Pondok Maulana Gili Trawangan

... night is that Jose, Juan, and I hung out with the girls from each of our countries. Juan and Jose hung out with two American Girls from New York City while I hung out with two Spanish girls from Madrid. The Spanish girls and I danced all night long till about 5 in the morning and I learned so much of their culture. They call their heart “Potato” and they loved the passion and genuineness of my attitude so all night we ...

... a 2 hour bus ride to Lembar (Lombok’s western port town), then take a 5 hour ferry to Bali, then another 2 hour bus ride to the airport. Then the flight to Jakarta was 2 hours. We would arrive in Jakarta at 10pm, so we decided to book one night in the airport hotel. The entire journey went smoothly, although when we arrived in Bali’s port town Padangbai, we were worried we would miss the flight, so paid extra to charter a private car to get us to the ...

... a circuit of the island, and stopped for a snorkel along the way. This was harder than it sounded because about 1/3 of the track is broken cobblestones, 1/3 is compacted but pot-hold dirt, and the other third is loose sand – so I had to push the bike in these bits! By the time I got to the snorkeling spot I was ready to jump into the water as it was incredibly hot. But even there, the snorkeling was disappointing. Maybe I’ve just been ...

... essentially just the perfect place to switch off for a week, I felt really far away from the hustle and bustle, and stresses of real life! The beaches had lush white sand, and by walking into the sea you could see coral and all the cute fish that go with it… I’d never seen coral so close to shore before and it meant I could snorkel without a life jacket for the first time woo hoo!!

So the days were normally comprised of chilling out poolside or ...

... the sunset behind a huge volcano on Bali just across the sea and sending yet another parcel home (we are up to 25Kg now!). We also had an unsuccessful evening scouring the local pubs in search of a TV showing the opening Ashes match - it doesn't sound like we missed much! We also did see a little of the local culture, just a 20 minute stroll down the beach was a beautiful temple the was on some rocks by the ...

... the madness of the overnight antics - I''ve become scared of cows now, apparently don't shine a torch in their eyes at 2am as they charge you, the freakin stupid animals - with the Dutch couple from our place when Jho comes over as he hears us. In all the genuine-ness (is that a word?) I've ever come across he comes over gives me a slap (everyone is brother here, it's a reggae bar ultimately ...

... in Bali before Sarah had to fly but it was too nice a place to leave and we stayed right until the last minute and arrived back in Kuta in the ...

... few fears at the same time. Other than this we met two Irish girls, which was refreshing to here the accent again and wandered half the time around the island in darkness as the main electricity supply kept crashing. We were under one constraint which was money as our supply was running low and we had to plan our last few days wisely. We have survived but both come to terms with the fact that we are not really beach people. I know for ...

... per person gets you on the GIliCat...which is a high-speed boat that goes direct from Bali to Gili T in about an hour & a half. The other options are the dreadful slow boat which takes most of your day to get you there. And as we found out later, an airport on Lombok Island...& then a short boat ride. So we arrived on Gili T, GiliCat style, around noon & were greeted by white sands, blue water & one of the modes of transportation on Gili: a ...

... packages home from Indonesia was priced into categories based on weight. We were hoping to fall into the 2 - 5 kilogram category, but instead we were going to fall into the 5 - 10 kilogram class. The cost from Mataram to Toronto for our 8.5 kilogram package came to 370,000 Rp, around $40 Canadian, and it is going to take two or three months before it is actually delivered. At least I was able to send home some of the excess clothing that I had brought along as ...