Lombok and Gili Islands

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Ok, I havn't been able to write a blog for a week now so this will be a long blog, coupled with the fact that im not sure what day i did what on should make it interesting.

On friday night we went to a bar. We played jenga for a bit and listened to an indonesian band play english songs. This was quite amusing as alot of the words were incorrect. Then suddenly I relised that the football draw for the champions league was being drawn so i got the bar to change the channel to see liverpool had drawn arsenal, which pleased me greatly, oh and possibly chelsea in the semis which will be even better :-). On a side note i've tried my best to do alot of research on who people in India, Singapore and Indonesia support. I've found out everyone supports one of the "Big 4". I think this may be due to the widespread courage of the champions league. The biggest supported team is probably Man u (35%ish) then Chelsea (30%ish) then Liverpool (20%) Arsenal (15%). The player over half people mention first is Ronadlo is pretty huge everywhere and the biggest named english player has been beckham then maybe gerrard. I will keep up with my research to see if this is true everywhere.

On Saturday we went back to ubud, which is a really nice culturally sound place. Probably my favourite place in Bali. We sat around the pool trying to scout who was joining us on the second half of our tour. I went up to a few people in the vain hope they was in our tour but sadly they were not. We met everyone on our tour and went for a grilled themed meal. Everyone seems nice, if not some people alittle over the top.

On Sunday was one of our main travel days. We had to get a ferry from bali to lombok which took roughly 5hrs. We quickly found the VIP area which was pretty cool and watched spiderman 3, one kid came up to me and said "you spiderman" which was quite funny. The day was pretty long and when we got to Lombok i noticed some differences from Bali. It seems alot more rural and definatly poorer than Bali. On the whole though Lombok looks really nice, and it will be good to more of a rest this week as the previous week was so tiring. The internary says Unlike its Balinese counterpart, Lombok's Kuta beach is relatively crowd-free. I'd agree with this statement as its alot less busy and friendly in Lombok.

On the Monday we went to Tetebatu. This place was so pretty and we went to a beach where seriously minus a few hawkers there was no-one there. This beach was so nice and we all went into the sea and had a great laugh. The trip up there was quite tiring not in lenght but purely by how poor the transport was. The bus had to be push started at one point and it was by far the worst bus ive been on. I was hot, my back ached, pretty much no fun. Saying this though the bus we use in Lombok isn't better. My legs can't fit behind any seat and i'm always uncomfortable. But on the poistive side im seeing alot of decent places. On the way back we went to a restaurant up in the hills and later in the day we say a very exciting(sense the sarcasm) weaving factory. By this point a few of the newer people was getting on mine and Nathans nerves. At night I played some ping pong and then we had some local kids in, so we could teach them english. Now at this point i decided to teach them some funny phrases and use them on other people. Including getting one of the boys to say to nathan when we came out of the toilet 'shaggy, you have a small willy'. This made me laugh so hard and the kids seemed to have fun. One of the ladies on the tour thought we was quite immature but i got one of the kids to tell her where to go :-)

Tuesday was our busy day and we went round on horsedrawn cart to a market, weaving village and a pottery place. The horse was alot of fun and we got alot of pace up. We tried to race all the other people and was in the lead when we finished :-). The best part of the day was going to the village. We went to a tribual village to meet the locals. All the kids were so friendly and acted liked they hadnt seen a white person ever. When we arruved everyone crowded round us and was so warm and welcoming. We all hung out with the kids and john did the "pull my finger gag" which was so funny. The little kid pulled his finger and then sniffed the air and looked all sad. Some of the kids were dressed some were not which felt kinda weird. So if you see a pic of me with a kid who is naked your know why!


On Wednesday we travelled to the gili islands which is an island with only 400/500 people who live on it. When we got there I thought it was by far the nicest of all the places we had stayed (location wise). The toilet had no flusher, and we had to pour water down to get rid of the waste but hey it was still good. The beach was really clean and we decided we was going to walk round the whole island. We was told this would take roughly an hour so i thought hey why not. Anyway it took well over a hour and was so tiring to do. The scenary was really nice and walking on a beach is really rewarding. We only came across jenny on the way who decided to walk round the island but the other way. We saw loads of really nice shells and corals. The evening we went out as a group and had another great time. I won rock paper scissors again! and got the double bed with the mosqito ne. In the morning Nathan had loads of bites on him so i'm very glad i won.

Thursday I went snorkelling again. This was really good. We went out so far and on the second trip when i looked up no1 was around which was quite scary. I was miles off shore but eventually after 5 misn of swimming saw a blob in the distance. I then hung onto the boat as it dragged me along. I saw a sea turlte which was amazing. It looked like a ninja turtle. We then went for lunch and I had fish and chips. Sadly the fish still had a head on which I put in a towel. Later on a cat jumped up onto the table and started eating the head, which was kinda funny but quite sickening at the same time. I went back to the beach and chilled for a bit and in the evening we had all sat round a burning fire on the beach which again was alot of fun. Me and Nathan decided to sleep outside. This was pretty kool and where apart from here could you sleep outside and feel safe. There was even thunder and I slept on an garfield mattress.

Friday, Which is today were back in Kuta, we have to book something up for the next few days and then off to oz on tuesday for the 3 plane journeys in one day whooop :-p

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