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Published: March 1st 2009
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Hello again since the last blog we are back on the right track and having a great time. We left bali to go to Lombok and Gili Trawangan island.
We spent two days on the mainland before going to the islands, Lombok is not as touristy as bali but I feel it will grow as it is an amazing and beautiful place and they have just opened an international airport on the mainland.
The two days where spent chilling out and organizing transport to the island. I came across this really good surf spot where I watched the locals surf like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. One kid I got a picture of was about 10 years old and so small but he was out their surfing some massive waves. I really wanted to go out their and have a go but the waves where big and under the water were rocks rather than sand which really put me off.
Next day we got the boat with the locals to the island, the port that you get the boat from is a bit of a crazy hustle and bustle place with people saying you will
die of dengue fever unless you buy his mosquito spray and trying to swap or sell you anything and everything. One guy wanted to swap t-shirts with me which confused me a bit because I was only wearing a crapy t-shirt from primark and his one looked ok. Once we arrived on the island the first thing that was said to me by a local was “welcome home brother cheap accommodation is that way more expensive accommodation is that way” we where shown to really cheap accommodation staying in the village with a really nice family who we became great friends with.
There are no words I can think of in the dictionary to emphasize how nice the people are on that island, Everyday you’re greeted with hello by everyone and when you wanted directions they helped you and the overall laid back and chilled vibe made the island a great place to be. Their was no cars or motorbikes on the island, only horse and cart but you could walk around the whole island in about 1 hour which we did one day. It was great meeting locals on the island who would talk to you without any
invested interest of trying to sell you something they where all just nice people. It’s strange as I read back through and I make out being nice as almost weird and different but in England it seems to people to be a lot of effort to be nice or speak to a stranger. I will try to talk and say hello to a stranger when I am home on public transport but they will probably think I am a freak or I will just get punched in the face.
Gili islands has some of the best snorkeling and diving in the world we spent a lot of time snorkeling and it was great very clear and a variety of underwater fish, we also spotted a turtle. We also played football a couple of time’s as there is a football pitch in the centre of the island, it was a lot more organized than I thought they gave us a kit and we played against people from mainland Lombok, got a great team photo. An old guy who was watching all excited offered to take the picture we realized later it was because he had never used a camera before.
It was really funny if you can use your imagination of the guy taking a photo with is eye right up to the camera like you would of years ago we tried to show him that you just use the screen on the digital camera but every time he put his eye right up to the camera. All the younger lads wanted photo’s of us with their camera phones so we done that whilst we let the older guy learn how to use a camera he was having a great time taking photo’s.
In the evening we went to a great bar on the island where we became good friends with the lads who worked at the bar they made us larf with their rubbish impressions of someone talking in a English accent. One was an impression of Michael caine that maid no sense. We also made some good friends from England at that bar, it was a great place to go in the evening.
There are no police on the island but there is no need to have them because the people are so nice and friendly, we used to leave
stuff outside or room with no worries it would get stolen I felt more safe their than I do my own country. I just loved the laid back atmosphere their you can like most of Asia go out with shorts and flip flops on, drink as much as you like and have a great time and meet new people. It was probably my favorite island of the whole trip so far we where sad when we left our home and the family we where staying with the father of the family shook our hands and he looked really sad to see us go. The only thing I won’t miss is the 5 in the morning mosque prayer wake up call.
In bali now but leaving tomorrow to go to java where we hope to climb some active volcano’s if the weather conditions allow us to.
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