Day 147

Once again my day began with breakfast in Chinatown, but it was a French cafe, so I had a croissant and some pastry, and not dumpling soup 😉 I decided to explore the southern part of the island today, so I started walking down Singapore river along Boat Quay. I then got to the Merlion, one of Singapore’s icons. There were thousands of Asian tourists there, taking one picture after another… Then I walked around the bay basin, until I got to the probably most known icon of the city: the Marina Bay Sands. It is a hotel, built in three towers, above which there is a ship-like structure with a restaurant, bar, club, and the most exquisite pool in the world. Underneath, there is a huge and super-elegant shopping center, in which I spent my afternoon. Then I went for an evening walk in the Gardens by the Bay, a huge park with the famous artifical trees. Tired from a day full of physical activity (walking and lifting shopping bags…) I spent the evening in the hostel to get ready for an intense day tomorrow… 

 

Day 146

My first day in Singapore began quite late with breakfast in Chinatown. Then I walked over to the river, crossed it and then finally (it looked at lot closer on the map…) got to Orchard road. It is the city’s main shopping road, and it is unbelievable! The shopping experience in Singapore is second to none… There is one elegant, modern and very well assorted mall next to the other. The entire Orchard road is basically one big shopping center, with middle to high-end stores. And the food courts are amzing: Not McDonalds and Burger King as usually, but sophisticated delis and french bakeries and japanese restaurants. You can eat your way through all of Asia and half of Europe just by going to one of the countless food courts… I spent the entire day “walking” down Orchard road, or more accurately: looking through one “sales” stack after another. In the evening I walked along the river, this time exploring the touristy Boat Quay. I really love the shopping in Singapore, it is even better than in New York! Good thing that this is my last stop, so it is not too bad if I have an additional carry-on for the flight back home… 

 

Day 145

I got a wakeup call from the hotel at five in the morning (even though my cab would leave at 6:30…), got ready and waited for the cab to pick me up. At the airport I had breakfast, another coffee to kill the time, and then finally boarded the plane. After the short flight I arrived in Singapore, where I would stay for a few days, the last stop of my trip! I got a transfer to the hostel, which was located right at the entry of Chinatown. So in the afternoon I obviously went exploring this world-famous Chinese district, bought some cheap stuff, ate some delicious dumplings, and just wandered around. I ended up at the Singapore river, and toured Clarke quay. There I had a traditional Singapore dinner: chicken rice. I wandered around some more trying to find my way back to the hostel, discovered some cute laneways full of street cafes and bars (yes, they even exist in Singapore!) and then eventually called it a day when I arrived back at the hostel. My first impression of the city is a bit contradictory: On one hand, the city is super(!!!)-clean and very organised, about as civilized as it can get, and so modern that it may seem “soulless”, but on the other hand there are the old districts where one can see, smell and fell the country’s rich multicultural history. Singapore definitely has character, but one has to look for it in order to find it… 

 

Day 144

Today I sadly had to leave paradise: Since I have a flight tomorrow I couldnt stay on Gili T any longer, but had to get back to the main land Bali. So in the morning I checked out of the hostel (the one I have stayd in the longest during my entire trip!) and then went for breakfast and coffee. There I had to say goodbye to all the people I have met… This was probably the last farwell of my trip, which makes me sad and happy at the same time… I then had to go to the ferry terminal where I waited for ever (“Island time” is not a synonyme for punctuality…) and then spent the next three hours in the belly of a ship on a veery bumby ride. Back in Bali I had a transfer to Kuta, like the 12 other people in the nine-seat-bus. When I eventually finally arrived in Kuta I was so glad to have booked a single room, and I even got upgraded! So I had a very fancy, large room with fast wifi to myself, what else would you want? I wandered around the busy streets of Kuta for one last time, did some souvenir shopping, and enjoyed my last Indonesian meal. Then I had an early night in, just relaxing in my fancy room 🙂 

 

Day 143

Today was the last day of my Advanced. Once again I had to get up, eat breakfast and cycle to the dive center which has become like a second home on the island. I actually spend more time there than in the hostel… There I got briefed for my last adventure dive. It was a drift dive at a fairly deep diving site. That means that the boat  dropped us off, we went straight down, dived for as long as possible, and then resurfaced somewhere in the middle of the ocean where the boat picked us up. It was my best dive so far: We got to swim with fully grown eagle rays (2.5m) and reef sharks (3m)! Back on land I completed my log for the last time, and then got my certification 🙂 The diving course was definitely worth spending my money on (diving is a veeeery expensive hobby…). In the afternoon I cycled around the island one last time, relaxed at the beach, packed all my stuff and then met my friends for “the last supper”. We went to the nightmarket as usual, then to a beach bar and then another… 

 

Day 142

Today was the second day of my Advanced diving course, so I had to get up early after a short night (most of the nights are too short while traveling…), had breakfast and went to the center. There I got a diving computer (fairly expensive gigantic ugly wristwatches) and we did the briefing of computer diving. Then we went out with the boat, got dropped off in the middle of the ocean, and sank down to the reef. It was about 30m deep, so the task of the dive was to watch our time limits on the computer, something very important if you don’t want to spend the next few days in a decompression chamber… We saw some very cool stuff as usual, like turtles and clown fish. Finding Nemo and Dory is not really that hard here… Back on land I got lunch and then had a short siesta at the beach, before I had to return to the diving school. The afternoon dive was a wreck dive, and we went back to the Bounty ship wreck, where I had been snorkeling before. But the difference was huge; This time I was able to see the wreck from the sides, even to dive underneath it. The reef was very cool to look at, old rescue rings overgrown with coral, and fish hiding behind masts.  In the evening we had dinner at the Italian, and then once again went to the diver’s bar to have a drink there. As my instructor said: “The bintang in the bar is a mandatory part of the Advanced as well…” 😉 

 

Day 141

Today began my last trip/course of this entire around-the-world-trip: I decided to do the Advanced Open Water Diver, the sprinkles on top of the ice-cream when it comes to recreational diving… It consists of fun stuff and does not really have any new theory, instead you do five adventure dives. My day started early with breakfast, getting my stuff ready and heading to the dive center. There we had a briefing for our first dive which was a deep dive. We ended up going to 35 meters deep, and there the pressure is 4.5bar/ata, so there are a few things that you have to consider. For one the gas pressure is so high that there can be oxygen toxicity and gas narcosis, both of which can be dangerous if not handeled right. We actually did a gas narcosis test: We had to do some simple mathematics underwater (35m deep…) and believe me, I have never struggled that much with a simple substraction before! My brain was processing really slowly… My dive buddy just gave up, she wasn’t even able anymore to solve 25-4-3=? anymore. Now we experienced that feeling and know how to act if we get it. Thre rest of the dive was not as deep, and absolutely great! Back on land we completed the log books, and then went for lunch. After a siesta at the beach we went for a second dive, where we would perfect our buoancy simly with breathing techniques, so basically practise to float, sink or rise just by controlling your breathing. It is actually possible to go from the bottom of the ocean (30m deep) to the surface without moving a single limb, but just by breathing in.The dive was awesome, we saw turles, snakes, lionfish, scorpionfish, shrimps, and a hunderthousands of other fish… I am glad I decided to do this course, since there is quite the difference in possibilities compared to snorkeling. In the evening we once again went to the nightmarket (our mission is to try every single booth…) and then had  a drink in the dive center’s very own bar. What a good day 🙂 

 

Day 140

Today was another day in paradise… After a late breakfast we went to get coffee, had a break from eating while relaxing at the pool, then decided to go get lunch 😉 So in the afternoon we felt like we should do something for once and we joined a snorkeling trip around the three Gili Islands. We were picked up by one of the funny glass-bottom boats with the two wooden “wings” on the side. We drove to the first location, which was called Turtle Point, and, surprise, surprise, there were a lot of turtles there! Some of them were gigantic, and just floating majestatically in the water… Since turtles are usually high on jellyfish they don’t swim that fast, and you are able to keep up with them and just cruise next to them through the water. On the second reef there were a lot of fish to be found, and it was amazing how diverse they are! The third snorkeling site was located at a shipwreck, the bounty, which was about 30 meters long, and really cool to swim over or dive down to. Unfortunately while snorkeling I can not really dive deeper than 5m, and here there is a lot of unique marine life and other interesting stuff deeper down. For this reason I have decided to do another diving trip here on Gili T, starting tomorrow. In the evening we had great Indian food, and a bintang or two, all while watching the sun sink into the sea…  

  

Day 139

In the morning we got some pancakes in the hostel and then made our way to the town center to get coffee.  We had planned on going on a boat trip, but since we were sitting in that cozy little beach cafe for over an hour we missed all the boats… So instead we took our bikes and went all the way to the other side of the island. Biking here is fun, because the streets are just dirt roads and the only traffic is horse carriages. We stopped at a beach, then went snorkeling for an hour, swam with some turtles, saw a thousand fish, then enjoyed lunch in a beach cafe (something with fish of course… But not Nemo!). In the evening we biked across the island (again…) to get to the perfect spot for the night: sunset beach. And the place absolutely deserves its name, the view is amazing! We got ourselves some beanbags (which are adequate seat here in Indonesia, chairs are completely overrrated) and a fancy cocktail, and just watch the sun slowly go down and the sky turn red. It was probably the most beautiful sunset that I have seen on this trip so far! 

 

Day 138

My first day on Gili T began with breakfast in the hostel. Since the island is booming there are a lot of new things being built, and my hostel was opened just a few days ago. So they are really excited about everything and they even know their guests’ names by heart! Then I went into town where I met some friends from Ubud, and we decided to first sort ourselves out with bikes and snorkeling gear. After lunch we then biked along the coast to the other side of the island to one of the countless great snorkeling sites. The coral is a bit destroyed here, but the fish are incredible! So diverse and colorful! We stayed in the water forever, and at the end we found some turtles just chilling in the sea with us… Not only what is on the islands is paradise, but as well the underwaterworld is straight out of a dream here… After a tanning session at the beach we went to the hostel to get ready for dinner at the infamous Gili T nightmarket. In the middle of the town there is a plaza with a couple food booths, where they have traditional dishes from here like a buffet, and you can choose a fish or squid or anything and they grill it for you. The food is amazing and sooo cheap! You can overeat yourself completely for 4 dollars, with meat and everything… This explains why you have to get to the plaza early to get a seat or even a plate of food, since there is almost half the island eating there… After that we had a drink by the beach, with the view of the lights from the other Gili islands in front, and the vulcanoes of Lombok in the background 🙂