Friday December 19, 2008

I wish I was feeling better and able to explore but I still feel like a train wreck victim. I woke up and was out the door by around 9am regardless of how crappy I was feeling. There where things I wanted to get done and I have to check out at 11.30am today. I’ve booked a cabin on the Perama boat to Lombok. It’s a two nights, two-day tour from Labuanbajo to Lombok Via Rinca Island (one of the homes of the Komodo Dragons), Gili Laba (snorkelling spot), Moyo Island (nature reserve Island with a small village and a freshwater swimming hole), Keramat Island (another snorkelling spot) and finally Labuan Lombok harbour. From the harbour we will get a bus transfer across the island to Senggigi on Lombok’s west coast. I know that probably reads as a lot of gobbledy gook to you all, believe me it’s confusing for me to keep up to date with the geography around here as well, I will try and find you a map to hopefully makes it all a bit easier to follow.

First task of the morning was to get some food in my belly so I have fuel to burn. It has to be something plain and hopefully familiar, even though I love Indo food I’m just not sure I could keep it down at the moment. I set off to find the most westernised restaurant in Labuanbajo and that was how I found “The Lounge”. It’s funny how circumstances will sometimes cause you a wonderful surprise and this was definitely another one of those instances for me. I would normally never have tried out a place so obviously marketed to westerners but this morning in search of banana pancakes I climbed the long, whitewashed, cement stairwell to this hip, little, open walled, eatery. I was immediately greeted by a cool looking dude Asep (the owner) who took one look at me and said “Shit my friend you had better sit down, you look very unwell”. Those stairs had taken all of my miniscule energy reserves to be frank and I felt bloody horrible so I flopped into the chair that was offered, sweating and panting. We spoke briefly about my recent sickness and he said he knew exactly what I needed. Before I knew it I had a large jug of fruit, grain and herbs (I could taste ginger) all blended together with plenty of ice, placed in front of me. I could not believe how good it tasted and how nice the staff was as they fussed over me. I reckon it only took about 20 minutes for the goodness of that strange brew to start taking effect.. I could literally feel my stomach settle and the nutrients nourish my starving body.

Asep left me to recover in relative peace and as I visibly started to feel better he came back over to have a chat. He was such a cool guy. Balinese by birth he had moved with his family to Jakarta in his childhood but hated the big city. He did meet his English girlfriend there and together they relocated to Labuanbajo to buy land as well as start a business and life of their own. He was another one of those laid back, cheerful guys that are so easy to talk to and we rambled on about all sorts of things as I gradually improved. He made me drink the whole jug of brew stating it would work better if I did. Apparently it is a secret family recipe of all natural ingredients and medicines to fight what he calls “Tropical Malaise” or what I call “The Squirts” haha. He refused payment for it to. I explained how I had all day to kill before I caught the boat this evening with my luggage to keep track of. He immediately dispatched me back to my hotel with one of the waiters to check out and grab my pack for me so we could bring it back to his restaurant for him to look after while I did the rest of my jobs. I’m such a lucky little Monsta. What would I do without all these amazing people I have met? Asep made my list of people that make the world a better place right there and then. What a flipping champion!

Once I had my gear stored and promised to be back in a few hours I was off to the Internet Café to do some more housework and such. I didn’t stay as long as I could have but still managed to spend an hour or so online with more visa and location research, banking, fighting with MBF and general cyber stalking of those back home. I couldn’t help but feel drawn back to Asep’s Café and walked the kilometre back as soon as I could. Asep and I spent the rest of the afternoon chilling, taking in the amazing view his hilltop location offers, eating, sipping on amazing espressos and talking music. I had grabbed a couple of blank CD’s and burnt him off a bunch of music as a means of thanking him for his care this morning. He was so happy he immediately popped the first one in the sound system and received his first lesson in Australian Hip-Hop. He was an instant fan of TZU and The Herd, asking all about the bands, their make-up and stuff like that. We had so much fun I didn’t even notice the time disappear and before long I had to leave. Asep had recovered me from sheer exhaustion, both physically and mentally, fed me, kept me entertained and renewed my excitement in travel with his stories of his own adventures… all for the grand total of a few blank CD’s and my conversation. He refused any money whatsoever! If ever you are in Labuanbajo you absolutely must hit “The Lounge”, if ya don’t I’ll bash ya ok!! Haha.

I waited with my gear outside the Perama companies’ office for around ten minutes before the rest of the tour group arrived and we set off by foot to the harbour. I still felt very average but so much better than I had that morning. If not for Asep’s magical concoction I would not have been able to make that walk. Even with his help I was a quiet little fella and stayed pretty much to myself, sweating and feeling a little faint off to one side as everyone got to know each other. I didn’t realize I was being antisocial until a pretty Dutch woman made the effort to come over and say Hi. “Are you ok?” she enquired and before long I had made some new friends again. Her name was Dagmar and she was travelling with her man Yoost. I had seen them in Ruteng the other night but we hadn’t really spoken. Soon she had Yoost take my backpack off me and we sat there while she patted my shoulder trying to comfort me during one of my dizzy spells. Again I felt like I didn’t deserve to be so lucky. I had stumbled across a group of people who all seemed so nice and concerned about me even though I am a total stranger to them.

We made the short trip by dingy to the large boat we would be calling home for the next few days and I was designated my cabin. I had the ‘Salmon’ cabin, located right down the back of the boat on the upper level. It was a good location but as soon as I saw the size of this little box I redubbed it the ‘Goldfish’ cabin. I swear I have seen goldfish bowls that are bigger haha. Inside they had squeezed a single top bunk and a double mattress on the floor that left about enough room to get my feet beside it and my backpack. Not exactly what I had expected but no doubt a million times better than sleeping on the deck like Dagmar and Yoost. Once I had thrown my gear in and told my new friends to store there stuff there too we returned down stairs to the main deck for our welcome dinner.

The night was a bit of a blur for me. I was really feeling my illness again but forced food down so that I had something in my system. I mingled but in a sort of a zombie state I hardly remember whom I spoke to or what we talked about. Once everyone found out what I was doing I found myself the centre of attention and not really in any state to deal with it. Normally I’d love to talk about myself for hours on end but I struggled this night to be honest. When the crew brought around some Arak and forced us all to have shots I knew I had made a mistake by accepting nearly straight away. They then cranked the cheesy house music and the noise, along with the rocking boat and fiery arak in my belly, soon had me running for the dunny. I didn’t quite make it before I projectile vomited everywhere. How embarrassing!! I had made the toilet room, just not the bowl so I slid the door closed, locked it and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to clean up the evidence while continuing to throw up. The inside of that toilet cubicle looked like Pro Hart had been making another one of those carpet commercials. There was spew dripping from the walls and even one part of the ceiling… WTF!!! I had exploded hahaha!! That was it for me. I had had enough and after washing everything clean I just snuck out of the loo and upstairs to my bed without rejoining the party. Yoost was at my cabin looking for me when I got there and he could see I needed bed. He was looking for a lie-down himself so I told him that he and Dagmar could just take the double mattress and sleep on the deck or in my cabin, whatever suited them. At that moment I think we became firm mates hahaha. He was so stoked. It was the least I could do and it didn’t bother me in the slightest but it obviously meant a lot to my new friends. They checked on me from time to time during the night, making sure I was ok and had water, before crashing in the cabin with me. It was a nice bloody feeling to know there was someone looking out for me. Sometimes I’m such a sook when I’m crook hahaha.

Saturday December 20, 2008

I think the rest of the crew, bar a couple who crashed early like myself, partied on till quite late last night. The boat stayed in Labuanbajo harbour for the night and the crew joined in on the festivities. There were more than a couple bleary eyes and heads held low around the place when I got up at around 6.30am. I’d had a great night sleep despite my Hugh McSpew and I was feeling better again this morning. The crew had gotten our ship underway at 5am and breakfast was just about ready as I descended the stairs to the main, covered deck area. There was still the odd body from deck class sprawled in various states of undress over the ground. I’d caught a glimpse of Dagmar’s tidy little ass in her briefs this morning and along with the girls in underwear on deck there was certainly no shortage of perve material around. I was glad I had my sunnies on haha. As I got to know everyone I later discovered they were all on trips with boyfriends unfortunately. It was a shame because there were some very fit, well-tanned bodies I would have liked to have had a closer inspection of (Actually there was one single lady on board.. I had mistaken her brother for her fella… she was a cute little curly haired red head from Holland named Agnus… would have been fun to flirt with her for a few days had I realized.. DER MONSTA!)

Breakfast was on the table just as the last of the sleepers had roused and gotten ready so we all tucked into a huge pile of fresh fruit, pancakes, with honey and piping hot tea. Thus far the food had been fantastic even if my appetite had yet to completely return. We were hugging a rugged coastline, through a long series of Islands that form part of the Kamodo National Park Reserve. It was so beautiful I took my brekkie out on to the uncovered foredeck and stared slack jawed at huge mountains, rugged headlands and some of the cutest little white, postcard beaches you could imagine. By the time we had all gorged ourselves on banana, papaya and mangoes then washed it all down with several teas the boat was rounding one last point to enter a small but perfectly formed natural harbour. The water gets so deep so quick around here our large boat was only around twenty meters from shore and yet you could not see the bottom through the crystal clear ocean waters. You could though, because we were so close to the island, see monkeys swinging through trees that overhung the waters edge and hear the buffalo crashing clumsily through the shrubbery. It really was a magical little place. We had arrived at Rinca Island and were soon moored up against a tiny jetty and disembarking to go see Komodo Dragons.

Does everyone know of Kamodo Dragons? They are huge goanna like lizards that grow as large as salt-water crocodiles and roam the land in these parts, biting prey to infect them with some few hundred bacteria and letting infection do all the hard work of killing the poor victim. Considering the dragons staple diet is Water Buffalo it seems like a clever evolutionary development. I’d hate to have to try and outright kill a water buffalo; they are freaking huge, tough beasts that are not shy of defending themselves. You will see heaps of pics of the dragons here; we had a good day, as there were several just lazing around the rangers’ station sunning themselves. That is not apparently all that common. The rangers are not permitted to feed them and try to keep their food scrapes out of access too but the dragons are not so stupid they cannot figure out people are lazy and if they hang around they stand a decent chance of picking up an easy snack.

As we got off the boat I was approached by a stunning blonde from one of those countries that pop out drop dead gorgeous citizens as easily as mass produced clogs or windmills or whatever bloody icon her country is famous for. I can’t even remember her name to be honest although she said it several times and I swore it would never leave my memory. Now that it is all over and I think back on the trip to write it all down my memory cells seem to have only retained her hair, eyes and perfect breasts hardly contained in a chocolate brown and pink bikini top. I’m just being honest… don’t hate on me ladies but I can’t really remember even talking and it was only the day before yesterday hahaha. I vividly recall how her boobs looked every time we ducked under low hanging branches though. It’s just the way a male brain works. I know I prayed for more branches as we walked and she quizzed me on my plans for my trip. It seems word was still spreading on the boat about my no fly policy and making people jealous. It strikes me as strange that I would cause such a commotion. I’m committed to the idea and just am running on the assumption that it is do-able but the more people I talk to the more I realize how it seems to capture imaginations and yet is so rarely attempted. Maybe it’s a good thing I am really pretty naive because if I stop to think about it to hard I may talk myself out of it.

Anyway, Miss perfect breasts and I chatted away on our walk to the rangers hut. Me stumbling over words and obstacles on the track while she elegantly negotiated both her second language English and the pathway. Because I was so busy trying to sound interesting and catch subtle pervs we managed to walk right up to a group of Kamodo Dragons, some 2 meters long without realising. I’m not sure whose scream was womanlier when we simultaneously saw the massive lizards across our path. I reckon I gave her a run for her money hahaha. We had arrived at the rangers’ station and just to our left was our watchful guide holding a large forked pole for protection. He was laughing at our shock and still managed to gather the crew together to give his safety and orientation speech. Since we were already so close to the dragons he suggested we get a photo. The well bosomed hottie slunk back to her boyfriends’ side and left me there to be the brave experiment. You’ll see the shot here. It’s terrible, but I’d be fucked if I was going to wait around and get someone to try again.

After that embarrassing episode I let myself fall off to the back of the crowd as we set off on a few hour hike around Rinca. The hike itself was OK. We didn’t see any more Dragons, just the odd nest and a bloody massive water buffalo having a ball in a small water hole. But I did meet Martin. A cool, dry witted French banker from Hong Kong. He gently teased me about the blonde perky boobed hottie and we hit it off straight away. Our supplementary notes to the park rangers’ commentary were hilarious… well we cracked ourselves up anyway. Rinca is a pretty place, the palm dotted hillsides and thickly vegetated gullies are all very green at this time of year. You could tell there is a lot of wildlife here too because everywhere you looked on the trail were animal tracks, it’s just that we didn’t see anything much at all and as soon as it was apparent we were on our way back to the rangers huts I cheered inwardly. Martins’ mutterings in French seemed to indicate he had seen enough too.

Back on the boat we all settled in for the few hour sail to our next activity. The older couples covered up with long sleeves and more sunscreen, grabbed a novel and a shady corner. The younger peeps shared themselves between the music in the covered deck area, the uncovered fore deck (where I found a comfy spot with my ipod) and the roof of the covered deck to sunbake. There were, thin but fit hairless dudes and sexy micro-bikini clad women sprawled all over the boat. As I made my way from my cabin to the foredeck with my ipod the hottie blond and friends were settling on the roof, the girls in near perfect unison removed their bikini tops and set free some impressive and varied breasts. Damn!!! I nearly fell over the side of the ship as I threaded a path through their oiled up bodies and swung down the ladder to take up my spot. Five minutes later a smirking Martin appeared beside me to note that I have a very expressive face. I asked him what he meant and he said “My friend there seems little doubt you love women, and maybe have not seen that many semi naked for a while” as he threw a thumb back over his shoulder to indicate the newly formed mountain range of gorgeous snowy peaks up stairs. Shit Monsta!! Try and keep ya cool boy… these people are reading you like a book. “Don’t worry,” he continued, “I heard them comment how cute they thought it was.” Oh God!! Even the girls noticed!! Hahahaha. I’m such a smooth player.

The next few hours seemed to go quite quickly. For some reason I kept thinking of things I needed to get from my cabin. Each of them requiring another trip through the boobie Alps upstairs. Every time I would negotiate the scenic route I could hear more murmuring in an unknown language and further giggles from the girls. Their boyfriends spent the whole time downstairs playing cards with the crew, fully aware of the ladies but obviously more used to the sight and unable to muster any interest. I pondered weather they were dead from the waist down and having run out of items I could retrieve from my room without looking too suspect, I bit the bullet and struck up some small talk with Blondie as I passed. All three girls immediately responded to the attention and I was invited to sit down as we chatted about nothing much in particular. I felt a bit like Hugh Hefner sitting on top of that boat with those ladies. We formed a semi circle with Blondie to my right, a petite little Venetian with long dark hair and flawless skin to my left and the curly haired, tight bodied redhead to her left again. Our circle was facing so that we could all look out over the perfect islands we were passing. The girls were all very comfortable, in that easy, European way, with the fact they had only tiny G-string bikini bottoms on but I was not sure where to look feeling a little awkward and overly hairy. We passed the next hour or so playing daydream games about which island we would purchase and make our own personal nirvana. It was a lot of fun and as I relaxed and got to know the girls I became far more impressed by how beautifully natured each was. There was one island we all agreed was the pick of the lot, being surrounded by glowing white beaches, a decent forested section and a magnificent small hill to perch the imaginary bungalow on. It took a good forty minutes to round it and we had time to plan were we would place the housing, what boats we would keep and where and what laws we would have in place. Little Red decided the only rule necessary was a strict ‘no clothing’ policy… I was really getting to like these girls hahahahaha.

We had lunch around 1pm and stopped at Gili Laba for a quick snorkel. The snorkelling was not that good unfortunately as the visibility was affected by a strong current stirring silt from the ocean bottom. Not being the most confident swimmer and facing a very long swim with nowhere to stop and rest to get to the better areas I gave up rather quickly and amused myself by taking high dives from the mast. I have not done a lot of diving like that before. Sure I’ve leapt of things to land feet first a few times over the years but I don’t ever remember diving head first off anything over a few meters from the ground. I’ve got to say falling headfirst off the highest point of the mast certainly gets the heart racing. I managed to make several dives in the end and hardly even hurt myself. By the end my dodgy shoulder was starting to complain about the impacts so I finished up doing little back flips off the deck rooftop to the amusement of the crew. My clumsy, ungainly style and propensity to end up with masses of salt water up my nose had them all cackling away and trying to give me pointers to improve my form. By the time the gang was returning from their snorkel adventures I was doing no hand cartwheels off the roof and landing awkwardly, alternating between back and belly flops hahaha. Seems my position as class clown with little fear and no regard for pain was formed here. Blondie joined in on the fun, as an ex competitive springboard diver she rocked and only seemed to re-enforce just how ungainly my attempts to impress were. I wish I had Brendon’s skills at this sort of stuff. My spirit may be willing but I’m definitely far better at this shit in my mind than in reality.

After our arvo activities and the sun exposure from my short-lived life as a playboy bunny magnate I was shattered. For the next few hours I crashed out in my cabin as the sunburn properly developed. When I woke I was sore, red and possessing one of the better sunglasses marks I have ever had. We were anchored at a small fishing village where they still manufacture traditional fishing and cargo vessels out of timber by hand. Three absolutely huge examples lined the beach in various states of construction and I was left breathless by the beauty of our location once more. The village looked so primitive, poking out of the jungle along the dark sand shoreline and behind us was one of the largest volcanos I’ve seen yet rising straight up out of the deep ocean as is the habit of such mountains around here. We had dinner and relaxed at anchorage, everyone mingling and laughing over a cold beer or two. I might have overdone things slightly today because I was feeling a bit crook again but man it was worth it; another very special day to add to the collection. Martin and Yoost decided that they had to swim to shore, shake some hands and check out the boats in the shipyard. They both stripped off to their Speedos and dove over the side before the crew could object, swimming the couple km’s to shore. The Captain was getting impatient to be under way again but they didn’t dawdle too much. It was a fucking funny sight the two of them glowing white against the dark sand, walking the beach and gathering a crowd of onlookers before swimming back out to our boat. I didn’t last a whole heap longer after that, sneaking off to my good old ‘Goldfish’ cabin and passing out despite the tenderness of my sunburn and over-abused right shoulder.

Sunday December 21, 2008

Did I tell you about Glen and Sheila in yesterday’s blog? Hang on let me double check… no! Ok well they are this older Canadian couple I spent ages talking to last night around dinnertime. What a cool pair they are in a nerdy, mom and pop kind of way. I wanted to mention them because for the last 7 or 8 years they have been travelling the world. Occasionally they would return home for a quick visit with family and friends but otherwise they have been travelling constantly. I found their stories so inspiring and they are probably the first people I have met that just straight up said my plan was very do-able. Glen said I would have many moments where my problems would seem impassable but I just had to be patient and stubborn and I could do it. Sheila had that very motherly way of offering support and made me miss my mum when she would offer words of encouragement while rubbing the centre of my back hahaha. They both have fantastic wits and an extra, extra dry sense of humour. I ended up spending a lot of time just picking their brains over the course of this boat trip. As I said they are two very cool peeps and I am glad to have met them.

I felt a bazillion times better this morning. My tummy was rumbling from hunger instead of being unsettled and I had slept right through the night in one of those blissfully restorative sleeps. Thank fuck!! It’s about bloody time I recuperated. I ate about 5 bowls of fruit and pancakes for breakfast so I know my appetite is finally fully restored haha. Not long after breakfast Venetian babe asked Martin and I to compare boob burns on the bunny trio, to which I replied with a deadpan face “if I must”. Meanwhile the boyfriends were all applying sunscreen to each other’s backs… again I pondered what is wrong with this picture? Not to say I think this was flirty behaviour from the girls. They were playfully arguing amongst themselves and needed unbiased adjudication, but I still suspect they are somewhat missing their men’s attention (BTW Little Reds boobs won being far redder and rather sore looking). By the time Martin and I got our last view of perky breasts for the trip we were pulling up at a small harbour again. This was Moyo Island, our first activity for our last day.

The whole gang had a ball at this remote island. We landed ashore via the dinghy and walked through the small village, gathering a long string of curious locals. We were destined for small water falls with a deep, cool freshwater swimming hole some half hour hike into the jungle. Martin, Yoost, Dagmar and I strolled through long, narrow laneways between heavily fenced farming allotments chatting amongst ourselves and playing with the village kids. The four of us, along with Little Red (Agnus) and her brother have formed a somewhat close little sub crew on the boat. It was a very pleasant meander through those lanes under cover of the overhung foliage from trees that line each side of the track and form the posts to the intricate fencing. I had a small boy up on my good shoulder, Dagmar had a little girl in each hand while Yoost and Martin dragged some older boys along in a makeshift sled formed by old palm fronds. We were all cracking up and goofing around the whole trek in.

At the falls there was a large rope swing and another boatload of European tourist. This is a devoutly Muslim island where nudity is not really a common or accepted practise but the Europeans can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to exposing skin. We had several fat, flabby male body’s clad in tight little Lycra Speedos, a couple of which were even g-strings. It made me feel uncomfortable and had the kids staring in disbelief. Our boat crew had asked that we all wear our longest board shorts as a sign of respect and for the ladies to do the same with the addition of a t-shirt over their bikini tops but the other boat had obviously not worried about this warning. Thankfully the ladies where more modest but the men were getting lots of whispered comments from locals accompanied with curious pointing of fingers. I hit the rope swing as soon as I could, mis-timing my let go and landing face first in a huge spray of cold water hahaha. The class clown was at it again embarrassing himself. Yoost was pulling some amazing stunts off the swing so I had to climb a nearby cliff and redeem myself with the best, most relaxed back flip I have ever pulled. All that practice yesterday was finally paying off. We spent a good hour or so frolicking in that shady water hole with most people eventually game enough to try the swing. Sheila was like an adrenalin junkie on that thing, letting rip with some hilarious Tarzan yodels and thumping her chest after her let go. She is such a character! She even looks a bit like my mum so it was a weird sight for me to witness, I can’t imagine Ma trying the same stunts though I’d pay money to see just that!!

The walk back was a lot more subdued with most of our energy being spent already. We were shuttled by dingy back onboard and left picturesque little Moyo, heading to Keramat Island for our last snorkel. I dozed in what shade I could find while listening to my Ipod and most peeps were doing similar things, slumped around our boat like a bunch of war weary troops being ferried away from the front line. I bumped a huge Oz Hip Hop Fest on my Ipod. Blondie had a double adapter jack for the headphones and I was trying to give her an Introduction to the genre. We started with TZU and moved to The Serenity; I followed that with Coalition and Chasm before finishing up with the Hilltops and Mystro. She loved it though in the end had to go talk to her bloke as he finally decided to get a little put out by our time spent together. Poor chick.. he is a nice enough bloke but cheezus he’s a bit of a sook and somewhat slow on the uptake. For the rest of the day he lavished her with attention finally showing his funnier, entertaining side. He actually looks like a young House and has a great sense of humour. Blondie obviously adores him too, they were in fact very cute together from then on.

By mid arvo we were approaching a tiny little island, skirted with beaches that turned out to be our destination. Unfortunately the chop and current had picked up something fierce and only about half the crew went for that last snorkel. The rest of us including some of the younger European blokes stayed on the boat and entertained ourselves doing jumps and dives off various points. So far I had been the only one to jump from the red platform off the mast. That’s the highest point you can get to on the ladder and a fairly scary thing to do. I’d been shitting my pants yesterday and my shoulder was still recovering but House and his young blond mate were keen to try and yet needed to witness that it was possible so of course I soon found myself making the climb again. About halfway up I grabbed one of the ladder rungs with my right hand and hauled hard to climb around a small obstacle. Just at that moment the rung let go and I very nearly went crashing to the deck some several meters below. Not since my recent illness had I come so close to actually soiling my boardies haha. I hung by my left hand only over the deck trying to calm myself and work out how to get back on the ladder. The crew below were freaking out and yelling different stuff but I told them all to shut up and let me sort it out. Turned out it was easy enough and I was soon safely on the red platform.

I don’t know if it was the little scare on the climb or the audience I had today, maybe it was the stiff breeze and strong sway of the boat in the swell but for some strange reason I was even more scared then on my last attempts. The platform is only just big enough for my huge feet and you have just one small place to hold on. I swayed around up there for too long and started to psyche myself out. The blonde dude and House were being very quiet down below but Glen was calling out encouragement to me. I wasn’t going to climb back down so I asked for a countdown and started it myself. TEN… NINE… oh shit Monsta, why do you have to do this stupid shit all the time EIGHT… SEVEN… what if I dislocate my shoulder or hit the boat I’ll kick myself if I get injured SIX… FIVE… Az will murder me if I have to go home and miss catching up in Thailand FOUR… THREE… maybe I could get them to do one more count, I’d be right by the end of another ten I know it TWO… ONE… fuck it, if I’m going to go with the crowd below I’m going to make this my best one yet GOOOOOOOOOO!!! The g sound had barley made it up to my perch and I surrendered myself to fate leaping out to make a forward flip (something I decided to do right at the last minute) I saw water, boat, sky, horizon and straightened out waiting for impact.. waiting… waiting… holy fuckin hell I forgot how high this jump is… waiting.. god damn I’m going to have a look and with that thought I lent forward slightly to peek below… KAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Ouch! I had managed to perform a perfect flip but stuffed it by leaning forward to check my progress, smashing my chin on the waters surface and biting a very small part off my tongue on impact. The blood made it look bad and sure it hurt but I was an instant hero with the fellas and basically uninjured.

House and Blonde Dude were now in the spotlight and feeling the pressure. I sat on deck swallowing copper tasting saliva and shouting encouragements along with instructions up after each of them as they took turns to scare themselves senseless. The crew of the boat were all carrying on about how they do it all the time but not one of them fronted to give it a go. Blonde dude went first and performed a decent, simple jump, punching the air in victory after making it. House really struggled. You could see his legs shaking and I really felt for him but after one false countdown he jumped on five of the second. Both he and his blonde hottie girlfriend squealed as he plummeted and landed fairly heavy on his right side but he soon surfaced uninjured with a goofy grin on his face. It was awesome fun but we had to keep moving so it ended there, the crew hauled anchor and we set off for Labuan Lombok.

It was a subdued boat for those last few hours. We quietly exchanged emails and promised to stay in touch (knowing it was very unlikely). People packed bags and showered in preparation of landfall, which occurred all to soon. A long sombre line of tourists shuffled from boat to bus and began the hour-long shuttle to Senggigi on the opposite side of Lombok in the dark and light rain. Hardly a word was spoken on that bus as we all struggled with that travellers malaise caused by fast friendships and even faster goodbyes. We were dropped off in central Senggigi around 10pm and fractured into several small groups we said our last goodbyes amid a storm of handshakes and kisses. Martin, Yoost, Dagmar, Agnus (Little Red), her brother and myself set off for a hotel I had booked by mobile on the boat. My dodgy shoulder and sunburn complained about my shoulder straps but I hardly felt that over my heavy heart and sudden severe weariness. It had been such a mad little boat trip, we had all enjoyed such highs but as they say what goes up must come down. Martin and I discussed the bittersweet nature of travel for the whole walk to Raja Bungalow, without really coming to any solution.

It turns out the solution is the next surprise and we had ours when we found our accommodation. Raja Bungalows is located off the main drag, down a dingy little narrow road and an even more foreboding and narrower lane way, but the moment you step through the large gate you are transported to a beautiful, peaceful garden of Eden. We all immediately burst into discussion about how pretty this place is as we entered and voices became even more excited and alive when we inspected our rooms with gorgeous open aired attached bathroom and toilets. I knew straight away I would be stuck here for more than one night. We shared a quick drink and a smoke, said our goodbyes to cute little red and her bro (they were off at 7.30am the next morning) and slipped off to our cabins to crash and burn. I nearly forgot to mention I had another ‘bright red with shyness’ moment when little red said her goodbyes to me. The Dutch have this three kiss goodbye ritual I was not aware of but little red instinctively performed the cheek to cheek air kiss as we parted. Well she tried.. at first attempt I stood straight on her toes.. sorry about that… second go we did two kisses, left cheek then right and I then managed to head butt her as she went for number three… she laughed but I was mortified. In the end I thought “Fuck it all” cupped her chin gently and planted one right on her lips, a slightly lingering soft smooch I can still feel when I think bout it. She giggled as I then quickly turned on my heel to hide the rising crimson. God I’m a dork!! hahaha

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