Senggigi

It was an early start for us this morning as the Perama bus was going to pick us up at 6am. At half past six a minibus finally came, took us 50m down the street and stopped in front of the Perama office. Why they didn't just ask us to go there in the first place I do not know, but hey.. that's Indonesia for ya. Shame for that 30 minutes of extra sleep though. We then boarded a bigger bus and cruised to Ubud. Elle and I fell asleep almost immediately, so I can't really tell you what there is to see between Kuta and Ubud. I was told it's quite nice, I suppose I'll just have to believe it.

When we finally got to Padang Bai we went to the only restaurant in the port and got us some brekkie. The Perama people told us to stay there and they would come and collect us when the ferry was ready for boarding. Fine, I was going to get a banana pancake anyway, so might as well eat it there. They stayed away though, the Perama people, so we got a bit anxious as we didn't want to miss the boat. I didn't really fancy a night in Padang Bai to be honest plus our mountain trek was to start the next day, so off I went looking for the Perama staff. Couldn't really find them but saw the ferry was still there, so I went back to Elle. In the meantime she got to talking to Catherine, a South African girl who lived in London for the past 2 years. So the three of us stayed there untill one Perama lad called us to get on board.

The journey took us about 4 hours. One good advice, bring something to entertain yourself - ipod, books, cards, whatever - cause 4 hours can be long and boring if you don't have anything to do besides watch the horizon to prevent yourself from getting seasick. Lucky for me I didn't have to do that a lot as the sea wasn't choppy. And also, I fell asleep.. again. Ah well. When I woke up, we were just getting ready to sail into Lembar harbor. From there it was only another hour to Senggigi, which is where we are now.

Cath, Elle and I walked down the main street looking for Sonia's guesthouse. It was the cheapest in LP, and quite a dodgy one too, but we couldn't be bothered looking for another guesthouse as it was just for the one night anyway.
After we had dropped our packs in the room, we went out for lunch and a walk on the beach. There's clear evidence that Senggigi is also suffering from the sharp decline of tourism in Indonesia. Apart from the odd German every now and then you don't see many tourists walking around.

This evening the three of us hung around at the guesthouse. Cath and I were talking when Elle shouted "OH MY GOD!" from the bathroom. A bit startled I asked "what ??" as I thought she was laughing with our puberal conversation about Robbie Williams. But then she asked "Do you realize you just showered with a frog ?". I thought my heart was going to stop beating. For those who don't know me, I'm afraid of frogs. Insects I can tolerate, but not frogs. They're just so.. disgusting! .. and dirty ! .. and they jump! So we asked one of the boys who worked there to remove it. He went away and came back armed with a broom and a bucket. Then he and Elle went into the bathroom to get the slimy creature out. All this while I stayed outside and listened to them two screaming and jumping about trying to get the bugger into the bucket. Turned out the boy was afraid of frogs too. LOL. Ah my hero, braving his fears like that. Then when Elle went for her shower, she started laughing really hard and shouted "there's another one .. ha ha". Yeah, really funny that. Anyway we called the lad again to get the 2nd frog out and I hope we are now frog-free.

Off to get some mineral water and toilet paper (always bring an extra roll when you're in this part of the world) for the trek now, so I'll leave it to that. Tales from the mountain coming up soon.

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