11-8 (Wednesday)

We were awakened by a puppy yapping, a mother dog barking, a rooster and what sounded like a deer getting ready to make an announcement on a loudspeaker! Welcome to the zoo hotel.

We couldn’t see it last night but the courtyard around our hotel was beautiful and went right down to the beach. We walked down for a little look-see.

After having breakfast at the hotel (tea and toast) Luis and the driver were ready to take us sightseeing. One of the first places we went was the Paradise Bar (on a cliff) for a fabulous look down on the sea, other islands and the boats. It was here that we met Kybi, probably the most interesting person we have met on the trip. He is a 30 year old from Slovakia who had ridden his BICYCLE (peddled) from Europe to Indonesia. We were all (guides included) so fascinated with is stories that we just sat and listened to him for about an hour.

When he was riding through Tibet he was attacked by a pack of dogs. He was off his bike defending himself with a stick when on of them slipped behind him and bit him in the leg. He had rabies shots before leaving on the trip but if he were to get bitten he had to take another shot within so many days or it would be curtains. He rode a full day until he found a hospital and tried to convince them to give him a shot. They threw him out. He emailed his doctor back home who said he had to get an injection. He checked into a hotel with a high fever. The hotel had NO heat! He emailed his embassy in Beijing telling them it was an emergency and to please write a letter for him in Chinese to show the hospital so he could get the injection. Everyday he pulled himself out of the bed and went to check his email. It took 5 days for the embassy to respond! He took the letter to the hospital and got the shot. Within 2-3 days he began to feel better and off he went again on his adventure. He bicycled through Afghanistan which he loved. He said they are the greatest people he has met. I don’t know how he was able to peddle over those mountains in Tibet and Afghanistan. Sounds like you, Dave! He had lots of interesting stories about that. We had to tear ourselves away from his stories. He has a web site for his pictures if anyone wants to look: http://foto.kybi.sk He says there are only 3-4 that he thinks are really good.

He has a tent and a gas burner with him. He is pulling a small “wagon” behind the bike. On each side are two “saddle bags” with clothes etc. He had a large case with all his camera equipment. When in China he had it in the basket on the front of his bike. Two guys on a motorcycle came by and grabbed it. He lost about $4,000 worth of equipment. He wrote his dad who helped him get new equipment. He was carrying a digital camera and film camera plus 2 hard drives to download his pictures onto. Before he started his journey he was a computer programmer. He hopes to find work in that field when he get to Austrealia. He only has $100 to his name. He started out with $4,000. which has lasted a hear and a half (that doesn’t include the lost camera equipment.)

After tearing ourselves away from Kybi we went to visit the local market. Nothing new there.

Then we went to a cave that is known as mirror cave. We walked a long way to get to the entrance. Joyce decided she didn’t want to go in so she went back to the car. The guide and I entered. It was a huge cave – we saw a giant honey “nest” on the side. We had to squat down and crawl through certain areas. We each had a flashlight. There were bats hanging all over –in one area they were making a noise that scared the liver out of me. When the guide and I got back to the car it was time to go to the airport for our flight back to Bali. I gave the guide a tip. He had a strange look on his face which I took to mean that he wasn’t expecting it and was pleased. I thought I gave him a dollar which would have pleased him but I later realized I had only given him 11 cents!!! No wonder he had such a look on his face! A dollar is 10,000 and 11 cents is 1,000. I have been feeling bad and laughing about it ever since. Trying to keep all the different money we use straight is a real trick.

We checked in at the airport then decided to go back outside and have a cold drink. We were sitting out there when I decided I was hungry. Our food was in one of the bags we had already checked. I went right in without putting my things on the x-ray belt again. I walked right past the check-in counter, out the door and to the luggage wagon where all the bags were stacked. Our bags were on top so I climbed right up, unzipped my bag and pulled the food bag out! I took it back outside and we chowed down. So much for security. Can you imagine doing that in the states?

Our plane finally arrived and everyone crowded around the exit door waiting for them to let us walk out and get on. Joyce and I didn’t get up because we had assigned seats and didn’t want to be in the crowd. It was only a small plane which held maybe 50 but there weren’t that many getting on. As we were sitting there one of the airport workers came up to us – took the tickets and boarding pass out of Joyce’s hand, tore off part of the boarding pass and handed everything back to her. We looked around and saw that we were the only two not on the plane and they were waiting just for the two of us! We prissed out and got on. Bali here we come . . .

We checked back into the same hotel we had just left. I asked the guy if we could have the room for $25 instead of $28 since we were such good customers. He said, “yes” if we would take a room with a shower and no tub. PERFECT! We hated the old tub anyway. You needed a ladder to get in and out of it plus we only used the shower. It was a little smaller than the other room and didn’t have a mini bar but we thought we could manage.

We went out to eat and then did Internet. We found that things are really bad in Kalimantan at the Orangutan Center. The orangutans have been burned and when they tried to escape the fires many were killed by the local people. It is just too sad. We couldn’t stand to see them in that condition so once again we will change our plans. Besides Myanmar that’s the one thing I really wanted to do over here but like I said, I couldn’t stand to see them if they have been hurt plus as of Monday the smoke was still so thick people 100’s of miles away had to drive with their headlights on in the middle of the day. We don’t want to breathe smoke and have it in our eyes and hair for over a week.

We got back to our room which felt cool but after we did our laundry and got ready for bed we realized the A/C wasn’t cooling properly. I guess tomorrow we’ll be changing rooms again!!