Bali- A Paradise Lost

Right now I am sitting in a villa in the Gilli Islands off the coast of Lombok- truly paradise (if you like that sort of thing). Now that I have left Bali, I will try to be as unbiased as possible, many people still love parts of it and flock to Ubud like it's this serene oasis where they can get their yogi on...I have to say, I just don't get it...I thought from Ubud right down to Uluwatu, Bali was as uninspiring as  a garbage dump. The traffic is horrendous, scooters and cars everywhere! There are very beautiful places for sure, but for every beautiful place, if you look a little closer, the trash is unreal and just so sad. I will say that the people are incredible, so genuine, always with big smiles on their faces, (and unlike Central America we never once felt like we were getting scammed). The food is amazing- seriously just about everything I ate was delicious (I am going to come home needing the gym very badly), and so cheap! Definitely worthy of  budget travelers . We splurged a bit and had a two bedroom, private villa north of Seminyak, $100/night was very pricey for Bali (we could easily have found something for $40) but this place was incredible, our nicest accommodations so far. 

I am going to use a post I wrote on Facebook as it is so fitting and written with how I was feeling at the time.... 

As you know we have been to so many beautiful places, it was hard to decide where we would go when planning. We always knew we would come back to Bali, a place we fell in love with 16 years ago. I am so sad to say that so far, this once beautiful island has been a huge let down. The food is incredible, people are so nice, our accommodations spectacular... but this island is so crowded and dirty! It saddens my heart to see every where we look there is so much garbage. The beach in Kuta/ Legion, once beautiful was the most disgusting beach I have ever seen. Hoping on other parts of the island we will see the beauty that once was. 

All those spots you see are all garbage- there was no end to it

We hired a driver for the day hoping to see some of the beauty Bali is know for- went to the Holy Spring Water Temple, through Ubud, the Monkey forest, Tegenungan Waterfall and the Tegalalang Rice Terrace

The monkey forest was awesome, beautiful statues, structures and small buildings throughout the immense property. Most importantly, their were monkeys EVERYWHERE- kids were in heaven.

The Holy Spring water temple was quite lovely, everyone had to wear a sarong to cover your legs

such detail in the wood

The Holy Spring water temple

The Holy Springs Water Temple, was very pretty, the architecture in Bali is incredible, on every structure such intricate detail, you cant help but be impressed even if it's "not your thing" (according to Livy)

what you cant see is all the garbage everywhere

Tegenungan Waterfall was very pretty, huge set of steps to walk down with two separate waterfalls. What the pictures do not show is all the garbage everywhere-there was so much, that no one wanted to go swimming, it was so bad....ruined the experience for us, we all love waterfalls, especially ones we can jump into....

The Tegalalang Rice Terrace was awesome, so detailed and such work involved. My knee prevented me from hiking down, but Anneka and Johnny did and said it was awesome.

The next day it was pouring rain (we were here in the rainy season after all- so off to the 3-D art museum. The kids had a ball, it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

On our last day we decided to take a taxi (uber is super cheap here) and go see one of the amazing temples that are along the coast either Tanah Lot or Uluwatu. We thought we would be able to easily see both, but the traffic is so bad in south Bali it literally take over an hour to pretty much drive anywhere (picture the DVP at rush hour. We decided on Uluwatu as they have a fire show at sunset, and it was close to a place we heard was lovely called Bingin beach (secret beach). 

After a swim

there was hardly anyone around, we had one part of the beach almost to ourselves 

This beach was literally in the middle of nowhere we had to walk quite a ways to reach it, when we got here we thought it was quite pretty, not the beautiful sand beaches we are used to, but the rock outcropping were beautiful and the beach in this section was practically deserted. We wanted to make our way to Uluwatu, so we were trying to find a cab and had to walk to the busier section of the beach, this was when we were hit by piles and piles of garbage...we thought we had escaped it leaving Kuta....we were wrong. By the time we got in the cab, sunset was almost over, defeated we went home (25 km took over an hour and half)

The garbage here was so disgusting, this stretched for miles along the beach

At this point, we were all sadly done with Bali, in defense to this once beautiful island, I am sure there are plenty of parts that we did not see that still have retained its wonderful charm of 16 years ago. I bet plenty of people reading this post will have their own version of what Bali is to them and it could be drastically different then what my opinion is. For now the Lambers' are done with this place and happy to move on....guess they can't all be perfect....

Sydney to Brisbane and Places In- Between

We picked up our teeny little Hippie caravan, (this would be our home for the next 6 days) and off we went.

yes that is a kangaroo in the picture...more about that later

As our amazing luck would have it, we had several friends we were going to try and meet along the way.. Our good friends we met in Puerto Viejo the De Leeuws were also in Australia. They had no set plans so they decided to join us on most of the journey. Johnny's great friend from high school Terry and his wife Caroline were doing a teacher exchange in Port Maquarie, and even though they literally just arrived and had to work in a few days, they opened up their home to us for a night where we had an awesome visit. Our new friends Don and Sil were also camping up the coast so we would connect with them as well. So exciting to not only see the beautiful area but to visit with friends along the way.

Our first stop was to meet the De Leeuws at Mannering Park on Lake Maquarie. There was nothing to special about the park, but it was so great to see our friends.

Mannering Park

One thing we noticed while driving the coast that was a little disappointing is that the road is not actually running along the coast, in fact, it is just a big major highway and in order to see all of the beautiful inlets and towns you have to sometimes drive an hour out of your way. This made our measly 6 days wayyyy to short, you can easily spend a few weeks doing the same trip but you will be able to hit all the amazing ports and beaches along the way. The campgrounds are also quite expensive. Our little hippie ride (one of the cheapest models) was $140/day and the camp fees were about $70-$100/day...makes for pretty expensive accommodations. Australia pretty much blew our daily budget, BUT it was so worth it and we knew we would make up for it in Asia.  We left Lake Maquarie and were heading to Nelson Bay in Port Stephens. To break up the drive An suggested we stop at Morrisett Park where she read there were very tame wild kangaroos. The place was incredible, tons and tons of Roos, with lots of little babies just waiting to be pet...it was pretty special.

We then stopped at Merewether beach in Newcastle for a quick swim and a bite to eat...the beach here was awesome.

Merewether beach in Newcastle, we stopped to have a swim and a bite

Merewether Beach 

We finally arrived at Nelson Bay, amazing spot with lots a restaurants and bars. The campsite was right on a pretty beach just up the road from Port Stephens

                           

The next day we did a dolphin boat tour within the marine park, we did see dolphins, nothing too impressive but it was a nice way to see the area of Port Stephens

Anneka Steering the ship

After the boat cruise, all the kids begged to go into the this floating water park, looked totally awesome, so like an idiot, I decided to go as well....not a good idea, during the last five minutes I wiped out and sprained my MCL (again!) I was in so much pain, I could barely walk , sadly it wasn't even a cool injury...

Port Stephen is really quite lovely, again felt a little rushed, I am sure there was a ton we missed around the area....

Some beautiul rainbow roundtrees

We packed up the caravan said goodbye to the Deleeuw's (we would see them again in Byron Bay) and headed to visit Terry and Caroline in Port Maquarie. We had a great day catching up  and seeing their new local beach...

this is the beach a few minutes away from their new home...lucky buggers

Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we knew they had a ton to do getting their life organized, the next morning we said good by to the Cox's  and were on our way to Byron Bay. As luck would have it, we were able to meet Don, Sil and family at Coffs Harbour...great to connect again and after a quick bite to eat we were off again....

Max, Carla and Juliette

This time stopping in Yamba...wow- so sad we couldn't stay here for longer.. this place was unreal...

We finally arrived in Byron Bay, I was probably most excited about Byron as I heard its awesome and great beginner surfing, as luck would have it, my knee kept me from surfing again at the most perfect beach ever. We met up with the Deleeuw's and had a great time. The campground was right on the beach in the centre of the hustle, a little pricey, but totally worth it, the perfect location.

some kookaburras joining An and Steven for breakfast

Both families went on a great hike up to the lighthouse, sadly I did not go as my knee wouldn't allow it, apparently the hike was beautiful and worth the climb to the top.

the most easterly point in Austrailia

It was time for us to bid our great friends farewell...hopefully we will connect again somewhere else along the way....

The De Leeuws and the Lambers

We said good bye to Austrailia- an amazing place that deserves so much more of our time...we hope to come back to visit one day.

A quick shout out to Nick and Annabel. They were on their honeymoon and travelling for 6 months, we first met them in Nicaragua then again in 2 different countries (Guatemala and Mexico) ...they arrived back home in Brisbane and we were so hoping to connect with them, but timing just was not on our side, maybe next time.