Atlast back in the presence of a good internet connection I can write about the last couple of weeks without fear that after it's all written it won't just disappear into an error message . . .
So after Ubud we arrived on the Gili Islands off of Lombok in more style than used to on this trip - by a speed boat with actual glass windows, cushioned seats and complimentary lunch boxes, very nice! The island we were staying on (Gili Trawangan) was really beautiful, spent a couple of days relaxing on the beach and then headed over to Lombok by a more normal boat, although spent more time in the air than on the boat with the choppy water, luckily it was only 20 minutes.
Lombok was very nice, completely different from Bali as hardly any tourists there. A lot less built up so every drive we went on we were traveling through really lush forest and little villages. The first drive was to a place called Sengiggi that was supposed to have a nice beach. Beach was nice but place a little strange felt a bit like a seaside town out of season, but the lack of people wasn't such a good thing as everyone there was desperate to sell something - from Sarongs to transport and it was such a small place that they made it there business to know exactly what you were doing at all times. Couldn't walk down the street without ten people saying 'where are you going?' (always find this funny as in England that would seem rude and a little stalkerish but they do it everywhere in Asia!). Other times they would inform you where you had just been and when me and Jess ventured out seperately it caused widespread concern 'where's your friend?' 'are you looking for your friend?' 'your friends over there'.
So a nice place for a couple of days but we were happy to leave when we did. Went to the next place via a scenic drive, went to a tiny little Hindu sea temple on the rocks which was very sweet and then into central Lombok to see rice paddies and a waterfall. The waterfall was full of local people not a tourist in sight which was nice. We managed to persuade them that we didn't need a guide to lead us along the 5 minute paved and sign posted path and walked down to look at, began to feel like we were the tourist attraction when we got there, don't know if have ever been stared at so much, when we drove away people were actually peering through the windows into the car. And if we thought this was going to get better when we arrived in Mataram - the capital of Lombok - we were very wrong. Not a tourist in sight (except for a few sheltering in the shopping mall)and quite a strange place. The Lonely Planet described it as charming, with wide tree lined streets, but didn't mention it was pretty much just one tree lined street and that along with the trees there were lots of very ugly buildings. It was good to go somewhere un-touristy though and the crazy shopping mall was an experience in itself - big fluffy elephants for children to travel round on, kareoke cafes everywhere (definitely think we should have these in England)and a live band shouting out rock songs only recongnisable if you happened to catch one of the lyrics.
But one night was enough there so left the next morning for Kuta Lombok, a beach down in the south. Really lovely there, very laid back and a bit of a surfers paradise. Unfortunately one on a bit of time limit as there are big resort adverts and billboards advertising land for sale everywhere but for now its lots of little bamboo shacks on the beach and bungalow guesthouses. One day we decided to walk to really nice sounding restaurant for lunch. Only two km away so sounded easy but we didn't put two and two together and think that perhaps somewhere that's described as having amazing cliff views might be a little bit high up. One hour later we staggered in, looking like exhausted wrecks to find that we had walked into land of peace and tranquility - everyone (who had all passed us on there motorbikes about half an hour earlier) was reclining and sipping milkshakes to the sound of hippy music and they all seemed to find our dramatic entrance very amusing. The food and view was worth it though.
The day after that we had a surf lesson which was great. Had to go out in a boat to the surf break which was in the middle of a bay and join lots of other learnings paddling towards the waves and trying to catch them. Given the effort it took to do this we weren't so keen on the idea of falling off by attempting to stand up as soon as we had caught a wave so had much more fun just speeding along on our stomachs and then paddling back again. Apparently this didn't impress the instructor so much (or atleast Jess's one as she had ended up with a slave driver who just sat on his board shouting 'go back! go back! Why do you go so far out! Why don't you stand up??', whereas mine was very sweet and just pushed my board along for me while I did some token paddling)but we felt that we were simply going along with the chilled out surfer dude logic and so it was completely justifiable.
After a few days there we went back to the Gili islands, had some more beach time and went snorkelling. Saw some very cool fish, a whole school of Dory fish (know this isn't the official term but get most of my fish knowledge from 'Finding Nemo')some crazy electric blue ones and at one point a turtle who was plodding along the sea floor.
Headed back to mainland Bali via very rough sea crossing and spent the last couple of nights there in Sanur where we started. Visited another sea temple called Ulu Watu which was on amazing stretch of coastline although populated with the monkeys I have come to really dislike - it wasn't reassuring when we were offered a guide to 'protect us from the monkeys'.
Now in Bangkok for our last couple of days. Flying home tomorrow and can't quite believe it!
