Travel Diary Indonesia - Day 6 Something Like Thaa…..!!!

January 10, 2012 by Sruti Sainathuni

7AM. We wake up.

Vishu: I think we need to withdraw some cash.

Sruti: Yes, I’m broke too.

Vishu: Ok, I think I’ll go get a million?

Sruti: Yeah, sound about right. For now.

Hopefully this conversation seems as surreal to you as it did to us. If it didn’t, you probably don’t know that the Indonesian currency is ridiculously cheap. A can of coke costs 15,000 rupaiah, renting a bike for a day costs 50,000 rupaiah and a decent meal at a good restaurant about 100,000 rupaiah. So relatively speaking a million really isn’t that much. But it was one of the strangest conversations we’ve had and couldn’t believe we had just said that to each other! That’s the start of our normal day for you.

Travel Diary Indonesia - Day 5

January 10, 2012 by Sruti Sainathuni

Daddy granted our wish and made it drizzle for a couple of hours. So we started on the ride north of Senggigi. It was beeeaauuuttiiffuuul! :) We could see the beach most of the time and we kept taking detours to check out the empty beaches every few minutes. Every beach I went to, I would think, “This it is! I have seen every kind of beach now! There can’t be another beach equally beautiful.” But then, the next beach would be equally beautiful but different. Just when you think you have been awed enough, daddy awes you again and again and again! After a couple of times the ‘thinking’ about the beauty melts away and the “ enjoying” starts. :) I think I am slowly falling in love with the idea of biking. After a couple of hours, the drizzle turned into a proper downpour and we had to come back riding in the rain. We were soaked! And it was one of the best drives that I have experienced in the last few years! :) It was a little disappointing to reach the hotel so soon. I secretly wished the road (and the day) had stretched a bit longer. But it was getting late and to come back home was unfortunately the right thing to do! Doing the right thing can be a bit of a joy kill sometimes, don’t you think?

Travel Diary Indonesia - Rain rain go to Spain! :(

January 09, 2012 by Sruti Sainathuni

To start off, I take back what I said about the dish Ayum Taliwang. Last night we went to a great Indonesian place for dinner and they served us the real Ayum Taliwang that was only spicy and not sweet. It was good. We found out that originally the dish is spicy alone, but most places dumb it down for the foreigners.

We’ve noticed that there are a lot of sparrows in Indonesia. I remember when we lived in the old Saipatham in Shirdi, the sky used to be filled with sparrows. But then one year the number dramatically reduced and the next year there were hardly any sparrows at all. Anyway, it is wonderful to see so many sparrows again. Also we keep spotting exotic looking birds and interesting plants but have no idea what they are! I wish Andrew Uncle or Elise Aunty were here to tell us.

Travel Diary Indonesia - Day 4

January 08, 2012 by Sruti Sainathuni

My day started with the song “Whenever You Are” by Sami Yusuf and it touched me deeply. I kept listening to it again and again at every free moment I could find.

“…In each smile
In every single sigh
Every minute detail
Traces of you are found there ...

Travel Diary Indonesia - Day 3

January 07, 2012 by Sruti Sainathuni

So today our plan was supposed to go biking to the north of Senggigi, but as we all know, plans change! And so they did! Instead, we slept a bit longer, walked around the beaches of Sengggigi, sat in many beach cafes with a philosophical glint in our eyes, watching the sunset over the ocean and wrote mails to friends and family. We also planned our coming few days, looked for another room with a better flush, better ambience and better internet and gathered a few maps so we could get lost properly the next day on our bikes! It was a laid back day, mostly people-watching and cooking up strange and funny stories about them! It was one of those “busy-doing-nothing” kinda days that you read about in novels set in the 1920s european cafes where Hemingway or Fitzgerald would hang out!