Rama Candidasa Hotel Bali Karangasem

... they so lovely with their comments about our family.We hope to see them all again:)

After dinner we had a swim , then relaxed in the hotel room. The kids watched Penelope and we semi packed ready for tomorrow.We check out at midday, as I refuse to pay for the time until the airport at 10pm...they want a half day rate...nope! That same money can pay for 10 hours with a driver.We are opted for this.We can then see the last few things, and get dropped to the airport at ...

... money in the ‘Village donation’ box (it would be taken by the government rather than given to the village) and that instead we should pay our ‘donation’ to him directly to distribute. It didn’t ring quite true – but who do you believe? How do you know what’s really going on?

Back to Senggigi

After 3 nights in Kuta, we stopped at the shopping mall in Mataram (the admin district of Lombok) where we ...

... sells a certain type of goods, the usual assortment of sellers is the water guy, cold drinks guy, sarongs guy, noodles guy, monkey nuts and bananas guy, confectionary guy, and the rice and noodles pre-made meals guy. This is pretty standard in most ports, bus stations and train stations; and they’re not aiming just at tourists, it’s common practice for the locals to buy from these guys too.

Anyway, we eventually got off the boat and ...

... at a low table. She was accompanied by Joe, an American from Chicago that she had met on the boat over and had shared a hotel room with the previous two nights. She climbed down the ladder that led to the deck and told me that we were checking into a new hotel room, as the hotel that she and joe had shared had power outages constantly and was basically a dump. We headed to a cute little grouping of bungalows off the main drag and got a room for three people (just fans, no air ...

... 8217;ve seen turtles and on one or several occasions I’ve seen cuttle fish, stone fish, white tipped reef sharks, blue spotted sting rays, barracudas, frog fish, murray eels, nudibranches and so on and so on. But after all this stress it is time to move on. We’re off on a 3 day boat trip to Flores with some more snorkeling and a stop at Komodo Island and its komodo dragons, but more on that in our next blog.

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.

Nick

Last night the fever returned with vengence I'm not sure why it comes in the night but i guess if its heat stroke or sun stroke mixed with dehydration that could be a good start, and i will tell you how i got to that conclusion in a second. Last night So last night my friends wanted to head out and party but as i had not been feeling that great i called it a early night and went home. After tossing and turning for what seemed like an eternity i woke up needing ...

... the ocean with our snorkel gear early in the morning for the best chance of viewing sea turtles and other more rarely-seen ocean life that tends to go into hiding when the sun gets too hot. I was right - there was all kinds of fascinating marine life at this time of the day, including about a billion jellyfish of every size who took to treating us to dozens of stings all over our bodies. At least we got to see one turtle before we floundered our way frantically back onto dry land ...

... It was a very typical basic room, but importantly it had two fans, electrical outlets, screened windows and a western toilet and shower available. We asked about whether breakfast was included and agreed to 80,000 Rp a night with breakfast for our stay there. The place is called Melati Home-stay and it is situated about 50 meters from the beach, right across from the Head Village Office for Gili Trawanagan. There is no police on the island, so this office is ...

... stay if it were not for the coating of mould on the bathroom door and walls, which immediately horrified Yoong when she noticed it, and the fact that the bed was a bit short, forcing me to either lie diagonally or dangle my feet over the end. We came to Si Racha because it was close to Bangkok, we had never been there before, and it sounded like a place that would not be over-run by tourists. We generally enjoy the less touristy places. For example, though Hua Hin ...