Paradiso Hotel & Restaurant Mataram

... village co-op. It was all interesting stuff.<br><br>Alan and I continued to walk down the drive &#8211; and he came with us, happily chatting away. He then offered to take us to his village across the road, to meet his wife. We were taken through a rabbit warren of fairly basic and ramshackle houses and he pointed out various aspects of &#8216;local life&#8217;. It took about 1 min before I realised we had somehow ended up on a &#8216;guided tour&#8217 ...

... from POS 2 to POS 3 is like. Painful!!<br><br>Spotting the shelters at POS 3 in the distance was a massive relief. We staggered over to the shelters and collapsed for 10 minutes. There is a picture of me beside the POS 3 sign... You should get apretty good idea how we felt by looking at that, exhausted and very sweaty!! After a few minutes we realised we were not alone. There was a rustling in the bushes and lots of hungry mouths eyeing us up. Fortunately ...

... then jumping back in whilst scooters and bikes dart diagonally all over the road squeezing through the narrowest of gaps. Yet amazingly, not one accident&#8230; Even more amazingly, no road rage either&#8230; I was starting to get the impression that there is some drivers etiquette to follow that keeps everyone happy, but the only way I can explain it is&#8230; If you are brave enough to make a move to overtake, everyone around you is happy to slam on their ...

... two very popular activities on the<br>islands, with an amazing array of marine life to enjoy. Beautiful coral<br>reefs teeming with fish are a site, and turtles and rays make frequent<br>visits as well. There are several dive operators on the islands, and<br>mask and snorkel sets can be rented on the beach.<br>Other than swimming ...

... night I played fire with some locals who had their poi out and let me use their kerosene. I'm so bad at performing 'cos I get nervous but I had a really good time anyway. I ended up breaking my glow-poi when I swung them too hard and the keyring ripped through the rubberloop :o( So it's fire or daytime poi until I get new ones or repair the broken one.<br><br><br> <br>The internet here is SLOWMOTION so I will wait to upload pics until we get back to the 'mainland ...

... It made no sense in walking 2 km down the road to drive right past where we had come from. I was fuming so I got on our scooter and drove into there office and demanded a pick up outside the guesthouse, which they did. It looked like the driver was trying it on. So after being picked up by the Hamman tour bus we were dropped off at Bangsul near the ferry port, but also conveniently at another restaurant for breakfast, of which everybody refused to have. They made us wait and ...

... take a bit of walking to get them going again. The island was very sleepy though, apart from the dedicated party nights, and there were hardly ...

... into a plush hotel with a really nice swimming pool. It did cost a little more but it was still cheap for the three islands and a treat before we hit expensive Western prices again. Here we had a lovely, romantic four-poster bed and were lent a DVD player to play all our movies we bought in Ubud. We soaked up the sun and both got burned AGAIN after only snorkeling for an hour along the coast. We saw some lush fish and Meal conquered ...

... traveling the world for a year, spending a couple months teaching diving to make some money. Great guy, great teacher. My classmates were two Finnish girls and a guy named Dan from Alaska, who would be assigned my "dive buddy" and who would become one of my favorite people encountered on this trip. Dan works a few months per year as a commercial fisherman, then spends most of the year traveling. He is a former professional snowboarder and cage fighter. He was at the ...

... out that cabbies are probably a better way for tourists in Mataram to travel because we did not have any problems getting him to use his meter. Compared to the bemos, that were always trying to overcharge us, the cabs were far more comfortable and even cheaper (than the inflated prices the bemos listed for us anyhow). The ride to the airport was about 15 minutes long and cost us around 20,000 Rp. The Mataram airport was surprisingly modern and comfortable and ...