Today, we flew to Wakatobi resort for 10 days of diving. It is located on Onemoba’a island, which stands for long white beach and sits in the Banda Sea. This is probably one of the prettiest islands with palm trees everywhere, wood bungalows with palapa roofs, an open air dining area and a jetty facing the sunset every night. The name Wakatobi is an acronym of the first two letters of the 4 nearby larger islands of the group (Wangi Wangi, Kaledopa, Tomia, and Binongko). While 16,000 people live on Tomia where our plane landed, the village on our island has a population of 700.

Our diving here has been incredible. We have seen Cuttle Fish, Nudibranchs, clown Fish, Octopus, Coral Clams, moray eels, blue starfish, a school of 23 Puffer fish and an Orangutan Crab. We even saw single celled algae called sailors eyeballs. This place is quite an array of reefs, walls, ridges, and sandy bays with extensive reef life. There is one plane in and one plane out per week from the island of Tomia. We arrived here by boat.

What a diverse selection of undersea life. Norm even found a new variety of Sea Horse.

We once again saw incredible sunsets every day.

We are quite the fashionable people in our dive suits.

This has been just great. It has been almost a week since we wore shoes. The only time we wear them is maybe for 5 minutes per day to cross the hot sand and then take them off. We are so remote, the telephone and internet are satellite driven. It only works when it feels like it or when the satellite is within range. I don’t think we have been this isolated for this long before. It is going to be hard to leave here. There is nothing to do except eat, dive and sleep. Incredible! We do have a neighborhood critter living with us. We understand it is good luck to have a takay in your home. We have not seen it all week, but it can be noisy and it leaves its remains for us hopefully only to pick up and not to step on, OOOO! We have met wonderful people again from all over. There is a group from New Jersey, another from Denver, couples from Austria, England, South Africa, and South Dakota.

Off to Mengwi to walk around the Taman Ayun Royal Temple built in 1634 and renovated in 1920. There is a wooden bell tower and beautiful garden. It is surrounded by water as the nearby river was redirected to create a moat. The women were making Balinese cakes as offerings for the festival.

Then we went to the holy monkey forest to see the over 800 makokairis monkeys which are gray with long tails. We had a tour with a local guide. There are 202 small shops of which only a quarter were open due to the decreased tourism since the bombings. Typically a local guide from each shop has 3-4 tours a day, yet now it is once every 3-4 days. We were informed that the Monkey Temple is actually for the people and not the monkeys, but plenty of them seemed to be praying there today.

On the road again to Tanah Lot temple built on a barren rock island on the seashore. Today was Buda Cemeng Langkir, so festival activities were abundant. There were other village and family temples along the water. The processions of Hindus in their colorful outfits and offerings were a special sight.

The Batu Bolang temple at Tanah Lot was also a beautiful site above the rocks with water flowing through the opening in the rockface.

We decided to take a day off and rest on the beach. Another beautiful day.

Today we visited the mother temple of Bali. It was a bit gloomy so we were unable to see the spectacular Mt. Agaung. The temple complex of 27 smaller temples within is built into the slope of the volcano. A festival was taking place and only those who are praying are allowed into the temples, but we were free to walk around all of them, and of course, more stairs.

It is Sunday and we were picked up for a two hour white water rafting trip covering 9 kilometers on the Ayung River near Ubud. When we reached Kedewatan village we had lunch at a river side restaurant as we were extremely hungry from our adventure, which began with climbing down 400 steps along the riverside. The scenery along the river was beautiful, lush and green with many waterfalls. The rapids were rated 2 and 3 as the dry season just ended, but they were thrilling enough for us. There were many rafts on the river and many water fights with splashing from the paddles. We then had to climb about 200 stairs to arrive at the restaurant where we were able to shower and change. Our guide, Ketut met us after lunch and took us for a tour of the Taman Burung Bali Bird Park. We walked through tropical gardens filled with over 1000 birds, 250 being exotic species, including South American Macaws, Australian Cockatoos, African Crowned Cranes, Indonesian Parrots, Cassowaries, Hornbills and a variety of Birds of Paradise. And no, the Bird of Paradise did not fly up Norm’s nose. Unfortunately we did not have the camera as did not take in the morning on the rafting trip. There were countless species which we had never seen before. The Australian Pelican feeding was most enlightening indicating survival of the fittest. We did wash our hands after tossing the fish. Earlier Cindy threw a cricket in the air for a bird’s lunch. There were 2 week old baby Macaws which looked like they had just come out of the chicken plucker, as not a feather yet. A late afternoon walk along the beach took us to a beach bar and then to a restaurant on the beach for an Italian meal.

Day 7 of our sailing adventure has us at a small island off of South Lombok. At noon we were off sailing back to Bali for our 5pm disembarkation. We went to Perjor restaurant for an Indonesian dinner.

We are now in Masbagik, East Lombok with a visit to a traditional pottery village. We watched the pottery being made on hand and foot wheels, cleaned up and baked in an open fire for 40-50 minutes. The children and adults were allowed to work on the pottery. Cindy chose not to as there were no nudes to sculpt. Iron is used to shine the pottery which is smoothed with a cheese-like cloth. We were informed that a group from New Zealand sent electric pottery wheels to the village, but the women were unable to use the technology and chose to stay with traditional methods. The black pottery occurs when shredded coconut is spread on the baked pottery. The plates are the largest exports. We were told that there are 150 women and 2 men in the village who make the pottery. The other men collect the money upon the sales.

This area is also a main tobacco producing area. There are many drying barns. It is shipped to Java to be hand rolled into cigarettes. Lunch was a traditional Sasak meal in Pringgasela. Prior to lunch, we walked through the village to observe the Songket weaving process where bamboo sticks are used and the threads woven on top of the fabric. We ate in the open outside of the weaving showroom.

Then a trip to Lenek to see the traditional dances of Sanggaar “Bao Daya”. Upon arrival we were greeted by the band and escorted down the street to the performance area. Five dances were performed beginning with the welcome dance. Then came the Keeimol which is traditional music with dancers and singing. Then, two young men competed with sticks and shields in the Prisean . Four children delighted us with the Gagak Mandiq dance- crow birds taking a bath. The Gandrung dance is about love and courtship. It is a social dance and the women chose audience members to dance with them.

A 45 minute boat ride to Pidar Island where we anchored to walk around the beach and have a swim, or to lounge on the boat. Hard to believe but already it was our farewell dinner evening. We all ate on deck and presented the crew of 16 members with gifts.

The sunsets on the Ombak Putih were amazing every night. Here is one example of the beauty.

Then we took the bus to the top of the mountain to the small village of Ntori Wawo which we walked through to get to the performance area. There we observed the women doing the ritual dance of rice planting. Then after the rice harvest, the pounding and shucking of the rice. Then men did a sword dance/fight. Then was the stick and dagger fight, and the finale was the head banging demonstration. These rituals by the men are to show strength, courage, and how much pain one can take, total machoism. On the bus ride down the mountain, we stopped to feed the monkeys peanuts.

The highlight of the market was the chicken plucking machines. After the chickens are killed they are dipped in hot water before being placed in the spinning machine with the plastic fingers that pull out the feathers. We did not have chicken for lunch today.

The horse carts here are called “Ben Hur”. The small horses are bred in Sumbawa and Flores. We passed the palace which had been occupied by a sultan, and is now a museum which our guide said is worth a “miss”.

The horse carts here are called “Ben Hur”. The small horses are bred in Sumbawa and Flores. We passed the palace which had been occupied by a sultan, and is now a museum which our guide said is worth a “miss”.

Then we took the bus to the top of the mountain to the small village of Ntori Wawo which we walked through to get to the performance area. There we observed the women doing the ritual dance of rice planting. Then after the rice harvest, the pounding and shucking of the rice. Then men did a sword dance/fight. Then was the stick and dagger fight, and the finale was the head banging demonstration. These rituals by the men are to show strength, courage, and how much pain one can take, total machoism. On the bus ride down the mountain, we stopped to feed the monkeys peanuts.

We are now in Komodo National Park located in the lessor Sunda islands. Early morning venture to see the Komodo dragons. They can be over 300 pounds and be 9 feet long. It looks very deserted with brown landscape and dead cactus. The cactus was attacked by a form of mosquito that drains all of the water in the cactus and kills it. The landscape looks a bit scary. What a good backdrop to view the monster lizards. We were very lucky. We saw 9 dragons today. The kids on the trip claimed 11 but I am going with my unofficial count. We were actually on Rinca Island at Loh Buaya Park because they see dragons more often there. We hiked for about two hours and saw dragon nests, baby dragons and several adult water buffalo which are one of the dragon dining pleasures. The dragon nests are as large as the dragon across and down. The make numerous holes to appear like eggs are everywhere for protection. 15-30 eggs are laid and covered which take 8-9 months to hatch. The new komodos are only 20cm and typically live in the trees for up to the first 2 years of their life. The dragon population has been staying fairly stable and they can live to around 50 years.

We learned that the Komodo Dragons only bite their prey once and then leave it to die. The saliva of the dragon has excessive amounts of bacteria and poisons which eventually kill the prey. They just bite it a few times; wait for it to die and then dining begins. We hiked through forest that reminded me of photos of Africa. There are about 2000 dragons living on Rinca Island. This is more than the 1700 that live on Komodo Island. The dragon is called the land crocodile by the natives.

After hiking and seeing the dragons, we left for Komodo Island Red Beach. The name is because the red coral just off the land comes in with the tide and bits of it mix with the beach sand leaving red flakes in the sand. The snorkeling was great. Lots of hard and soft coral. Red, green and purple coral along with many colorful fish. Brain coral and anemones. The snorkeling was very clear and warm. No jellyfish were seen. Yesterday, Cindy was stung by a small one. It healed overnight and was not a problem. They raised the sails for the first time today. Once raised, they decided we did not have enough wind for the speed we needed so we took pictures from a speed boat and then dropped the sails right away. Our boat is very impressive with full sail. After snorkeling, we took off for a small island for an evening BBQ on the beach to top the day. This has been a very fun day. Komodo Dragons were definitely the highlight of this trip so far. Our group has 6 young kids ranging in age from 6 to 9. They were totally impressed with the Komodo dragons. They had been reading about them for months prior to this trip. It was fun to see their reactions to the dragons, the bones and skulls of water buffalo from prior meals and the live water buffalo we saw along the way.

Today we arrived at Santonda island. This is an uninhabited island. The scenery is beautiful all around. We started with a wonderful snorkel. The coral heads were prettier than our scuba dive on Bali. There we mostly saw wall growth. This place has giant sea fans, brain coral, blue starfish and bright fish. After snorkeling, we went to Crater Lake. This is a volcanic caldera created long ago. In 1815’s a nearby volcano (Tambora) located on the island Sumbawa exploded with a force many times that of Krakatowa. It was the largest most devastating explosion ever recorded in history. It was a level 7 on a scale of 8. Mount St. Helens was only a level 1. It is believed that a Tsunami from the eruption carried sea water to the caldera at Crater Lake and created a huge land locked salt lake that is still extremely salty today. Norm swam in the lake but Cindy just watched.

The local belief is that if you tie a stone to a tree at Crater Lake and make a wish, it will come true. If the wish does come true, you are supposed to come back and then leave an offering to the gods. We may have to come back one day. This trip has really been fun. There are 4 families of Americans who live and work in Indonesia who are on this trip. We also met a couple from Holland and there is a group from Switzerland on this trip. Truly an international gathering. The boat is very relaxing.

We arrived at Lombok island early in the morning. This is a primarily Muslim island so, as it is Ramadan, many people were fasting. No eating, drinking (even water) nor smoking in public. The very extreme observers believe they are not even allowed to swallow their own spit. We had to drink water on the bus and not when we walked around. The nice thing about the traditional Sasak village we went to was they have very few tourists so the children do not beg or try to sell you anything. They just like to say hello and visit. This was a lot of fun.

We did see a traditional version of a mosque. They have blended Muslim and Hindu rituals. The mosque was made of rock and a thatched roof. They also have a separate hut for offerings. This is the Hindu influence. We had lunch at Narmada water palace hotel. This place has a natural spring pool. Several kids on the trip were impressed that there were very small fish swimming in the pool. The water was freezing so we stayed out and let the kids and a few adults freeze themselves. We returned to Sengigi bay where we were allowed to dive off of the decks of the boat. We just had fun watching people dive from both the first and second decks.

We boarded the Ombak Putih for a sailboat cruise though the Indonesian islands. Ombak Putih means “white wave” in Indonesian.

This is a map of the Ombak Putih trip.

The first day we set sail north and went to Padangbai, East Bali. We went to the Tenganan traditional village. This place has water buffalo roaming the streets, chickens that have had their feathers dyed pink and an enormous Banyan tree. After that we decided to relax on the boat.

We drove 2-1/2 hours to Amed to go scuba diving. Our dive boat was an outrigger. We got our gear on in the water. Neat way to start a dive. The coral and fish were good and the water was warm. The first dive was very easy. For the afternoon dive, we went to the other side of the bay, not far from the first dive. By then a current had started and it was easy to float along with it but not to cool to swim into the current. Our guide did not seem to notice. At the end of the dive he had us swimming into the current. Norm was getting tired and was falling behind. The guide was too interested in underwater plant roots to look and see if we were keeping up. Norm got fed up, did his own safety stop and started to surface when the guide finally noticed. Getting into the outrigger was a bit more challenging. Had to strip gear in the water and then climb/launch yourself onto the boat. Luckily the driver helped. The dive was still a good except for the current at the end. We saw a lionfish, rockfish, lobster and lots of brightly colored fish.

We began our morning with a trip to a handicraft village to observe the hand making of silver works. Then we attended a cultural Barong and Keris dance performance demonstrating the eternal struggle of good versus evil in the village of Batubulan.

We went to Tampak Siring which had a place for everyone to bathe in holy spring water before going to temple Tirta Empul. Funny how the first King had a home above overlooking the pool and would send all of his many wives to the pool while he was above. This place has a natural spring bubbling up in the middle and it has never been dry.

Here is Norm in his sarong at the temple with our guide Ketut.

We had lunch overlooking the still active Mt. Batur volcano and Lake Batur. It is a huge caldera filled in with fresh water in the hilly mountainside. The scenery was breathtaking.

Off to the Kehen Temple built in the 13th century, which was especially interesting for its unique entrance gate. Rice terraces and palm trees are abundant in this area.

A final stop at Goa Gajah, the elephant cave, which is a Hindu meditation center dating to the 11th century.

Late in the evening, with a touch of nervousness, we left for an 11pm flight to Bali. A bit scary knowing that two days before terrorists set off bombs in Bali. Everyone tells us that it is tourism as usual. We had a layover in Singapore and arrived noon October 4. We were taken to the Mercure hotel for rest and relaxation.

We spent two days just having fun at the pool and the beach. We did not go anywhere. The hotel has a very nice open air restaurant. Very relaxing. Happily, there was no terrorist trouble.

We toured Sarnath today. This is the place where the first Buddha gave his very first sermon. They have built a temple and a much older Stupa on the site.

There are many fresco paintings inside the temple depicting the life of Buddha. After seeing both places, we went to the archeological museum. It has many statues and carvings from the Buddhist and Hindu temples. Very interesting to see.