Coming off of an insane two weeks in Nusa Tenggera (don’t worry, there will be blog posts – details include a sketchy 4-night boat trip whereupon the captain fell asleep and we got stuck in a random village’s fishing net, as well as a 28-hour journey back from Flores to Lombok using 4 different modes of public transportation) I decided to climb Rinjani at the last second and get one of my 3 for 30 volcanoes conquered before Oz. A grueling climb, followed by an overnight flight to Oz? Sign me up! Happily I made it as far as they’d let us go, but lost all the skin on the backs of my ankles and 2 of my toenails in the process. My feet look beautiful. And by beautiful I mean “absolutely hideous.” Apparently, several months of flip-flops change the size of your feet – or widen them enough to make climbing in your “used-to-fit-perfectly” hiking boots torturous. Lesson learned.
This morning, I hobbled out of bed, cleaned the dirt out of my wounds and, newly bandaged, flew from Mataram, Lombok to Bali’s DPS airport. The flight lasted a full 10 minutes and we bounced on the landing – twice. Several Indonesian airlines are not cleared to fly over EU airspace because their planes are not up to spec safety-wise; needless to say we were all gripping our chairs tightly on today’s landing. Bali is small enough that my 12-hour layover meant that I could dump my bag in the left-luggage office and gallivant around for a few hours. I negotiated an afternoon flat fare with a taxi driver named Made, went to the market and picked up some souvenirs for my Aussies and got a long Balinese massage (yelping throughout because of how much my legs hurt!). I am about to check in to my flight to Australia, where I will be recouping for the next 2 weeks, drinking good wine, relaxing with friends and freezing my ass off in the winter weather.
I fly back here on Aug 5th to tackle Agung and Bromo and explore some more of what Indonesia has to offer. I will update the blog from Oz to share all the delicious details and hilarity from the sketchy boat trip, the even-sketchier trip back to Lombok and the Rinjani climb, as well as my brief time in Bali.
-Jodi
I am a former lawyer from Montreal currently eating my way around the world, one country at a time. Marshmallow enthusiast, volcano climber and cave spelunker - and also a geek. Traveling since April 1, 2008. See the 
Hi J,
Great to see that you are on the road again.
Regards,
Harris (Cape Town)