to the tourists before us and they just paid it even they could not believe the amount of money they were handing over! We happen to know how much the bike holds in the tank and the amount the guy put in was not physically possible. So we queried it. He got very angry,very quickly and started getting all the locals involved insisting on payment. We would not budge and would not pay asking for the manager. Even the locals offered to pay for our fuel as the guy was steaming and shouting profanities at us. We stood firm. Eventually after the dispute was unresolved the manager came over and asked what had happened.  He spoke good English and we explained the dilemma that was facing us. He quickly realized that we could prove our innocence with the bill we presented to him and he said we did not have to pay any of the fuel we had received.

Get on your bad motor scooter and ride.

 But us being proper and Bristish,

Do not mess with Kath as she has super human powers.

we paid for what we thought the fuel was worth then watched as the pump dude was publically reprimanded in front of all the customers on the forecourt. I would say by the managers reaction that this is a common scam and he probably knows it goes on but turns a blind eye to it.
  Another common over charge scenario is the fast boats to Nusa Lembongan. If you go direct to boat companies and try to haggle you will be given short shrift. There is no discount. But if you go to any of the travel agents up the road and quote a price'that your mate paid' than it was easy to get 35% off just like that.
  Also parking charges for scooters are epidemic. If they don't charge you on the way in and give you a ticket then don't pay on the way out when someone will quickly jump out from the side of the road and demand money from you even if you did not park but just went to have a look and drive by of a beach area for example. Don't pay them if they don't look official as they are trying to take easy money off foreigners who are none the wiser. They even tried to charge us for parking in McDonalds when we ate there. I nearly ran the guy over when he demanded money!

Ubud adventures continued.

Ubud....quoted in the Lonely Planet as 'the centre of relaxation and cultural awareness' but it should read 'centre of mega traffic and overwhelming centre of tourist trappings.'
 Still our guesthouse was the best we've had yet,  It was basically a homestay with 3 buildings including a temple, a 2 storey building with upstairs 2 superbly fitted rooms. Both with a balcony overlooking jungle where you could watch humming birds and brown squirrels going about their business every morning. The owner was a lovely man (we called him Ron Burgundy due to his rather large and out of proportion moustache and quiffy smoothed back coiffured hair).
  Ron constantly badgered us for a trip advisor review which we were happy to do because the place was so nice but being the opportunist we are (and travelling on a budget is business!), we took full control of the situation and made Ron work for his review by providing us cheap motorbike hire, giving us a discount on our room and taking us to his village to watch a Kecak monkey chant dance which actually turned out to be superb. We even got him to take me and Kath down to the bus station when we were leaving so we would not have to call a taxi (on the back of his moped one at a time with all our luggage!). In return Ron got his review (bless him).
 The rest of the time in Ubud was taken up with whizzing around on our motorbike, trying not to be killed with the Indonesian psychotic drivers and tourists who have literally just jumped on a moped with no previous riding experience!  It was carnage out there. The roads are all gridlocked and there are people walking in the road as there is limited or no pavement and dogs randomly run out in front of you for no reason. We had done the usual walks around the town and visited the various temples and caves which were much of the muchness after you've seen so many temples in Asia it's easy to get temple burn out so a lot harder to be impressed.  The monkey forest was a highlight, watching naive foreigners hold 'banana for monkey' in the air (for a vastly over inflated price) then watching the monkey claw and bite the holder and then swing about on anyone who had long hair making them scream and panic and me and Kathy watched in quiet contentment as stupid peopled were targeted by these monkeys then shown up in public for the fools they were. (the monkeys are still wild so should be treated accordingly)
 We do have a bit of hassle at the moment with our visas as it is the end of Ramadan.  The immigration office decided it would be a good idea to close for 10 days at the exact time our visas needed extending. Luckily for us, while I was finding out where the visa office was online, I stumbled on a blog that pointed out that the office closed on certain days for holiday and after checking with our hotel we were suddenly thrown into a panic as it dawned on us that our visas were about to expire and the office was about to close for their holidays! We both jumped on the bike and rode the torturous journey to Denpasar to show up at the immigration office which was in a flux of mayhem as everybody had the same idea and we jumped through the various hoops to be told that they would be keeping our passports and we were to return in 2 weeks to be photographed and interviewed to see if we would be granted our visa extensions. So here we sit writing this blog, having over-stayed our visas with no passports/trapped in Bali waiting to go back to the immigration office when it opens again next week to see if we will be chucked out of the country or not (or thrown in jail until we hand over loads of money?). This is what travelling is all about....the adventure of the unknown!

Hanging out with local kecak dancers

Visit to local dog rescue center to give the dogs a cuddle.

Elephant cave with Kath 'your not getting in' Bushell

Yoga In Ubud (by Daz)

So when in Ubud you have to do what the oddballs do so it's off to yoga to regenerate our 'yogis'.
So we rock up on the dream machine (the 'Yoga Barn') both looking like Clyde the orangutan out of the Clint Eastwood films (due to our 1970's crash helmets) then handed over an extortionate amount of money to some very smooth talking 'chi' experts who smiled at our naive body language. 
Into the studio we sauntered, gathered our roll mats and other props (just copied all the other dudes!) and in rolled Denise (from the USA no less). The next hour and a half was a combination of pain, relief and more pain as I tried to contort my aged body into unnatural positions reserved only for nubile teenagers limbering up for gymnastics at the Olympics. The class was a funny bunch of about 30 people, a real concubine of characters. 70% were 'eat,pray,love' Julia Roberts types who were clearly having some mid-life episode (don't we all!) then the burnt out hippy lost soul types who had run out of weed and a handful of faddy teenagers who were just going through that 'yoga is cool' stage. 
Overall I did enjoy the experience, especially when it was over and was also nearly duped into to buying a 'total detox yogi warrior to make all your troubles melt away and give you a pure out of body experience' awesome juice drink from the cafe until I clocked that the price was more than me and Kathy had spent on our entire dinner the night before and decided a beer is always better to detox the brain and cheaper. Afterwards the yogi master Denise helpfully informed us that the 'music' we had been listening today was available from one of the students right here in the class (wow, what a lucky co-incidence) for a measly super over inflated price on CD. (old school or what!)
A  very smooth operation here and there are plenty of takers eager to cleanse their souls.Would Kathy and I do it again?  Not sure really, I guess I will have to see if I can still walk in the morning I think and go from there.

Pemuteran, Bali

Weds 14.6-Sat 17.6.17
We woke up most mornings to the call to prayer wailing - me more than Daz as he always wears ear plugs! Also, the resident cockerels like to join in with this so no sleep in's for us. We decided to go snorkeling so headed off on the short walk to the beach. We hired the flippers, mask etc. for a few quid then we hit the sea - making sure to enter the water backwards. The water was warm and clear so off we swam, heads down in the water searching for the first sight of coral/fish.  It wasn't long before we were rewarded with both! There's a few artificial reefs with surprisingly good coral including different colour/type ones (stag/brain/white/blue-purple colour) along with blue starfish (almost looked plastic!) and beautiful fish (small brilliant blue ones, black/white/yellow angel fish, multi coloured parrot fish to name but a few).  We snorkeled for quite a while as easy to become immersed in this underwater paradise. Back on the beach, changed and off for some lunch (pot of noodles knocked.up in our room with our trusty Pifco water heater (only 50p at a boot sale!). I did some washing in the bathroom using a borrowed bowl (getting quite good at this laundry thing). We went back for more snorkeling in the afternoon but the visibility wasn't as good so we cut it short.
During the next few days we unfortunately had to deal with some hassle from our agents which was awkward when email is pretty much the only form of contact (without incurring costs) but luckily this got sorted out so all happy again! We discovered that I have a problem with the pin on one of my cards - don't know how but we've managed to work around it - just makes you realise how cut off you can be out here.
Most mornings we would watch some small monkey looking guy climb up the coconut trees outside to harvest the palm oil. Considering how high up he went and that he didn't use ropes it was quite amazing to see this.
Anyway, we hired a bike/moped (Honda Vario 115cc thing) with 2 dodgy open faced helmets (luckily both black so we sort of looked a bit cool!) for the next couple of days to venture out and explore. We visited the Atlas pearl farm and were educated on how they farm artificial pearls (as they are able to speed up the whole process as well as control the colour - normally either white, silver or gold). This was free but we were invited to browse the shop afterwards - once we spotted the price tags there was alot of  'oh that's pretty' and 'what a lovely design' quickly followed by 'but we can't buy anything' (as the truth is 1/ we're too tight 2/neither of us want to look like somebody's gran 3/we would rather spend our money on beer & noodle dinners!).  We went on to check our the local turtle sanctuary (only had 1 baby as the rest had just been released back to the wild) but quite a few adult turtles including a mature green turtle who didn't look to happy to be stuck there on a wage of a few piddly fish when he could be out riding the ocean waves! He didn't fit in our rucksack otherwise we would have liberated him. Then we rode to the Pura Pulaki monkey temple which is watched over by the resident Balinese macaque monkeys.  These are quite cute when small but the larger ones have scary teeth and the males have massive gonads plus are quite feisty if you look at them the wrong way (the advice is to not stare at them and don't show your teeth - even by smiling!). On our last full day, Friday, we had a lazy morning, did some snorkeling but crap visibility, own made lunch back at base then we went for our last round of snorkeling which was brilliant - so many fish! Only one problem - sea+sun+exposure=sunburn! Yes, even though we're normally really careful with the sun cream we both got fried! Me especially so - like a frigging lobster all down my back/legs with my bikini white bits highlighting the glare of the sunburn! Big ouch.
Saturday we were off, we ended up having to hire a private car/driver to take us to our next stop - Ubud, as it was proving almost impossible to arrange transport any other way out of Pemuteran!

The monkey priest prepares the alter for the offering to the gods.

Daz offers Kathy as a sacrifice and the gods are happy.

Pemuteran, Bali

Bagus Homestay - Outside Our Digs!

Beautiful gardens at Bagus - Frangipani Flowers Everywhere!

We upgraded our room from a sweat box one with a fan to a deluxe one by a pool but the bathroom was open roofed so we didn't want to become an all you can eat buffet for the mossies so we settled on the one opposite which had air con, a decent sized bathroom and a traditional platform bed. Only thing was it was missing the mosquito net so luckily we could use the one we had been lugging around since we left home! We ate dinner at a local place just on the corner of our road and enjoyed a cool beer (Bintang) which we hadn't done for ages! Finally we could chill out in a beach town that had booze!
The first day was lovely - hot and sunny and the breakfast laid on was delicious! Banana pancakes, fried egg with toast, strong black coffee and a small plate of mixed fruit. Yum. We walked down to the beach and along it then ended up walking around but soon it was getting near midday and too hot so we bought some food for lunch back at the room. Just before we went out in the evening for dinner the frigging rain started! It absolutely bucketed down (is it because we're British?!) and it just got heavier. In the end, we grabbed our brolly (picked up in Nepal) and made a dash for it as hunger had taken over our common sense! The entrance to Bagus was flooded, the small road outside was now a river and the main road not much better as the roadside became covered with large puddles. We tried to cheer ourselves up with a pasta dinner (cost a bit more than our usual but only by a couple of quid) then we had to literally run back to our accommodation, trying to jump over the huge puddles then having to wade through ankle height water in places up the road to Bagus! We were absolutely soaked through so we jumped in the shower (at least it was hot!) then consoled ourselves with beer, snacks and watching a film on the laptop (Alien Resurrection - big thanks to G&S!). The next morning we woke up to, can you guess?, yes more bloody rain!  It was like this on and off for the day so we stayed at Bagus most of the day, bought some food supplies then ventured out in the evening (which had dried up considerably) for some dinner.  Whilst out we walked around and saw small bats doing some sort of aeroBATic (no pun intended!) display in the night sky. The rain had also brought out the local frog population so we had to watch our steps! Hope the sun comes out again as really not liking the rain now.

Adios Java - Hello Bali !

We packed our bags again to leave Probolinggo and Java for the island of Bali.  This time we splashed out on executive seats on the train (couldn't face the train gestapo again!) and all went to plan with a shorter train journey of about 4 hrs to get to Banuwangi to catch the ferry over to Bali (Gilimanuk).
Off the train and a short walk to the ferry port lugging the rucksacks - the road meant we had to carry them on our backs instead of using our trolley (they are just about bearable for a short distance!). The ferry tickets were dirt cheap at around 76p for both of us! 13,000 Indonesian Rupiah. The ferry was basic with vehicles on the lower deck and seating for passengers above/top deck so we settled down on the plastic seats with our luggage for the 45 min crossing. We got to the other side, no fuss just straight through and just across the road to the bus station.
Well by this time it was about 5pm (as Bali is 1 hr ahead of Java) and we were to find out that the public buses don't run after 3pm! Only 1 bus to Denpasar which we didn't want so we hung around getting hassled by taxi guys asking 150,000R/£9 to take us to the north of the island. We did our best to hold out hoping for a bus to appear but it was getting darker and we had to leave so we negotiated a taxi to drive us to Pemuteran. It was a decent car (no wonder with what they charge!) and a helpful driver that helped with our rucksacks. The roads were smooth tarmac (not like Nepal!) and we could now relax as the driver drove the straight main road in the pitch black night. God our stomachs were rumbling as we hadn't eaten properly since breakfast (at 7.30am!). We got to Pemuteran and down a small tarmac less back road to Bagus Homestay which would be home for the next 6 nights.

Mount Bromo (Java, Indonesia)

Well we wanted to do a trip to see the volcano Mount Bromo but what was on offer meant a 2.30am start but we couldn't manage to find anybody else to share the tour a bit later on (suckers for an early start!). We caved in and booked the trip which would be shared with 2 other couples (French and German). The alarm was set for a 2am rise and once we were up it wasn't so bad. We were driven in the dark of the early hours for just over an hour to the viewing point.
Our driver was a lunatic, no doubt about it. He cut up every other road user (for some reason these people go about their business very early!) and didn't like changing gear so the engine revved like an angry monster. How the gearbox didn't explode we don't know. He kicked us all out at the foot of a steep path and settled down on the passenger seat for a nap.
Well off we went in our group of 6 - in the pitch black (at least the others had torches) up a small road which became a dirt path with stones everywhere. It became very steep so we were both huffing/puffing along like a couple of geriatrics with asthma. We made it up to a small ledge which overlooked what we could make out as the volcano range in the distance and hung around waiting for the sun to wake up and make itself known.

Daz wandered off to get a coffee (tourists eh!) whilst I sat with the French girl being chatty. In the dark a small furry creature (like a large gerbil thing) emerged from the bushes and started to hassle some hippy dudes next to us. It didn't like their aroma I think because it soon scarpered! We watched the sun slowly rise on the horizon and it lit up the crater area so we could now see the breathtaking landscape before us. Mount Bromo is the smoking crater to the left in the pic and Mount Batok is the volcano in the forefront and the weird sea below is all cloud which looked like an alien fog. We walked back to the car about 6.30am to find the driver asleep so I kindly woke him up by banging on the car window! Off again and this time transferred to a battered old jeep to be driven across the volcanic sand/ash to go see Mount Bromo.
We got kicked out in the parking area to walk across to the foot of the crater - loads of tourists doing the same along with dogs, pony trekkers and nutters on scooters/dirt bikes. We spotted a loo en route but they wanted money so we peed in the bushes instead (au naturel!) - luckily no snakes about!
We made our way up a rugged, crack filled slope to the steps (lot's of them!) leading to the top of the crater. My god, steps, more steps - we had to stop a few times to catch our breath as it was hard work plus it was starting to warm up as the sun got going. We got to the top and looked down into the volcano which was bellowing big clouds of smoke and grumbling away in a way which made us think is this really safe?! It sounded like a jet engine. We hung around abit watching other people - some threw bunches of dried flowers in to the crater as offerings and some were taking selfies perched precariously on the edge of the crater. Soon it was time to go so we walked back, couldn't find the jeep (as so many of them), managed to locate it and back in the original car to be driven back (with a distinct lack of gear changes!) to our accommodation. Once back, we had some breakfast then chilled in our room as the lack of sleep had taken it's toll. We stayed another night then it was time to be on our way again.............

Java - Yogyakarta - Probolinggo, Java

Our last day (7.6.17) in Yogyakarta was a real lazy affair so we basically got up, had breakfast then spent most of the day chilling out by the hotel pool. I did do some washing - in the shower with the hotel soap (I miss my washing machine!). We met a Kiwi family who gave us some info on Bali and in turn pumped us for info on Malaysia & Cambodia.
We left to move on to our next place - Probolinggo the next day. We boarded the train and splashed out on business class seats as not the most expensive. Well, to cut a long story short, we upgraded ourselves (by accident!) to the 1st class/executive carriage. The carriages weren't clearly marked on boarding so we just went on the number inside. It was comfy enough, air con and a western stainless steel loo plus food/drinks available on board plus the seats tilted back so we could snooze! The trip was about 9 hrs and we managed to stay in our seats until just before the end. We had a close call about midday when some Indonesian girls got on saying we were in their seats but we played dumb and they gave up to sit somewhere else. The 2nd time, with only 1.5 hrs to go, a woman got on, said we were in her seat and then it all kicked off! 1 train guard & 2 secuirty guards loomed over us, checked our tickets then we were ordered to move carriage. Great!  We wouldn't have minded except for having to lug 2 massive rucksacks plus 2 smaller ones plus our trolley & water through a narrow walkway along 3 carriages. I honestly thought my arms were going to fall off!
We got to Probolinggo pretty late in the evening so it was dark outside. We had a bit of hassle outside the train station with taxi drivers trying to rip us off but we managed to negotiate the price to almost half quoted and were safely delivered to our hotel. This place was more basic - more cut out for backpackers but it had good reviews and the owner was knowledgeable/helpful about our next trip to Mount Bromo.  Only drawback was we had to go cold turkey for the next 3 nights as there was absolutely no beer available here!! The owner blamed Ramadan but we suspected he was stashing it all for himself!
We struggled to find restaurants offering decipherable menus so it was a relief when we found a large chain type restaurant with some vegetarian dishes we could order. Only thing was we were the only tourists in there so we got a lot of looks but we were too busy scoffing our food to care! The 2nd visit was weird because we were seated next to an empty table that they kept serving food/drinks to! Invisible man maybe or offerings to the restaurant gods? Who knows!

Enjoying the executive class seats - watch out for that train guard!

Java, Indonesia (Yogyakarta)

Well we flew from Kathmandu to Kuala Lumpur (31.5.17) arriving at 7.30pm local time and after negotiating the huge airport, we were picked up by a hotel so we could stay the night and be ready for our next flight to Yogyakarta, Java early the next morning (01.06.17).  All went well - in  bed by 11.30/45pm and up at 3am for our lift to the airportt!!  It's tough travelling sometimes.
After only a short flight from K/L to Java, we landed bleary eyed and thankful that the hotel had arranged a pick up for us.  When we got to the hotel (Puri Pangeran) we were delighted with a decent sized room with private bathroom, secluded balcony and, wait for it, best of all a swimming pool!!
We unpacked, stripped off (ooh err!) and went for a cool, refreshing dip.
We enjoyed our stay so much that we spent a total of 7 nights - there's not that much to do there but the hotel was good and we were feeling lazy!!
Whilst there we did check out the 2 large temple sites.  The first one Prambanan is a 9th century Hindu temple and just out of town so we hired a moped, jumped on the highway and tried to dodge the bad driving of the locals determined to squash us like flies.  We made it there ok, I got stung for 12p for the loo (as by the car park but it's free inside the site!) and we paid the expensive entry fee (about 20 dollars each).  After a short walk we were rewarded with the following sights......

Prambanan 05.06.17

Prambanan Temples

It was extremely hot so we took advantage of the shade of the odd tree and inside the temples to avoid overheating! The temples stones were carved with all sorts of dragon/dog creatures, elephants, people and animals - such amazing work in each one.
The next day we went on to do another temple site - Borobudur which  is a 9th century Buddhist temple a bit further out of town so we hired a car/driver to take us there. Again, we were really impressed with a huge site - it's the largest Buddhist temple in the world! It is built in tiers - 3 levels (over 9 actual platforms)  representing a symbol of Buddhist cosmology! It also has 72 Buddhas at the top dome level (Nirvana) each housed in a perforated stupa.  We wondered around, pleased that we went later in the day as not very busy plus a much kinder temperature on our delicate English bodies!

Borobudur 06.06.17

Nirvana/Top Level Borobudur At Sunset

Apart from the 2 temple sites we didn't really do much else apart from visit the Sultan's Palace in town (The Kraton) which was ok but pretty boring being honest and we had to dodge the tour groups (we tried to annoy them by getting in the way of their photos!). The most daring thing we did was to venture along the river one evening for a shortcut into town. It was a strange sight for the locals judging on the stares we got! They were busy cooking inside their little dwellings with birds in cages hung outside. They were surprised by us but friendly with many shouting 'hello' to us as we passed.

The whole stay here was good - the hotel comfortable and with a decent breakfast laid on every morning (we made sure to stuff our pockets with free coffee, tea & creamer sachets!). A beautiful swimming pool with lots of flowering trees in the gardens.  Booze was pretty difficult to find (pretty much non existent in the shops) so we bought bottles of beer (Bintang) from the hotel to unwind with in the evening. We also decided to try out the different chocolate available - the favourite being Beng Beng (choccy, wafer & marshmallow in a layered bar).

Nepal Backpacker Blog Round Upl

Liked:   It was cheap to travel, it worked out less than £35 a day for the pair of us including everything like white water rafting, jungle safari, motorbike hire, and all admissions prices and hotels but not the air fare. The food was cheap but beer was relatively expensive but you can buy 7% Nepal Ice which at the high attitudes will get you loaded really quickly. Also the standard of hotel was quite high in the budget price range and we averaged £12 a night for some nice places with breakfast included. 




  Sunrise Over Pokhara

Disliked:  The state of the roads and the bus rides as well as the traffic, dust and pollution. The rubbish was horrific everywhere and will spoil the country unless it's brought under control although tourists are part of the problem by all using plastic water drinking bottles. The pollution in Kathmandu was terrible and driving standards are none existent - I am not sure how we survived some of our bus rides (although there are many deaths in the local paper every day as people go off the road down the gorge never to be seen again). We saw buses and lorries smashed up on their sides, on the side of the road and many accidents.



Kathmandu Again!

We endured another uncomfortably hot 9 hr bus ride from Pokhara back to Kathmandu on the Mountain Overland bus (and met a nice couple from Canterbury who were sitting behind us). The traffic was horrendous getting in to Kathmandu (maybe rush hour?). Anyway, after retrieving our rucksacks from the back of the bus and negotiating with a greedy fat taxi driver, we got to our accommodation for the last 2 nights in Nepal.  The room was compact but comfortable and on the top floor so we had access to the roof terrace.
We didn't do much as arrived quite late on the Monday plus we couldn't be bothered to go far.  Also, the weather was on the turn as the monsoon starts in June so the rain was already making it's presence known.  We did check out an Irish Pub on the last night which was cool and the beer reasonably priced so we stayed for a couple!
Kathmandu is not so easy - very busy with lot's of shops selling tourist tat, it's pretty dirty/polluted and when it rains it gives you muddy streets with no pavement!  All this plus the whizzing around of scooters/bikes/cars to make walking around rather taxing on the nerves. However, it was all going well up until the morning we left..........
Rucksacks all packed, breakfast scoffed, taxi arranged to the airport - brilliant.  We left in plenty of time and with everything we owned.  That is until we got to the airport.  Daz went to get his transit bag out to put his rucksack in for the plane journey only to find it had somehow fallen out. We looked everywhere and even negotiated airport security to go back outside to look but found nothing. It was gone (probably fell out in the taxi/minibus).  Next up, Daz discovers the hotel room key smuggled in his trouser pocket! Being nice and typically British, we got somebody at the airport to call the hotel and arranged for them to pick it up at the Police desk.  The hotel denied seeing the transit bag in their minibus but then they would because they would have had to return it to us!!  We boarded the Malindo Air plane for the 4 1/2 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
We arrived late at around 8.30pm Malaysian time and the airport was massive!  We had booked a hotel as our onward flight to Java, Indonesia was at 6.30am the following day.  After going through immigration, collecting our rucksacks (glad to say all in one piece still), we emerged to find a nice chap from the hotel waiting for us with one of those name cards (made us feel very important!). We got to the hotel in a small transit town near the airport which had a few local shops/restaurants, a Pizza Hut and a KFC!  We got some dinner, discovered that we couldn't buy any booze (to be expected in a mainly Muslim country!) and managed to bed down by midnight ready for the alarm clock at 3.30am! Again, everything went fine apart from being at the airport at 4am in the morning when we wanted to be in the land of nod.  We boarded the 6.30am flight to Yogjakarta, Java in Indonesia on the Thursday 1st June and in just over 2 hrs we landed to our next country!

Pokhara - The Easy Life

Well we spent a total of 2 weeks in Pokhara as it was an easy place to hang out plus couldn't face anymore crap bus journeys! We ended up hiring a motorbike to get around and managed to ride up a local hill top (Sarangkot) to get some stunning views of the Himalayan mountains surrounding Pokhara (Mount Fishtail and the Annapurna range).  The roads are hard work - dusty, rough as hell and with plenty of cows, dogs and nutty local boys thrown in to make things interesting!

We hired a canoe boat on Phewa Lake and did our best Hawaii Five-O impression plus made a camp using discarded bamboo poles in a small bay area (who needs Bear Grylls!). 

We visited a beautiful lake - Begnas Lake and sat watching a curious mongoose from a lakeside cafe. We explored a bat cave and watched mad people squeezing through a tiny exit hole (we didn't because it stunk of B.O and were afraid of getting stuck!). 

On our last evening which was a Sunday, we decided to check out a local metal band gig in town at the Rolling Stones Bar.  Only 300 rupee each entry (just over 2 quid) so in we went to represent the whitey community (everybody in there was Nepalese!).  The bands were really good - mainly death metal but great guitar playing.  Funny to see them all head banging and jumping about in the mosh pit. The beer was really dear - cheapest can was just under £4 and pretty yak. We stayed for a couple of hours then back to the room to pack up for our bus journey early the next morning back to Kathmandu.