Bali to Lombok

Where do i start? The beginning? It's so hectic here you forget where you are sometimes! Or at least our driver did!

We fly into Bali in the evening and not really wanting to get here and find accommodation, transport etc etc we had it all prebooked. Arrive to the driver holding a sign. Mr Whidrab. That's another name for the list. He led us to the car to take us to Sanur for our lodgings for the next couple of days. Put the key in to unlock it but it wouldn't unlock? After trying the rest of the doors he finally decided that this wasn't his car? Great start. Eventually finding the right vehicle we're off. Hectic doesn't actually describe the traffic here. The roads are jam packed with people cutting each other up left right and center. The most i saw on a scooter this evening was 3 within two more days i'd seen 5! Dad driving, son stood between his legs, daughter squished between mum and dad, mum holding a baby!

We finally get to our Hotel for the night and after grabbing some dinner retire for the night so we can wake up nice and fresh in the morning to see what Indonesia has to offer!

Everything is the answer. I get my hair cut for 30,000 with pair of blunt scissors and a woman who if I'm honest i think has only cut about 3 heads of hair before. She took about 10 seconds over each cut? I'm not going to bore you all with the various prices of everything but if i do mention a price bear in mind that 16,000rp roughly equals 1 Pound. The following day we decide to head to Lombok after wandering the streets of Sanur, finding it to be a little touristy to say the least. We jump in a bemo (rusty old mini van, rarely with a side door) after finally agreeing a fare head to Padangbai to catch the 4 hr ferry to Lembar. On the ferry we bump into a Swedish guy called Dennis who joins us on our journey to Senggigi. We stay at Pondok Siti Hawa and are so glad we do. The next day we wake up and walk the 20 paces to the beach. What a location this is, 2 km south of main town Sengiggi we watch as 2 families are pulling in their fishing net for the mornings catch. It is currently Ramadan here so as they do this, which takes a couple of hours, they can not eat or drink anything.

Husein the owner, who is an ex New Zealander and has been on a 20 year mission to clean up Lombok starts to arrange our next few days. Dennis is off to climb Mt Rinjani and Chantal and I are heading off round the top of the island to the east coast to spend a night on our own Island. A small island just off Gili Pentangan. We arrive the first day after traveling through some of the friendliest villages i've experienced. We stop a few times for petrol on the way and to have a drink or a snack and suddenly people just start saying hello, waving, smiling one shop we stopped at gave us some fresh coconut free. I think he'd just called across the street to get the rest of his family to come see the westerners and wanted to keep us there a little longer. We finally arrive in Labuhan Pandan and check into our hut for the night. The next day we head out to the island.

The boat to take us arrives. Powered by what looks like a lawnmower engine we set sail. An hour later we're there. Soaked through but there. We quickly grab some snorkeling gear and head off into the water. About 10 m from the shore is a huge coral drop off with some beautiful colors and species. A vibrant red star fish being my favourite. Not having a lot of luggage space on the scooter i decided to leave behind my camera casing so no photos I'm afraid. We settle down in the evening to some fire cooked chicken and rice and Qamaruadin & Jaenal (the guides) playing some music on the guitar and chatting away. It's nice having your own island, just us four and the island boys who live here for six months looking after the island. Tour groups come through 3 times a week. We were lucky! The next morning we wake to a glorious sunrise and when we've had some breakfast go for another quick snorkel before heading back to the mainland. Once there we set off again on our scooter to Tetebatu in the center of Lombok to visit the waterfall and monkey forest. When we arrive we go for lunch and meet a really great couple from Holland, Joep & Yanika. They join us a Losmen Tetebatu (hotel for the night) where we're taken to the tobacco factory across the road for a free tour by the hotel owner. This part of Lombok is where they grow a large amount of tobacco for the main American companies including Marlboro. Really interesting to see them process and grade it in such vast quantities. The next morning accompanied by our new friends we head back to Senggigi for one more night stopping off at Mataram mall for a bite to eat Joep's first Mcdonalds for a few weeks. He had craving!

We get back to Senggigi and go out for a fantastic fish dinner just 40m along the beach, all freshly caught that day and grilled on the BBQ. Its fantastic. A whole fish, a plate of king prawns, an oyster, rice and veg for 100,000rp! The following morning we're heading back to Bali to start our week at Senang Hati. One night at Ubud first.

Bye for now.

---

---