Hotel Ratih Mataram

... by lots of small villages and we expected this to be an interesting area to spend a day or two in.<br><br>What we found, however, is that once again, we were hounded to death to hire guides to show us around, particularly by the people at the hotel. We really didn&#8217;t want to do this, as firstly, we have found that the local &#8216;guides&#8217; do not end up sharing a huge amount of useful info anyhow, especially when you start asking questions ...

... 3. We ended up stopping at POS 2 for a long time because of a rain storm which delayed our guides progress with cooking lunch (which seemed to take ages when they did eventually start). It was really nice though, and compared with the lunch we saw other groups getting, I&#8217;d say it was worth the wait and the portions were huge. When we eventually set off we had been sitting for over an hour, and although we had recovered our breath and our energy somewhat ...

... got ushered onto a Perma bus swarmed with more vendors. We parted ways with the Austrian girls who were going to Kuta (Lombok) and drove off to Senggigi. The journey took a little over an hour and was a refreshing break from driving in Bali. Bali&#8217;s streets are full of crazy drivers. It&#8217;s lawless!! Entire families on one scooter. We saw a family of 5 fit on one at one point, 4 is pretty typical, but this time it was child at the front ...

... cafes and restaurants line the beaches, playing<br>relaxing reggae music and serving cold drinks to the visitor. For those<br>who wish to relax and enjoy beautiful landscape, Gili Islands is not a<br>place to be missed.<br>To<br>get to the Gili Islands, visitors must take a ferry or boat from Lombok<br>or from Bali. The islands are ...

We're here on Gili Air, the quietest of the Gili Islands. It is, as promised, quiet, scenic, relaxing and cheap. Every one in a while a horse-and-cart goes by on the pressed-sand pathway (no motorized vehicles here!). There are adorable little cats everywhere, and no dogs, which makes both Oli and I happy. We're staying in a cute little bungalow right on the beach, that for inexplainable reasons comes equipped with a huge tv and dvd player, and tons of bootleg movies ...

... around the island.<br> On the main road in Sengiggi we stopped at a roadside restaurant which was made up of 2 gas bottles and a couple of woks all run off the back of a truck. The dishes where washed in a bowl on the floor and the flat back of the truck made up the food preperation area! The beef noodles Goreng we had was absolutely amazing! Better than any swanky restaurant and a marked improvement on the Nachos. It was a basic food setup on the side of the street but the food ...

... leben, tauchen, arbeiten und so ganz nebenbei ausgebildet wird. (Nitrox, Rescue Diver &amp; Divemaster). Also, wer die Pistazie da mal besuchen will: Hier ist sie zu finden. Und da ich bei den Dreamdivers Rabatt kriege und eh nix Besseres zu tun hab, werd ich dort direkt meinen Advanced Open Water machen. Abschliessend zum Thema Tauchen: Schickt Blumen, Pralinen und Grusskarten! Ich habe 50 Tauchgaenge!

... around the island in a couple of hours.<br><br>It was the perfect place to recoup. It took us about four days until are legs returned to normal ...

Off the northwest coast of Lombok are the three Gili Islands. The most developed of these is Gili Trawangan (Gili T for short). "Most developed" is a relative term, as it's still mostly empty and there are no cars or motorbikes. The only way to get around the island is by horse carriage or by bicycle. Of course, it would only take two hours to walk around the circumference of the island if you wanted to. On the boat over to the island, I met a cheerful and dimwitted ...

... on the Internet. The day before we were set to leave Mataram, we read some disturbing news regarding the Bangkok airport. Apparently the PAD had stepped up its protests to oust the current government and had occupied the airport which we were supposed to fly to. This had caused all flights to be cancelled, so we were not going to be able to use the tickets we had bought months earlier. To further complicate matters, we had already been in Indonesia for 58 ...