Australia

Ten days was hardly enough time to devote to a country as vast as Australia, but that was the task we had set ourselves. Before we started this journey we both felt that we didn’t want to do the backpacker east coast thing, and that our time in Australia would be spent visiting friends. So with little time and many friends to fit in we flew to Perth in the early hours of a Friday morning. The first thing that struck me was how cold it was! We had been used to near 30 degree heat for months now and the sudden shock upon exiting the plane was strange. Surely Australia is supposed to be hot lads - no?

After successfully passing though immigration and border patrol (unfortunately we will not be appearing on the cool TV show) we made our way to arrivals. Imagine our surprise when Tim, Trent and Wol, 3 guys we had done our Inca trail with the previous year, were there ready to greet us, complete with their red Llama path Inca trail T-shirts on! What a brilliant surprise.

L-R: Tim, Myself, Cora, Jonathon, Becki, Marie, Trent, Bridget, Wol

It was 4am so whatever pleasantries we could all muster were exchanged and we made for the car. Tim kindly offered to put us up for a few days and what a host he was! I know it may be a stereotype, but imagine my delight when Tim powered up the BBQ at 10am that morning to fry up some bacon! Any excuse for a barbie!

When we had all woken up, we made for the city centre for a wander. I needed to buy a hoodie, as I didn’t want to be out and about in civilisation with the same fleece I’d been wearing for a year, and you’ve probably seen me in a million times at this stage! It was hard to find one, well at least one that didn’t have a load of skulls on the back and was in my price range, which was “as cheap as possible”. I finally found a hoodie in a shop called JayJays which Tim later told me was where all the teenagers shop, nice! This coupled with the fact that my new hoodie was an XS size in Australia did nothing for my confidence. Eager to finish shopping asap I bought my customary magnet and postcard along with a boomerang (when in Oz) and we hit the pub!

It was great catching up with the gang and it was hard to believe we had been travelling nearly a year since we saw them last in Peru!

2012 Peru

2013 Australia

Perth is a lovely city, very clean and polished. I got to try my hand at Aussie rules football, and sure I was a natural! Unfortunately there were no scouts around in the park to see..

Sign em up!

After a brilliant weekend in Perth, it was time to get back to the airport. Hankies at the ready we said our goodbyes and boarded our flight to Sydney. We couldn’t come to Australia without seeing the Opera house and the harbour bridge!

We were met at the airport by Steo, a friend from home who dropped us out to Bondi beach where we were kindly being put up by my other friend Locky (another Steo). Unfortunately he worked nights and was in work at the time, but we dropped off our things and went straight out with Steo mac to sample the local bars… Locky arrived back later on that night and we chewed the ears off each other for a couple of hours before we both hit the hay!

The next morning Locky cooked up a storm in the kitchen for breakfast! (Good man Steo). I’m sure he didn’t want us heading off sightseeing on an empty stomach. We caught a bus down to the central business district and caught our first glimpse of the stunning opera house. It definitely looks better from a distance, up close it looks a bit dated, but no less impressive! We spent the day walking around the city centre, the parks and old historic quarter.

That evening we got back to Bondi and met up with a few more old faces from home and some new ones. It was a pretty late night and more altercation with lovely (un)friendly Aussie bouncers ensued! The following day we went for a walk around Bondi beach and the nearby bays. It was a nice walk taking us over the many headlands and down into quiet little sandy beaches. As it was winter the waters were for the most part empty, but there were a few brave souls making the plunge!

Sydney was a nice city, but the downtown area didn't really appeal to me, it seemed a bit dead! I know it was winter but I thought there’d be at least a good few cafes with a bit of a buzz around them. We didn’t have that long there unfortunately and on Thursday afternoon Steo dropped us out the airport to catch our flight to Melbourne. It was great to see the lads and see how they are getting on in Oz. Might see ye at Christmas again, ha?

The flight to Melbourne was quick and after catching the bus into town we met Louise in the bus station. HEY LOU! It was a quick train ride out to Louise and Tim’s new apartment in the lovely Hawthorn area of Melbourne. Living out of a bag for a year can give you a severe case of apartment envy, the place is fab! We got some takeaway and a few beers and had a great catch up with the guys.

The girls get lucky

The following morning Cora and I were slow to move and decided to chill for awhile. I decided (being the good houseguest that I am) to assemble the IKEA desk that Tim had so conveniently left in the room we were staying in. He must have known about my impulsive need to build flatpack furniture! Desk assembled we headed into town and caught a movie costumes exhibit in Federation square, which was pretty cool.

Melbourne is a great city, lots of trendy cafes and bars and more eclectic than the other cities we'd seen. In one area there were loads of narrow alleyways with pretty cool looking graffiti. I think it was my favourite city we visited in Australia. Tim kindly introduced us to the craft beer scene in Melbourne by way of visiting an off-license where you just sit in and grab beers off the wall to try. It was great fun!

We spent the Saturday with Tim and Louise as they showed us around, hitting up a craft market and having some lovely vegetarian food. After meeting some of Louise and Tim's very friendly fellow melbourners, we made it to a really cool bar which had some great beers, a log fire and some interesting graffiti in the toilet (Tim had some explaining to do.. that's all I'll say!). Sore heads the next morning!

That night we waved goodbye to Louise and Tim and set off for the airport again! This time we were leaving Australia and jetting off to Christchurch in New Zealand. Our time in Australia was short, but we caught up with lots of old friends and it was great to see them all. Thanks to everyone who put us up and showed us around, it was much appreciated!

To finish, in light of Cora’s recent observations on China, here are my short cultural observations Australia:

• Boomerangs are very hard to throw, well at least very hard to get them to come back to you. And don’t bother throwing the wooden ones they just break!
• Australia is expensive! We’re talking $11 for a pint in Perth.. That’s 8 euro!
• They have drive through off licenses called “bottleos”… What a fantastic idea.

• There are SO many Irish people there, I mean everywhere! But it's a pretty cool country, so I can see why they stay..
• They have lots of nice craft beer, which is a good change from the usual stuff you get at home
• Everything is “Sweet as”
• They don’t watch Home and Away
• Bouncers don’t take any messing they will seriously “F*&k you up in front of all these people” – actual quote heard from bouncer in Perth.

On our way to see the dragons

After the craziness of the first holy communion the night before, it took us awhile to get ready to leave lovely Riung. We packed ourselves back into Dus’s people carrier and started on our way to Bajawa. En route we passed by where the communion was the previous night, the marquee had been dismantled but there were still some committed people keeping the party going. They waved and cheered as we went by!

On the road again

The route we had chosen to take through Flores was not one that Dus did very often, so he asked if he could stop to visit his Aunt. Sure, why not! We pulled up at a ramshackle little building and a gaggle of kids poured out to stare at us. Turns out there were 10 kids living in this tiny smoky little house. Their father tried a few words of English but we reverted to the usual broken conversation:

“Football?”

“Football, yes! Barcelona?” 

“Barcelona, yes!”

And then everyone proceeded to name various players until we ran out of names and then just smiled awkwardly at each other for the rest of the conversation. For some reason everyone in Flores loves Barcelona. And Belgians.

Giving us the finger!

They gave us to some lovely coffee and I couldn’t help but ask them if I could take a family portrait. It was only while I was editing my photos later that I noticed that one of the little guys insisted on flipping the bird in every shot! This wasn’t the first time this happened in Flores, the kids here seem to think they are serious ganstas. It was great to meet Dus’s family and see what life looks like in the hills of Flores.

Back into the car, and with Enrique Iglesias blaring, we drove on. We stopped just outside of Bajawa to visit some hot springs which were actually pretty good even if the facilities left a lot to be desired. That night we stayed in the “lovely” Korina Hotel. You don’t get a lot of bang for your buck in Indonesia, the room was BASIC, complete with a trough in the bathroom which I can only assume we were supposed to use as shower. It really looked like a cell in a mental asylum. Every time we left our room we had to pass some sort of skinned stuffed animal, how any hotel manager could think it made for nice lobby decoration is beyond me.

Breakfast was wonderful: a prison tray with one hard boiled egg, a slice of warm buttery bread with sugar on it and a cup of very sweet coffee. Three things Cora despises! What made it even worse was hearing that Caoimhe and Laurent had gone down to a fancy hotel and got a slap up breakfast! You have to laugh..

That morning we had a long day of driving ahead as we made our way towards Labuon Bajo, our last stop in Indonesia. Firstly we visited a traditional Flores village, where again we got to meet some of Dus’s family and share a cup of coffee, seriously this guy is related to everyone!

 A few hours later, after mile and mile of twisty Indonesian roads which make it impossible to sleep in a car, we arrived in Labuan Bajo. Then it was time to part ways with our driver Dus. We had covered some serious mileage together!

We had decided to well and truly blow the budget at the end of Caoimhe and Laurent’s trip and spend a few nights in sheer luxury. The Puri Sari hotel was that and more, we spent a couple of days just lounging around the pool having copious amounts of Bintang, taking drunken underwater photos and laughing at Cora’s pathetic attempts at diving!

Labuan Bajo was the most touristy place we’d been on Flores, there were a good few nice restaurants and bars and lots of tour operators. After a day or so of relaxing we booked a boat trip to take us to see the famous Komodo dragons and do some snorkelling. We were all really excited about seeing the dragons and arriving at the small island of Rinca in the Komodo national park we were all ready keeping our eyes peeled.

We were met by a guide who would walk us around the park and hopefully spot some dragons in the wild. I got really disappointed when the guide told us that there was a chance that we wouldn’t see one in the wild as it was very hot. Imagine my surprise as immediately we started the walk we were met by 4 massive Komodo dragons who had made their home right in the guide’s village.

The things were huge! The only thing protecting us from them was the rather large stick that our guide had in his hand. After taking a tonne of photos we set off for a walk around the island, it was a nice stroll and we saw a few deer and buffalo which are actually food for the dragons but unfortunately no more dragons.

Back onboard our little boat we went for some snorkelling at another nearby island. The visibility was just amazing, all the colours of the coral and the fish kept us entertained for ages. Suddenly there was a bit of commotion when Laurent exclaimed calmly “I just saw a shark”. Cora and I didn’t know if he was joking or not, in fact Cora asked him no less than 50 times “You’re joking right?”. When Laurent said he was serious, and that the shark was nearly 2 metres long, we all decided that we had had enough of snorkelling and made for the boat. Even though we knew it was probably a harmless reef shark, we didn’t want to stay around to find out.

For our last night in Labuan Bajo we all went out for dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. LB was a great place to finish our trip around Flores, we had a few days to relax after all the driving it had taken to get there. The next morning we said goodbye to Laurent and Caoimhe and left for the tiny airport and our final flight on a dodgy Indonesian airline. We had a great time travelling with the guys, and it was really nice to experience such a diverse country as Indonesia together. Three weeks wasn’t a lot of time for such a huge place, but we picked our islands carefully and were happy we did.

So it was back to just the two of us again, and we had a long trip ahead to Perth via Bali for a few hours to catch up with some old friends…

The First Holy Communion (by Laurent)

Before leaving to Indonesia we decided that I would write something on Cora and Damien blog yet it wasn´t clear what. During our time in Indonesia, we discussed several possible subjects. I thought about doing a gastronomy column, but it turns out that our first week of food in Indonesia was the dark spot in my gastronomic year. The only high point was the chilly sauce which could transform a not good dish (e.g.: lukewarm fishballs) into something edible (e.g.: lukewarm fishballs with chilly sauce). I then thought about writing a column about why Indonesians are the only people to think that Belgians are cooler than Irish people. I was already very surprised that people knew about Belgians, but that people were then rating us cooler as the Irish…wow. I think it has something to do with a nun called “mama belgi”… She was a nun called Marie-Jeanne Colson, who worked with children on the Island of Flores, and was very popular. Nuns are probably Belgium`s finest export (not fries, not beers): did you know that the only Belgian artist to ever top the US billboard is the “Singing Nun”?

Anyway, I could not really write a column about nuns, or Belgians, or bad food. Who would read about that? Instead I decided to write about one of the best and most interesting experiences we had during our holidays in Indonesia: a Holy Communion.

After a very long car trip from Moni we arrived in Riung (on the north coast of Flores). We were all tired from the trip (not only because of the very winding roads, but also because we had to listen about 50 times to the favourite song of our guide “How to love a woman” (by Lionel Richie and Enrique Iglesias). The town seemed quite small and quiet, until we heard really loud boom boom music and thought that a beach party was taking place. We asked around, and it turned out that it was only some families testing their soundsystems ahead of the holy communion´s parties due to take place the day after. The testing lasted most of the night.

Lovely Riung

Our guide told us that he knew a family (he seemed to know the whole island) and that we could go to their house in the evening for the party. We were a bit reluctant at first, but after having taken part to a funeral and some pigs´ killings a week before, a holy communion seemed like a nice, fun and overall very lovely affair.

It was all of that and much more! You could think that a Catholic Holy Communion would be fairly similar around the world. Well it is not. It took place in a big tent with a big stage at the end. On the stage was a throne, on the throne was the kid dressed up in some sort of suit (much more stylish than the white robe I had to wear during my own holy communion). The kid sits on the throne all evening, and the guests queue up in front of him to congratulate him and give him presents. The presents were not a bike, a PS3 or an MP3 player, but pigs, chicken etc. We gave a bit of money (because we had no pigs to give, and also we were told that it was fine like this). I think the kid was a bit bored… it is nice and all to sit on a throne for a while, but after a few hours it can get boring, especially because his friends seemed to have a fun time laughing at us.

The kid with a cool outfit (but a bit bored) on his throne.

The family was very welcoming, and we were offered drinks and food. We already had eaten before going but we could not refuse the offer, so we went for a second serving of food. This was not an issue, it was good, and no chilli sauce was needed. We ate looking at the kid on his throne.

The crowd was rather quiet, sitting facing the kid. It was not like in Belgium where family sits around a table eating and talking for hours. Here all the chairs were put in line facing the kid, and people were chatting and smoking facing the kid, and occasionally hitting the buffet. Food was definitely not the central part of the party, the kid was. There were Catholics and Muslims in the crowd (neighbours and friends invited by the family). This was great to see this happening.

At some point people started to dance, and we were invited to join them. We were all a bit shy and politely refused. But they got more insistent so we went (they also offered us some arak, this might have helped).

The arak that might have helped

After a bit of arak, we decided to go do some traditional dancing. The moves were not too complex but it still took us quite a bit of time and effort to get it somehow right. After a dance or two, we got more in the vibe. We took part to the “bird dance”: people dance in circle and one person in the middle does the bird for a bit and then pick another person to do the bird and so on. Damien was particularly good at this, using a piece of fabric to imitate the wings was ingenious indeed, and the guests liked it very much.

Damien doing the bird (note the nice work with the fingers)

We also met one of the uncles of the kid, who was particularly happy to dance with us. While most of the dancers were quite restrained in their dancing, he was on fire and was very happy to show us his moves. With his open shirt and his moustache, he looked like some sort of Indonesian Ricky Martin. I decided to battle with him and did most of the moves I know (about 5 or 6). For a short moment I was the Belgian Usher. People liked it including Caoimhe. But then I got too warm and had to sit down… it didn´t last very long and we had to go back to the dance floor for some further dancing. Eventually we went back home driving through the village and looking at all the other communion parties, the whole village was celebrating. When we woke up in the morning to drive further to Bajawa, the music was still playing in some places…

It was great to experience something familiar (a kid´s communion), which is at the same time so different. We felt really welcomed by the whole family and the whole village. Riung is a must go in Flores: beautiful landscapes, uber friendly and relaxed locals and the best grilled fish of the holiday.

Makassar and the volcanic lakes of Moni (or not!)

Makassar is the largest city in Sulawesi, with over a million inhabitants. I never really grasped the sheer size of Indonesia before visiting so here's some interesting facts - there are about 17,000 islands in the archipelago, with nearly 240m people living on them! That makes it the fourth most populous country in the world. It totally looks mental on a map too, particularly Sulawesi which we travelled the length of.

As we made towards the aforementioned Makassar on the overnight bus, Damien had a prolonged disagreement with a young Indonesian girl about the music she was playing loudly on her phone (all night). Calling it music is doing her a kindness - it was more like the high pitched keening of a tellytubby sucking helium, but whatever. She sat in front of us and despite repeated requests, hand gestures and in the end kicking of her seat, she would neither quell the volume nor even pretend to understand what we meant. This went on all night, with her parents turning the racket off when she went to sleep and her turning it back on when she woke up. There was steam coming out of Damien’s ears at this stage (about 4am) then it all began to make a bit more sense when she started laughing hysterically at us and stroking Laurent’s face as he slept..

Bob the builder blankies

Everyone was totally exhausted arriving in the town and relented when a taxi driver physically pulled our bags out of our hands and pushed us into his cab. He got us to a hotel where we all tried our damnedest to push that damn phone song out of our heads and get some sleep.

This was to be our only time in a large Indonesian city and what better time to party it up than the first day of Ramadan!! Jaysus. The McDonalds in the mall seemed pretty busy though so maybe it’s not observed that widely I thought. Who knows, but it was certainly being observed when we didn’t get served a beer anywhere that night. What - no Bintang?!! Thankfully we were off to the mainly Christian island of Flores the next day so the panic died quickly enough.

We have no photos of Makassar, because basically it’s a bit of a shithole and I wouldn’t recommend staying there unless you had a flight to catch. We didn’t even get to visit Vagina Street (the affectionately named bar/karaoke/port/brothel area), assuming it would be a bit subdued this time of year.

The next day we boarded on another plane on another airline banned in the EU (living life on the edge) to be propelled over to Flores, a thin volcanic island an hour or so south of Sulawesi. The plane careered on to the runway with alarming speed, but the views while we swooped in were spectacular, the mountainous lush spine of Flores falling into a turquoise sea.

Gado Gado - a yummy veg and satay Indonesian dish

Our first stop was Moni, a small town in the shadow of a giant volcano called Kelimutu, which recently has started acting up and is officially closed. Not to worry though, this is Indonesia and laws are flexible! When we arrived we were told we could go up for sunrise (allegedly the best time to see the beautiful coloured lakes in the crater) with a “guide”. This was just a thinly veiled attempt to wrangle some more rupiah out of us, but left without another option we agreed.

This volcano is CLOSED (officially)

The next morning at 4am (Caoimhe and Laurent? Holiday? They love this crap!) we got up and walked for about hour up to the volcano. The guide did nothing except pant along beside us. Once at the top we began to question the sunrise option, it was very cloudy and very cold and there was no sign of any coloured lakes. Groups of other tourists huddled around also realising that they had been duped. After two hours there was a little break and we got a brief glimpse of a blue-green lake. Damien couldn’t really see anything which beggared the question as to why a colour-blind person would get up at 4am to see some coloured lakes?!

Nope, can't see a bloody thing

Disappointed we trudged back down, at the last second deciding to go to another viewpoint. Result!! We were rewarded with a few minutes view of the deep and vivid turquoise lake. It was lovely, but perhaps not worth the 4am start.

Having found ourselves a driver already it was now time to decide on some logistics, what we were going to do in Flores, where we would go and how we get there. After Caoimhe and Damien played good cop/bad cop (can you guess who was who?) in the price negotiations, we ended up with an almost week long itinerary with our driver Dus. (Now before you think, look at those flash gits living it up in Indonesia, surely they’ve ran out of money by now?! It only cost us $350 between four people for a six day drive, all petrol included, which really aint bad.) Given that Flores is a nightmare to get round and we weren’t flush on time, it really was the best option to get the most out of it. We hadn’t quite got the measure of Dus yet, he seemed to be pretty sound, telling us all about how many cows a husband had to give to the family of his new wife and other such interesting local info.

Finally getting the Bintangs in

So with everything done and dusted we set out on the first leg, to a beach resort with some glorious islands and great snorkelling. 

Our first day of driving began well when we were stuck on the side of the road for over an hour to wait for a police blockade to clear. Dus hadn’t paid his motor tax, but then again neither had anyone, so a clump of vehicles laid waiting just before and practically in sight of the police cars. I don’t think this strategy would work at home!

Car friends!

Finally we got going, stopping first at an incredible deserted beach with silvery grey volcanic sand and piles of aquamarine coloured stones. The drive took us along the meandering coast and over the hump of the island to the other side and in the bright sunshine the beauty of Flores really began to hit home.

Dus and the boys

We arrived in Riung in the late evening and checked into groovy little huts which had al fresco loos, honestly better than they sound! The day it was time for a boat trip out into the 17 islands marine park. 

Outside shower

Also on board were a lovely Kiwi couple and our first stop was an island with trees teeming full of giant bats. They’re nicknamed flying foxes because of their size. We pulled up beside and watched the creepy looking things flap around. Next of all there was some snorkelling which wasn’t all that bad (but no Sulawesi!) and freshly grilled fish on the beach.

After some more snorkelling we made back to land and another fish dinner. Finally the food was really picking up in Indonesia! That evening Dus took us to a First Communion (honest!) of a local kid which was totally hilarious. But I’ll leave it for the next blog to tell that story...