the very lovely togean islands behind us, we spent a day in the chaos of kuta (downtown bali, for those not in the know) 'running errands', which involved getting massages, eating food that wasn't fish or rice (as great as they were, the togeans were not a culinary wonderland), spending my christmas money and appreciating the joys of running water.
the next day, which was last wednesday, we endured a horrendous boat ride from east-coast bali to lombok (think small boat on a big ocean, lots of seasick passengers, and windows that couldn't or wouldn't be opened so it was about 50C on board), and then on to Gili Trawangan, the largest of the three gili islands located to the north of Lombok.
it quickly became apparent that, as ever, the destination made the journey worth it as we took in the great beach, friendly locals and good-looking scandanavians that tend to be the icing on the cake of any great holiday place. until yesterday, we were staying in a homestay run by a couple of young local guys, who are always around with their friends and are we thought were pretty funny. only one or two of them are actually employed there, the rest just 'help out', which mostly seems to involve selling magic mushrooms. they also give themselves hilarious names like blink (after blink 182) and bacardi, the latter of whom has smoked so much weed he can barely string two words together but he makes really good banana pancakes and plays the guitar pretty well so he's good value. anyway, after 5 days there we felt they were getting a bit too friendly so bailed out to a different homestay closer to the beach.
(this is the girls at a seafood BBQ thing, so yum)
gili trawangan is a really nice change from bali- less bogan aussies on a cheap-beer-and-tattoos holiday (to each his own but not really our style) and more local restaurants and cafes, chilled out people and really fun nights out. on friday we went to a bar with a large population of solo indonesian men, who would dance around us really enthusiastically without apparently ever getting bored of dancing by themselves for hours on end.
we came across this really cute little girl eating her dinner when we were on a bike ride and really couldn't not take a photo of her.
lucy and i also went for a dive here, which was not as amazing as the togeans in terms of coral and stuff BUT we saw two turtles which made it very much worth it.
after a few exciting/dangerous experiences with the local rice wine (one bottle exploded in sinead's ear, apparently a regular occurrence) we are playing it safe with more familiar liquors (if you would count indonesian vodka as familiar)... however for its petrol-like taste and milky texture, lombok rice one is one not to be missed. it is still probably less dangerous than the pony carts that stampede around the streets here, transporting everything from overweight japanese tourists to mattresses and chests of drawers. only in indonesia, it seems, do people move house on a horse.
x iona
