Dedicated to Flynn the dread-lock

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Gili Trawangan

by Polona

Gili Trawangan is filled with tourists, who come here for a short holiday and with a single intention – to party. The island itself is small and on the beach, as you walk along, there are so many bars, you could go to a different one each night of the year. But although the streets are busy, as soon as you move to a side street you get away from all the hustle and bustle. It was a tourist mecca, but we enjoyed it still, as you don't have to be a part of it if you don't want to be. Also, what we noticed on the first day, not only is there enough drinks, but everyone openly advertises magic mushrooms, although they are illegal. So if you want to “fly to the moon” come to Gilis.

Hopping off the boat on the island, our first goal was to find a cheap place to stay. A local guy who met us at the port said he had a guest house so we followed him, as the price he quoted sounded OK. But the guest house was full. So we walked over to the next one and that is where we met Don, a super sweet Irish guy, who said he was staying near the beach and paying very little, so we followed him. He also warned us that the owner, Romi, will try to charge us more, and that we need to bargain. Which we did and soon enough we were laying down on our bed, trying to summon enough energy to get up and get something to eat. Watching so many Sopranos (series about Italian mob where all they seem to do is eat- pasta, pizzas, sandwiches...) and after eating only local food for 2 weeks, we decided to go for...well you guessed it, pasta and pizza. Don recommended a place next to the hostel and it was really nice and the food...amazing. To be honest, it would not be as amazing if I got it on my plate somewhere at home or in London, but here...mmmmmmm 😊.

We were thinking whether to go out for some drinks, but we were dead tired and decided that our partying on Gili would have to wait until the next day – and we dropped dead into bed. The next morning, we got a neighbor, Robin from Netherlands, whom Jan said I practically adopted – but how could you not, so sweet and funny. We ended up having conversations on our veranda every day, we had breakfasts together, and we partied together. Having met Don we also met his traveling buddy Richie, the crazy Irish man 😊, and their neighbors, 3 English girls making their way to Australia, Annie, Georgia and Daisy. And let's not forget Flynn, who was responsible for Jan's first dread lock, which was named, of course, Flynn. 😊. They were a great bunch of people and great to hang out with.
We also had a lovely neighbor across our terrace, Robin from Netherlands, whom Jan said I kinda adopted....You couldn't help liking Robin, he was so sweet and kind, we ended up having loads of chats and we made sure we had breakfasts and dinners together – good food goes hand in hand with good company.

The first day on Gilis we didn't do much really, we were still feeling so tired, we hardly got off from our behinds. We did walk around a bit, went for a swim, because it was too darn hot not to, but that was about it. In the evening we joined the group, for the big Monday party (the parties, well the “official ones” happen on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – I guess to leave people enough time to recuperate). We went to, what became our official bar for the next nights, Rudy's, which was the best starting point as the drinks were not that expensive. We chatted, we laughed, it was really fun. At one point Jan came over and said “Look who I found”. It was Tomi, the Finish guy, we met way back in Philippines. And then...at midnight...ah, all of a sudden they were all gathered around me, I heard count down to midnight and all of them erupted in singing the Happy Birthday song to me in whatever language you can think of. It was midnight, 19th July.😊.Slightly embarrassed, but it was actually really sweet and funny, and I knew Jan was cooking up something as he was sure to tell everyone my birthday was coming up. As we were getting ready to leave, Jan had strange people congratulating me on my birthday. I just went along with it, it was sooooo fun. 😊. After Rudy's we went straight to bed, as we had, well a little too much fun. You should have seen Jan the following morning – looking really radiant.

My actual birth day, so the day after the party, we took it easy, Jan made sure the day was all about me, he took me to a nice dinner, all in all he made an effort, and I had a really nice birthday.

So you won't think that drinking was all we did, we joined the gang for a snorkeling trip. We thought it would only be 8 of us on the boat, but the boat had about 30 people on it, with additional boats going on the same tour. It didn't bother us in the end, as the snorkeling was fun – we saw turtles again, big, big turtles, we saw corals, and we ended the day at Gili Air – one of the three Gili Islands and Gili Air is the quieter one. People would go to Air if they wanted the beach experience but at the same time have some peace and quiet.
We also rented 2 bikes for a day and did a trip around the island, it turned out we were pushing bikes on the sand more often than actually riding them, but it was a nice trip and it gives you the opportunity to see what is on the other side of the island.

We were thinking about leaving Gili on Thursday, but we kept on postponing, as we were really enjoying ourselves and the whole gang was still there and we had time, so why not stay longer. The only one who was not happy about us staying longer was the owner Romi. All he did was walk up and down between the bungalow rooms, offering people various tours and other stuff, pretty much anything to get more money from them. As Jan and I and the gang as well, didn't want to buy anything from him, he just wanted us gone, so he could make more money with other guests. He even wanted to throw Robin out of his room as Robin booked a tour with another agency on the island and not with Romi. We were all shocked by that and feeling terrible for Robin, but he was “allowed” to stay after Romi saw we all knew what he was doing. Romi was a snake and he wanted to get rid of all of us, as he was expecting a surge of guests on Friday, but as there were no new comers to his hostel, he became nice to us again – no guests is bad for the business I assume.

Staying longer we also had an amazing experience – another group of English guys, staying in the room next to ours, came over one afternoon and told us the locals are organizing a stick fight contest on the grounds where the night market is. So, we decided we should not miss it, I was a bit skeptical at first, watching people beat each other, but Jan persuaded me to give it a try. The contest was between fighters from 2 villages, the one on Gili Trawangan and one of the neighboring villages on Lombok. The two fighters enter the ring, each with his own shield and bamboo stick. It looked harmless but when they started hitting each other and when you see the injuries...darn, it looked painful (see video). What is also interesting about the fight is that the whole event is accompanied by traditional local music to make the fight even more dramatic.

On Sunday Jan and I decided we had enough of Gili and that it was time to leave the island. Also the gang had all gone as well, so it would be rather boring to stay longer. So we packed our bags and took the boat back to shore. We bought a joined ticket – boat plus bus – from Don, as he and Richie didn't need it, that would enable us to get a ride straight to Sengigi. Arriving to the mainland we experienced what everyone was telling us about – we were attacked by touts. We kept on walking though and we found the bus company that was supposed to take us to Sengigi. As the ticket said Mataram (Don said we could easily change the end destination, as Sengigi is on the way to Mataram and so did the ticket guy at the pier) they gave us such a hard time – they wanted us to pay extra if we wanted them to take us to Sengigi, then they said it was in complete opposite ways...they were really rude but we were stubborn and angry as well. After a couple of arguments we finally entered a mini van, and an hour later we reached Sengigi.

Warning: Don't fall for all the dirty trick the and the bullshit the touts in Bangsal (a pier from where the boat leaves to Gili islands). They will tell you there are no public boats and try selling you a ticket (over-inflated price of course), they will tell you there are no ATMs on the island, while in fact there are at least 4 (and one was being built while we were there), that there are no money changers, again they are, and the rates they offer are fair, not like the 10%!c(MISSING)ommission these guys will try taking from you.

Sengiggi

by Jan

Sengiggi is another small beach front town on Lombok. In the main part of the city all the infrastructure is aimed at tourists. It could be any other touristy beach front. Its quite calm as well, with not much going on. But still a nice enough place to stay at for a few days.

When we arrived the van dropped us off in front of a Tourist information office. Now TIOs in Indonesia aren’t really there to provide you information, they are there to sell transport, tours and sort you out with accommodation, in fact they are just plain tourist agencies. When you arrive at one they will try get you a room, hook you up with a tour and so on. We learned this already so you just tell them that you have a booking, don't plan any tours and already have the transportation sorted. You can still come back or check around for all these things later on.

Ohh yeah, at this place we saw Slovenian celebrity (if there is such a thing), two people presenting the gossip section of the news (Pop in) on Slovenian commercial TV channel. I didn't recognize them, but Polona did. We did say hi, but it seems they are two cool or something to even acknowledge us. Wankers 😊 We met loads of other Slovenians as well on Gili, all nice people, a couple actually on a honey moon trip..aaaaaaahhh 😊.

Ok, so we left the agency and when we started walking a car stopped next to us offering us a ride to home stay and as luck would have it was the home stay where we wanted to stay.

On our first day there we visited the local beach, and it was packed. It was Sunday so the whole beach was cramped with Indonesian families, loads of kids running around, food being sold everywhere. And besides this, walking over the town once or twice, visiting a small Hindu temple that was pretty much it for Sengigi.

Ohh, after Robin grew of age, and left the caring home and environment that mama Polona provided Polona had to replace her loss. This time she adopted two young, and I do mean young (19) German guys, Paul and Ansgar. Two boys working in Australia as fruit pickers. They stayed under her care all the way till the end of our Indonesia trip.

We were thinking of doing the whole public transport thing back to Kuta, but now there was four of us I decided to join the Indonesian bargaining game and see what price I can get us for the transport. Official prices are 175k, but by going from one shop to the other and telling them the price the previous place offered it we got it down to 100k per person. It was easy and actually fun. We used the same tactic when booking a water sport tour on Bali. We lowered the price from 55$ to 25$ per person. Ohhh and another part I started enjoying is telling them my price. A lot of time it happens that when you ask for a price they ask you for how much you want it, hoping that you have no clue what a fair price is. When they asked me that I just said “for free” 😊 and then my second offering is a 1000 (7-8p). Then they will offer their price and you cut that to at least half.

The ride to Bali was another experience. When we got to the boat which we took on our way to Lombok it looked like a tourist ship. All the agencies drop off tourist on the same ferry at around 1pm. On our way there it was 5am, so we were alone. When the ferry reaches Bali island all the tourist are haled off the boat in lines and “guides” with megaphones are leading them to a big parking lot, where the people are divided into groups like cattle...according to their next destination on Bali.

Kuta, Bali

Kuta is a tourist Mecca! Well, more like an Australian tourist Mecca. Oz is only 3 hours away by air and the prices in Kuta are cheap and when compared to Oz it's really cheap! Too bad we don't have a place like this somewhere in Europe. Kuta is named Australian Ibiza, but if you been to Ibiza, you know it is not, in any sense, cheap!

As a tourist Mecca, Kuta has everything you might want to do on holiday and we decided to take advantage of it all; well not all, just the things we like 😊. The place is covered with restaurants, souvenirs shops (it seems Bintang t-shirt is a must when visiting Bali and it's almost a substitute for Australian flag – at home and in Bali), tattoo shops, massage places and “massage places”, tourist information offices or agencies and so on and so on...

Well, we tried the beach and you can't swim as the waves are really big and when you try them out you figure out their force! On our last day there we went to try the para-sailing and the jet skis. It was both fun. Para-sailing was amazing, it only lasted a few minutes, but flying around above the bay was awesome..and for a man a bit painful! We had four Irish girls with us. They had quite a few problems, the first two didn't manage to be lifted up (well, for those of you who know any Irish girls you might guess why) and ended up in the sea. Looked bad, but Green Peace, erm, our guides got them out safe and sound! They were a bit shocked and one of them refused to try again. The third girl did manage to get up, but her first attempt in landing failed and she got lifted back up (free ride, grrr) but it's not so easy to land, even I aka a real man, had to put a lot of effort into it. Anyway, para-sailing, well worth trying.

Next to the Jet Skis - this is something I wanted to do for many years, so I was really excited. But, the problem is, I am not a huge fan of speed, so when the thing starts moving and you are jumping up and down the waves (landings are rough!) I was taking it quite easy. On the other hand, Polona the Lightning McQueen) was only a spot on the sea three minutes after we took over the driving. She was speeding along and her co-pilot (who drives you up to open waters and is always with you) was telling her to slow down. She didn't.

We were supposed to be done after the Jet Skis but two of the Irish girls were done for the day and offered us their place on the Banana boat. I took it, Polona decided she had enough. The ride was fun, really fast (you see, it's fine if I am not driving) and just after we started, on the first turn, we were all in the water! That made it even more fun, despite having to calm down one of the Irish girls, who couldn’t swim and was a bit panicky about her life vest.

Back in Kuta we decided to try out the massage, not the “massage”. For about 6£ each, Polona had an hour long foot massage while I was enjoying a full body massage. No need to tell you, it was heaven. But I still will: it was heaven.😊

And that was that for Kuta, we had to make our way to Surabaya where we had our flight back to Malaysia. You can fly from Bali direct, but this long trip saved us about 40£ each. Or in total more than a two day budget.

We booked our tickets with Perama which were supposed to be the most reliable agency and are referenced in guide books and on-line, but in our case they failed! First we waited for almost two hours for the van to show up. The excuse was they are picking people up, but when it finally did show up it was empty!?! Then we were taken around for more than an hour, picking people up. The last straw came in Surabaya itself. We booked a ticket straight to the airport (door to door) and our ticket said Surabaya airport, we checked at the agency before buying, but still we were dropped of at the bus station, as the driver said he is not allowed to drive to the terminal. A local guy seating next to us helped us out with translations but to no help! He then actually got us a taxi and paid for us! We didn't want to take it but he insisted ans as it was our last day we were more or less out of Indonesian currency! And to make it all worse I forgot my green “know your mushrooms” hoddie in the van! Not impressed!

Death of Flynn the dreadlock

A few other interesting things to report about. Polona mentioned Flynn the dreadlock. I am sad to inform you that about 10 days after his birth he left this world, prematurely. Even after following all the instructions it started falling apart and curling again so Mr. Comb killed the unfortunate dread-lock. And I thought my hair are easy to dread-lock!

Another death incident

A poor cockroach was killed as a result of a bet between Flynn and Annie. Flynn dared Annie to eat a cock-roach and offered her four Bintang beers in exchange. Annie accepted the challenge. Ohh, in her excuse, it was four large Bintang beers. Net value of app 120.000 rupiah or about 8£. Annie did it. It took some time but she did eat a live cockroach, swallowed it and everything. I would upload the videos, but the nice people of YouTube sent me a warning because of the cock-fighting video I uploaded and deleted the video. They put me on 6 month probation!

Do not read the following lines if you are eating, or at least put your food down first:: Annie also told us, with great pride, how she once drank a whole pint of puke, vomit! Why you might ask? To prove a guy wrong! Yeah, to prove him wrong, and she did. But I still wonder who won that argument. Who can be more proud of their achievement. Annie who drank it, or the guy who convinced her to do it and for nothing at all!

Final word about Indonesia

Our time in Indonesia was a mixed bag. We had our best experience so far at Ganjar's wedding and couchsurfing in Jogja. We got a lot of rest and did some fun stuff while on Gili's and on Bali and Polona entered her 30th year while in Indonesia. And the food is amazing!

The bad side is all the hussling. All the negotiations, all the promises from the agencies which are forgotten about the second you pay them – you have not heard half of it in our blog, some of the stories we heard were awful! But then again, on the other hand there were so many locals helping us out, just because they could! And those will be the one, we will try to remember most!

Till next time!

All pictures from Indonesia

12/11/2011 Update: Thanks to Flynn we now have the video of Annie. If you really want to see it, follow this link..

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Photos

Cendol
coconut milk, 'pandan jelly and brown sugar - as good as it looks:)

It's midnight and it's 19th July
My birthdaaaaaay :) and congrats from the Irish boys:)

The day after...
after Polona's B-day celebration

The view from the boat
yup, that's how amazing it was... jealous much?:)

Traditional Lombok food
Ayam Pelecing - I hope I got that right

I wanna be a millionaire
Jan is:)

Gili Trawangan- Stick fight
Waiting for it to begin

Stick fight
the "tools"

Stick fight
It is more dangerous than it seems