Good morning to you
and we are off on another journey with Travel with Simon
and oh my goodness, why do my bags always fall off the trolley?
I think, is it my bags or is it the way I drive a trolley or is it the trolleys? anyway,
we are starting another journey today,
there we go and
we are off to somewhere sunny and warm.
Now I'm starting my journey at Jo'burg Airport,
which as you can see is a nice busy airport, first thing is to find out where to go,
this is when you go to every airport, I mean there's just chaos everywhere,
where do you go? so after finding out where I'm going and finally realising
I've got plenty, plenty time to check in, like four hours,
my next port of call is, to go and get some food
and
organize my bags, which as you can see, I always carry way too many bags I must do something about that,
now let's get something to eat.
Thank you very much,
thank you very much "can I get you anything else?,"
no that's lovely, thank you.
And then it's off to check in, first of all negotiate the escalators with bags and trolley,
find your check-in counter and as usual, yes it's always at the other end of the hall,
it's never right where you arrive is it? business class? nope, premium class? nope,
and then I check in, oh good old economy class.
Then browse through some of the souvenirs that you wanted, do people really pack these in their bags?
really?
"Hello may you please take me a picture?"
alone or are you with the others? and why do you, why do you want to be exclusively alone?
"Because I'm pregnant, so I wanna capture this moment",
oh, congratulations "thank you".
Get to know your locals a bit better, more useful souvenirs, mugs,
that's something I couldn't fit in the backpack,
it's always fun to look through what local souvenir shops have, this is a local taxi,
I'm not sure what happened to the driver,
I'm not sure I really want to take that taxi, but the guys are celebrating, so that's fine, also something else
that I probably wouldn't take home to most places, a dead skin.
Going through passport control, I got my ticket, now it's just waiting, my airport lounge is right here, oops sorry,
I've got half an hour now, before my flight boards.
Singapore, in Singapore, it's something, that's now 6:00 in the morning, but it's actually midnight,
transfer to the next plane, which leaves in half an hour, so let's go.
No sleep on the plane, eleven hour flight, no sleep.
And at last, to my hotel room, oh it's been some long flights and some delicious food and a quick peek at Bali,
but now, I need some sleep and that bed looks
comfy.
Good morning to another beautiful day,
and as you see, as you can see, didn't stay in Bali, was just there overnight,
because now I'm heading out to one of the islands, an island called, Nusa Penida, my first stop, is Sanur
which does have some beaches, where you can lay and tan, top up that tan and get a nice golden glow
but main, the main reason for coming to Sanur, is there's lots of boats here that leave, to
various islands that are a little bit quieter than the island of Bali.
I will be spending some time in Bali, but I wanted some peace and quiet, now
there's Lombok which is a big island, the Gili islands, which is three islands
and the one I'm going to which is called, Nusa Penida.
Something you will encounter all over Bali is what this lady is doing,
she's been putting down an offering, which the Hindus do, that is a daily offering, its what's called, Canang sari,
it's a little
basket made of coconut or palm leaves with a small offering
and it is usually part of their food, some rice, sometimes flowers, sometimes some small coins
and this is a daily offering by all the Hindus, you'll find these
scattered all over the place, as you can see this lady is just placing hers
on the beach outside where she works her little
restaurant or stall, now just a tip, you shouldn't stand on them or walk over them,
so if you find them on the pavement or when you're walking along,
just walk round them, it always pays to be respectful to all the people you meet,
in all the countries we travel,
it's one of the reasons we go to these places, to find out these things.
There goes my bag, don't drop it in the water,
okay, my bag is on the boat,
take away the rest of the luggage, pick up my other bag
and get on the boat myself, take my shoes off, might get my feet wet but, then we're off, to Nusa Penida.
So, you get off the boat, you get your bag
and then you take a short walk up this little road here, to the main road
and find your resort, now if you've arranged a lift, they'll be waiting for you at the boat, if you want a lift,
there's plenty bikes and cars waiting at the boat, to take you to wherever you want, just negotiate a price.
I think I haven't got far to go, so I'm gonna walk it, even though it is blazing hot and I forgot my hat
but I got my shades,
let's go and find,
my accommodation.
I think you can rent motorbikes at the port as well, although a little bit more expensive,
I'm gonna hope my accommodation can, sort me out with that,
here we go,
here is the, main road,
shall we say?
I think, according to my map direction I looked at earlier
got google maps,
I have to go, this way,
if I can manage it without getting run over.
Well, we're on Nusa Penida,
at last, it's really nice to get here,
from Bali,
transfer to Sanur, Sanur got the fast boat across to,
Penida, Nusa Penida whichever port,
skipped the drivers and the
scooters, at the port because my accommodation isn't too far, so I'm huffing it on foot, but it's warm,
oh and it's so beautiful as well, I mean it's, even at the port it looks really gorgeous,
so let me just show you this,
there we go.
So peaceful and just with passing tourists, on their scooters.
So there we are, we are on Nusa Penida,
now if you want, at the port you can get a motorbike,
taxi or a car taxi that will take you to your accommodation,
so if you don't know where you're going or it's a bit of a hike or you've got lots of bags,
don't worry just grab a taxi but negotiate the price,
before you get in the taxi.
There's plenty of them, so just negotiate a decent price, if you can ask the resort beforehand roughly
what price it should be, then you've got a guide.
But I'll try and find out some price, rough prices, if I can, I'll put them in the comments below for you, but as it is,
oh look,
that's nice, I can see a sign, for my accommodation and it says only fifty metres, that's got to be good,
so.
Well the sign said only fifty metres and it was only 50 meters
but I managed to get lost, so about two hundred and fifty meters later,
I found my accommodation and it's lovely, come and have a look inside the room,
it's quite simple, but it's spotlessly clean
I've got everything I need, power points, comfy beds,
an air fan and air con.
You'll see the mantas on the pictures in the wall because this area is famous for the mantas that I hope to see,
let's go and have a peek inside the bathroom,
pretty much only cold water here, but it's so warm you don't really need much else, but nice basin,
bathroom,
shower, again just cold water in the shower but it's not cold, cold, it's just like not hot.
Here we go, look background, as you can see,
yep soap and toilet paper also provided,
this will do me for a few nights, while I explore,
Nusa Penida and all the beauty,
what I need, oh I need two things now, of course I need something to eat
but also I need to go and see, some of the beautiful parts of Nusa Penida,
so I think I'm gonna have to go and rent a motorbike.