Monkey forest

A few days ago I visited a forest full of mean animals, that have territories and can thrive in locations that we can't. This forest was the monkey forest. Now when you think of monkeys you think of the zoo and cute faces harmless right. Well what would happen if you had twice the monkeys and were put in the exhibit with stupid people vying food. Well you get a pretty good picture of what I did and saw.



First NEVER BUY FOOD!!!! Second don't bring food or water or possessions. Third give the monkeys their space. Fourth stay on the path. Fifth if a monkey try's to take one of your possessions, skipped the second rule, or has it in it's mouth don't try to take it. If you follow these rules you will survive and make it through the monkey forest without any bight marks, blood, limb loss just kidding and you won't visit the hospital.




Now to the forest, remember the first rule to survival against the monkeys with the big teeth, well we were worms about it all but some people think it's fun. Well I went 100 feet before people where attacked. Science I survived the monkey forest it was very entertaining to see these people. I mean half of the reason I went in the morning was to see these people.



Monkeys are intelligent and can tell when you have bananas in your pocket and that's half the reason why they climb on you. There were also baby monkey babies hanging on to there mothers belly. There were also three monkeys playing a game where they jump from the same place to the other same place. They jumped into the pond which was neat.


Now from reading this you can be safe in the monkey forest.

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Location:Bali

The story

There was a man from Switzerland named Lorenz who liked to scuba dive. So he decided to travel half way around the world to find an area that has the most spectacular reefs he could find.

16 years ago he flew to Bali, then he took several boats, and 4 days later he arrived at a small village on a tiny island off of south east Sulawesi. This is where he decided to build his dive resort.

He negotiated with the locals to lease part of the island and the fishing rights for the reefs to protect them. He took the first two letters from the names of the four closest islands and named his resort to be Wakatobi.

The whole area was covered with thick jungle which he had to clear away in order to begin building his first structure of the resort which started it all.



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Location:Wakatobi

Rice patties

Yesterday I visited some of the best rice patties in all of Bali. Here is what they looked like.









These are rice terrace. These are every where down the valley. They are cut ledges in the side of the hill for rice.





The rice is grown in plugs in well organized rows. The rice is harvested by hand when the rice is grown in terraces, but when grown on flat fields they can use machines.





When the rice is yellow and bent over is when the rice is ready to be harvested. This process, which has been used for thousands of years, takes about three months. The plugs take about 18 days to grow before moved to the patties.




Before they plant the rice plugs they have to plow the mud into rows using the cows. Why they have the cows is because they cut the grass from the walking paths and feed them. In return they use the manure for the rice and for plowing.
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Location:Mountains of bali

The trees

Today i went to Mass. It was the town of the wood carvings. They had hundreds of wood carving shops with billions of wood carvings. However these carvings were so detailed, knowing that I was going to Mass was when I wanted to buy a small wood carving. These detailed carvings made it impossible to think of what I was looking for.

Then I visited a temple Ulun Danu. This Temple is on a lake and has three main towers. The first has 11 roofs the second one has 1 roof and the third furthest from shore has 3 roofs. This temple in each corner has a frog.

The third part of the day was the best. If you remember no the last day of Balleret then that is what I did. I did a ropes course. This ropes course had circuits which where in different levels. Your harness consisted of two carabiner, and on the zip line there are the wheels which where also attached to the harness. First we practiced on the demo course then we did the circuits. We did three over all orange, red, then because of the energy loss we did orange again. You had to have at least one carabiner hooked up the whole time. Back to the circuits, you never touch the ground so you go from tree to tree an between trees theres challenges or a zip line.

So for the orange circuit you first climb up a ladder. Then you attach one carabiner on the left and right cables an walk across on another cable bellow. Then you attach the carabiners the same way except that there are logs in a zig zag formation all the way across, there bolted together. One more thing if there's one piece of red tape it means one carabiner, if two red bands of tape it means two carabiners, but if there is a red, blue, red pattern of tape it means there's a carabiner, your zip line wheels, and then another carabiner. So then after the logs you put two carabiners son one cable and walk on one other cable bellow. Then you do a zip line to another tree. Then do another zip line to another tree. Finally you do a zip line to a thick net and you have to grab on. Then you un hook yourself except for one carabiner all the way to the ground.

Ok for the red circuit you started by climbing up a thick net. Then you have the one wire to hang on two and the one wire to walk on. Then you have to walk across 10 stirrups hanging on 6 feet of rope. Then you take a leap of fate by jumping of on a swing and grabbing on to another net. Then you had to climb up the net to 5 wires lined up like a ladder which you had to climb up. At that next tree platform you where about 50 feet high. From there you plummet into the trees on a zip line which you can't see the end of. From there you walk across two blue bars then a brown block. This happens every foot. This obstacle is about ten feet. The there where 25 planks that twisted if you were unbalanced. Each plank is about 2 feet. Then we stood on a skateboard type of a zip line, it twists and there's a white rope to hold on to. Then we did another zip line. There were two more obstacles in my way before we were finished. I was determined so then I crossed 10logs that weren't bolted together. After that I could relax for 500 feet on the longest zip line there in till I hit the rope.

I did the orange circuit again and had a total of 9 zip lines. It was the best ropes course ever. It was in the Botanic Garden so I looked around a little bit and went back to the hotel.

P.S. The wi fi is awful anywhere I go so it's a miracle when ever I can post anything.


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The move

I have moved from the diving paradise to the tropical mountain paradise. It was quite a journey. First, I went from a small boat to the dive boat. Then, I went to another small boat which took me to a pier where I had to walk from there to a stair case with 50 steps up to a car which took us to the tiny air strip. From there it would knock off another 2 hours of 48 in the air total on this trip.

We arrived back in Denpassar, Bali which is a very busy city. In Bali for every car there are about 30-40 mopeds squeezing through the cars and down the road in every which way, carrying 1-5 people. There are no lanes and they drive on the left side of the road. From Denpassar we then took a 1 and half hour drive to our new location, Ubud. We have our own infinity pool with a great view of the valley below.





On our first day out we got to ride on elephants, go to a coffee making plantation and watch billions of white headed herons come in for a nights rest. Leaving Wakatobi was sad knowing that the trip is half over but I am still staying in the best places ever.

P.S. I saw 3 cuttlefish and 2 Pygmy seahorses on the last dive so now I can relax. I was a little panicked going in because it was a wall dive and our last dive. Just so you know, cuttlefish are not common and don't prefer wall dives but apparently they preferred it this time. :)



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Location:Kupu Kupu Barong hotel, Ubud Bali

Sum up

I have a few blogs to post but other than that I'm going to have to skip a few days because we wake up eat breakfast and go on a dive. We get the time to get something from the shore that we need for the next dive. Return, rinse off look at pictures, and go to lunch. Than head out for the third dive. Return for a good shower, look at pictures, type the blogs, and go to dinner. Because of the time change we go strait to bed. We then wake up and start all over again.

Ive lost track of the days spent here on Wakatobi and don't ever want to leave. I've seen something new every day. I've had no breaks except for when I skip a dive. I use that time to catch up on the blogs. If I skip the first dive however it means I slept in longer. It's been the best time of my life and cant wait to share more.

Since I'm in a different ocean there's different sea life meaning I've seen different animals that ive never seen before. One of which was the manta shrimp. On some of the dives I took pictures. Here are 4 of the best. They where all shot on one dive on the top of the ridge. The dive was Teluk Waitti.




This is a box fish about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide. His cousin the orange and black one is two times as big.



This is the full length of a banded sea snake. He is about two feet long. One night I went out to the jetty to have some water and one popped up in-between the floorboard one foot in front of me. They are highly venomous.



This is a sea turtle about a meter long. I was taking a picture of the sea snake above when I saw him in the distance over on the other side of the ridge. He was swimming into the current so I got so few pictures and I was the only one who saw him.



This is a two tone dart fish. His head is pointing towards the bottom right corner. He's light blue and skinny in the front and dark blue with really wide fins in the back. He's about 6 inches long and looks like a feather dart that you would through at the dart board.


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Location:Wakatobi

Day 3

We did 2 day dives and 1night dive. I am still having the best time and can't wait to finish my list. My list however is an octopus, cuddle fish, and a pigmy seahorse.

On the day dives I saw a turtle, puffer fish, lizard fish, and star fish. On the night dive however I thought to have seen a cuttlefish but every one disagrees, tons of shrimp, a manta shrimp, and billions of trigger fish. I was close to being hit by the boat as I came up but so far I haven't visited the hospital.

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Location:Wakatobi

Day 5

Today I took a break and only did one dive cause the boat didn't return to the jetty after the first dive. I did the house reef and the current was so strong that you couldn't swim against it. All you could do was go with the flow.


I saw a turtle, 6 lion fish 4 of which were in one cave, a crocodile fish, 2 huge box fish about a foot long each, bat fish, a 2 foot long map puffer, a leaf fish, picasso trigger fish, and another lizard fish. I am still looking for an octopus, cuttlefish, or a pigmy sea horse.



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Location:Wakatobi

Paradise

Here are some photos of where we are staying, this is our bungalow which is about 10 feet to the water when the tide is high! We have a gecko that lives up in the ceiling and squawks at us.


Here is where we eat all our delicious meals, no shoes required. There are foot showers everywhere and nobody wears shoes!






Here is a picture where all the dive equipment is kept.



Here is a picture of the dive boats we go out on every day.



Here is what it looks like at the end of a day in paradise.



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Wakatobi day 2 photos

2nd day

We did three dives, out of these dives I saw millions of fish. Here are some of the more interesting ones that I think you should look up. The dive sites were galaxy, molebia, and the zoo as the three dives.

The fish where 2 eels, a turtle, bat fish, endless spotted rays and trigger fish of all kinds, 3 lion fish, many different puffer fish, a stone fish, nudibranch, and a crocodile fish. The last two things I would like to see is a cuttlefish and an octopus.

Andrina, from London England, is our dive master who shows and guides us on all the dives. The resort has cats all around and tons of food. The food is the best and the service is even better. The bungalows are tiny but sleepable with an outdoor shower and a lounge patio right in front of the ocean.
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1st day

We arrived in Wakatobi to a car ride through the town. Then we got a look around as we pulled into the jeddi. After our look around we ate lunch. I was so excited to finally be there that I wanted to go to the ocean while everybody finished up.

2 minutes after standing In the water I saw a pepper eel. They are not common in shallow water but common in the reef. Later I went snorkeling and saw a blue spotted sting ray, lion fish, and 5 other pepper eels.

This was the first day. Tomorrow I will etempt to do 3 dives.


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Location:Wakatobi

Arrival in bangkok

There's not much to talk about except for the 15 and a half hour flight I completed about an hour ago. The seats where in pairs of two in a boat shaped structure and could fold and bend from anything to a chair to a bed. There was a huge amount of space including a TV which contained video games and movies. I did both.



Thats about it. I will be leaving for the third flight out of four until I reach Wakatobi. Hopefully then I will be able to talk about the fish.




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At the airport

As you all know I left on Saturday for a two hour flight. I have finished that flight and will soon be leaving for the 2nd flight. The flight will last about 15 and a half hours. I will board at 10:00 at night.

I have been informed that I will be sitting in first class for all flights up to Wakatobi, our finall destination. Then I will spend 10 days scuba diving and showing some of the wonderful sea creatures with pictures.

I would have spent a full 24 hours by the time I reach Wakatobi. So far you can cross of 2 of those hours.




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Location:LAX lounge

My itinerary

I leave Saturday at 5:30PM and fly to LA. Then I leave at 11:20PM to Bangkok. I arrive at Bangkok on Monday at 6:40AM. I am told it will be a 15 and a half hour flight. Can't wait to start counting down.

2 hours later I get on another flight to Bali Indonesia :( We arrive in Bali at 2:00PM. Finally I get to rest but only for one night. Then at the crack of dawn you can guess what happens...... ANOTHER FLIGHT.

Now there's the 2 1/2 hours of more flying oh joy. We finally arrive at our destination, Wakatobi (www.Wakatobi.com), on Tuesday October 11th. We will be scuba diving for 10 days.

After 10 relaxing, beautiful , amazing days on Wakatobi we have more miserable, dreadful flying - 3 hours back to Bali. I will be staying in Ubud for 4 days. Finally we go back to Bangkok, Thailand for 4 days. Then I have the nightmare of flights back to home sweet home.

If you're wondering about the time difference here's an example; I am writing this blog on Tuesday night at 8:25PM, if I were in Bali or Wakatobi it would be wednesday at 10:25AM and if I were in Bangkok it would be Wednesday at 9:25AM.

This is Spencer signing off:)


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