The second stop of our trip was to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We started the day off by flying for 8 hours to Singapore then from Singapore a short 1 hour flight to KL (Kuala Lumpur). Once we arrived in KL we went outside to meet the Tans out by the McDonalds but it ended up being a really busy and packed airport. After about 45 minutes of looking around for the Tans we decided to try and get internet somewhere so I could get their phone number off my e-mail. Once we got the number we borrowed some random guys cell phone to call them and they ended up being right by us the whole time. We finally got on the road to the Tans by about 10:30 or so and still had an hour drive to the city. On the way home they took us to an awesome local Indian restaurant which was outside so you can enjoy the night. Not going to lie I was pretty sketched out at first because it looks like it would have been a bad part of town but apparently it’s a pretty popular place to eat.
The next day we slept in and got some breakfast with their daughters Stephanie and Sharon and then from there we went to this giant 7 story mall where we had to wait for our bus to Genting. Genting is like a whole little city located on the top of a mountain that is famous for its casino and little theme park. To get there we had to catch an hour long bus ride from the mall to probably like part way up the mountain. Alec and I were freaking out the whole but ride because the driver drove really fast around the turns up the mountain, it felt like we were going to tip over. Once we got off the bus we had to take a gondola up to the top of the mountain which was another half hour. It could have taken a lot longer though, on our bus ride we met a local who had the priority pass so which lets you go in front of the line so he let us skip the line and ride up with him. The view from the mountains was awesome, you could see all kinds of little towns located on the mountains. Later that night we went out to dinner at another outdoor authentic Chinese restaurant with Sharon, Stephanie, and Stephanie's boyfriend (I forgot his name, it was something foreign).
On our last day we got a tour of the city by one of the Tans friends from church named Kenny, he took us to all the well known landmarks of KL like Petronas Towers, Chinatown, little India, the central market, national mosque, national monument, and a few other places. The city was great to see but the best part of the day was when we went to play futsal with a bunch of Kenny’s friends. Futsal is basically soccer but played on a field that is a 3rd of the size. It was great hanging out with some more of the locals and getting to know more about them and being able to tell them a little bit about the US. Playing futsal was great but it was got tiring after a while because it was close to 102 degrees out all day.
The next day we had to catch a taxi to the airport and we were off to Bali. Once we arrived in Bali we caught a taxi to Suka Beach Inn where we met Jordy Kay and his friends Amy and Evan. Jordy showed us around town a little but and showed us all the hottest clubs in town to go to. Bali is full of tourists and has tons of clubs and restaurants there.
We got up the next day at about 11:30 and just missed the free breakfast from the hotel so we went to the minimart and picked up some food. The minimart is basically a 7/11 so we ended up eating there for most of our meals in Bali. For the rest of the day we basically just walked around town and sat in the pool then went out at night again.
Our 3rd day in Bali started off the same way, we got up and got breakfast then sat in the pool all day. We met another kid James while we were in the pool and he ended up showing us how to get to the beach and where the local McDonalds was. We ended up hanging out with James and his friend Pete for the rest of the day and night. The best part of Staying at Suka Beach Inn is definitely the people there, everybody that stays there is a surfer who travels the world. Its so easy to meet people there because they are all so friendly and are in the same boat as everyone else. Alec and I met tons of people there that have been traveling all over the world for months at a time. I don't think we met one person who was there for vacation, it was just another stop on their crazy trip.
Right now we are in the Gili Islands and I just met Kyle here but we had a bit of a miscommunication i thought he was getting here later than what he did so he ended up sitting at some restaurant for a few hours waiting for us. The beach here is awesome! We don't really do a whole lot just get up go to the beach and snorkel and hang out a lot. On monday wednesday and friday there are party nights so we usually go out and on those nights. We have been eating peanut butter sandwiches a lot here so we save money. At night we go to the night market usually and get some decent food for once.
The second night Kyle was here we had a beach fire with the 3 of us and chilled and drank some bintangs which is the local beer around here. Pretty much everyday we do the same thing though around here one of the days we walked through the middle of the island to get to the other side. In the middle of the island there is actually a really big open field which eventually leads into one of the villages on the island. The village back there isn't like the rest, all the “houses” are little shack things with like tarps around them for walls and palm tree type things for a roof.
The last week we went took a ferry to Lombok. Once we arrived we got hassled by tons of people to take their taxi’s and what not into the city but we decided to rent mopeds. The mopeds look like they would only do like 20 mph but they actually go about 60 mph so they frickin haul. Once we got our bikes we took an hour and a half long ride up through the mountains. There are monkeys all over the sides of the road and the views from the mountain are unreal. The driving can be pretty sketchy everybody hauls past you on their motorbike and cars and stuff just cut you off but luckily we all stayed alive. We ended up going to Mataram which is the capital of Lombok, we wanted to go there so we could eat McDonalds since all we had been eating for the past 2.5 weeks was peanut butter, chips, and local food. The mall there is pretty crap so we decided to ride back to the port and cruise some other roads since we all loved driving the mopeds around. We ended up going on this road that went all along the coast of Lombok so we had some pretty sweet views of the beaches and water, pictures don’t even come close to describing what it was like. On the way back to the port Alec looked back to see if I was still behind him and ended up swerving off into the dirt and kinda laid his moped down. Alec was totally fine but the moped had a tiny scuff mark about an inch big which isnt a big deal at all but once we got back to the port about 6 Indonesian teens surrounded us and demanded that we pay 500,000 rupiah to fix it or else they would call the cops and you don’t wanna deal with the cops in Indonesia so we paid the money and high tailed it off the island. It really pissed us off though because we know they wont fix it, every single Indonesian is money hungry and will do anything to try and get money out of you so we got totally screwed. We actually ended up paying for 7 seats on the ferry just so we could leave sooner because more people we going to try and get more money out of us.
The next day we went to Gili Air which is the first island of the Gili’s and basically just hung out on the beach all day. Gili Air is a lot more peaceful and less touristy compared to Gili Trawangan. The last 2 nights we spent with some if Alecs friends from back home who are staying in the Gili’s for a while as well. They brought all kinds of meat with them so we had a barbecue the last 2 night. It was so good! we had steak, ribs, hamburger, and sweetcorn 2 nights in a row which was a great change of pace.
We had to get up early on the last day to catch our fast boats back to Bali which worked out great for Alec and I but Kyle ran into some trouble with his fast boat service. They didn’t give him a ticket for his return back to Bali even though he bought a roundtrip ticket but the manger said he could ride anyways and that they would give him a ticket but when he was taking his taxi back to Kuta Bali they demanded 350,000 from him or else they would leave him on the side of the road, so he paid that and got screwed over just like Alec. Kyle went back to the place who he got his ticket through and ended up getting his money back.
Indonesia is a great place to go and I would love to go back someday but I was not impressed with any of the people there except our neighbor Han who lived across the street from us a local guy Roy and the owner of the internet cafe Dan. Han was our go to man if we ever needed anything fixed or whatever, he was always so happy to help out no matter what. He is probably one of the nicest guys I have met. One time he cleaned all our floors and our whole porch and stuff while we were gone and he did it all for free he wouldn’t accept any money for us. And Roy was one of the locals that we met one night and we would keep on running into him throughout the weeks we were there, he always wanted to just sit down a hang out with us and offer us free drinks. We had the same music in common we both like to listen to metal/screamo bands which was pretty cool. The last night we were there he gave us his number so that we can hang out if I were to ever go back and he wanted something to remember us by and the only thing I really had was a bracelet that I had been wearing for months and he had a bracelet so we traded bracelets so that we could remember, I thought that was a pretty sweet thing that happened. He was pretty sad that we were leaving. Dan was the owner of the internet cafe that we went to all the time and he was always very excited to see us each morning as well he would always call us by our first names, I thought it was cool that we had a first name basis with the owner unlike anybody else. Dan also gave us a deal on our internet and would always trust us to pay him back later that day if we didn’t have the money on hand.
The first night we were in Bali we got pizza hut (thanks mom) which was another sweet meal since I haven't had pizza since we left for the trip and then met up with our friend James again who we met there last time go out to the clubs. Basically we did the same thing everyday in Bali we would walk around town and shop and catch a nice lunch at McDonalds or something then chill some more go out for dinner and then go to the clubs again. It was great to hang out with James again though he introduced us to some more of his friends so we always had a decent size group to hang out with at night.
That Brings me to today, Alec and I got up at 5 to catch our 3 hour plane ride to KL and now we have to sit in the airport for 19 hours until our next flight so thats why I decided to finally post in this bad boy lol.
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