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We got to the beach town of Senggigi towards the north-west coast of Lombok and began the usual trawl for accommodation. Of course, everything listed in a guide book is twice the price that is stated despite the place being pretty well deserted so we were lucky to find the one budget place left in town (Atithi guest house) and went to bed for a few hour to catch up on the lack of sleep from the previous night's bus trip.
Later on we strolled along the town's only street to the post office which was closed for Easter Sunday- much to our surprise as Lombok's population is mainly Muslim. Never mind: the woman who was living in an adjoining bungalow was happy to open up and sell us some overpriced postcard stamps and we headed down to the beach for a look around. The beach was nice enough for a photo but was difficult to get to and the sea wasn't especially warm so we decided to take a trip further north to the Gili Islands which were supposed to have a bit more atmosphere.
At the hotel that evening we saw the biggest spider we've seen on
our travels so far (after 7 months in Asia, that means in was big! About the size of my hand!) in its web on the balcony so kept our distance. Up bright and early the next morning, we got on a minibus to the hell hole port town of Bangsal to pick up one of the small local boats to the islands. With an enforced stop at a cafe, they were putting everyone under pressure to buy a return ticket straight away. We lied and said we already had one and fortunately they accepted this and left us alone. The boat ride to the island was on a long-tail boat, mainly filled with fresh produce, was nice and choppy with the obligatory soaking as we crashed over the waves.
We looked around for a cheap room, already expecting everything on the island to be grossly inflated in price so weren't disappointed when the cheapest we could get was 100,000 Rp. At least it was a nice spacious bungalow so weren't too upset. Thankfully we did manage to find a cheap restaurant to eat in between nearly every other restaurant on the island who's prices were geared up towards tourists.
As we sat eating a meal, we saw our friend Cat who'd we'd travelled with before walk by with her backpack, having just arrived on the island. We'd agreed to meet up here so it was really good fortune that we ran into each other so easily. She'd befriended two American girls, April and Amanda, along the way so after brief introductions she went on to find accommodation and we agreed to catch up later for a drink.
That evening we found a great little place by the beach that sold cheap doubles and caught up with Cat and chatted to April and Amanda who were travelling for a few months in between teaching English in Korea. It sounded an interesting life and after a few drinks both Stacey and I were very tempted to investigate further.
There isn't much sightseeing or culture on the island so we decided to do the two hour walk around the island and then hit the beach. I went out with the snorkel to have a look at the coral which turned out to be in an absolutely shocking state. I was going to do some diving having missed out in Komodo
but as there was so much damage to the marine life and the dives very very expensive, I decided to give it a miss. The five of us went on a snorkeling trip instead which was much more economically pleasing. We did three separate 'swims' from a glass bottomed boat and saw more dead coral. Thankfully the trip redeemed itself as we saw several big sea turtles swimming around near a large drop-off. The current inbetween the three islands was dangerously song so we all had to be careful not to drift too far from the boat. The trip concluded with the usual obligatory stop at a restaurant for lunch on Gili Air which of course was a nice little earner for the boat crew. All in all it was enjoyable - but sad to see the marine life in such poor state.
We spend slightly longer than we'd planned on the island as we were having a good time on the beach during the day and drinking with friends in the evening (what backpacking is all about :-) ) which was all very welcome after the grief of getting to Komodo and back. We headed to the big
Friday night party on our last night before heading back to Bali the next day and said our goodbyes to Cat, April and Amanda.
We had to get up pretty early the next day for the long trip back to Bali to see the cultural town of Ubud which everyone raves about and of course it did turn out to be another REALLY long day on the road...
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lesley
non-member comment
snorkelling
I hate snorkelling even though I know the beautis of it - i feel like I am going to drown! I was such a shame the corals were is such bad shape! Beaches and seas look amazing - the beauty of creation