The Road Trip 12 hours of adventures

When I woke up this morning there was no sound, then I heard a cecak (gecko), I stuck out my arm and felt the thin fabric of the mosquito net, not mesh but a thin cotton. I placed my feet gingerly on the cold tiles and padded to where I approximated the light switch was. The amber light lit up my ricestalk-clad ceiling. It was so serene that I felt guilty disturbing the peace when I put on the big to boil my bottled water for my cup of tea. I looked out at the rice paddy and saw the luminescent flecks of the fireflies. 

The sound of silence was abruptly ended by the sound of my phone, I was happy to hear the voice of my husband who was missing me very much. I consoled him that I would be back in 5 days. Deep down I felt dismayed that my holiday in this idyllic place would be over so soon. But I  knew that in true Irna style I would be cramming three days into each 12 hours of wakefulness. 

I was still organising my thoughts when I heard Keiko calling me, Putra our guide was here already.

 We sped up to the waiting vehicle I was still barefoot with two pairs of shoes in my bag. I’d left my key on top of the fridge to have my little villa cleaned. The girls had both gotten up early as well and were invigorated and ready for our road trip. We buckled up, as Putra raced along the narrow windy roads, even at this time of the morning the little village was bustling .

We made two stops along the way at two different beaches with black sand and  large pebbles . Putra kindly photographed us numerous times on all of our cameras. 

After that we decided just to use one as we can share them. We stopped to photograph Agung  with a foreground of agricultural land with its different coloured patches. Best of all were the peaceful plump cows. I jave have never seen such healthy specimens of bovines and was thrilled to see them in the middle of nowhere. Keiko had never been up close to a cow and was  squealing with happiness! 

Putra continued with the tour. He told us that he would  take us to two very special beaches, the first one had black sand and the next one which is called Virgin beach which had, you guessed it, white  sand. At this point we were so hungry and desperate to use a facility. We looked at the Warung at the beach access. Keiko was shocked by all the flies. I didn’t see any fly eggs so I thought “ I’m going for it!” I ordered ikan pepes- fish grilled in Banana leaf, sayur, rempeyek and nasi campur (with Tempe, sambals and peanuts) wrapped in brown paper in a triangular based pyramid. I had gastro stop with me so quickly popped a tablet down the hatch ( better safe than sorry). 

Vicki and I walked towards the Blue Lagoon where we could see children in the middle of joyous water play, their laughter was infectious! A woman beckoned us towards her Warung,  it was called Sunrise. We each ordered a fresh mango juice  which was incredibly vivid in colour. Vicki was in heaven, she is a true devotee of mangoes! The toilet was clean so I jogged back to get Keiko, who kept waving in a friendly way,  finally noticing that I was beckoning for her to come. In places like this there are often no toilets. 

Following this interlude we drove up towards another mountain range this was opposite Mount Agung which was surrounded by mist at it’s summit. We grabbed a ticket and paid for the use of a sarong and made a temple donation. Number 194, hmmm pretty daunting. However it was absolutely fine, we went to a Warung for half an hour where I had two cups of ginger tea, Keiko had sticky rice and Vicki had a milkshake. We also took some photos from their viewing platform. The climb up to the temple was strenuous, since not attending the gym each day I’ve welcomed the chance to do these incidental forms of physical activity.  Number 151 was called out so we had some time to go, we sat in the shade and watched other groups pose. It wasn’t that long before our number was a called out. We performed our group poses, then I totally stuffed up my individuals as I thought he said next person rather than next pose. Vicki being taller and much slimmer looked very elegant and Keiko being a yogi looked fabulous too. 

After this we stopped at Tirta Gangga, which I soon realized was really just a place to get fun photos, Vicki and I had fun but Keiko didn’t enjoy it at all, as she dislikes being in the sun and was in a track suit. We didn’t stay there long and although Vicki messaged him he didn’t respond for quite a while, we had just ordered food from a Warung when he arrived ready for action. I felt guilty towards the girl in the Warung so gave her 10k which is one Aussie dollar, sounds scabby but the average wage fir a shop assistant is $25 per week so a dollar is greatly appreciated.  

During the trip to the waterfall We had been hoping to eat babi guling however as it was just after one this proved to be impossible. We finally found a place which sold bakso ayam ( chicken minceball soup with a pangsit on top). It was so weird the lady serving looked so similar to me, she seemed confused as to why I couldn’t speak with her. However duo  lingo has served me well and I have been able to use a super convincing accent  resulting in locals thinking I’m Vicki and Keiko’s guide. We hugged it out and clambered back into the vehicle where Putra had been sleeping, he seemed a bit grouchy. 

His grouchiness increased tenfold when Keiko thought the ATM had swallowed her letters, it turned out that in her tired state she’d slipped it back into her pocket! After 20 mins there and half an hour in a traffic jam on a single lane road on a mountain slope we finally arrived at a pretty run down coffee place. It was obvious that they were not really producing coffee there. The girls hadn’t tried kopiluwak before and I urged them to do so as both times that I’d had this catpoo coffee I’d found it caramelly in flavour. The waitress had brought us the 12 free samples, a lot of them were delicious. Alas their coffee tasted like it had a dirt sludge down the bottom,  we almost cried with laughter, it was horrendous. 

After Vicki had bought her take home coffees we drove  for what seemed like an eternity to the waterfall. Now this waterfall looks spectacular in the photos but believe you me, the track down to it was so hard and unpleasant in some spots that I felt like giving up. When we finally saw the waterfall we were basically in a bottleneck of people in an underground cave I stood gingerly on the sharp rocks which were cutting into my feet. I didn’t enjoy this experience except for the coconut we drank at a Warung under the shade of a durian tree. My favourite part however was when I saw the girls back at the top holding onto the welcome sign. Vicki said that eating bakmie goreng hadn’t been the best idea she’d had, our yogi took everything in her stride in a Zen state.

The journey home took an unfathomable time, Putra admitted to taking a wrong turn. He was exhausted it had been a 12 hour day. We were so happy that we’d rung ahead and ordered dinner which Vicki and I ate at around 8pm at the pool in which we’d had an invigorating dip. Vicki and Keiko went to bed and I talked a while longer to the owners of the homestay about their plans in ecotourism.

After a five second hot shower and a long cold shower and hanging up my hand washed clothes I was ready to relax my tired body. I was disappointed that the Wi-Fi hadn’t worked for a few hours and had missed out on talking to Eric but vowed I’d call him before he left for work.