Shadowing Practice: INDONESIA 🇮🇩 What you NEED to know before you go - Learn English Speaking with Video

We just spent two weeks traveling around Indonesia, and in this video we're going to tell you all the things we wish we knew before we traveled there.

Unbelievable, yes, it's worth the hike.

We're going to break down the costs of transport, accommodation and activities, and give you loads of tips and advice for the different places that we visited.

Doing this when it's busy will be a nightmare because it's pretty single file.

Now, both Luke and I had been to Indonesia before, but we only visited Bali and Gili T, and so this trip focused on going to mostly new places for us.

Lombok.

Yeah.

You're sick.

So, our route began with one day in Jakarta, and then we flew to Milan and had a few days travelling around East Java.

This is our lodge right here.

And this is the view.

That's unbelievable.

We then just had one night in Bali before making our

way towards Gili T to have a couple of nostalgic nights there.

This is really cool actually being back.

From here we spent four days traveling around Lombok on bikes

and then we flew to Laobo and Bajo to do a two day one night boat trip around Komodo National Park.

That was genuinely one of the best things I've ever seen.

Normally when I do like a travel tips video I kind of break it down by like money

and accommodation and transport and other things like that

but for this one we're going to break it down by location because it's like different advice for different parts of Indonesia.

We started in Jakarta and we're not going to have much advice for Jakarta at all

because Because we had one full day there

and we were there on a Monday and on Mondays everything in Jakarta is shut.

So the first tip is don't go to Jakarta on a Monday.

I think we might have picked the worst day of the week to come to Jakarta.

It was the most random, random day in Jakarta.

Yeah.

We stayed at Wunderloft Hostel in the old town of Jakarta.

The guys in the hostel were amazing.

And the hostel itself was kind of a perfect little setting for us to catch up as well.

Because it had the little bar downstairs, the pool table.

Jakarta is obviously a huge city

and we were trying to use the buses to get around

and at the hostel they lent us like one of those travel cards, be like an oyster card and we just topped it up ourselves

so that was pretty easy but other than that yeah just just just don't go on a Monday.

Moving over to East Java we were gonna get the train to Malang, overnight train but it sold out months in advance

because of the holidays that were on which is why we flew to Malang.

Now lots Lots of other people when they go into East Java fly to Surabaya, use the airport there, but it's like Malang and Surabaya like the same distance to Bromo,

same time and because we had our sort of mines fixed to Malang that's why we went through there.

And I think Malang is actually a town worth checking out.

An earlier version of the itinerary we're going to have a bit of time there to see it, but then we only had two weeks and there was

so much to see so I was just like sorry

that one had to go yeah from getting from malang airport

to our accommodation in bromo the guy who worked at the

accommodation just whatsapp me saying do you need a transport

and we just booked it straight through him and

that cost us 850 000 rupee which works out 35 quid

or 47 us dollars which

when you divide it by the two of us was pretty cheap

and a lot of the places in east java

if you're traveling it solo the cost will mount up for the transport

but because we had the two of us like it made it all still very cheap

and not still not extortionate money 35 quid for a three

-hour drive you know as a you know a bargain that's

that's an uber that's an uber central london yeah exactly yeah

so um we did meet a few people uh in java didn't really who were traveling on their own

and they were asking us you know do you know anyone going here

because it's actually fighting my budget a lot yeah you pay taxes on my own

and obviously in east java it's pretty much the only way to get around.

But what a lot of people do East Java is they'll just do it on like a mini group tour.

They'll book like a three or four day thing.

There might be like solo backpacking around Bali or whatever

or doing like a Southeast Asia solo backpacking trip

or even with friends or whatever

but then just to get East Java sword they'll just book a tour just to make it simple.

I'll put a link up to one of those tours here in case anyone wants to book that.

It's very it's so easy to do by yourself you definitely do not need a tour but

if you just want someone to take care of all the

transport probably bring down some of the costs in terms of transport

and also if you want just people to share the experience with it can be worth looking at

because there wasn't much of a scene in East Java like there was a couple of hostels here

and there but there was it wasn't like lots of people hanging out

and stuff so it's worth looking at

if you want to have like guarantee people to share the experience with

but in terms of money and ease it's so easy to do by yourself.

Yeah, obviously it's a lot quieter

but it still is the same as going pretty much anywhere in Southeast Asia where you get to the hostel.

and they will ask you, you know, have you got on with travel?

Have you booked somewhere next?

And they'll know somebody who can take you.

So it doesn't feel like you're quite in the midst of the backpacking.

So even the actual side of people helping you out and organizing things can be exactly the same.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaking of having people to share the experience with, obviously Luke and I were having such a great time together on this trip, but there were certain moments where we were really missing our better halves.

Jamie, Holly, we wish you were here.

Fortunately, it was super easy to keep in touch with them

because we'd signed up to a holoflight plan Which wouldn't you know just

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So on this trip I did in March I spent two

weeks in Japan with Jamie two weeks in Indonesia with Luke

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and even had a few hours in Beijing Airport on my flight back

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And now let's head back to Mount Bromo for some more Indonesia travel tips.

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Where we stayed at in Bromo there's like a little village right by the crater of the volcano

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and we stayed at Kayo Homestay

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and this place like you know it's a basic room just beds

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and a like trickle for a shower but it's all you need

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because you're not really spending much time in the room anyway

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you're kind of arriving enjoying being outside in the evening

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and then you're up in the crack of dawn to go see the sunrise

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but it was as we showed in the film it was

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right by the edge you just walked literally 30 seconds from your room and you've got the viewpoint right there.

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Yeah we didn't touch the room as soon as we put our stop in the room we were straight out

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and we stayed there until we went to bed.

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Yeah that's exactly what you need.

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Yeah and like the little village had everything from like they were selling like warm clothes

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and drinks and had an ATM so if you'd forgotten anything

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if you mostly packed clothes for warm weather for Indonesia

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and then you suddenly higher up

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because it's about 2 ,000 meters up I think then you can quickly grab some extra layers

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but it wasn't

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that cold like I'd I'd read stuff online about it being like people been freezing cold

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and so I packed all these like thick layers

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and I didn't need any of them like it was you

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know I was quite nervous I was quite nervous for that

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because I had not prepared any cold and I'm not very good with it.

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But no issue, absolutely fine.

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That up there behind the trees is where we're hiking.

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Yeah.

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That's King Kong Hill up there.

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It doesn't look that hard, to be honest.

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I would say about that hike, if you're doing it, I wouldn't do it by yourself.

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There's a potential you could lose the path in the pitch black, potentially fall off something and potentially roll your ankle

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and you're not going to get any help for a good couple of hours until the sun comes up

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and people can see you.

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You know, it's only a 45 minute hike, but I would only do it if you're traveling with someone else.

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Yeah, because we did actually get lost.

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Yeah.

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About halfway through doing we.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Because it really, really didn't look like a path.

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Because it starts out very clear, you're following a road, and then you're following some steps in a path, and then you get to a place, and then suddenly you're just following this tiny little, like, it's about literally this wide kind of thing.

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Yeah, on the left it was trees, and then on the right it was just that massive pipe.

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I don't know if you remember.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So it was very confusing, but...

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Hey, you saw we got that?

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Yeah, yeah.

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Let's stand out alright.

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Good hold.

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We made it, let's go.

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The bikes can take you straight to the top.

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You don't need to do the hike.

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We just chose to do it.

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And in terms of booking the bikes and the Jeeps, it was just when you get to the Bromo Park entrance in your transfer, like the day before, and you're paying the entrance,

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there's already guys coming up to the window saying, do you need a Jeep?

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Do you need a bike?

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So it's like, if you get to Bromo and can't book a Jeep or a bike, you've done something very, very wrong

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because it's you're in i think you're in the wrong place yeah yeah you're not in bromo

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as we said in the video as well like bikes would be it is so much better than jeeps in every way.

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It made our day so much quicker.

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Yeah.

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And that traffic coming down was pretty horrific, actually.

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And then the rest of it, the little stroll up to the volcano was fine.

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It was a lot more impressive than we thought.

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But then walking back across the Sea of Sands, I really enjoyed, actually.

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Yeah, that was great.

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I really liked that.

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It was only like a half hour walk or something, so it's not like anything strenuous, but just felt like you kind of got to experience the land a little more rather than just, you know, sit on the back of the bike all the way.

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The worst part was actually that road at the end.

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Yeah.

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Like the last 10 minutes.

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Yeah, yeah, because you've got to get that final bit out.

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It's quite steep and there's lots of horses going past, so it stinks.

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And it's like the jeeps zooming past.

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Yeah, so that wasn't pleasant.

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After Brahma, we went round to Tumpak Sewu.

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It's weird because I was trying to look up, like Tumpak Sewu was the name of the waterfall, but I was trying to look up the name of the little village we're in.

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I just couldn't find it like it was around like on the sides

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but i can't remember it but even looking on google maps

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or look at the address of the place we were staying

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it kind of said what kind of county it's in

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or whatever but it was no like like this village is called an obvious thing like that

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but again the transport we booked it from our bromo accommodation

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it was just the same guide it was the same price

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so again anywhere you go if you need transport you speak to reception

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and they're just like get it sorted for you

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and then the place we stayed at was Indar Damae Cottages

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which was 24 pounds or 33 dollars

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and again that's between the two of us he split

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that in two and that was lovely

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that was a really really really nice place I reckon if

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that wasn't Bali they'd be charged about four times the amount

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because it's very kind of Instagram friendly very picturesque

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that afternoon we went to see Kabat Palangi Falls

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which was just like a 20 minute walk from our place

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there are lots of other waterfalls in the area as well like

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if we were doing a more leisurely pace on this trip

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it would have been great to stay there another night

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and then just go and see

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because Tumpaxebo is the famous one everyone goes to see

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but it would have been fun to go for like a random explore

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and just see what else was in the area

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but Tumpaxebo itself it cost a hundred thousand rupees to get in

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which is like four quid or six dollars and the waterfalls itself spectacular

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but getting down to it is like these super steep steps

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yeah it's you got it's one of those you've got to kind of look down

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or up most of the way yeah just to make sure where you've got your foot in right yeah yeah

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and obviously because it's next to a waterfall slash river it is very snippy like most of the way

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so moving on to eijin so it was a seven hour transfer from Tumpak Seyo,

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again just booked through our accommodation.

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That cost us 1300 rupees which is like 53 quid, 73 dollars but again divide that by two because there's two of us.

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Everything there is super easy.

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We were staying at it's it's it's ZZZ EGIM hostel it's like the sleeping hostel which is ironic

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I don't know if anyone actually sleeps there it's more like luggage storage with a bed.

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Yeah, a lovely hostel.

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No dispatched hostel was made.

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People working there were really nice and stuff.

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And yeah, you can just book the whole volcano experience through them.

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So it was like all super reaching, super simple.

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Why the fuck are we doing this?

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Honestly, I can't stress enough how miserable this man was before that high.

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It was hilarious, but also not because I was also a part of this.

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We didn't do ourselves any favors because we did like we were tired

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and then we had Pizza Hut and beer Which is not exactly energy inducing kind of a...

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What we're saying in the video is like the blue flame It's funny

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when I've shown the video to people they see the blue flame they go like oh, that's really cool I'm like It's it's fine, but it's like if you've been on like when you were younger

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when you're like a sort of lads holiday somewhere in Europe

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and they kind of pour like Sambuco over the bar

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and light it on flame it just looks yeah

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that like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean it's a cool experience I'm glad we did it

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and the view for the Sunrise is great but

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if you can find a company

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that just takes you up there to do for the Sunrise

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so you can get you get a bit of sleep I would try

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and seek that out but i don't know if those companies exist i think everyone just says i'm not sure

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going down when it was really dark all of it was wrong there was no steps

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or anything like that you're just constantly looking down you can't see anything yeah

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and some people even miss the sunrise because they stayed down there too long

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or couldn't see the flame because It's only like at sunrise where you suddenly go like, Oh, that's what we were walking through because you had no idea.

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On the way up here, maybe in five minutes after we started, how many Bintangs did you say that we had in the fridge?

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Four or five?

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Wrong.

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We had three or four.

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Nice.

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I love you, Luke.

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The reason why I snuck that Bintang into my bag before the hike as well is

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because I knew that that would lift you.

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It did?

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Oh, you know me so well.

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Oh mate, you're welcome mate.

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Oh, I'm so glad you did.

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Oh, it's good though.

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It's always good mate.

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No, but like really good.

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After all that pain, not even physical pain, just pain of being tired and just like why?

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So no, I felt good.

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And then moving on to Bali, because we were on such a tight schedule, I was like, I don't want us to get to the pier

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and the ferry be sold out we have to wait around

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so I pre booked our ferry tickets on a website called 12 go Asia

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which I've used a lot before they're great for using like booking buses

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and things like that around Southeast Asia but we got there

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and we're getting out the ferry and I showed the guy the booking

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and went well that's your booking confirmation it's not your actual tickets

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and also get the tickets you have to text this number

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and then they'll authorize the tickets so I WhatsApp this number

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and they just never replied and

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so we ended up just buying new tickets Now the tickets cost like a dollar

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so it's like not like it wasn't a problem

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But I'd only just booked them just like to guarantee our spot

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But it it turned out

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because it was a day after the holidays like everyone was traveling across So rather just being one ferry an hour.

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There was just a constant They were just like just the next one you just get on

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and there's this whole fleet going.

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Yeah It's a bit of an armada wasn't it?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it just it's supposed to be a half -hour journey

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But it took us an hour and a half just

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because we were waiting in a queue to actually get to the dock

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and stuff like that But it all worked out

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and then jumped in a taxi to that hotel and we were staying at the

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Tamansari Bali Resort and Spa in Pemmuteran Beach and

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that cost us between us was 82 pounds or $111

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Which was a reduced rate because it was just before the main season started

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So we did get a deal that way but like

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that place was spectacular I mean even

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if you paid the full rate it's still a bargain to other places in the world for a hotel

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that nice in that kind of setting.

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That was an evening that gave us everything we needed in a sense of just chilling out.

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Even when the weather's just up we just still sat in that hut and had a few drinks.

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Yeah.

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It was great because we were so exhausted from the first few days of the trip, especially the last night of climbing the volcano.

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It was just a nice time to wind down, relax.

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And then I remember we got back to our rooms.

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We had like separate rooms.

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I know what's coming.

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Yeah.

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I know what's coming.

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I mean, I think I might have, I can't remember if I'd fallen asleep or not, but I went out to the balcony and I just saw Luke, and obviously just lay down on the couch on his balcony,

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he was just passed out like dead to the world.

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He had to have flies.

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Yeah.

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He had to have flies, mouth wide open, bin tagged next to me.

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Yeah, sleep had finally caught up with us and just those beds were comfy so that was...

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Well, I actually didn't enjoy the bed to my maximum potential because I just sat on the balcony half the night.

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Oh yeah.

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Yeah.

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You just paid for one room and you could have just slept on the balcony.

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And then we're moving on to Gilly Tea.

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So the transfer was 900 ,000 rupees, so 37 pounds, 50 dollars.

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And again, that was like four or five hour drive.

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The ferry was 300 ,000 rupees.

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So again, 12 quid, 17 dollars.

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So not much and yeah yeah go sit upstairs

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when you're on it like you know get the amount of I can't can't sex it up

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that was all you to be fair because you're the one

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that realised that there was a deck up there I saw the seats upstairs

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and saw no one was there because we got on

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and all the seats inside were full and so we went up there

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and had our own we started out a private party

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and then gradually people came up

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and then they were serving beers up there they had like I put They had the big old speaker.

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It was great.

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Yeah, that did really turn into the Gilly Free game, didn't it?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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That whole trip.

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Gilly Tea!

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We were staying at the Tipsy Turtle Hostel.

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For the twin room, it was 25 quid a night or $34.

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Great hostel.

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Really good hostel.

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Location's not too far off the main street.

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One thing I would say for Gilly Tea, a general bit of advice, is that some of the hostels are a bit further away

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and like you can easily hire out bicycles or scooters

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because the islands you think the islands tiny

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but it's deceptively a bit bigger than you think and

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if your hostel is a bit further away

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but you want to be able to quickly nip to the beach

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or to the shops then it might be worth getting a bike for your days

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and then i'm sure they're dirt cheap i didn't see the prices

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but nice one yeah we went a bit hard yeah and that was that was

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well it's the only night we actually really got drunk like we had plenty of beers on this trip

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but the only time we really got drunk was

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that big kind of gilly tea that was the only time that we He woke up quite dusty.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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There's no other tips or advice for ghillie tea.

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You just go there and have a good time.

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Then you'll figure it all out.

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It's not like...

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Yeah, and if you don't have a good time in ghillie tea, then...

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Then go to one of the other ghillies.

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Go to Gillie Air.

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Yeah.

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The boat across the Lombok was 150 ,000 rupees, which is like six quid or eight dollars.

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We booked it a day before, but you can probably just buy it on the day and just walk onto these things.

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Even though it was busy, there's so many of them going.

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And then we got to Ryan's motorbike rental.

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I literally just zoomed into Google Maps just looking up bike rental and this one came up.

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And then I saw the reviews of it and they're all fantastic.

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And they were correct.

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The guy was, Ryan was so good.

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The bikes were great.

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I could store my big bag there for the few days and stuff like that.

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Yeah, that was your main worry, wasn't it?

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Because you didn't know for a fact before we got there whether you could store your big bag or not.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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As soon as we got there, he was like, yeah, leave it here.

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Yeah, because he was about to tie it onto the back of my bike and sort of be riding around with that, which would have made it gone even slower.

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Imagine you going up that mountain pass.

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I don't know if I would have made another mountain pass with that bag on.

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Not a chance.

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Yeah.

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And I would say for Lombok in general, a scooter is 100 % the best way to get around because, again, you can book transports,

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but I think they might have been more pricey than they were in Java

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because I remember when we're at the Tedibatu bungalow

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and the German girl who was on the did the tour with us she was traveling by herself

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and she was booking transports and she was trying to see

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if anyone else was going the same direction as her to

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sort of save money on these long drives whilst for us riding the scooters was just it was

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so cheap I mean the bikes were 100 000 rupees per day

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so that's four pounds or six dollars per day for the bike

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and then petrol was fifteen thousand rupees for one bottle

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which is less than a dollar and you might take two bottles to fill up

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but it's just it's so cheap like ignoring how fun it is

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and all all the rest of it it's just so

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so cheap um i don't think we ever stopped twice for

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fuel on the journey yeah i don't think every single time

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one refill yeah just usually one refill per day yeah

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and it was i mean it was so much fun driving

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and didn't feel even the places where it was busier didn't

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feel like unsafe like it wasn't like i remember some of the stretches i did in vietnam on a scooter

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and like this like giant lorries coming past and all that

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and you like feels a bit sketchy

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but lombok just felt fine yeah we had a couple of

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like busier traffic areas again nothing yeah busy you're going

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so slow you're almost just like pushing the bike through the crowds

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so it sort of you know takes a bit to navigate

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but it didn't feel didn't feel dangerous

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or anything no i think out of a whole like four days in lombok

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that was maybe 10 minutes yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the rest of time is pretty pretty empty

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and stuff so if you've got a driving license um i mean

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if you're going from gilly t to lombok

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and you're not used to riding a scooter

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and maybe hire out a scooter in Gilly T just to get used to it.

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So you're just going up and down the beach

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and just get used to handling it and then by the time you get to Lombok you'll be good to go.

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Yeah, to be fair you'll probably get better practice in Gilly.

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Yeah.

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Because you've got horses coming both ways as well.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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And drunk backpackers. So...

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Which is more dangerous than that.

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If you can do it and you feel comfortable doing it, it's the best way to get around otherwise you're gonna be you know paying for transfers

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which again if there's a group of you it's fine but

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if it's your solo hey Rosie you got any input for this bit from riding scooters

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anyway

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so first night we got down to Cuda Beach we were

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staying at lost in Cuda capsule hostel The dorm room was 11 quid or 15 dollars.

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The private room was 19 quid or 26 dollars.

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It wasn't right on the beach.

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It was like a few minute drive from it.

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So again, if you've got a scooter, it's fine.

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It seemed like a really nice place again because we were on such a tight schedule.

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Like a lot of these places in the evenings, we weren't there to hang around and like so.

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We didn't get to see what the vibe was like at this place because we checked in, hung out for a little bit, then just went to the beach and went for the sunset

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and food and then came back and slept

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so yeah it was the type of hostel that

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if you were there with a big group of mates you

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wouldn't leave yeah yeah yeah the beach we went to was tajung on beach

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and uh the hill right beside it's called marisa hill

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and the beach speech was nice

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and then lots of stuff going on there um i did have it's

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so funny i had someone comment on the video like going

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like oh my god you're drinking beers all the time i could tell this person was not from Indonesia

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because they were like and the fact you can round beers

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and Lombok where it's like majority Muslim

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so disrespectful you could see how uncomfortable everyone was around you like maybe a body can do

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that but not in Lombok and I'm like I didn't bother applying

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but it's like if you were there at

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that beach you would have seen that every single hut

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and every single food store we walk past low at sunset every single one of them was selling beer

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If you want more beers we know where they are The fact we stood there at sunset

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And drank two light beers

453

No one gave a shit Everyone was just saying We were

454

chatting to people This guy next to me had the same

455

drone as me We were just chatting away about shots and stuff like that So there's this whole perception That people

456

Oh it's Muslim therefore they hate alcohol We were in Pakistan

457

Where alcohol is illegal for Muslims And off camera All the Muslims were asking us

458

if they could have one of our beers you know

459

so um they were shot in whiskey yeah yeah yeah yeah

460

they were like this is what i've brewed in my basement you know

461

so yeah i just saw i just thought i'd bring

462

that one up because it's so funny um people people get it's like this recreational

463

outrage where they get offended on behalf of someone else

464

and it's like well actually

465

if you were there no one gave a other people were drinking beers everywhere i was selling them

466

And we were good that night, we only bought one beer.

467

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

468

We weren't, again, sort of, I think people see you with a beer in their hand and immediately think you're getting drunk.

469

It's like, no, we're just having a beer at sunset.

470

We're not, you know, if we're there with a bottle of tequila and doing shots and all that kind of stuff, then yeah, maybe calm it down.

471

That was just off camera.

472

Yeah, that was off camera.

473

Oh, that'll get them going.

474

See?

475

So then we moved on to Tetibatu, where there's a whole bunch of waterfalls and monkey forests and stuff.

476

Oh, look at this.

477

I just want to hang out here all afternoon.

478

This will do.

479

Okay.

480

Enjoy your stay, huh?

481

Thank you.

482

Thank you, man.

483

We hadn't planned to do any kind of walking tour there.

484

The guy running the hostel offered it, and I'd heard good reviews about the one in our hostel.

485

It ended up being an absolute highlight.

486

Absolute highlight of the trip.

487

100 % agree.

488

Yeah.

489

Juicy was the guy who works at the hostel was amazing.

490

It didn't feel like you had a tour, it felt like we had a local friend just showing us around.

491

The stuff we got to experience today we would never have experienced if we did it by ourselves.

492

That just exceeded every single expectation of the night we had.

493

Yeah, and it's weird the place is technically not a hostel because it only does private rooms.

494

It felt like a hostel, there was other backpackers there and stuff.

495

Yeah, and then again all the locals turned up that night to play pool

496

and that was again that was a bit of an underrated highlight which is hard to get on camera obviously

497

but we were there for hours yeah we were just chatting away with the locals

498

and hanging out and having a good time

499

and um they'll put music on and stuff like that

500

so it felt like it felt like a local experience even though we're technically at a hostel -ish in place

501

but um but that was great

502

and then we moved on to senaru

503

and this is where we treated ourselves to a nicer hotel

504

and it was It's funny because I was just looking up like, I think it might have been when we were in Gilly Tea and just having some children.

505

I think it was on the way to Gilly, like in the car, if I remember rightly.

506

That was it, yeah.

507

So one of the long car journeys, I was just kind of looking up like, because at this point we knew we were going to have four days in Lombok, but we didn't really know what we were going to see.

508

I was like, oh, we should probably start figuring out some ideas.

509

And then I was just Googling some of the main places to go.

510

Then I saw a little guide to Senaru, someone had written a blog like, oh, this is the waterfall, this is what you want to see.

511

And they said, oh, a nice place to stay if you want to treat yourself is Rinjani Lodge.

512

And I saw pictures of it, and I was like, oh, God, that looks amazing.

513

That would be so cool.

514

I was like, well, I'm just going to click on booking .com just to see.

515

It's probably going to be like a few hundred pounds, and it's like, no, we'll just find a hostel.

516

But when it was 79 pounds between the two of us,

517

I was like, oh, we're getting this like this would just be our treat in the trip

518

and again not breaking the bank at all

519

everywhere we went on this trip the food was tasty the

520

only bad meal i think we had was the breakfast at the front yeah

521

and it was such a shame because the dinner was

522

so nice dinner was phenomenal yeah yeah yeah and then we had like what tasteless, hard bread.

523

Yeah.

524

Do you remember that?

525

I think they served like two baked beans in that little bowl.

526

Do you remember?

527

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

528

Not exaggeration.

529

It was two baked beans in a little pot.

530

And then like some cold scrambled eggs and stuff like that.

531

We're hiking down to the waterfalls.

532

It's funny.

533

I've had someone comment in the video saying they made the exact same mistake at the waterfalls.

534

Like when we went the wrong way up the river.

535

So it was still not as stupid as we thought because he did say follow the river.

536

I realized afterwards the reason we made a mistake is because

537

when you're walking down the steps and you're nearly at the first waterfall,

538

the path to the second one kind of goes off that way but there's no signpost saying the waterfall that way.

539

So when you're walking down you don't notice

540

that back sort of back you almost go back on yourself as the other path.

541

Yeah.

542

When you go back up, you can clearly see it fork off, but walking the other way, you don't see it at all.

543

Couldn't really be any more obvious, could it?

544

Yeah, oh well.

545

Oh well.

546

We'd been chatting to people at our hotel the day before, and they were talking about how much they had to wade through the river to get to the waterfall.

547

And the guy said follow the river, so we were like, putting all that together, I was like, well, I guess we just follow the river, and we were completely wrong.

548

We were.

549

But, as we said, it was very fun.

550

It was so much fun.

551

It was an adventure.

552

Yeah.

553

One thing I didn't mention in the video is once you get to the other waterfall, you can pay for tubing to come back.

554

I think you have to arrange it beforehand because I didn't see anyone there offering to sell it.

555

We saw some tubes by the side.

556

Yeah.

557

But I looked it up afterwards because we were walking on

558

that path and there's that water going through the bridge underneath us.

559

You actually tube down in that tunnel.

560

That's what you do.

561

So you kind of go on it with a helmet

562

and a torch with a guide and you're kind of going through all that.

563

Which could have been a very claustrophobic but kind of fun experience.

564

So it might be worth checking out if you want something different to do.

565

But we were happy to see.

566

Still dodgy.

567

I know it's a thing but after seeing that.

568

Yeah.

569

How many deaths are they covering up?

570

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

571

And then we just had to hit the road like I

572

talked about the video how we had to drive back Then get the taxi to the airport

573

and then fly to Komodo the airport transfer we booked through Ryan

574

That was three hundred fifty thousand and then the flights both this flight

575

and the other flight early in the trip were about

576

80 pounds

577

or a hundred ten dollars sort of not yeah again not

578

not expensive flights for these journeys We were staying at the siesta Komodo hotel and hostel so I love that place.

579

This place was so good.

580

I mean, it had a mixture of private rooms, hotel rooms and dorm rooms.

581

The private rooms had sold out when we were booking it, so we just got the dorm.

582

And again, it was really nice rooms, really nice beds in the dorms and stuff like that.

583

Privacy curtains and things like that.

584

It was like a top -quality dorm room.

585

And that rooftop bar was just fantastic.

586

Mate, it was just...

587

It was so weird because, like, I'm pretty sure you said it in the video, it was such a big mix of, like, families, locals.

588

Backpackers.

589

Like you sort of pop into the the back like the shared bathroom facilities by the dorms

590

and you still see some of the western backpacker women Like full cakes up.

591

Yeah, getting ready for like a big night out and we're just there in our Bintang seats.

592

We're having a quiet one tonight.

593

We were very uncool.

594

Yeah.

595

But we were, because it was a gorgeous sunset, an amazing view and but we deliberately had a quiet one

596

because we wanted to be fresh for the boat trip and stuff.

597

I did feel quite ill that night as well.

598

You were feeling a bit rough.

599

I was feeling a bit burnt out and you were feeling a bit rough.

600

So we took it a bit easier. But also, because when I was looking at the footage

601

and I was trying to show the bar area and I could see all the backpacks were just there on the phones.

602

And I was like, if we were there a different night, it might have been like, all right, let's try and get everyone off their phones and get something going here.

603

But we're like, no, we'll keep our heads down

604

because we need a quiet one ourselves kind of yeah and

605

that was a great move as well

606

because the next morning we both felt pretty good yeah yeah

607

we felt very fresh next morning to start the boat trip

608

when i was doing research for the komodo boat trip everything i saw was either three days two nights

609

or just a one day trip where you're on like a speed boat just to take you the main stuff

610

and i was like surely there's got to be someone

611

that does a two -day one -night trip because

612

that would fit our schedule perfectly and it took me forever

613

but I eventually found it I do have a link for it

614

which I'll put up that boat trip costs 130 pounds

615

or 176 dollars for the two days which does include your food

616

and all like the entrance fees and all

617

that stuff the boat was great the thing was the bed

618

the bedding situation like i'd sort of tick the box saying yeah twin room

619

and then we got in

620

and it was a giant double bed with another pullout bed for us two

621

and tom so it was like three of us we didn't actually expect tom did we yeah yeah yeah

622

which was a blessing because he was amazing tom was very happy to have us on

623

that boat yeah i mean that's one thing to note about

624

these boat trips even though there's a lot of backpackers in

625

the area there's no like kind of backpacking boat by

626

that I don't necessarily mean budget I just mean like on

627

our we had people from loads of different countries on a boat

628

but like a lot of them were like even older than me you know and then

629

when you sort of start chatting to people at some of the stops from other boats like someone solo backpacking

630

and everyone else in the boats from like Korea or China

631

or whatever and sometimes you'd be the only one speaking English

632

so what are my advice for the Komodo trip but

633

if you're booking it solo is um you might get a great crowd

634

or you might get a crowd that's not what you expect

635

but you might still meet your submission people

636

but also it might just be a bit of quiet time like bring a good book

637

or something for yeah sort of the time in between the great stops

638

because it might not be you know i think for tom

639

if we weren't on

640

that boat he would have just been like you know reading some books by himself

641

or just having a little chat with a couple people

642

but it would have been a bit tame but

643

because there's three of us we had a really good time

644

together we had a great time tom was a very very

645

good addition for those two days yeah yeah um one thing i will add

646

and i don't want to make it all about beer again obviously yeah but on the boat

647

they didn't actually sell anything yeah yeah yeah

648

so they didn't have any beer

649

or soft drinks either they only had water to drink as

650

soon as we got on the boat we realized this

651

and we were not leaving for another half an hour

652

so we asked them

653

and they sent a guy off in a little speedboat in

654

town to get us a a crate of beer also on all the islands we stopped at they sold beer

655

and soft drinks so you could stock up on those

656

so it is possible to get it along the way on

657

the journey like they don't have any rules like you can bring stuff with you

658

so like just either stock up beforehand

659

or stock up a lot at the stops along the way

660

and the other thing i would say is you know it

661

was hard to find a two day one night thing certainly online

662

but I'm sure it'd be easy to find there because there's

663

so many boats going all the time

664

if you're on a tight schedule it's good to book ahead

665

but I think if you're not you could probably just show up

666

and find a boat to get on yeah I think it almost be worth

667

if you were a solo backpacker meeting people at a hostel finding out what's all there

668

and if they've got spots then you can jump on one of their events you make maybe Maybe.

669

By doing the two day, one night thing, I think it was the perfect amount of time.

670

I think if you're doing the one day thing, it'll be too rushed.

671

And also, you're not going to get that sunset with the flying foxes, which is one of the best things we've ever seen.

672

But three days, two nights, which is what a lot of them do, that would have felt too long.

673

Like, if we had to sleep another night on that boat, I would have been like.

674

I couldn't have done another night on that day.

675

Yeah.

676

No way.

677

That was where I slept.

678

Yeah.

679

I think two days is the perfect amount of time it's nice to have the amazing sunset

680

and great couple of days we saw everything we wanted to see

681

and then it didn't feel rough it didn't feel right no no not at all

682

so we have so much time to actually just chill

683

and have some down time yeah yeah it was really really nice

684

and then the Komodo dragon thing itself yeah it does seem crazy

685

when you get there and crazy busy

686

but the tour itself actually ended up being pretty good

687

and we got very very lucky because some people go there

688

and don't see the dragons because they're up in the hills

689

and then most people go there we'll see him

690

but they'll just be lying down and not moving the fact we got them

691

moving and fighting and all

692

that stuff we were very lucky yeah they put on a

693

bit of show for us yeah they knew the camera was there rolling

694

but yeah that

695

that was the end of the trip we got back to the hostel had a nice night there

696

and then we had to fly off

697

but like as I said at the end of the video we squeeze a lot into these two weeks

698

and a lot to go right in terms of the transport

699

and transfers and weather and it all just found the place

700

so Indonesia is very very easy to travel around like there's always ways you can book transfers

701

and transport and things like that like I mean most of Southeast Asia is like

702

that it's like whatever activity you want to do you can

703

book super easy whatever transport you need you can find something um people were ridiculously friendly they're like

704

so so nice like yeah

705

and weren't too pushy it wasn't people like trying to sell your stuff

706

and being annoying it's just everyone was just super friendly

707

so it's a really good sort of place for your first

708

map packing trip as well yeah not necessarily east java but Indonesia as a whole.

709

Yeah, part of the reason lots of people do Southeast Asia when they're young is because it's so cheap, but also there's just such a big scene there and it's very, very easy to travel.

710

And the backpacking scene varies in volume in different parts of Indonesia, but it's still very, very easy to get around.

711

And you're going to see just so many amazing things.

712

Like I said at the end of the video, I was like, oh God, if I'd known it would be this good, it would have come back way sooner because it's just each day we're seeing something mind -blowing, you know?

713

Yeah.

714

Every single day something very unexpected pops up.

715

Even the festival thing.

716

Even the festival?

717

Yeah, like a bit of the trip in the Philippines.

718

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

719

So I think that about wraps this up for our tips and advice for our trip in Indonesia.

720

If you've got any more questions, just leave it in the comments and then

721

and next week on the channel I'm gonna have a a little video about what cameras are using the trip

722

and give me if you want to film your trips What cameras you should use

723

and stuff like that and give you some tips and advice

724

So that'll be out next week

725

and then Mid -September will be my road trip from London to Lake Como in my buddy Adams Aston Martin

726

And I'm just starting to edit that now and the car looks so good So it's that trip, like I said, that trip's a very different budget to Indonesia, which is why it's a lot shorter trip.

727

He couldn't have done this trip with me.

728

No, no, no. Yeah, just like imagine that car you had in New Zealand driving with that.

729

I'd already been sleeping in the back of that as well.

730

Yeah, yeah.

731

No, no, no, no. Cool.

732

All right.

733

Well, thanks for watching, guys, and we'll see you next time.

734

See you soon.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: INDONESIA 🇮🇩 What you NEED to know before you go - Learn English Speaking with Video

What You'll Learn

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What is the Shadowing Technique?