After a couple of nights in sleepy Sanur we decided to make a break from Bali and head to Lombok, as Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands we thought we would cross a few off the list before we leave, only 16,998 to go. The evening before we had arranged for a bemo (mini van with two wooden benches to sit on, typical Bali transport) to take us to Pandangbai so we could catch a ferry to Lombok. Unfortunately, we missed our meeting time as there was a little dispute to settle with the hotel. To cut a long story short, the hotel we originally booked to stay with in Sanur was fully booked when we arrived but they arranged for us to stay with another hostel, saying that we pay them the room cost and they would pay the other hotel as they had an 'arrangement', we knew it sounded dodgy at the time but we went with it, especially as the hotel was on the seedier side, we were glad they were booked up. So when we tried to check out in the morning of course they tried to tell us we hadn't paid. After a long dispute of Ryan telling the hostel we had paid at the other hotel and them phoning the other hotel a number of times, Ryan speaking to the hotel manager; the hotel manager turning up to play the 'you have paid sir?, you haven't paid sir?' game, it was eventually sorted an hour later. As compensation for 'upsetting' us and making us miss our bemo they arranged for another to take us, and managed to get it a lot cheaper than we had originally bartered, so it turned out to be a good for our budget.
Once we arrived in Pandangbai, we had missed the last direct ferry to our destination for the day but there was a ferry in 5 minutes that would take us to Lembar, Lombok's main port. We needed to get a tourist ticket because we didn't have time to find the local ticket office and suss out how to get a ticket, so we improved our bartering skills again by getting half price tickets that would also transfer us to the town we wished to go to. I say half price, but we probably still paid too much, but with the ferry about to leave we didn't want to chance missing it over a few thousand rupiah.
Oh, just an after thought, we became millionaires the other day when we withdrew 1,000,000 rupiah from the ATM (no lost bankcards this time) Ok, it's only worth about US$100 but a first is a first, no matter how small.
The ferry ride took 4 hours to cover the 25km distance between the two islands and the view as we left Bali was spectacular seeing the white sandy beaches dotted along the coastline with volcano Gunung Agung as a stunning background. On arrival we met with our transfer guide and headed over to the beach town of Senggigi, travelling through Lombok's capital Mataram and seeing countryside in between. Lombok is meant to be how Bali was over 20 years ago and we could see a difference instantly, as it's much less crowded and developed, we would definitely recommend anyone thinking of heading to Bali to add a trip to Lombok to the agenda. Our local guide started to explain the places we were passing through but once he and Ryan discovered they were both Liverpool fans the conversation steered straight to football for the remainder of the journey. Once in Senggigi we quickly found a cheap and basic hotel to stay in, it was here we were to experience our first power cut. On our way back from getting dinner we noticed the town was very dark and returning to the hostel we found we couldn't see where we were going and nearly fell into a ditch. This is when we realised we should have taken our head torches out with us, we'll remember to do that in future. We did get back to the room safely only to realise no electricity meant no electric fan, which meant stifling conditions in our tiny room, thinking we were going to suffocate and never get to sleep. Thankfully the power returned later and we could get a good night sleep, or so we thought...We knew we were staying directly behind the town Mosque as the semi-reliable Lonely Planet had informed us and we had heard the evening prayer calls but we weren't prepared for the predawn wake-up call at 4am and there was no way to sleep through it being transmitted over loudspeakers!
The next morning, weary eyed, we got up to catch our bus transfer to Bangsal, where we were catching a ferry to the Gili Islands.'Gili' means small and these three islands, Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan, are just 1km from the coast and within virtual swimming distance of each other, but swimming is not recommended as the currents are too strong. To get to the islands we had to get a wooden long boat, hauling two backpacks of approximately 15 kgs each full of electrical equipment when knee deep in water is quite a tricky excercise, needless to say only Ryan experienced this while I watched on in amusement.
Travelling Observations:
I have never walked as slowly as I have in the last couple of weeks. The heat makes me walk at the slowest pace possible but it gives me time to take in all of my surroundings, I guess that's what travel is all about.
Geckos - these are found in most hot climates so are not uncommon to most people, but they are often known to be shy, retiring little creatures scuttling away at any movement, until you meet Lombok geckos that is. The first encounter was when one decided to run up Ryan's leg as he was on the toilet in the middle of the night scaring the life out of him. The second was when I was sitting on the porch of our room peacefully reading when I felt a splat on my hand and looked up to see a gecko had cocked it's tail up and peed on me, cheeky little sh!t. I swear it winked at me too.
We did intend to have a week or two of relaxing before we threw ourselves into the experience of travelling, but our first week turned out to be more hectic and stressful as our first two stops were not places we wanted to spend a good length of time, so trying to work out where to head and how to get there came sooner than expected, but the trip has certainly started. At last we can relax here on Gili Trawangan for 3, 4, 5, days or more, but there is nothing to do here but read, sleep, swim and snorkel in turquoise sea. More on that next time...
Salamat tinggal (yes, we have learnt a word or two of Bahasa)
Jo & Ryan
P.S. The internet connection here is slower than my walking speed so no pictures yet, we'll upload them all when we get back to the main land
