Impossible Riung...

It felt like today we were just banging our heads up against a wall. Trying to book or get anything sorted here in Riung feels like it’s impossible! We wanted to go on a snorkelling trip for tomorrow but it was so difficult to organise! We met 4 other travellers yesterday who also wanted to go snorkelling so we went to the market in the morning before meeting up with them to find a trip.

Chopping up a coconut for us

After a lot of haggling we got what we thought to be a fair price, but with everything else an extra price, it still wasn’t a bargain. We then had to go and find snorkelling equipment to take with us and they only had 3 masks and snorkels, that weren’t great, no fins and considering there were 8 of us, it wasn’t enough.

Locals

After about 2 hours we finally got it all booked and sorted, but it wasn’t easy as we thought it would take 10 minutes, tops. We then got ready and tried to find transport to the beach, which is 14km away, this again wasn’t easy.

House on the water

There were no bemos around as the market had closed, and the only way to get there was to take an ojek (motorbike). You could either hire one or rent your own, but watching the way they drive with no helmets and dodgy bikes we didn’t want to get on the back with someone else driving, and neither Chris nor I could drive a geared bike, we were stuck again for 2 hours, trying to work something out.

House

Isa and Rod hired their own as they often ride bikes, so we told them to go ahead without us whilst we tried to work something out.

Man with a big gun

Eventually we managed to find a car to take us, and we haggled the price down from £22 to £3.50 after ages of negotiation yet again.

Us being given coconuts

So finally, about 5 hours later than planned we made it to the beach, which was amazing!

Goats on the beach

It wasn’t white sand and perfect turquoise water but still great.

Fish

A sea urchin

We found some locals who cut us down some coconuts to eat and drink and we shared biscuits with the local children whilst Chris played football on the sand/mud with some older kids and we played in the sea.

My new-best-friend after feeding him biscuits!

Cute boys

Chris playing football with the local kids

Chillaxing

After a mud fight

The beach in Riung

Lovely day in the end...

Impossible Riung...

Riung, Indonesia