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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Lombok
The fast boat to Lombok on Blue Water Safaris was a smooth ride, the water was calm, the sun was shining and I went to sleep for the two hour ride. When we arrived to Lombok, the only way I realised it was Lombok and not any of the other islands that the boat drops off at was because I saw one of the crew grabbing my bag and giving it to some old lady who had waded into the water to get it! Bleary eyed form my 2 hour sleep, I shot up, climbed the length of the boat and jumped into the sea to go after her so I could reclaim my bag! Only one other couple got off at Lombok with us, as it turned out I overheard them saying in French that they were staying at the same hotel as us , I went over to them and in my best French said that we should share a cab. We spent the next 30mins in 40 degree heat negotiating a fare that we and the local guy with a car was willing to pay/receive. 20minutes later we arrived at our beautiful hotel in
Lombok. Whilst our room was being prepared we ordered a nice meal at the hotel restaurant which turned out to be superb. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing by the pool. In the evening we headed to the main road in Sengiggi, Lombok which had a variety of restaurants and tourist shops. We had dinner and did some browsing getting some ideas of what we could potentially buy.
The next morning we had a superb breakfast on the beach in front of the hotel. We then organised via the hotel a local fishing boat to take us to Gili Trewangan which would be our home for the next 3 nights. The 1 and half hour ride was wonderful, calm water, sun shining and awesome scenery.
Gili Trewangan
We arrived on Gili and quickly made out way to the Good Heart Bungalows where we would stay for the next 3 nights. For the rest of the day we chilled out on the beach, had lunch and went snorkelling. It was super hot, so I spent most of my time in the sea... when on the beach we were approached by children visiting from Lombok who were on a
school trip to learn English! They would approach all the tourists on the beach and ask them the same set of questions, and then you would have to write how well you think they understood you and spoke English. The kids were very sweet and very good at English. Football seemed to be the favourite topic!
That night we went to Scallywags for dinner which was very tasty. We ended the evening at Sama Sama bar which had a reggae band visiting from Sulweisi. They played all the old Bob Marley classics, surprisingly they were very very good. A few beers and shots later we returned to our bungalow for bed.
The next morning we went to Cocos for breakfast which was very good, their banana smoothies are the best! After breakfast we organised a snorkelling tour with a local company which was opposite Cocos. We snorkelled with a guide who took us to see huge turtles and we also stopped off at Gili Air. The snorkelling around Gili Air was incredible. It was like an aquarium! All sorts of colourful fish and sea critters. We had lunch on Gili Air walked around a little and then headed back to
Gili Trewangan. That evening we stopped at the local cinema on the beach to watch Quantum of Solace that had only just come out in cinemas back in the UK. After another fish supper and feeding the local cats we went to Sama Sama for more live music and drinks.
The following day was a momentous day for us. We decided to take our first fun dive after much deliberation. I have always wanted to scuba dive but have always been a bit scared of doing it. We chose to do our fun dive with Manta Dive, our dive master teacher was called Eddie, he was brilliant. He talked us through the basics and what to expect and then we took to the pool. I couldn’t believe how quickly we went through the basics and then were ready after lunch to do our first dive!
I knew that although I felt totally comfortable in the pool, I knew that once we got into the sea it would be a completely different experience. After much trouble equalizing my ears, I saw a few shoals of fish, a couple of big ones, clown fish and then a baby black tip reef shark
in its cave. To be honest after I had seen these things I had had enough... I was a little scared of being 12 metres under and the drop off of the reef to the big blue although spectacular was a little scary for me. When we got back to shore we went to Cocos to have coffee and cake as celebration.
That night we returned to Scallywags for dinner and Sama Sama for more drinks and live music.
The next morning we were up early to have breakfast and then negotiate with a local fisherman to take us back to Lombok. The journey back was most unlike the journey to the Gili’s... On the journey back the sky turned grey, the rain began to fall and the waves got bigger and bigger. So big in facta that we were told to sit in the middle of the little boat as the waves started to come over the side of the boat. It was so choppy that sickness was not an option, I felt really alive, our tiny boat was being bounced around all over the place... All I could do was watch out for the next big wave to
disturb our path back to Lombok.
Lombok
Happily back at Quinci Villas, we had lunch and then decided to take a trip by car around the island. The driver took us to a few different places all of which were boggy due to the rainy season, we got eaten alive by mosquitos even though we were wearing repellent... thank goodness for anti malarials!
That night we treated ourselves to dinner at the hotel and then headed into the main street to buy some Indonesian furniture. After organising shipping with the craft company we headed back to the hotel for a nightcap and bed.
The next day we took a flight on Malparti back to Bali. I was very sad to leave Lombok and the Gili’s, they are an amazing part of the world, I would go back in a heartbeat.
Our flight back only took 20mins, it was smooth and absolutely fine. The plane was pretty old and dirty, smelt a little of pee but got us there in one piece!
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