The grey weather starting to get us down, we decided it was time to bail out of the Gili Islands. Undoubtedly a really nice place, we nonetheless agreed that we could hang out with drunk Irish people anywhere in the world and would probably be better off without the many crystal-meth addicted locals offering everything from snorkel rental to magic mushrooms to marriage (we quickly learnt that the best answer to 'Do you have a boyfriend' is not 'sort of' or 'yes' but 'No, but I have a husband and three children so don't even think about it').
Before we ventured back to Bali, however, we received an offer we couldn't refuse: a visit to Lombok with a great local guy called Ikram, who was heading back to stay with his family. No travel agent or taxi driver or huge amount of money could have given us the incredible day we had- we drank from coconuts with Ram's grandma and little cousins, walked through the jungle trailed by dozens of local kids who treated us as a game of red light/green light, ate lunch that Ram's auntie had cooked us (we sat on the floor of his house and ate with our hands, as is the done thing, but listened to Indonesian dance music pumping out of a state-of-the-art sound system, such is the anomaly of local life) and rode on the back of his friends' motorbikes through kilometers of incredibly green rice paddies.
The day ended with us all swimming in our clothes in a waterfall with all the village's kids, and chatting with children who wanted to know why I was so white and why my parents were so old (when I mentioned to a girl whose mum is 28 that my dad is 57, she was like 'wait... so he's still alive?'). We all slightly wondered why we'd bothered for so long with the grey and touristy Gili Islands. (this is them below, at sunset. not really so bad!)
Boat tickets to Bali already booked, we reluctantly endured a killer journey (they handed out seasickness pills and plastic bags before we'd even set off) followed by a car trip to take us to Ubud, in the hills of Bali. Highlights of Ubud would have to include the monkey forest (our bargained-for bananas were snatched from Tami's hands by the king monkey within three seconds of our arrival, to the great hilarity of the women we had bought them from), the shisha lounge (there is nothing to do in Ubud at night but smoke shisha, although to be fair it was really nice), but most of all the day we rented scooters.
We'd all been on the back of one before, but for the first 10 minutes of lurching up and down our hotel's driveway we really wondered if we'd made a mistake. However, half an hour later we were all happily cruising up to Bali's central mountains safe in the knowledge that our travel insurance covers all types of foolish activities. We made it, 2.5 hours later, to a beautiful Hindu temple that had barely anyone in it but for a few people who were actually praying. We had a delightful time wandering around in our borrowed sarongs and posing for photos as we imagined Hindus would.
Following up our temple visit we went to a place marked as 'Astounding View' on the map (it was pretty astounding, actually) and took lots of photos of us being mad coolies babes on motor scooters. Or taking arty photos in mirrors, if your name is Lucy Burgess.
One way or another, we agreed that the day we spent with Ikram in Lombok and the day we spent scootering around the roads-less-travelled of Bali were the two best days of the trip so far. And, to top it all off, none of us were swiped by a truck or anything so everyone still has all their limbs. A successful excursion!
Next stop... Seminyak. Bali is about to get a bit unreal.
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