A Quick Return to the US – Five Days in Oahu, Hawaii
We spent an amazing five days in Oahu, Hawaii to celebrate our friends’ Joyce and Ronnie’s wedding. After months of traveling, it was so wonderful to see our friends and family again. My parents also came so it was really nice to see them. We had such a fun time hanging out on Waikiki Beach, eating American food again, exploring the North Shore, and of course, going to the most gorgeous wedding! One of the highlights (apart from the wedding) is going to Kua Aina, a burger spot that Nate had talked about going back to for the past year. I was sure it was going to disappoint, but it really was good. Finally, Nate got an actual good burger. It was my first time in Hawaii and I fell in love. But after five days, it was time to restart our travels. Here’s a snapshot of our time in Hawaii.
Resuming Our Travels: Next Up, Indonesia
We headed back to Southeast Asia to Indonesia. We went to Indonesia for our honeymoon and fell in love — so we were excited to go back and explore more of the country. We flew into Bali and arrived late at night so we stayed at a cheap hotel near the airport. The next morning, we went to the Umana Bali resort for two nights of luxury. Hawaii was so much fun, but I got very little sleep from all the activities and the back and forth travel, so I was so excited to sleep and recharge at a fancy resort. Leading up to our trip, Nate had signed up for a Hilton credit card with a huge points sign-up bonus. With those points, we were able to afford two nights at Umana Bali, somewhere we would never stay with our own money. I have to say, using points to stay at fancy places we never would otherwise, is one of my favorite parts of our trip.
Umana Bali was incredible. From the moment I walked into the lobby, I was in awe. The huge lobby was impeccable. We were welcomed with a refreshing drink and driven to our villa in a golf cart. We had an entire huge villa to ourselves with a private outdoor area with a pool and hot tub. I was giddy like a child running around the villa, in disbelief. This was by far the biggest and nicest room we had ever had.
We then went to check out the public infinity pool and bar/restaurant area. The view here was stunning, overlooking the ocean and beach from high up on a cliff. We hung out at the pool in the afternoon enjoying the views with a drink or two. Although it was the public area, we were the only two people enjoying it for most of the afternoon. The staff were so kind and even brought us multiple complimentary drinks and snacks.
For our first night’s dinner, we went to the main Commune Restaurant. The food was pretty good and reasonably priced for such a fancy place. There were some monkeys hanging out near us outside, but luckily they never got too close. After dinner, I enjoyed our hot tub while Nate watched premier league soccer.
The next day, we went to the best breakfast ever. Breakfast was both a massive buffet with an a la carte menu as well. We were overwhelmed by the options – western and Indonesian entrees, various juices/coffee/teas, fruits, pastries, even some sushi! We normally don’t eat breakfast, but we went all out ordering multiple entrees and getting multiple plates from the buffet. Everything also tasted good. We were so stuffed.
After breakfast, we took a hotel shuttle to Melasti Beach, the beach the hotel overlooks. Our hotel had a small stretch of the beach with sun beds so we were able to lounge in the shade. It wasn’t the nicest beach we’ve been to, but it was still nice, as always, to spend a couple of hours on a beach. It was quite busy with multiple beach clubs built on the beach and many buses of people coming and going.
In the afternoon, we went back to hang out at the infinity pool and ate burgers at the pool bar. We were really looking forward to the burgers, but they were unfortunately not very good. The struggle to find a good burger abroad continues. Just like the first day, there were very few people at the pool so we had a great time enjoying the massive pool just the two of us.
We still hadn’t enjoyed our private villa pool yet, so we went back to our villa before dinner for a quick swim. Then we headed to dinner at the hotel’s fancy Mediterranean restaurant, Oliverra, which overlooks the water. We were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset as we ate. The food was quite good and we received quite a good amount of complimentary bites that were all delicious. My octopus entree was amazing – I have never had such tender octopus. Nate’s squid ink pasta was also outstanding.
The next morning, we ate another hearty breakfast at the Commune before leaving the hotel and heading to Java for our next stop. We hired a driver to take us to Gilimanuk, a town in northeast Bali, to take a ferry across to Bayuwangi in East Java. From there, we would hike Mount Ijen.
Hiking Mount Ijen, an Active Volcano
From Bayuwangi, we went on a sunrise hike of Mount Ijen with our hostel, Ijen Backpackers. Ijen is an active volcano that is famous for its blue acidic lake and “blue fire” which is sulfuric gas. We were amazed by the pictures of the blue fire and decided to go. What we didn’t know is that Ijen had been closed to tourists for a while due to volcanic activity and had only reopened a week before we arrived. We had not been monitoring this, so we were lucky that we were able to visit Ijen. Unfortunately, due to the recent volcanic activity, there was no blue fire. Still, we were there, so we decided to still hike the volcano.
In order to summit by sunrise, we had to start the journey at 1am. We arrived at the hostel after a day of travel around 5pm, so we had very little sleep before the hike. A large group of us got into hostel vans and made the 1.5-hr drive to Ijen. From there, we were introduced to our guides and given masks, which could be necessary due to the high concentration of sulfuric gas,
We climbed in the dark for over two hours. It was a pretty steep climb the entire way and although it was quite chilly, I found myself sweating and taking off layers. We finally reached the top before 5am and found a spot to sit and wait for the sunrise. I was freezing at the top as we waited, fully exposed to the wind. I regretted not bringing more layers. Eventually the sun rose and we could see the bright blue lake and the beautiful colors of the sunrise. It was beautiful, but I was too cold and tired to truly appreciate it all.
We descended to meet our group by 7am and made our way back to the hostel around 9am where we had a filling breakfast. Our ride to our next destination was picking us up at 12pm, so we did not have much time to rest until we were on the road again.
Java Turtle Lodge: A True Hidden Gem of Java
From Bayuwangi, we headed to the southern coast of Java just outside Meru Betiri National Park. This was a true off-the-beaten-path destination as we hadn’t read about this on any blog or travel guide. Nate stumbled upon Java Turtle Lodge zooming around Google Maps and we found out from the reviews that you could arrange a trip to the sea turtle conservation program at Sukamade Beach in the national park and see nesting sea turtles at night and release baby sea turtles. We were very excited about this experience and decided to go.
We spent 5 wonderful nights at Java Turtle Lodge exploring the nearby beaches and going on the 2 day, 1 night sea turtle experience. We arrived at the Lodge around 2:30pm and as we were exhausted from the travel and climbing Ijen, we slept and rested at the Lodge. The Lodge was one of the best values of the trip. It was a very nice, charming compound with a very clean and modern room for only $17 a night. The lodge is in a very local area so we ate all of our meals during our stay at the lodge.
The next day, we went to Green Bay Beach, which was a short drive and a mile walk from the road. It was truly a local beach with very few tourists and several locals and lots of pesky monkeys. Our lodge owner warned us about the monkeys so we didn’t bring any food, but we say many locals lose snacks to monkeys that would sneak up and steal food. The beach was aptly named green as the water was a beautiful sea green color.
On day three, we went on the sea turtle adventure which was a highlight of our trip. We had a private guide that took us to Sukamade Beach. It was a very bumpy two hour ride through Meru Betiri. The roads were purposely left in bad condition by the park to discourage illegal hunting and poaching in the park. Partway through, we were allowed to sit on top of the jeep for the ride. This was so much fun! We had never done this before so it was exhilarating and the views riding through the park were stunning. There are some people that live in the park and work the land in a variety of ways planting coffee, latex trees, peanuts, corn, etc. so it was interesting to see the contrast between the “untouched” natural parts of the park and the cultivated agricultural part side by side. Aside from the sea turtle experience, the park is rarely visited so there was almost no one around. We took a stop midway through in a beautiful clear area for a coffee and a snack. Even apart from the sea turtle experience, riding on the top of the jeep through the park was a top-rated experience.
We finally reached the turtle conservation area before sunset and I was surprised by how built up it was. I was expecting extremely basic accommodations, but we had electricity, running water, and real beds! After dinner, we found the turtle hatchery and squealed watching the just-hatched baby turtles skittering around in the hatchery. They are so cute. The rangers collect sea turtle eggs every night after a mother lays eggs and brings them to the hatchery to protect the eggs from predators. Once the babies are born, they bring them back to Sukamade Beach and release them.
I learned so much about sea turtles. Sea turtles lay one to two hundred eggs at once and only about 1 in 1,000 babies will make it into adulthood past 20-years. If they survive to that age, sea turtles can live to past 100-years old. Sukamade Beach is a very popular nesting beach for the Green Sea Turtle. Sea turtles always come back to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs which is why it is important to release them at the same place the eggs were collected. Occasionally they also get an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle and they rarely get Leatherbacks at Sukamade. It was sad thinking that none of the baby turtles we saw would likely make it to adulthood.
After a short briefing, we made our way to Sukamade Beach around 8pm in the dark. We waited in the center of the beach while the park rangers spread out on the beach looking out for nesting mother turtles. Once they found a mother turtle, they signaled for us to come closer so we could watch, but from a distance. For the sake of the turtles, we were not allowed to shine lights on while they were trying to nest, so it was a bit difficult to make them out in the dark. But we could still generally see them and it was fascinating to see all the sand being tossed up as they dug to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, none of the three turtles we saw ended up laying eggs. This is because the turtles require a certain level of wetness in the sand, but there had been a dry spell and the beach was dry. So we had to turn back without experiencing egg collection. But it was still a great experience.
The next morning, we got up early to release baby sea turtles that hatched in the hatchery. We were given a dozen or so babies to release on the beach. The turtles were so small and precious. We named and released them one by one, hoping that they will survive into adulthood. Though we knew that the chances of their survival were exceedingly low. After releasing the turtles, we are also allowed to help the rangers bury the newly collected eggs in the hatchery. Overnight, after we had gone to bed, the rangers discovered other turtles that laid eggs and had collected them. The egg shell felt so delicate that I was scared of damaging it. It was all in all such a unique and cool experience. After his, we headed back to Java Turtle lodge. In addition to pictures, here is a video reel of the sea turtle experience.
We spent our last two days at Java Turtle Lodge going to the beach down the street. Nate particularly loved this because it reminded him of the beaches in San Diego with crashing waves. He spent long stretches of time riding and ducking the waves. I like calmer waters and do not like being tossed by the waves. Case in point – I lost my “new” sunglasses I purchased in Turkey in a crashing wave… Two sunglasses down on this trip and hopefully my last.
One night, the lodge owner showed us a dragon fruit flower that had bloomed. It was very cool to see. I had no idea how a dragon fruit grows, but we learned that from a small tree, a huge flower blossoms for just one day and then the flower turns into the fruit as we know it!
After a relaxing stay in the south, we headed next to climb another famous mountain on Java – Mount Bromo.
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