FTW- Rebecca's out and about Pt 2

continued from 15/11/09 -

The day got so much better in the end as we were 'saved' thanks mostly to a very kind couple of blokes! The first a local Indian geeze who was on the hellbus with us helped us to find a place to wee, wash, have chai and stuff a veggie burger down our necks, which was amazing after having to deal with the typical masses of pushy Indian tuc tuc drivers near the station hassling and staring at us. After a lot of typical Indian talking with said bloke (of course he wanted to practice his english, bless), he helped us cram ourselves and our bags like turtles into a tuc tuc for 40 rupees - a good haggle - to the hari krishna hotel where we stayed before for our first night after arriving from the airport. After walking around for what seemed like an eternity with a 'dead body' for a bag on my back, and having absolutely no luck finding a room to shower and keep our bags for the day a *very* kind American guy (we hope as we have left our bags in his room) let us shower, horray! We went for tea with him and he was like seriously so kind as I was in such a stinking mood and now I feel like an actual human again after having a hot shower - the first in 3 days. We ran some errands in Delhi - Jen sent her parcel and I've burned my photos on a cd - but still having fuck all luck trying to upload then on facebook which is extremely irritating as I have spent the best side of the last three hours pretty much trying to do it aaaaaaaa!! So at least I have them on a cd but its seriously probably gonna take me about three days to upload all of them, alas! x

24/11/09


Argh I'm so scatty today I literally can't keep still and keep forgetting silly things like where I left my pen or to brush my hair - annoying!
Anyhoo, well, what a day - action packed and enough adventures and mishaps to rival an Indiana Jones movie for sure! We woke up super early and had an expensive (but rather good) brekkie after typically searching for a good while growing ever hungrier by the minute! Hunger takes up a large proportion of my day now so I'm pretty used to it!
Then we hired two motorbikes and set off on the long roadtrip to the 'youthful' waterfall North West of Lombok. Jen was crapping herself - understandably! But I started off riding on the back with Neka and being experienced and confident I felt relatively safe in her hands - as much as you can feel on a motorbike in Indonesia I guess!
After a while I got the chance to ride by myself and woah what a rush, totally exhilarating to be cruising through the ever changing beautiful Indonesian landscape, feeling the wind and unfortunately too many bugs in my face also! The only problems (at first) I had were turning and switching the bloody thing on - once the girls had rode off and I couldn't figure out how to actually start the engine (especially with my personal local audience watching and laughing - cringe!) And when I finally did get it started with a little help from a local, I almost died when I careered out into the middle of the road with three oncoming bikes, fuuuuuck! Luckily I escaped unscathed and with my life but it was enough for my tummy to flip and to hear my brothers' voice in my head 'Becky, don't get a bike...' oops. Finally after two or three hours and an increasingly sore arse (I should be getting used to it by now after all those camel times) and legs that were turning tomato red in the sun, we reached the waterfall. Our guide took us through the trail - stone steps, cliff edges, crossing the river and picking our way through the undergrowth to reach the waterfall, and of course being me I fell in the river, lost my flipflop and tripped up more than once on the way. But wow, the fall was incredibly beautiful and we cautiously picked our way through the stones to the pool and swam in the FREEZING cold water under the fall - so here's hoping I've gained a year back on my age for all the effort!
On the way back the guide took us through some tunnel rivers which were built in the mountains, where we had to wade through the knee deep water. Much to my dismay however he failed to mention it was actually pitch black for most of the way and though I was trying to be brave I shit myself when cave bats started flying around and skimming the tops of our heads, something I had not bargained for!
The ride back to Sengiggi was fun, until...disaster struck when we stopped and had to turn around, and of course dickhead here hadn't turned the engine off - the bike lurched forward (fortunately at a standstill) but I was hanging on and the bike and me crashed to a halt in a crumpled heap on the pavement. Luckily I managed to escape (again) with my life and only a few cuts and grazes this time all on the left side of my tummy, leg and arm, boo! So no biggie but they have started to go all yucky now and really hurts in the salty seawater haha! The bike was only scuffed a little so we hoped they wouldn't notice when we got back home...
We thought we'd got away with it when the bloke seemed too preoccupied with grinning at us than to check the bikes...but a little later he came a knocking with 'some problem', shhhhhit! Of course we argued with the blokes for a good hour probally, hiding my arms and legs, as we were afraid they were gonna screw us over if we admitted what had happened, but I was feeling more and more guilty mostly for the fact Neka was expelling so much energy arguing for me! So eventually when I could see it was never gonna end (the police were being called at this point!) I said I'd pay the 300,000 rupiah for the damage to end it and lessen my guilt! Which at around 20 quid could have been a lot worse, so that was that! So now I'm having a well deserved tea with Jen - especially after I completely freaked again when I thought I'd lost my purse and passport in the room, but it's alright, I found them :) x