September I- Running out of time

Being a control-freak has its bad consequences (of course). Why do I say that? Because even before landing in Denpasar I already had 3 nights booked in 3 different towns in Bali ( and not close one to the other) and that shouldn’t be a problem unless you get to the airport and you can’t pick up your bag because the airline forgot it in Jakarta. Then you have to change most of your plans.

My first stop was Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali, a town full of art and creativity. I stayed ina really nice homestay where I had my first hot shower after 2 months (tears included). The next day I make my way to the Monkey Forest temple expecting to get a bus in the afternoon to go to Lovina ( in the north) and while I’m walking through the busy streets of Monkey Forest road I read that the ONLY bus that goes to Lovina leaves at 11 am and it was already 10.30! I buy my ticket and the man who sells them takes me with his bike to the homestay to pick my bags! In less than 30 minutes I’m in a 4 hours journey to Lovina.

When we finally get to Lovina, The bus agency offers us their accommodation (in the bus terminal) and I think “who on earth would sleep in that awful rooms??!!” and I go to the homestay that I had already booked. Once they show me a really nice and big room I check the price again “It is 100,000Rp (around 10E) isn’t it?” and the owner tells me that it is 200,000! And then he took me to the street so the other homestays could offer me their rooms!! I couldn’t believe it! Ten minutes later I ended sharing one of those horrible rooms in the bus terminal with a Dutch guy that I met the night before!

We wake up the next morning at 5 am and we go Dolphin watching! We expect to have a great experience and we end up felling like hunters! Once in our boat we can see 100 dolphins being chased by 50 boats! I would not recommend go dolphin watching in Lovina, there are other places where you can see dolphins in a more respectful way in Bali.

From Lovina I face west to permuteran, where I have one of the best days in Bali after being snorkeling all day in Palau Menjangan. I can’t take the smile out of my face after seeing soooo much marine fauna. I see loads of colorful fishes, one octopus, one black tip shark and 1 MARINE TURTLE!! It is an amazing day! It is already my 4th day in Bali and i steal don’t have my bag! It is then when I realize that you don’t need that much stuff to survive, and it actually feels really good to travel with a small bag and not with my lovely 23kg backpack!

I spend my last day in Nusa Lembongan, a small island in the south east of Bali, where I met 2 lovely Segovian girls and a surfer guy from Madrid! We also go snorkeling there but it is not as good as it was in the north. At night we end up drinking a lot of beer and getting pretty drunk! I have a great time together!
After spending 6 days in Bali i take my plane to a totally new world: Japan!

July: Selamat Detang ke Indonesia!

One year later I get back to Jakarta airport, and the feeling still remains the same. Just getting off the aircraft the big difference of temperature between inside and outside makes you start feeling a little bit dizzy. What don’t help much is more than 50 people offering their transport in a quite insisting way. Definitely not suitable for not patient people.

In my opinion Jakarta is an awful city full of pollution, cars, rubbish and too busy, but we have to spend some days in here to get our research permits. Once we have them we make our way to Palangka Raya. Most of Indonesian people are really friendly and always take things easy. You will not see a stressed Indonesian man and that also means that thing takes much longer than in other countries, which can end up driving you crazy. Just walking around the market can be an interesting activity! Everyone looks at you and start shouting “Hello Mister” is an easy way to get an idea of how does it feels to be famous!

Once we have all the equipment we need for the projects we make our 2h way to the town of Bawan where some local guys will take us by bike to the beautiful base camp! In just 2 weeks the local guys turned an old hut from the loggers to a beautiful base camo for more than 20 people! It is a wooden construction with 3 rooms, 3 mandis (showers), 3 toilets, 1 kitchen and a table to spend our free time.
During July camp at Bawan is pretty crowded: Kath and I work for Marie who is doing a PhD in Oxford Brookes about Gibbons. There are a total of 8 volunteers: Klara, a young English lady that faces her fears every morning in the dark working with gibbons, Kirsty is Scottish and studies the orangutan nests, Emily is also Scottish and is “Miss Frog” she love frogs and wants to be a frog expert! Sarah comes from England and is studying butterflies. Charlotte, Charlie, Lilia, Ellie are volunteers that are always happy to help with whatever is needed. Jess (our lovely Jess) takes care of all the volunteers with a big smile in her face! And finally there is Ivan, a Spanish guy who works for Outrop during a year and tries to live without problems among all these ladies! Not an easy job!

In the small extension of forest of Bawan where we work we can find different types of degradation phases. At the edge of the forest there is a big burnt area, where camp is located, and inside the forest there are patches of macarangas, peat swamp and low pole, although Kerangas forest is the predominant type.

La selva de Bawan presenta diferentes grados de degradación, pero la mayor parte se trata de Kerangas, un tipo de selva que se caracteriza por un suelo muy poco grueso y con un pH muy acido. La mayoría de flora se ha adaptado a este tipo de hábitat para perder la menor cantidad de agua posible.

A normal day starts at 3.30 in the morning when the alarm starts ringing. We dress up as fast as we can and we make our way to our listening post which normally is about 40 minutes walking in the dark. Gibbons start singing around 4:30 until 7:30 or 8. After taking all the data that we need we go back to camp to have breakfast and most of the days we go back to the forest to be what we call “ Happy plotters” which consists on measuring the trees in order to identify the different habitats

The most amazing thing of July happens when Ivan and I go out to a gibbon survey. It is 4.40 in the morning when suddenly we see the most shinny eyes I have ever seen. Being really carefully and trying to flash him all the time with our head torches, Ivan starts to make photos to be able to identify what we had infront of us. Finally we could see that it was a Marbled Cat!! We felt full of joy!
On the 24/07/10 I write on my diary: “I should never forget that nature is “who” has the last Word. Here is raining every night and we can’t do our jod.” ( translated from my actual note in spanish from that date). When rains during the night, gibbons don’t sign in the morning and we can’t do our job. Things are getting difficult!

This is the sum up of July! Really soon ( as soon as I translate it from spanish) you we’ll have the one from August.

La de los monos