Kitesurfing

For the last few years, Erik has talked about wanting to try kitesurfing. Kitesurfing/kiteboarding (not sure if there is actually a difference?!) is huge in Melbourne, and people can be seen kitesurfing in Port Phillip Bay on a daily basis, particularly in areas like St. Kilda in the east and Altona in the west. When a Scoopon (like Groupon) deal popped up for kitesurfing around Erik's birthday, I thought I would take advantage of a good deal and bought a voucher for him.

Lots of kites out on this windy day! Melbourne's CDB is in the background.

The voucher was for a 2 hour lesson at KSS Altona. Erik tried to book in a few weekends ago, but on the day he was meant to go out for his lesson there was no wind. Last weekend, however, there was plenty of wind, so we headed down to Altona for his lesson. Our first impression was not great, as we were told the instructor would be 30 minutes late. 30 minutes turned into an hour, so we ended up waiting quite a while for the instructor to arrive. I actually overheard the instructor saying it was the first time he had taught a lesson, and based on how he was organized, I could tell!

Some instruction going on in this picture. You can see how windy it was based on the waves in the bay!

Eventually Erik and the two other people taking the lesson headed down to the beach. It seemed to take a while for the instructor to decide where to operate on the beach. It was VERY windy and there were a lot of kites out, which made it fun for me to watch.

Erik is holding onto the kite in this picture.

The group went through a lot of set-up and safety stuff which seemed to take forever. After an hour or so, Erik got to steer the kite through the water. His first go was funny to watch as he nearly lost control of the kite. After a few minutes though, he got the hang of steering the kite. However, at that point he had to hand the kite over to someone else in the group. All up he probably held the kite for 4 minutes!

Erik steering the kite!

After the group each took turns steering the kite, the lesson was essentially over, as they went over how to pack up the kite but did not get another chance to steer the kite and they did not do body drags through the water, which was supposed to be part of the lesson. The instructor also ended the class about 20 minutes early. In the end, I think Erik enjoyed controlling the kite, but overall the lesson was poorly run and unorganized. Regardless, Erik was happy to have had a go at kitesurfing and perhaps for his next lesson I would try a different shop, given the slightly negative experience we had with KSS Altona.

Gili Air

If you are a regular blog reader, you might have noticed that the hubby and I are ALL about active vacations/holidays. While that statement is true, we can also appreciate spending a few days lying around on a beach doing nothing. Just as Zanzibar was the perfect end to our Africa travels, Gili Air was the perfect way to end our trip to Indonesia. The Gili Islands are 3 small islands just off the coast of Lombok, and they are commonly known as Gili Air, Gili T, and Gili Nemo. I thought Gili Air would suit us nicely, as Gili T is known for wild parties, Gili Nemo is known for being really quiet, and Gili Air lies somewhere between those two in terms of island activites.

Our first views from Gili Air, looking back towards Lombok.

Rudy arranged for a speed boat transfer from Bengsal to Gili Air, and that transport was included in the cost of our Mount Rinjani trek. Within 10 minutes we had arrived on Gili Air, where the clouds of Lombok were left behind and it was warm and sunny. There are no cars on any of the Gili Islands, which is part of the appeal. In Bali and on the mainland of Lombok there were people on motorbikes everywhere, so the absence of traffic and tooting horns was welcome. The methods of transport on Gili Air are walking, biking, or horse cart (cidomo), and we were happy to walk. 

Near the main boat landing on Gili Air. Bali's volcano, Mount Agung is in the distance.

A cidomo, one method of transport on the island.

The "road" around Gili Air

We chose to stay on the east side of the island, where there was more "action", and I was really happy with that choice. It gave us options for bars and restaurants, and the best snorkeling reef is right off of the east coast. I waited really late to book our accommodation for the island, and there weren't many choices when I finally got around to booking. We ended up at Omah Gili, which was not my first choice, but I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. The location was good, just off of the main walkway, and the "lumbung" was a cool spot to rest our heads for a few nights. 

Our "lumbung"

Nice landscaping on the Omah Gili grounds

Our lumbung at night!

Our first night on Gili Air. Happy hour views of the mountain we had just climbed!

We pretty much spent our three days on Gili eating, drinking, and swimming. We tried a few different bars, all of which had good happy hour specials, but our favorite bar/restaurant on the island was "Chill Out". Chill Out had delicious drinks and awesome wood fired pizzas, not to mention a sweet view from the dinner table. All of the bars and restaurants have cozy beach furniture complete with big bean bags, so it's easy to spend an entire day at one of the places along the beach.

Crazy clouds over Lombok

A good spot for dinner and drinks!

Wood fired pizzas are all the rage on the Gili Islands, apparently!

One day we went diving with Gili Air Divers to Coral Fan Garden. The visibility was great and the conditions were calm, which made for good diving. However, we were put in a random group and one of the guys sucked down his tank, so the dive was a little shorter than we had hoped. We also rented a snorkel and mask and used that at the reef just off of the coast. There were heaps of fish and we spent about 30 minutes swimming around with a sea turtle!

On the last morning we were up before sunrise. Below are a series of photos taken during the sunrise over Mount Rinjani. It would have been a great morning for those hikers on the summit!

Originally we had planned to fly out of Lombok, but when we realized how much more time we would have to spend in a car to get to Lomok's airport, which is not at all near the coast, we decided to cancel our flights and booked tickets on a ferry to Sanur, Bali. Our "ferry" stopped at Gili T to pick up passengers before heading to Nusa Lembongan, an island off of Bali's coast. If we ever go back to Indonesia, I think Nusa Lembongan would be on my list. The accommodation dotted along the cliffs looked amazing, along with the swell of the waves and the waterpark apparatus out in the middle of the ocean. How cool is that?

Our "ferry" back to Bali

Seems that clouds love to form over Lombok!

A waterslide in the middle of the ocean?!

Another cool structure off of Nusa Lembongan

Once we left Nusa Lembongan, I seriously thought we were going to die. The sea was really rough, and we were going very fast. It was actually quite scary. Fortunately we made it back to Bali in one piece, though maybe a little wet from boat spray!

When we arrived in Sanur there were many locals hanging out in the water. We went for one last swim before eating dinner at a restaurant along the beach and catching a taxi to the airport for our late night flight back to Melbourne. Indonesia is a place that we may have never gotten the chance to visit if we had not moved to Australia, seeing as it is a long way from the US of A. Now that we have had an opportunity to experience a little bit of what Indonesia has to offer, we understand why it is such a popular destination for Aussies, and I am already thinking about where else in Indonesia we should visit if we get the chance to go back!

Busy Sunday on the beach in Sanur

Sunrise and the Melbourne CBD in the background!

Zanzibar

After 4+ weeks of traveling around the world, including our most recent endeavor of climbing Kilimanjaro, we were ready for a few days of lounging around on the beach! Zanzibar is an island just off the coast of Tanzania, and it is actually part of Tanzania, though I think the islanders like to think of Zanzibar as a separate country. We flew on a small prop plane from Kilimanjaro airport to Zanzibar. Frank, the owner of Karibu Adventure, had arranged for a driver to meet us at the Zanzibar airport. We decided that we would like to do a "spice tour" on the way to our accommodation in Nungwi, on the Northwest tip of the island.

Abdul picked us up and took us to "Hakuna Matata Spice Farm", where Saed was our guide. This was quite possibly the most awkward touristy thing we did on our entire trip, but it was fun and it was interesting. We walked through the farm and stopped at various trees/plants and played a game where we guessed the spices. Some of the spices we saw growing were nutmeg, turmeric, vanilla, cinnamon, and cloves. Zanzibar is famous for exporting spices. After the spice tour we had a fruit tasting, which was definitely the highlight of our visit to the spice farm. The fruit was too-die-for! During our time in Tanzania, both on safari and on Kilimanjaro, every time we ate pineapple, we could not get over how delicious it was. The pineapple in this fruit tasting was equally as tasty, and we also ate other yummy fruits such as papaya, watermelon, custard apple (which might sound disgusting but tasted amazing!), jackfruit, and orange (which are green there?!).

Nutmeg!

This guy climbed trees to gather spice plants.

Between the tour and the fruit tasting we watched a guy climb a tree on the farm to pick us a fresh coconut. I absolutely love fresh coconut water, so this was another highlight for me!

This guy was singing while climbing.

During the tour, Erik and I were getting "points" for correctly guessing each spice plant. At the end, I was the winner, so I was crowed queen of the spice farm tour. Again, super touristy, but fun!

Crazy tree with thorns

We got back in the car with Abdul and headed towards Nungwi. We arrived late afternoon, just in time for happy hour! We were greeted with a cold towel and a fruity drink, met the general manager (which I thought was a nice touch), and were given a tour of our accommodation, The Z Hotel. Our room was really nice and the rate included a tasty breakfast buffet where the view from our table was gorgeous!

Our room

Ridiculously awesome breakfast view!

View from my chair at the infinity pool...a spot I never really wanted to leave.

The hotel had two restaurants and we tried both. The first night we ate at Cinnamon, and I had delicious fresh fish (kingfish). On the second night, we tried the more "upscale" restaurant at the hotel, and unfortunately the food did not sit well with me. Figures that during 3 weeks in Africa I get sick from the most expensive meal of our trip! At any rate, it was not a bad place to be feeling ill, as we did not have much planned except to lounge by the pool and take walks on the beach. I'm pretty sure they had Bob Marley's greatest hits on repeat at the pool, which was good for relaxation purposes! I never got tired of the views from my pool chair.

Daytime by the pool

The restaurant with that gorgeous Indian Ocean in the background.

View of the Z Hotel from the ocean.

Another great happy hour + sunset.

We spent 3 nights in Zanzibar, and though I wished we could have stayed longer to explore more of the island or perhaps do some scuba diving, we were ready to go "home". Five weeks of living out of a 55 liter backpack will do that to a girl!

One last walk on the beach.

On the last day we had Abdul pick us up a bit early so that we could tour Stone Town before our flight left for Nairobi. Highlights of that walk including standing inside of a slave trading house, walking into The Old Fort, and winding our ways through the narrow streets checking out the "doors" of Stone Town.

Inside the slave trading house

Narrow alleyways of Stone Town

One of the cool door decorations we discovered on our walking tour

Not sure that this wiring would be up to Westernized standards?!

We were pretty impressed with the location of this tree!

Vibrant doors are common in Stone Town.

Inside "The Old Fort"

Walkway in front of Forodhani Gardens

We ate fish and chips for lunch in Forodhani Gardens before heading to the airport. Our experience at Zanzibar airport was quite an interesting one. Upon reaching security, we learned that the x-ray machines were broken. At that point, the security officer asked us what was in our bags, and that was the substitution for an x-ray machine! We told him we had clothes and sleeping bags in our packs. He looked at us suspiciously and then let us go, ha.

Surprisingly the security officer did not seem too concerned with our sketchy duct taped bag. We brought this on the first flight of our 5 week trip, the one from Melbourne to Hawaii, because we packed snacks for our flight inside. However, it remained useful for our entire trip, and we ended up using it as a checked bag for our hiking boots. Amazingly, it made it back to Melbourne in one piece!

We were on another prop plane to Nairobi, and we boarded from the tarmac. The plane actually left 20 minutes early, as apparently when everyone who has booked a ticket is on board, the plane departs. Maybe Westernized countries could adopt that stance more often?! Our flight took us past Kilimanjaro, however, she was surrounded in clouds, so we did not get a good glimpse of the mountain. Flying into Nairobi, we flew over Nairobi National Park, which is a game reserve just outside of the city. It's amazing to think that animals live so close to such a big city, and we could actually see safari trucks cruising around the park. We could also see zebras from the plane, but could not identify any other animals.

So long, Zanzibar!

Our flight back to Melbourne did not leave until the next day, so we had one more night in Nairobi. I could not find any reasonably priced accommodation close to the airport, so we stayed about 20 minutes away at a place called Nairobi Stopover House. The people running the hostel were very friendly, and they had a guard who walked us to get dinner at our first African fast food chain, Steers. We were served a delicious breakfast in the morning, including our last serving of mango juice (on the safari and on Kili we often had mango or pineapple juice...yum!) before heading off to the airport for our flight. Our stopover between Nairobi and Melbourne was in Abu Dhabi, but this time it was a short layover, just enough to stretch our legs before the 13 hour trip back to Oz.

Zanzibar was definitely the perfect way to end our African holiday!