Novotel Lombok

... Komodo National Park nestles between the large islands of Sumbawa and Flores, all of which are part of Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands.<br>This unique biosphere was born in the great volcanic uplift that formed Sumatra, Java, Bali and the islands lying eastward to Papua New Guinea. In 1928 the Dutch colonial government of the then Dutch East Indies formalized the nature reserve status originally conferred on Komodo in 1915 by the Raja of Biwa in neighboring Sumbawa. Indonesia ...

Yo again. Just thought I'd post a quick pic update. All is still very well here - the snorkeling here is UNREAL and right off of the beach, so we may or may not dive here at all! That's a good thing (at $35 a dive). Just layin' low, eating good food, and watching mucho movies... there is a frackin' dvd player AND tv in our bungalow. A massive luxury indeed! Satu says moi moi.... We'll update again soon.<br><br>Nick<br>

... people here changed when they are around tourists. In Sulawesi the four of us usually already made up about 50% of the total foreigners there. Arriving in Bali was all too much for us, so we decided that we are not ready to throw ourselves in the midth of the Australian Mallorca yet. Luckily we could still find a way to get to Lombok that same day and from there settle over to the Gili Islands, which supposedly are some kind of insiders tip in the Bali/Lombok region...

... surprised by the diversity and amount of unique fish on these dives. Of course, while I had become somewhat of a diving snob and criticized the poor coral of the Gilis, having catalogued dives #40, #41, #42 while on Gili Air, it was still SCUBA diving, which is one of the greatest pleasures on earth. Walkabout: Village Life on the Island On one of the days we were on the island, I told Mary I was going to explore the island on my own, so that I ...

... a bathroom that was complete and very nice, it just looked like someone had forgotten to put on the roof. Secondly, and prehaps the oddest of all, no fresh water. Have you ever taken a salt water shower? Its weird, very weird. After getting out of the sea with salt all over you, you jump in the shower, and get out with salt all over you. Brushed your teeth using salt water? Dont bother trying ...

... following thoughts: Why the hell is this happening now? Is this a big test? Do I marry this girl? Do I go to the Peace Corps, deal with the pain and forget all about her? I was very conflicted, but I knew that I loved Mary intensely. Life's just not worth it if it were easy, now is it. The Two Sides of Lombok - Going Road Trippin Feb 13, our last full day in Lombok, was a day of absolutely beauty and disappointment. I had mixed emotions ...

... mai. Ormai sono rassegnato a passare qualche giorno da "clandestino" in questo Paese; cosa mi puo' succedere quando mi presentero' alla frontiera con un visto scaduto? Beh, azzardiamo un pronostico: 10% = la passo liscia. 45% = mi schiaffano una multa di 20 dollari per ogni giorno trascorso illegalmente nel Paese. 40% = il mio nome finisce sulla black-list indonesiana, vale a dire che non potro' piu' mettere piede in questo Paese a vita. 5% = carcere. Ma torniamo alle cose ...

... to Bima, where we would get on the long distance bus. The minibus 2 hour trip was quite an experience, we thought we had gotten used to packed buses in Sri Lanka, but we were not prepared for this. The 20 or so people capacity bus was carrying at least double than that, inside, hanging from the doors, and on the roof together with all the luggage. The driver suggested we could go on the roof, but we managed to squeeze in the cabin, Eva sitting on a large bag of ...

... roads through small villages. defintely a destination worth spending more time at....however the ferry ride back was brutal, it would prob be worth flying into lombok. we arrived in singapore at 1am this morning and are planning on seeing the singapore zoo, which supposed to be pretty good. don't think we'll spend much time here though, maybe 2 nights. hopefully the video of murray riding with an old indonesian lady will upload. good times.

... whilst all other westerners were picked up and shuttled to the ferry terminal. I protested about the con we were suffering (surprise, surprise, they wanted more money) and decided that we would force a stay with one of the families in a beachside shack because I had no money left. This game lasted for about 45 minutes until the minibus that had been there all along turned out to be our transport. Shock, horror. I even had visions of Clare Raynor throttling one of this lying lovies. So ...