Blogs from Gilli Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia, Asia - page 12

HALO (Hello), We arrived at Lombok Island by boat from Padangbai. It took five hours. We were transferred to a minibus to Bangsal . Waiting one hour for the boat we were on Gili Trawangan Island late evening. We found a hotel at the center with fan only ( Trawangan Cottages, 125 INR=USD10.0 incl. Breakfast). The first day we tried snorkling areas on Gili Trawangan. Second day we rested on the beach. One day we went to Lombok and visited pottary villages for shopping pottary. We spent some time on Sengigi which is the famous coast on Lombok. There was no improvement since 1997. Two days we made island hoping tours to Gili Air and Gili Memo. We snorkelled at various beautiful coral gardens, turtle walls (turtles can be watched around these cliff like deep mountain ... read more

I'm not sure if I mentioned how much hotter it feels on the Gili Islands vs. being in Bali? The pools aren't heated but they feel like a jacuzzi once you step into them. Also, just until recently all of the hotel showers were only salt water. Not sure how one could feel clean after being hot and sticky from being in the sun and the water and then going back to your hotel and trying to wash off with salt water. Obviously the natives have been doing it for years! One of the reasons we stayed at Luce D'Alma was that they had fresh water showers....and boy did the fresh water feel good! This morning, Jerri and I slept in and then had coffee on the deck outside of our rooms right next to the ... read more

I am pleased to say that once again I have been proven wrong. My first impressions of Bali when I visited two years ago were that of a filthy tourist trap and to be honest I was quite reluctant to go back. This time I have been taken back by the variety of the landscape, the turquoise waters, the never-ending Indonesian smiles and the fabulous Indonesian cuisine. Vicki the Blonde Our arrival at Denpassar airport included a classic Vicki "I am not going to be ripped off" moment. I had done some research about getting into town as cheaply as possible which including walking passed the hundreds of shouting and pushing touts outside and turning right to the official taxi stand. So I shuffled Tom, two backpacks and no less than three surfboards in 35 degrees ... read more

As we write this blog, we are only days away from the end of our tour of SE Asia. We have been traveling for 6 months and a handful of days (about two months more than we originally predicted), but we aren't quite ready to come home yet...though we're getting awfully close (which is both a very scary and very exciting thought). In 48 hours, we leave Indo to fly to Kuala Lampur, from where we'll continue on to London. We're planning on spending 3 days in London with our friend Jamie who we met in Vietnam, then are flying to Spain to spend two weeks with Bristol in Alicante. From there, the plans are still up in the air. We're hoping to do a short mini-tour of Europe (just a few weeks at most) to ... read more

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 ... read more