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We just spent two weeks traveling around Indonesia. And in this video we will tell you everything you would like to know before traveling there Incredible. Yes, it's worth the fuss. We'll cover transportation, accommodation, and entertainment costs, as well as give you a bunch of tips on the different places we visited. Doing this when it's crowded would be a nightmare because it's quite solitary. Luke and I had been to Indonesia before, but had only visited Bali and the Gili Islands, so this trip focused mostly on visiting places that were new to us.
Not because you are sick. So, our itinerary started with one day in Jakarta, then we flew to Milang and traveled around East Java for a few days. Here is our lodge, and here is the view. This is incredible. Then we only had one night in Bali before we headed to Gili- Ti to spend a couple of nostalgic nights there. This is really cool. I have to go back. From here we spent 4 days touring Lombok on bicycles and then flew to Lavon Bajo for a two-day overnight boat trip around Komodo National Park. This is truly one of the best things I have seen. Usually, when I like travel tips or videos, I break them down by criteria like money, accommodation, transportation, and other similar things. But this time we'll break them down by
location, because there are different tips for different parts of Indonesia. We started in Jakarta, and we won't have many tips for Jakarta because we had one full day and we were there on a Monday, and everything in Jakarta is closed on Mondays. So the first piece of advice is don't go to Jakarta on Monday. I think we picked the worst day of the week to come to Jakarta. It was the most random day in Jakarta. To be honest we stayed at the Wonder Loft Hostel in The guys at the hostel were great and the hostel itself was the perfect place to catch up as there was a small bar and pool table downstairs. Jakarta is, of course, a huge city, and we tried to get around by bus. The hostel lent us something like a travel card, something
like an Oyster card, and we topped it up ourselves, so it was pretty easy. But other than that, yeah, just don't go on Monday. Moving to East Java, we were going to take the train to Milang, an overnight train, but the tickets were sold out months in advance due to our holidays, so we flew to Milang instead. Many other people when they go to East Java fly to Surabaya via the airport, but it's like Malang and Surabaya, about the same distance to Bromemo; hmm, same time. And since we were already set on Malang, that's where we went. And I think Milang is actually worth a visit. In the previous version of the
itinerary, we were supposed to spend some time there to see, but we only had 2 weeks and there was so much to see, so I just thought, " Sorry, it had to be done." From how to get from Milang Airport to our accommodation in Bromo, the guy who worked at the accommodation just WhatsApped me and asked, "Do you need transportation?" And we just booked it through him. It cost us 850,000 rupiah, which is 35 pounds or $47, which, when divided between the two of us, was pretty cheap. And in many places in East Java , if you travel alone, the cost of transportation will increase. But since there were just the two of us, it still made everything feel very cheap and not fraudulent. £35 for a 3 hour ride, you know what a bargain compared to Uber. This is an Uber to central
London. Yes. So, um, we met a few people in Java who were traveling on their own, and they were asking us, do you know anyone who's going here, because it's really hitting my budget hard. Yes. I pay my own taxes. And, apparently, in East Java, this is almost the only way to get around. But many people in East Java just go on a mini- group tour. They book a three- or four-day tour. They can travel to Bali on their own or something, or travel around Southeast Asia on their own, or even with friends or something, but to just get to East Java, they just book a tour to make it easy. I will post a link to one of these tours here
in case anyone wants to book one. This is very easy to do yourself. You definitely don't need a tour, but if you just want someone to take care of all the transportation, maybe this will reduce some of the transportation costs. And also, if you just want to share your experiences with people, you should pay attention to this, because there wasn't a special atmosphere in East Java. There were a few hostels here and there, but there weren't many people hanging out together and such. So it's worth looking into if you want to have guaranteed people to share experiences with, but from a money and convenience perspective, it's so easy to do it yourself.
Yes, obviously it's a lot quieter, but it's still the same as going almost anywhere Southeast Asia where you arrive at a hostel and they ask you, you know, do you have any onward travel? Have you booked your tickets? And they know someone who can give you a ride. It doesn't feel like you're completely immersed in the magazine, but rather in the fact that people are helping you and so on. share experiences with, obviously Luke and I had a great time together on this trip, but there were times when we really missed our better halves. Jamie, Ollie, if you were here. Luckily, it was really easy to keep in touch with them because we subscribed to a Holofly plan, which, as you know, is the sponsor of this week's video. So, on this trip in March, I
spent 2 weeks in Japan with Jamie, 2 weeks in Indonesia with Luke, and then made a stop in Singapore on the way home and even spent a few hours in the Beijing airport on the return flight. And instead of issuing a separate EIM for each country, I subscribed to the Holofly plan, which worked in over 160 destinations. This made my life much easier, especially when traveling from one country to another with different people I needed to stay in touch with. It just gave me peace of mind knowing I was connected all the time. The Holif plan is a monthly subscription that renews every 30 days and can be canceled at any time. They have a lightweight plan that provides 25GB of data per month, or an unlimited
plan that provides unlimited data and hotspot. And my regular phone number remains the same for calls and WhatsApp, while I use HollowFly for data. Installing it was very easy. I just downloaded the Holofly app, chose the installation instructions. Another great feature is the " always on" 1GB of backup data that comes with every Holofly E SIM card. This means that even if your data plan runs out, as long as you have an eSIM card installed on your phone, you will continue to get 1GB for free every month as emergency data, which is quite convenient. So if you follow the link in the description and use the promo code Carl Watson docs, it will give you 10% off Hollowfly plans and 5% off all HollowFly eims. Now let's go back to Mount Bromo for some more tips for
traveling in Indonesia. We stopped in Bromo. There is something like a small village right next to the volcano crater. And we stayed at Kaio Homeay. And this place, as you know, is a basic room, just beds and a little shower. But that's all you need, because you don't spend much time in the room anyway. You arrive, enjoying being outside in the evening, and then wake up at dawn to see the sunrise. But it was, as we showed in the film, right on the edge. You just walked literally 30 seconds from your room and you had the view right from there. Yes, we didn't touch the room. As soon as we put our things in the room, we would go out immediately and stay there until we went to bed.
Yes, this is exactly what you need. Yes. And in this small village, everything was for sale: warm clothes and drinks. They had an ATM. So if you forgot something, if you mostly took warm weather clothes, um, for Indonesia, and then suddenly you go higher, because it's about 2000 meters, I think, then yes, it's over 2000, um, then you can quickly take a few extra layers of clothes. But it wasn't that cold. I read on the internet that people were very cold, so I took all these thick clothes, and I did n't need any of them. You know, I was really nervous, I was really nervous before this because I wasn't prepared for the cold, and I don't tolerate it very well. But no problem, it's absolutely normal.
What's there, behind the trees, is the place where we go hiking. Yes. Honestly, it does n't look that difficult. No. I would say about this hike, if you are already going to do it, I wouldn't do it alone. There is a chance that you could get lost on the trail in pitch darkness, potentially fall off something, and potentially twist your ankle, and you won't get any help for a few hours until the sun comes up and people see you. You know, it's only a 45-minute hike, but I would only do it if you're traveling with someone else. Yes. Because we are truly lost. Yes. About halfway there, right? Yes. We really didn't look like a trail. So, everything starts very clearly. You walk down a road, then up stairs and a path, and then you get to some place and
suddenly you're just following this tiny, literally so wide thing, there were trees on the left and on the right there was just a huge pipe. I don't know if you remember. Yes. So it was very confusing, but you saw we got there. Yes. And I turned out to be okay. Here we have achieved our goal. Come on. Bikes can take you straight to the top. You don't need to hike. We just decided to do it. As for booking bicycles and jeeps, as soon as you arrive at the entrance to Bromo Park on your transfer, like the day before, and pay the entrance fee, guys
come to the window and say: "Do you need a jeep?" "Do bicycle?" So, if you come to Bromo and can't book a jeep or a bike, you did something very wrong, because it seems like you came to the wrong place. Yes. You can't. Yes. You are not in Bromo. As we also said in the video, bikes are much better than jeeps in every way. This made our day go much faster. Yes. And that traffic going down was actually terrible. And then, like everything else, like a little walk to the volcano, was normal. It was much more impressive than we thought. And then, walking back across the sea of sand, I really enjoyed it.
Yes, that was great. I really like it. It was only a half hour walk or something. It wasn't anything too hard, but it felt like you, you know felt the ground a little more, rather than just, you know, sitting on the back seat of the bike the whole way. So the worst part was that road at the end. Yes. Like the last 10 minutes. Yes. Because we had to overcome this last stretch. It's pretty steep, and a lot of horses pass by, so it stinks. And it's like jeeps are speeding past you. So that was unpleasant. After Brahmo, we went to Tak Seu. It's strange because I was trying to find the name of the waterfall, as they say in Tumpax, but I was trying to find the name of the small village we are in. I just could n't find it.
Even if it was somewhere nearby, like on the signs, but I can't remember. But even if you look at Google Maps or the address of the place where we stopped, it kind of said what county it was in or something, but it didn't seem like what the village was called in any obvious way. But again, we booked transportation at our hotel. It was the same guy. Same price. So again, wherever you go, if you need transportation, you just go to the front desk and they just arrange everything for you. And then the place we stayed was Indar Demai Cottages which was £24 or £33. And again, this is between the two of us. So you split it into two parts and that was great. It was a really, really, really beautiful place.
I think if it was in Bali, they would have taken about four times as many because it was very Instagram-friendly, very scenic. That day we went to see Kabat Palangi Waterfall, which was about a 20-minute walk from our accommodation. There are also many other waterfalls in this area. If we had taken it more leisurely on this trip, it would have been great to stay there for another night and then just go see it, because Tamp Szabo is a famous waterfall that everyone visits. But it would be fun to go for a random walk and just see what else is in the area. But entry to Takabo itself cost 100,000 rupiah, which is about 4 pounds or 6 dollars. And the waterfalls themselves are impressive. But the descent is like these super steep stairs.
Yes. This is one of those where you have to look down or up most of the way to make sure you're stepping on the right foot. Yes And, obviously, because it's near a waterfall/ river. It is very slippery there, as is most of the path. . It was a 7-hour transfer from Taco. Again, just booked through our accommodation. It cost us 1300 rupees, which is about 53 pounds, 73 dollars, but again, divide that by two because there are two of us. Everything is very simple there. We stayed at, um, it's the Z Een hostel. It's kind of like a sleepover hostel, which is ironic because I don't know if anyone even sleeps there. It's more like a storage room with a bed. Hmm, yeah, a great hostel, just like any bad hostel.
Yes. And the people there were really nice etc. and yes, you can just book the whole volcanic experience through them. So everything was very easy and very simple. Why the hell are we doing this? Honestly, I can't emphasize enough how miserable this man was before this hype. It was fun, but also not because I was a part of it too. We didn't do ourselves any favors because we pretended to be tired, and then we had Pizza Hut and a beer, which isn't very energizing. we were talking about in the video looks like a blue flame. It's funny, when I showed the video to people, they saw the blue flames and thought, "Oh, that's really cool."
I was like, "It's not a big deal, but it's like if you were on something younger, when you were on a boys' holiday somewhere in Europe, and they pour something like samba and set it on fire, it just looks like it's mean, it's a cool experience. I'm glad we did it. And the sunrise view is amazing, but if you can find a company that just takes you up there to see the sunrise so you can get some sleep. Hmm, I'd try to find them, but I don't know if there are any. I think everyone just sells packages. Going down when it was really dark was hard. There were no stairs or anything like that.
You're just looking down all the time You just can't see anything. Yeah. And some people even miss the sunrise because they, or they couldn't see. flames, because it was only at dawn that you suddenly thought, "Oh, this is what we were going through." Because you had no idea. On the way here, maybe 5 minutes after we started, how many trash cans did you say we had in the fridge? Four or five? Wrong. We have three or four. Great. I love you, Luke. The reason I sneaked that trash can handle into my bag before the commotion started is because I knew it would pick you up.
It did. And you know me so well. Oh, man. Please, I'm so glad you did Oh, that's good. It's always good, man. No, but it's really good after all that pain. Not even physical pain, just the pain of exhaustion and just because, you know? Um, uh, now I felt good. And then we're moving on to Bali, because we have such a tight schedule. I thought, "No I want us to get to the pier and the ferry would be sold out. We'd have to wait." So I pre -booked the ferry tickets on a website called 12go Asia, which I've used a lot in the past. They're great for booking buses and things like that around Southeast Asia. But we got there and we were about to get on the ferry and I showed the guy the booking and he said, "Oh, this is your booking confirmation. These are not
your actual tickets." To get the tickets, you have to send an SMS to this number and then they authorize the tickets. So I WhatsApped this number and they just didn't respond. So we just bought new tickets. The tickets are about a dollar so it wasn't a problem but I just booked them to guarantee my seat. But it turned out it was the day after the holidays and everyone was already traveling. So instead of just going on one ferry an hour, they kept going like this: as soon as you get on the next, and there was a whole fleet. It was kind of an armada, wasn't it? Yeah. And it was supposed to be a half hour trip, but we ended up taking an hour and a half, just because we were waiting in line to get to the pier and stuff. But it all
worked out, and then we jumped in a taxi to the hotel, and we stayed at the Tamanssari Bali Resort and Spa on Pemutaran Beach. And it cost us 82 pounds sterling or 111 dollars, which was discounted because it was just before the main season started. Um, we got this deal, but the place was amazing. I mean, even if you paid full price, it's still a bargain compared to other places in the world for such a nice hotel in such a setting. So it was an evening that gave us everything we needed to relax. Yeah. We needed even when the weather said we needed it, we just sat in these hot drinks. Yeah, it was great because we were so exhausted, you know, the first few days of the trip, and especially the last night climbing the volcano, but it was just a
nice time to relax, to rest. And then I remember going back to our rooms, because we had separate rooms, and then I know what's going to happen next. Yeah, I know. And then I think I may or may not have fallen asleep, but I went out on the balcony and I saw Luke, apparently, just lying on the couch on his balcony. He was just unconscious, like dead to the world, I mean with his mouth wide open, bang, right next to me. Yeah. Sleep finally caught up with us, and it was just, uh, these beds were comfortable. So it was. Well, I didn't really enjoy the bed, because I just slept on the balcony at midnight.
Oh yeah. You should have just paid for one room and you could just sleep on the balcony. And then we were heading to Hilly T. So, uh, the transfer was 900,000 rupees, which is $37, $50. And again, it was about a 4 or 5 hour ride. The ferry was 300,000 rupees, which is again 12 pounds, $17. So not much. And so. Yeah. Go sit up there when you're on it. I can pull them out. I can't. that's all you said, to be honest, because you figured out there was a deck. Saw the place up there and saw that there was nobody there, and since we sat down and all the seats inside were taken, we went up there and had our own party, we
started a private party, and then people started coming up and they were serving beer up there. They had, like, I put a big old speaker on. It was great. Yeah, it really turned into a free game of Gibby, right? Yes. We stayed at the Tipsy Turtle Hostel, a twin room was £25 a night or $34. Great hostel, like, um, really nice host. Um, location not far from the main street. One general tip I would give to Gilly T is yes, some hostels are a bit further out and you can easily rent bikes or scooters. Because of the islands you think the island is tiny but it is deceptively
a bit bigger than you think and if your hostel is a bit further out but you want to get to the beach or the shops quickly then it might be worth hiring a bike for the day. And I'm sure they are very cheap. I haven't seen the prices but it's not bad. Yes, we got a bit drunk. Yes. And that was the only night we really got drunk. Like, we drank a lot of beer on the whole trip but the only time we really got drunk was Gilly's big tea. That was the only time we woke up quite dusty. Yes. There are no other tips or recommendations for ghillie tea. Just go there and you'll like it. And then you'll understand. It's not.
Yes. And if you don't like it in Ghillie, then. Yes. Then go to one of the other Ghillies. Go to Ghillie Air. The boat to Lombok was 150,000 rupiah, which is about 6 pounds or 8 dollars. We booked it the day before, but you could probably just buy it on the day of the trip and just walk to these places. Although it was crowded, there are so many. And then we got to Ryan's motorbike rental. I literally went on Google Maps just looking for motorbike rental and this one came up and then I saw the reviews for it and they were all fantastic and they were right. Like the guy named Ryan was so cool. The motorbikes were great. I could have stored my big bag there for a few days and stuff other.
Yeah. That was your main concern, wasn't it? Because you didn't know for sure until we got there whether you could keep your big bag or not. Yeah. As soon as we got there, he said something like, "Yeah, leave it here. It's fine." Yeah. Because he was going to tie it to the back of my bike and kind of ride it, which would make it even slower. Imagine you're going up that mountain pass. I don't know if I would go further up the mountain pass. No way. Yeah. And I would say that for Lombok in general, a scooter is 100% the best way to get around, because again, you can book transportation,
but I think it might be more expensive than in Java. Because I remember when we were in Tetatou Bungalow, and the German girl who was with us on the tour was traveling alone, booking transport and trying to see if anyone else was going the same way she was to save money on these long trips. Whereas for us, riding scooters was so cheap. I mean, motorbikes cost a hundred thousand rupiah a day. So that's four pounds or six dollars a day for a motorbike. And petrol was 15,000 rupiah a bottle, which is less than a dollar. And you can take two bottles to fill up, but it's so cheap. Not to mention how much fun it is and everything else, it's just so cheap.
Um, I don't think we ever stopped twice to fill up on a trip. I don't think one fill up is enough each time. Yeah. Usually just one fill up a day. Yeah. And it was, I mean, it was so much fun to ride, and even the places that were crowded didn't feel unsafe. As if it wasn't like remember some of the parts that I rode in Vietnam on a scooter, and like that, there were giant trucks driving by and stuff, and you kind of looked a little suspicious, but Lombok just felt good. Yeah. We had a few busier traffic areas, but again, nothing like that. Yeah, but when it's crowded, you're going so slowly, you're almost pushing your bike through the crowd. So, you know, you have to get your bearings a little bit, but it didn't feel like it
was unsafe or anything. I think it was about 10 minutes in the whole four days on Lombok The rest of the time it was pretty empty and stuff. So if you have a driver's license, um, I mean, if you're going from Gili to Lombok and you're not used to riding a scooter, I would probably rent a scooter in Gili to get used to it. So you just ride back and forth on the beach, get used to the controls, and then by the time you get to Lombok you'll be ready to go. So to be honest you'll probably get some practice in the Gili. Yeah, because there are horses going both ways. Yeah. And drunk tourists, which is more dangerous. If you can do it and you're comfortable with it, that's the best way to get around.
Otherwise you'll have to pay for transfers, which again, if you're in a group, that's fine. But if you're on your own, Rosie, do you have any tips for riding scooters? What happened? So, the first night we got to Cuda Beach. We stayed, uh, at the Lostin Cuda capsule hostel. A dorm room was 11 pounds or 15 dollars. A private room was 19 pounds or 26 dollars. Um, it wasn't right on the beach. It was a few minutes away. Uh, again, if you have a scooter, that's fine. Again Yeah, it seemed like a really nice place because we had such a busy schedule. Like a lot of places like this in the evenings, we weren't there to hang out and watch the sunrise.
We didn't get to see what the atmosphere was like because we checked in, hung out for a bit, then just went to the beach, watched the sunset and had some food, and then came back and slept. So, yeah. It was the kind of hostel that if you were there with a big group of friends, you wouldn't leave. Yeah. The beach we went to was called Tajang An. And the hill next to it is called Marika Hill. And the speech on the beach was nice, and there was a lot of stuff. Um, yeah, I had one, it's so funny. Someone commented on the video like, "Oh my God, you drink beer all the time." I realized that this person wasn't from Indonesia because she said, "And the fact that you brought beer to Lombok, where the majority of the population Muslim, so
disrespectful. You could see how uncomfortable everyone around you was. Maybe you can do that in Bali, but not in Lombok." And I said, "I didn't answer." Hmm, but if you were there on that beach, you would see that every shack and every grocery store that we passed on the way to Sunset sold beer. If you want more beer, we know where it is. The fact that we stood there at sunset and had two light beers, um, no one gave a damn. Everyone just said we were talking to people, and there was a guy sitting next to me who had the same horn as me. We were just chatting about shots and stuff. So, um, there's this idea that people, you know, oh, it's Muslim, so they hate alcohol. For example, we were in Pakistan, where alcohol is forbidden for
Muslims, and off- screen, all the Muslims were asking us if they could drink our beer, you know. So, um, they were even filmed in whiskey. Yeah. They were like, "This is what I brewed in my basement, you know." Um, yeah, I just thought it was worth mentioning because it's so funny. Um, people understand that this is such a recreational outrage when they get offended by someone else, and it's like, well, actually, if you were there, nobody gave a damn, other people were drinking beer, they were selling it everywhere, and we were good that
night. We only bought one beer for that. Yeah. We weren't again, I think people see you with a beer in your hand and immediately think you're drunk. It's like no, we're just drinking beer at sunset. We wouldn't, you know, if we were there with a bottle of tequila and a shot and everything, then yeah, maybe we'd calm down. But it was just off camera. Yeah, it was off camera. Oh, that'll get him going. See? Then we went to Thetat, which has a whole bunch of waterfalls, monkey forests, etc. Oh, look at this. I just want to hang out here all day. That'll be enough. Okay. Enjoy your stay. Thanks. Thanks, buddy.
Appreciate it. Yeah. We didn't plan on doing any walking tours there. The guy who ran the hostel suggested it, and I'd heard good things about the one our hostel had. In the end, it was the absolute highlight. The absolute highlight of the trip. 100% agree. Yeah, Jucy, the guy who works at the hostel, was incredible. It wasn't like a tour. It was like we had a local friend just showing us around. What we experienced today, we never would have experienced if we had done it ourselves. It just exceeded all our expectations that night. Yeah. And it's amazing. Technically, it's not a hostel because there are only individual rooms. It felt like a hostel. There were other backpackers and stuff.
Yeah. And then again, all the locals came that night to play pool. And that was a bit of an underrated highlight, which is of course hard to capture on camera. Yeah. But we were there for hours. Yeah, talking to the locals and hanging out and having a good time and, um, they were playing music and stuff. So it felt like a local experience, even though technically we're in a hostel-like place, but it was great. And then we moved on to Senaru, and that's where we treated ourselves to a better hotel. And it was funny because I was just looking up, I think it was when we were in Gili-T and just feeling the chill. I think it was on the way to Gili, in the car, if I
remember correctly. That's it. Yeah. So, during one of the long car trips I was just looking up because at that point we already knew we were going to have four days in Lombok, but we didn't really know what we were going to see. I thought, " Oh, I should probably start thinking about some ideas, and then I just Googled some of the main places to go." And then I saw a little guide to Sen, like someone had written a blog post like, "Oh, this is a waterfall. This is what you want to see," and they said, "Oh, a nice place to stay if you want to pamper yourself is Renjani Lodge." And I saw the pictures of it and I thought, "Oh my God, this looks amazing. That would be so cool." I thought, "Well, I'll just click on that on Booking.com to have
a look. It's probably going to cost a few hundred, and I'll say, no, we'll just find a hostel." But when it was 79 pounds. Well, between the two of us, I thought, "Oh, we're We'll take it." Like, "It's just our gift and the trip." And again, I did n't go broke at all. Everywhere we went on this trip, the food was delicious. The only bad meal I think was at breakfast at the fancy hotel. Yeah. And that was such a shame, because dinner was so delicious.
Dinner was phenomenal. Yeah. And then we had something like? Tasteless hard bread. Yeah. Z. Remember? I think they served something like two baked beans in that little bowl. Remember? Yeah. And that's not an exaggeration. It was two baked beans and then some cold scrambled eggs and something. It's funny. Someone commented on the video that they made the exact same mistake at the falls when we went the wrong way up the river. So I. It wasn't as stupid as we thought, because he said to go along river. I later figured out why we were wrong, because when you go down the stairs and you almost get to the first waterfall, the trail to the second one seems to branch off in that direction,
but there's no signpost pointing to another waterfall in that direction. So when you go down, you don't notice this turn back. You almost turn back on the other trail. Yeah. When you go up, you can clearly see it branching off, but going the other way, you can't see it at all. It couldn't be more obvious, could it? Yeah. Well. Oh. Um, we were talking to the people at our hotel the day before, and they were talking about how much they had to carry across the river to get to the other waterfall, and the guy said to go along the river. So we put it all together. I
thought, well, we should probably just follow the river, and, um, we were totally wrong We were wrong. But, as we've already they said it was really fun. It was so much fun. It was an adventure. Yeah. One thing I didn't mention in the video is that once you get to the other waterfall, you can pay to go tubing to go back. I think you have to arrange that in advance because I didn't see anyone offering it. We saw some tubing on the side. Yeah. But I looked it up later because we were walking down that trail and there was water flowing over a bridge below us. You actually go tubing in this tunnel. That's what you do.
Like, you go there with a helmet and a flashlight with a guide and you go through all this, which could be, you know, very claustrophobic but quite an interesting experience. But, uh, maybe it's worth checking out if you want to do something else, but we were happy, it's just. still questionable. I know it's possible, but yes, this. I mean, how many deaths are they covering up, yes. hit the road, like I said in the video, how we had to drive back, then take a taxi to the airport, and then fly to Komodo. We booked the airport transfer through Ryan. It was $350,000. And then the flights, I This flight, as well as another flight at the beginning of the trip, cost about 80 or 110 dollars. So these are not exactly expensive flights for such trips. We stayed at the
Siesta Komodo Hotel, where we were guests. So, like I said, I like this place. This place was so beautiful. I mean, there was a mix of private rooms, both hotel rooms and dorm rooms. The private rooms were sold out when we booked. So we just got a dorm. And again, these were really nice rooms, like really nice dorm beds and stuff. Privacy curtains and other things. So it's like a high-end hostel. And that rooftop bar was just fantastic. Well, man, it was so weird, because I'm sure you said it in the video, there was this big mix of families, locals, backpackers, you run into the back, like the communal toilet by the dorms, and you see some Western tourists who like to eat cakes.
Yes. We're getting ready for the big night, and we're just stressed. We are quiet today. So yeah we were really, really uncool that night. Yes, but we were because there was a beautiful sunset, incredible views, and we intentionally had a quiet night because we wanted to be fresh before the boat trip and so on. But I was pretty sick that night too. You could sense that I was a little broken, and, uh, it was a little hard for you, so we took it a little easier. But also, when I was watching the video, and I wanted to show the bar, I saw all the backpackers just standing there, on their phones, and I
thought, if we were there another night, maybe we would have thought, "Okay, let's try to put all the phones down and do something here." But we said, "No, we need silence, we need silence for ourselves." So that was a great move because the next morning we both felt pretty good. Yes. We felt very refreshed the next morning to start our boat trip. When I was doing research on boat trips to Komodo, all I saw was either 3 days, two nights, or just a day trip, or you're on a speedboat to just take you to the main things. And I thought, "There must be a place that offers a two-day, one- night trip, because that would fit our schedule perfectly." And it took me forever, but I finally found it." And I have a link to it, which I'll post right now. Um, this
boat trip costs, uh, 130 or 176 pounds for two days, which includes meals and all sorts of entrance fees and all that. The boat was great. The thing was, the bed, the bedding situation, I kind of ticked it off, said yes, a twin room, and then we went in and there was a huge double bed with another pull-out bed for the two of us and Tom. So there were three of us. Yeah. We weren't expecting Tom, were we? Yeah. It was a blessing, because he was great. Tom was very happy to have us on this boat. Yeah. I mean, that's one thing to note about these boat trips. Although there are a lot of backpackers in this area, there aren't these kinds of boats for backpackers.
I don't necessarily mean budget. I just mean that there were people on our boat from a lot of different countries, but a lot of them were even older than me, you know. And, uh, and then when you started talking to people at some of the stops from other boats, like someone's on their own with a backpack, and then everyone else on the boat is from Korea or China or whatever, and sometimes you were the only one who spoke English. So my advice for a trip to Komodo, if you book it yourself, is, um, you can get a great crowd, or maybe not the crowd you expect, but you can still meet interesting people, and it can also be a bit of a quiet time. Like, take a good book or something like that in between the great stops, because it might not be, you know, I think
Tom, if we weren't on that boat, would just be reading books by himself or chatting to a few people a bit, but it would be a bit quiet, but since there were three of us, we had a great time together, we had a great time, it was a really, really good addition to the two days, he was a good guy. One thing I will add, and I don't want to do the whole beer thing again, of course, yes. But on the boat they didn't really sell anything. Yeah. They didn't have any beer or soft drinks. They only had water to drink. As soon as we got on the boat, we realized that and we weren't going to leave for another half hour. So we asked them and they sent a guy in a little boat to town to get
us a case of beer. Also, all the islands where we stopped sold beer and soft drinks, so you could stock up on them. So you could buy them on the way. They don't seem to have any rules. You can take things with you. So, just stock up in advance or stock up at the stops along the way. And one more thing I would said, it was, you know, it was hard to find a two-day, one-night tour. Of course, on the internet, but I'm sure it would be easy to find there because there are so many boats going all the time. If you have a tight schedule, it's good to book in advance, but I think if not, you can probably just turn up and find a boat to get on.
Yeah. I think it's almost worth it if you're a solo backpacker meet people at the hostel and find out what tour they have. Yeah. And if they have spaces, you can hop on one of their boats with friends that you'll meet, maybe do two days and one night. I think it was the perfect timing. I think if you do a one-day trip, it's too rushed, and also you don't get to see that sunset with the flying foxes, which was one of the best things we've ever seen. But three days, two nights, like a lot of people do which one, it would have seemed too long.
If we had to sleep another night on that boat, I would have thought, I can't sleep another night on that deck. Yeah. No way. That's where I slept. Yeah. I think 2 days is the perfect amount of time. It was nice to see an incredible sunset and a wonderful few days. We saw everything we wanted to see and it didn't feel rushed. No, no, no, not at all. So we had so much time to just relax and have a little bit of a rest on that boat. Yeah. So, it was really, really nice those days. Please stay behind me. And then the Komodo dragon thing. Yeah, it seems crazy when you get there and it's crazy crowded, but the tour itself was actually
pretty good. And we were really, really lucky because some people go there and don't see the dragons because they high up in the mountains, and most people who go there will see them, but they just lie there and don't move. The fact that we got them to move and fight and all that, we were very lucky. Yeah, they put on a little show for us that they didn't see. Yeah, they knew there was a camera there. Okay, that's the end of the trip." We went back to the hostel, had a nice night there, and then we had to fly. But like I said at the end of the video, we did a lot in those two weeks, and a lot of things had to be done with transportation and transfers and
weather, and everything fell into place. So, um, Indonesia is very, very easy to travel around. There are always ways to book transfers and transportation and so on. I mean, most of Southeast Asia is like that. It's like any activity that you want to do , you can book it very easily. Whatever transportation you need, you can find something. Um, the people there were incredibly friendly. So nice, and not too pushy. They weren't people trying to sell you stuff and being pushy. They were just all really friendly. So, um, it's a really good place for your first backpacking trip. Yeah not necessarily East Java, but Indonesia in general.
Yeah, you know, part of the reason why a lot of people go to Southeast Asia when they're young is because it's so cheap, but also it's such a big scene, and it's really, really easy to travel. And, like, the backpacking scene is different in different parts of Indonesia, but it's still really, really easy to get around, and you see so many amazing things. Like I said at the end of the video, I thought, "Oh my God, if I had known it was going to be this good, I would have come back a lot sooner." Because every day we see something amazing, you know. Yeah. Every day there's something really unexpected. the festival that I've been waiting for lately.
Yeah. So I think that wraps up our tips and tricks for our trip to Indonesia. If you have any more questions, just leave them in the comments. And then, um, and next week on the channel I'll be releasing a little video about what cameras I use on my trips and telling you if you want to film your trips, what cameras you should use, etc., and giving you some tips and tricks. So that's coming out next week and then in mid-September I'll be doing my trip from London to Lake Cove in my friend Adam's Aston Martin. But I'm just starting to finish it and the car looks so good. So that's the trip. Like I said, this trip is on a completely different budget than Indonesia, so it's a lot shorter. But he wouldn't be able to do that trip with me.
Yeah. Just imagine that car that you drove in New Zealand and I would sleep too in the backseat. Yeah. No. Cool. Okay. Well, well, thanks for watching, guys, and we'll, um, see you next time. See you. Heat.
