Lombok - Gili Meno

---

Suzanne here...

A few people back home have commented on the level of detail in this blog, the specifics of meals, taxi prices etc. I know it's probably a bit dull. The thing is, these details are not really aimed at you. Of course we hope that family and friends want to keep up with our travels. But that is just part of the story. For one, this is also to help other travellers who may be interested in specifics. Even more importantly (to us), this is our diary. It is meant to jog our memories in years to come. I totally get that you may not care that the babi kecap in Lovina was amazing. But reading about it in two years time on a wet day in Nottingham will bring it all flooding back to us. We could do two versions but it's just too much faff. So sorry if it makes for tedious reading at times.

For anyone still with us.... we found our accomadation on Gili Meno - Putri Bungalows - easily. Even though it was only just after 9 am they gave us a welcome juice and Hengky showed us to our room. We had a fridge! Woo! The room was pretty nice and the aircon good so we were happy.

After sorting ourselves out we decided to do a circuit of the island. It took less than two hours and was a good way to get our bearings. I totally lusted after some really cute cabins at Karma Resort (I checked, £147 a night, not on a backpacker budget!). We stopped for a delightful curry (chicken for me, fish for David) at Two Brothers Bungalows, right on the beach. Just as we got back to Putri it began to rain. A good excuse for reading with a couple of beers on the porch.

Showers were somewhat unsatisfactory, with a trickle of slightly salty water, but we are on an island and I think it would be the same elsewhere. Dinner was at the randomly named Pojok No. 5 Star. The walk was a bit dark and spooky. Glad I had my little maglight. We were warned there would be a wait (usual set up, one person in a tiny kitchen) and there was, over an hour and a half I'd say. But we were in no rush. When it finally arrived the food was very good, especially the spring rolls.

Back at our room we booked the next couple of places to stay in Bali, and I realised something. We've now got every night's accomadation booked until December. This is very odd for us, last time we just turned up in a town and the first thing we did was find a room. But technology has moved on and it's so easy to look up reviews and book online. Maybe it costs a couple of pounds more, I'm not sure. But it means you don't spend the first part of each day in a new place trailing around with your backpacks looking at rooms. Even so, booking until December seems extreme. But on the next couple of legs of the trip we have quite specific plans and don't need the flexibility.

We slept ok. I was awoken very early by the call to prayer as we are right next to a mosque, but as I've said before I really don't mind, it's part of the culture. After breakfast we were off to walk the island again - clockwise this time just to mix it up. We took our time, spending a fair bit of time on the beach which was deserted where we were. We did stop off for an ice cream and had to eat it where we stood as they were playing White Lion! Not what we expected. This was followed by Nazareth so we lingered a bit more. Luckily it was The Police next, so we felt able to move along.

We didn't see much on the (deserted) beach, except a long sea worm type creature in a rock pool which was interesting. We've since looked it up and it was a sea cucumber called the Medusa Worm. Lunch was at Two Brothers again as it was so good.

After lunch we decided to poke around a deserted resort we'd spied the day before. The story seems to be that The Bounty Resort was built in around 2000 when tourism was booming. Then came the 2002 bombings and the market totally collapsed. I couldn't find any evidence that it had ever actually opened to customers. Now this place was well fancy. Gorgeous pool, quality bungalows and a fantastic looking bar. It would have been well out of our price range. Yet it has been allowed to just rot away. We had a jolly good nose around. It was quite spooky peering through a window to see a desk complete with PC. Another building had collapsed revealing shelving still stacked with lever arch files. The furniture and fixtures and fittings were of execeptional quality, yet nobody had made off with them. The place had a really folorn aura about it. One bungalow that looked slightly more stable seemed to have someone living in it, but other than that it was as if one day everyone had just stood up, left what they were doing and walked away. Very unnerving. I might have lingered a bit longer but the stagnant water meant that mosquitoes were using David as a moving buffet (they always choose him over me) so we moved on. Very interesting though.

Not much more to report about Meno. We had an absolutely woeful dinner at a place called Sudi (next to Family Bungalow) - avoid! We've loved quiet little Gili Meno and all it's cats, goats and chickens. But two days was enough.

---