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Published: November 6th 2006
Sunday August 21st.
At last the preparations were complete and it was time for the wedding guests to arrive. First Mum, Dad and Gary arrived, we were going to backpack around Bali and Lombok for two weeks before the wedding. We all met up in a bar on Poppies Lane, Kuta. After a few beers and a lot of catching up on the gossip we jumped in a taxi to Bingin, our first night's stop. The next morning we walked over the headland to Dreamland. The pale golden sandy beach backed by beautiful high cliffs and rough sea was a perfect way to overcome jetlag!
That evening was spent watching the sun set over the sea, sipping Bintang beers and eating Thai green curry. Perfect!
The next few days were spent on the nearby island of Nusa Lembongan, it was like taking a step back in time the village houses were built from raffia and only dried mud for the floor. Palm trees everywhere. We managed to charter a boatto do a snorkel trip, this was Gary's first taste of 'real' snorkelling so I was hoping it would be good, the only snorkelling he'd done prior to this
was in Spain where there was not a lot to see. He was not disappointed.
From Nusa Lembongan we spent the next day and a half travelling to Gili Trawangen, a tiny island off the coast of Lombok. The journey was somewhat eventful, it began by getting a boat back to Padang Bai on Bali. We had booked the boat the day before in order to get an early start. When we turned up for the boat a french couple were booked on it too. As we hung around waiting for the 'crew' we spotted a tiny sail boat and joked that we hoped it wasn't ours. When the captain turned up he gestured for us to go to the tiny boat we'd joked about! We thought he was kidding but unfortunatly not. After much arguing we refused to get on and forfieted our deposit. A whole lot of local men were looking on and laughing. In no time we were flooded with offers of another boat. We smelled a scam but took up the best offer anyway. It was quite good actually, a much larger boat that we could actually walk about on. In no time we were
sailing past our intended boat that had set of ages before us, we gave them a friendly wave (not).
From Padangbai we were to get a large ferry to Lembar,Lombok. The ferry took over 6 hours to cover the short distance. As soon as we emerged with our backpacks the taxi touts were round us like bees round a honey pot. After much haggling over the price and making sure we got a half decent car to travel in, we set off. It was dark by this time, we told the driver we wanted to go to Hotel Ray in Sengiggi, but he said he would take us to his friends acommodation agency. We could smell another scam coming on! We insisted we knew where we wanted to go. The driver didn't seem happy. As we pulled into a petrol station he demanded we paid our fare there and then. Scott refused and said we would pay at our destination but the driver insisted he had no money and no petrol! in the end we agreed to pay half now and half later, the driver reluctantly agreed and we were soon on our way again.
At this point we
became a bit anxious, this driver could take us anywhere, it was dark and we had no idea where we were. Although, there were 5 of us and only one of him. All the same I was relieved when we drove past Hotel Ray, we had to yell for the driver to stop , he seemed hell bent on driving past.
After this we spent a pleasant evening in a live music bar, then went back to bed but not before clearing the cockroaches out of our rooms!
Next day, leaving Hotel Ray with our backpacks we were set upon by the taxi touts, as expected. We haggled and soon got one down to a reasonable price to take us to Bangsal, where we could get a boat to Gili Trawangen.
We were soon on the small overcrowded boat leaving Bangsal.
Once on Gili Trawangen we were met by Accomodation touts. This was becoming a way of life!We ignored them and settled in the nearest nice looking bar we came across. Dad and I went in seach of acommodation whilst Gary, Scott and mum stayed with the bags.
We soon returned having booked 3 bungalows at
Eddy Homestay for 70 ruppees a night (about £5 per room). Again these bungalows were basic but clean and set in small tropical gardens.
The rest of Saturday and on Sunday we checked out the beach, the sea was great, although being warned about strong currents it turned out they carried you along the edge of the beach rather than out to sea.
This proved fun as you could walk up the beach, get in the water and just float with the current, observing the marine life below you, Effortless! The only problem was if you saw something you wanted to take a closer look at it was difficult to stop.
There was lots to see, great coral and even better fish. Different coloured trigger fish, Box fish and shoals of yellow and silver fish. After a reasonable 'drift' you came to where the coral formed a deep wall into the deep blue ocean, this area was teeming with hundreds of varieties of fish, mum saw a shoal of squid and Gary was lucky enough to swim along side a turtle.
On Monday, Andrea, Katherine and Paul were due to join us. ( My friends from
uni). We had tried desperatly to e-mail Dave and Claire (my Mum's brother who now lives in Australia) who, by now would be on Bali. There were thunderstorms on Lombok making the connection crash, but somehow the message must have got through. Soon after greeting Andrea and co. in Tra La La bar, to our suprise, there was Dave and Claire walking along. We ran out of the bar onto the pathway to greet them. It turned out they'd booked the last bungalow at Eddy Homestay. Now our party of 5 had swelled to 10.
The following day we charted a boat and all did a snorkel together which was fun, stopping for lunch on Gili Meno. The crew of the boat knew all the best places to stop and snorkel, we saw several turtles hanging around on the seabed and a huge giant clam, the current was so strong that the guide had to hold onto a rock then grab mum's hand (being the weakest swimmer of the group) so she could pause long enough to actually see the clam. Within minutes we were quite some way from the boat, fortunatley it sailed along with the current and
picked us up further along.
Evenings were spent dining out and drinking together. The island was very laid back and the town, although small, was lively. There was no need to make prior arrangements, just a short walk along the front and we all soon joined forces.
Another good thing about the island was that there was no motorised transport, making it very peaceful. ( unless you count the annoying ice cream bicycle cart that always seemed to follow us around playing a high-pitched monotonous tune!) The only transport was pony and trap.
On our last evening together we all climbed the only hill on the island to watch the sun set over Bali. Dave came up with the idea to take beer in his backpack, we quickly followed suit and clanked our way up the hill side. The sunset lived up to expectations and numerous photos were taken.
We stumbled (due to the numerous bottles of bintang) our way back down and all ate together in a little 'platform' bar owned by an Australian guy. The food was superb although somewhat slow in being served up. He wasn't used to having to cope with 10 people
Snorkel Trip
The 10 of us Charted a boat and did a Snorkel trip round the Gili Islands.all at once!
On Friday we set off early on the long tedious journey back to Bali, it took 12 hours and as the boat was waiting to dock at Padangbai, darkness set in and the cockroaches came scuttling out from under the seats. Our feet and bags were quickly taken off the floor!
After a quick shower, with only minutes to spare, we were in The Garden Restaurant in Sanur meeting up with the Californian side of the wedding guests, eating a civilised meal and watching the Balinese dancers. (About time we got a bit of culture!)
The next day the, by now, huge party of people met up in Ubud for more culture and a roam around the monkey Sanctuary.
Before the wedding of course came the Stag / Hen night in Kuta.
It had been decided that the hen and stag party would be combined as all the guests had travelled a long way and wanted to stay together.
It began with a meal at La Cabana Restaurant in Kuta. After the meal we all wandered around until we came across a nice quiet bar. Not for long! The barmen looked so
bewildered when over 25 people arrived all at once, that Michelle from New Zealand joined in making cocktails! No-one knew who owed what but it all got sorted out somehow.
The day of 'recovery' before the wedding was spent at Dreamland Beach. Followed by a quiet meal together in Sanur.
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