Back to Bali

The last 3 days of our trip were spent back on Bali. We rented a Balinese style villa via 'airbnb' for 3 nights in Canggu. Close enough to get a taxi to the shops of Seminyak to satisfy the kids desire to purchase cheap football jerseys and DVD's but far enough away to be a but more chilled and 'Balinese' with quieter streets, walk to black sandy surf beach and a few decent enough restaurants and cafes. When we arrived we met the 'host's' husband, Todd, who had just returned from Healesville of all places where he had been meeting with a colleague of his known to Sera and Dave! Small world!

We managed to just miss the sunset on Berawa beach but the kids had fun frolicking at the water's edge until it got too dark to see them.

The  house was fabulous, open air downstairs with various options for relaxing in hammocks, or poolside or in various day beds and airconditioned bedrooms upstairs.  It was furnished with Balinese traditional furniture and musical instruments. The boys enjoyed the pool.

Beach volleyball 

We shopped, we had a couple of great breakfast outings overlooking the rice fields (and one not so good when we went with the reviews on trip advisor only to find we completely filled the tiny cafe which couldn't cope with getting 8 breakfasts out simultaneously and therefore our plans to leave for 'Waterbomb park' for a day of water slides was delayed by about an hour). We even heard and got a glimpse of a passing cremation ceremony that went by, looking from our second story over a nearby wall,  full of colour, lots of noise and according to Will, elephants.

The house even had a swing on the ground floor!

And hats 

An old morter and pestle and iron

 Will had been wanting to have a fish spa since seeing them near our first hotel in Ubud. We managed to negotiate a cheap price for 2mins instead of the usual 15mins. The expression on their faces were priceless!

Will and Jasper with some of their purchases 

Chilling with wifi

The rice fields along our street 

The kids were so keen to get as much pool time as possible we got takeaway from local cheap Indian and Thai restaurants recommended by Todd. By this stage we were a little over Nasi Goreng.

Indian takeaway, Indonesian style!

All in all a successful and rewarding trip. Final quiz on the last night of which each of the boys received a wooden cat fishing and a wooden penis key ring (with instructions for them not to be fastened to their school bags!)

Leaving our villa

How you get surfboards around in Bali!

Final trip back to the airport for our 8th flight in less than 4 weeks! Sheesh, we really don't need to listen to another safety briefing!

Highlights: Komodo boat trip including snorkelling and camping on beach; Orangutans/Klotok trip;  Waterbomb park and fish feeding; Mt Batur.

Hamish had been desperately keen to get to the airport ASAP. I think he thought it would mean he could start watching movies sooner (he had already seen what the on flight screenings were and had made his choices) or he was worried we may miss the plane and be stuck in Bali longer than planned. He was giving us a countdown at about the half-way point for when we would be returning home! So I was a little concerned when they announced due to a technical glitch those who had prepurchased entertainment could not access the new release films only TV shows. As it turns out some movies could be viewed so all was ok. After a pretty rough landing (the worst of all our flights) we then had a 1 hour delay with another technical problem with the "air bridge arm" or some such thing as the Captain kept giving us updates and eventually we had to re-seat and seat-belt to move off and on the platform again whilst a young child screamed as she had for a large part of the flight and the women next to be who had been unwell when she boarded said "if I don't get off this plane soon I'm going to be sick". All's well that ends well and we eventually disembarked at midnight, having to manually hold all the doors open whilst door alarms rang out. Even Pangkalun Bun had its act together better than this! Fortunately our bags were already there waiting for us and we flew through customs to finally return home to the sound of a ringtail possum and the smell of rain! 

Borneo Day 4 Klotok trip

I woke just before 5am to the sounds of gibbons in the distance and various bird calls before the sound of cicadas (a more shrill higher pitched sound than ours at home that sound just like a band saw - and just as loud!) drowned out most other sounds. We opted today to all move to Sera and Dave's Klotok ( the Dave's couldn't stand up straight in this one but it was the more stable of the 2 boats) and meander at a slow pace down the river before stopping about 9am for breakfast. This gave us more of a chance to see and stop and things of interest. We headed back to the 1st station for our last Orangutan feeding session. 

The boys fishing off the front of the boat once we moored the night before 

 Passing proboscos monkeys high in the trees 

Leaving the camp Leakey river and Jono the sekoyner river, approaching our boat for breakfast 

 Our own little Orangutans grooming each other!

Our rather 'the slave' as he was described by Will 'the master' all klotok trip. The things hamish will do to achieve his savings for an electronic game! 

A local village where Sera and Dave's guides brother lives

Dave and Jasper pointing out an Orangutan near the water. We had a system of gestures to alert each other to various things and where to look. 

 And the air quality dives again from a nearby forest fire. Time to don the masks! It's not all glorious!

I think Sera's smiling for the camera?

We stopped at a village on the Sekoyner river, comprising about 300 people, Of Malay ethniticity who pre 1980's lived in and were dependent on the rainforest but were moved by the government out of the National Park. They have a primary school and junior secondary and a health clinic with a nurse. Some work in the palm oil factories who have in the past few years supplied electricity to the village and who have paved a long and wide concrete path from the village to the factory which looks quite out of place. As we strolled through the village some of the kids watching children collecting young ferns which are cooked and eaten as vegetables, playing hopscotch and  chooks and roosters meandering about with dogs that look very much like dingoes, women washing clothes, cleaning fish and having a Mandi (shower) all in the small, stagnant and dirty looking water that ran through the village. This channel come drain was the source of water for everything except drinking for which there was small (by our standards) rain water tanks and if these were empty the villagers bought water and also the sewerage system.  

Dogs that share dingoe ancestry and the channel that provides the source of washing clothes, dishes, persons etc

 Hopscotch!

Gathering young ferns to cook for vegetables 

 Palm oil tree next to the house

When we arrived at the first station again for our last OH encounter (Dave's short-hand for Orangutan from the Indonesian word Oranghutan which means person of the forest) it was raining so we battened down the hatches and waited aboard playing card games until the rain passed and we headed off. Apparently the OH's don't like rain and are unlikely to come down to the feeding station, preferring to stay dry under the cover of leaves. I've been told they're the only animals to use leaves as umbrellas. 

Well the OH's certainly came out in large numbers today with perhaps up to 10 of them visible at any moment, it was hard to know where to look. It was very humid and misty/smoky so my attempts at photographing the OH's were hampered. The dominant male was there too and we were able to witness the rather frightening interaction between him and one of the females with an infant as he grabbed her by the ankle, smelling her and then pushing her up higher into the tree. She was vocalising in distress, concerned for the infant but clearly unable to escape. This seemed to go on for a prolonged period but was possibly less than 5 mins before the infant started crying and weed on him and he let her go, upon which she climbed higher to escape where he was too big to follow and he proceeded to satisfy his own sexual needs, 5-10metres up in the tree. 

We stayed tied to the dock as after dinner we did a night rainforest walk in the hope of seeing some of the nocturnal forest inhabitants. The 8 of us and 2 guides didn't make for the ideal conditions for seeing wildlife as we crashed our way through the forest. We did however get to spot spiders, a gliding lizard,, a green tree snake and bush mouse of sorts. 

List of Wildlife seen today and previous days:

Snake (dark body and copper-reddish near the head) swimming across the river)

Snake (ribbon type yellow tree)crossing river then climbing tree

Monitor 

Black And red Broad bill (with blue beak)

Lots of stork-billed kingfishers 

Blue-eared kingfishers

Common hill miners

Hornbill (contentious whether the black or oriental pied)

Rhinoceros hornbill?

Proboscos monkeys

Long-tailed Macaque monkeys 

Silver-leaf monkeys

Orangutans (OH)

Agile Gibbon

Pygmy squirrel

Black squirrel

Brown squirrel

Pied squirrel 

Fresh water crocodile (Buaya)

Fresh water Gaviel

Butterflies 

Pied fantail on a nest

Greater coucal

Buffy fish-owl

Barred eagle owl

Swifts 

Slender-billed crow

Long-tailed parakeet

Eastern crimson sunbird

Striated heron

Chestnut-breasted malkoha

Storm stork

Cinnamon bittern

Brush cuckoo (heard escalating whoo-hoo-hoo)

Grey-rumped tree swift

Emerald dove

Peaceful doves

Fluffy white flower insect Tins called plant-hopper

Night rainforest walk:

Spiders

Draco gliding lizard

Small Green tree snake (viper-like head)

large moth 

Guinnea pig sized rodent 

Day 2 of Klotok trip, Borneo

We visited two feeding sites on day 2. In the morning headed to Pondock Tanggui (the second station for an Orangutan feeding). Quite a few Orangutans came down, many mums and bubs and we watched them drinking milk and eating bananas. No sign of the Alpha male.

Ibu preparing dinner 

At Camp Leakey in the afternoon we had a look through the fairly primitive information centre. Sera has decided to do her own guide to Camp Leakey given the lack of any portable information available and poor quality of info in the centre. We had a great viewing of Tom, the dominant male who walked down from the feeding platform and straight for where the kids were sitting in the front row at which looking the guides in a directive tone told the kids to grab their water bottles and move back. I've never seen our 4 kids be so speedy in their compliance as in one swift movement they went from front to back row giving Tom a bit of distance. With 8 times the strength of a human male and having heard some of Sera's stories about what they had done to people, this was a sensible move!

How contemplative! I wonder what he was thinking?

A Macaque monkey on the boardwalk who looked like she was going to try to bite my leg before I quickly withdrew it!

Big Tom, settling himself down right near where the kids were sitting in the front row before they quickly moved to the back row after the guide instructed them as he was walking towards them!

Checking for fleas?

Mum and Bub enjoying some milk - love the way they pour it into their mouth which becomes a cup

The Babi hutan (bush pigs) drink up the splashes of milk from underneath 

Dave close to Tom

He's on the move again

The mum heads back up the trees grooming Bub

Junior throwing a tantrum because mum took baby brother back and left him behind. It was a full on hissy fit with screaming, thrashing about, smashing things - a tantrum any toddler would be proud of. 

 A pitcher plant 

That should be enough, now I'm out of here!