I'm writing this back at home having spent a few weeks in the UK, finding work (having quit my job back in July) and coming to terms with the fact that i'm no longer lounging on a beach, cocktail in hand, enjoying people watching and just bathing in the blistering heat.
The few days I had on Gili Air were wonderful, exactly the relaxing time that I needed after a hectic trip. Breakfasts were spent sat on a table on the beach eating copious amounts of banana pancakes with honey drizzle and enjoying watching the sun come up behind Gili Meno. Lunches were had either on the beach or by the pool. I would take myself off just after lunch and take a walk round the island (which was probably the world time of the day to do this considering the heat) but it was nice to find some shade even if I was sweltering and dripping wet by the end of the walk. Dinners were had either at the hotel or at one of the restaurants along the beach. I took myself out on a date one evening and had the most amazing chorizo pizza whilst watching the sun setting, drinking my new obsession - a pomegranate mojito - and listening to live music wafting through the air. Gili Air is a very small island which takes around an hour to walk around if you follow the shore. As with most islands there are parts which are more touristy and parts which are more for the locals. I found myself walking more into the centre on the island on my last full day. I had booked myself a spa afternoon of a 2 hour full body massage and an hours facial. The spa was located pretty much in the centre of the island. It was a lovely afternoon and after drinking my ginger tea pretty much floated back to the hotel and plonked myself by the pool for an hour or so. Perfect way to end a trip in paradise.
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Today was a relatively early start of 0730 to get down to the harbour for our transfer to Gili Air.
The two hour drive took us back down the mountain and through the small little villages and towns. Towards the harbour I noticed some Hindu temples that we just hadn’t seen any of whilst over in Lombok. According to Sookiyo, the Hindus stay within their own community and so it was a little like being back in Bali with about a 2 minute drive through colourful temples and statues. We also experienced more marching than we had seen on any other day. It was getting closer to the 17th so all of the schools were out marching and singing and saluting to the official markers who were scoring them on their marching abilities. Other than marching in time, we couldn’t really work out what else they were being scored on. We arrived at the “harbour”, a tiny little cove with small wooden boats where we waited for our private transfer which turned out to be relatively modern and motorised! We piled in with our bags, climbed on board and off we went. The journey only took 20 minutes if that and we were lucky enough to arrive at high tide so our captain could just ground the boat straight onto the beach by our hotel. We arrived about 10:30 and spent the day on the beach, drinking cocktails, having lunch and just generally enjoying an afternoon of downtime, something that had been relatively rare for the last 3 weeks. Relatively late start for us at 0930 although I had been up since 5 as the call to Prayer broadcast was especially loud this morning.
Visited the oldest mosque in Lombok dating from the 17th century which was basically just made of bamboo, clay and jackfruit wood. It isn’t used anymore except for special occasions every so often. After a 2 hour drive we arrived up the mountain in the Rinjani National Park where you had full view of the volcano. This has been dormant for a number of years however this time last year there was a large earthquake that demolished a large number of houses in this area. As we drove through villages you could see just mounds of wood and rubble where we were told this had been a house. The locals live in fear that another earthquake will happen soon as so they have not rebuilt their house in the same way with brick and clay, but with bamboo and metal roofs. We were told that all houses built with bamboo at the time of the earthquake last year are all still standing so the modern way isn’t always the best way! We dropped our things off at the hotel which was very quaint and pretty with a swimming pool right outside our room, got changed and then headed off to the Tiu Kelep waterfall which was quite frankly incredible! This waterfall is 45m high and cascades over in two parts which creates the most amazing visual and the roaring noise is so loud! Even with my wife angle lens I struggled to get the whole waterfall in the picture. I walked down to the very base of the waterfall where the water ended up into river and got absolutely drenched by the spray which was wonderful as on the way back we had a very long, sweaty climb!! We climbed (crawled) back to the top after our waterfall watching and made it to the restaurant for lunch which had the most wonderful view of the jungle and the waterfalls in the distance. We ate noodles and chicken and drank iced lemon tea then headed back to the hotel to change before going on our last activity, the village walk. The village that we were taken around was over 1000 years old. Families of up to 14 people, some more than 1 family, lived in these tiny bamboo and straw huts. We were shown around one and were dumbfounded as to how that many people could live in such a small place. Children would sleep 5 to a bed and adults would sleep on the floor. After walking around the village, we entered the “garden” which was basically just a jungle wilderness where they would pick cacao to make into coffee and get all of their other vegetables and spices. We found chilli, avocado, pineapple, macadamia nut, jackfruit, durian (the smelliest fruit in the world), banana, guava, clove. The only thing they seemed to be unable to grow was Apples for some bizarre reason. The prices that we pay in England for fruit and veg is just ridiculous. But the amount that the growers get when they sell is even worse. I learned that we pay over 7 times the price for 1 avocado than the growers make when they see it. I learned a huge deal in the 2 hours we were walking around and the two girl guides English was very good for two girls who had not learned languages at school. We had a few hours to kill after the walk so sat by the pool and cooled down before dinner where I had a lovely Green Curry and there were no nuts!! Last activity done with the group. We head off to Gili Air tomorrow for 2 free days before the majority of the group go home. I have an extra day before I leave which I plan on making the most of!! This morning we woke about 7:30, some of the group had gone to the fish market early on but I needed some sleep and didn’t fancy the same smell issue as the last market we attended!
We wandered a whole 10 metres onto the beach after breakfast and waited for our boat to arrive. This was our second boat of the day, as the first one had sunk whilst on its way to us! It was one of the traditional old fishing boats with wooden poles attached on either side for extra balance. It pulled up onto the beach, we all jumped in and we were off for our day of snorkelling. We went to two snorkelling locations, both of which we saw some amazing coloured fish and coral waving in the sea current. We stopped off on a sandbank for half an hour which only appears every so often so it was good timing. Right in the middle of nowhere it reminded me a lot of a similar sandbank in Tobago, surrounded by beautiful turquoise water. Our next stop was another small island for lunch and to spend some time swimming around and sunbathing. I walked around the island which took about 20 minutes and just lolled about enjoying the weather and the scenery. Whilst snorkelling a few of us had been stung by very small jellyfish which just felt like a very quick sting. The area went red but within an hour or two it had disappeared thankfully. After a picnic lunch of rice (surprise!), cooked chicken, dried salmon fillet and beans we got back on the boat and headed back to base camp. Upon dropping us all off on the beach by driving the boat onto the sand, the driver whilst trying to get over large waves to get the boat back out, blew the engine. There was a loud pop and a bit of smoke, he then dropped anchor to await rescue which we found out didn’t take long but none of us were particularly happy to leave the poor man drifting around! We had a few hours to kill so most of us grabbed a beanbag, a book and a beer and sat in the garden in the shade for a while. Dinner consisted of a fish bbq (prawns, red snapper, Octopus) which was cooked on the beach and eaten In the undercover eating area which was good considering that we had our first very light rain of the trip. Breakfast at 7 consisted of pancakes, honey, toast and eggs which was lovely and well needed after being woken up at 0430 by the Call to Prayer. We then set off on foot for our 2.5 hike along the rice fields. These differed to Bali in that these were more level than those in Bali. Bali had significant height to their fields as well.
We walked for 2 hours when we came to a lady’s house for coffee in which she made us a combination Robusta coffee grown from her garden mixed with Cacoa bean and vanilla. It smelt wonderful. I had ginger tea and our guide showed us the different things that were grown in the vicinity and dried. Chilli, nutmeg, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, cloves, white and black cumin. We discussed ethnicities in Indonesia and were told that there were over 700 different ethnic groups in Indonesia with over 1000 different languages spoken! I had just managed to learn Thank You in Balinese, we now have to say “Teramakasi “ in Lombok. After our walk we headed back to the basic hotel and got ourselves packed with a quick dip in the pool to cool off, the humidity is definitely higher on this island. After loading the bus, we drove for about 30 mins before arriving at a basket weaving and craft shop, they also had beautiful masks all made from mahogany and delicately painted with colourful patterns. I attempted to learn how to weave a ring out of bamboo, it was a complete disaster, if I had a day job right now, I wouldn’t be giving it up! We had a quick look round the mosque over the road, only going so far onto the concourse and taking our shoes off to go up to the windows. The inside is sacred so we weren’t allowed in, even respectfully dressed. This mosque has been “being built” for 10 years and they guessed that by the end it would have cost around 1 Billion Rupiah which is the equivalent of £50,000 in the U.K. When I told the guide how much my flat cost, he was absolutely amazed, definitely a completely different world here. We also learnt that all of the Calls to Prayer are sung in Arabic as are all of the teachings, however the majority of the population don’t understand the language so they follow a religion whose teachings they cannot understand. Which I myself find completely bizarre! Our place for lunch was high in the hills which our tour bus was unable to get to, so we all decamped into the flat bed of a truck and held on for dear life. As we were leaving a huge crowd of people appeared into the street and a cow was led down the road. We didn’t need to be told what was about to happen and all but 1 of us closed our eyes and put our hands over our ears as they slaughtered the cow in the street. It is sacrifice week here for Muslims, a great time to arrive. The amount of blood we have seen on the street being washed off the road is obscene! We arrived at our bungalows for the next two nights, on the beach and although basic was clean with an outside bathroom. We all sat on the lawn on beanbags, beer in hand and nattered until dinner. Breakfast at 7 consisted of pancakes, honey, toast and eggs which was lovely and well needed after being woken up at 0430 by the Call to Prayer. We then set off on foot for our 2.5 hike along the rice fields. These differed to Bali in that these were more level than those in Bali. Bali had significant height to their fields as well.
We walked for 2 hours when we came to a lady’s house for coffee in which she made us a combination Robusta coffee grown from her garden mixed with Cacoa bean and vanilla. It smelt wonderful. I had ginger tea and our guide showed us the different things that were grown in the vicinity and dried. Chilli, nutmeg, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, cloves, white and black cumin. We discussed ethnicities in Indonesia and were told that there were over 700 different ethnic groups in Indonesia with over 1000 different languages spoken! I had just managed to learn Thank You in Balinese, we now have to say “Teramakasi “ in Lombok. After our walk we headed back to the basic hotel and got ourselves packed with a quick dip in the pool to cool off, the humidity is definitely higher on this island. After loading the bus, we drove for about 30 mins before arriving at a basket weaving and craft shop, they also had beautiful masks all made from mahogany and delicately painted with colourful patterns. I attempted to learn how to weave a ring out of bamboo, it was a complete disaster, if I had a day job right now, I wouldn’t be giving it up! We had a quick look round the mosque over the road, only going so far onto the concourse and taking our shoes off to go up to the windows. The inside is sacred so we weren’t allowed in, even respectfully dressed. This mosque has been “being built” for 10 years and they guessed that by the end it would have cost around 1 Billion Rupiah which is the equivalent of £50,000 in the U.K. When I told the guide how much my flat cost, he was absolutely amazed, definitely a completely different world here. We also learnt that all of the Calls to Prayer are sung in Arabic as are all of the teachings, however the majority of the population don’t understand the language so they follow a religion whose teachings they cannot understand. Which I myself find completely bizarre! Our place for lunch was high in the hills which our tour bus was unable to get to, so we all decamped into the flat bed of a truck and held on for dear life. As we were leaving a huge crowd of people appeared into the street and a cow was led down the road. We didn’t need to be told what was about to happen and all but 1 of us closed our eyes and put our hands over our ears as they slaughtered the cow in the street. It is sacrifice week here for Muslims, a great time to arrive. The amount of blood we have seen on the street being washed off the road is obscene! We arrived at our bungalows for the next two nights, on the beach and although basic was clean with an outside bathroom. We all sat on the lawn on beanbags, beer in hand and nattered until dinner. It was an early start this morning, 0630 for breakfast and leaving at 0730. We got on the bus, which is now a lot more spacious with half the amount of occupants and heading towards where we would get on the fast ferry to Lombok. We were told last night that if the weather was rough, we would have to go onto the slow ferry which could take up to 5 hours to arrive at Lombok, if it arrived there at all, sometimes when the weather gets rough, the boat will stop at any port it chooses, it’s then down to us to work out how to get to our next destination!
Luckily the weather worked in our favour and we boarded the fast boat from Padang Bai heading to Bangsal. “Boarded” is a big word, it was more flinging of backpacks and clambering aboard fighting for a seat. I’ve been told that when you board these boats to make sure you sit up top, if the boat starts sinking you don’t want to be sat below... I took this tip and we managed to get seats upstairs behind the captain. We sat next to Sookiyo and he gave us some more information on the colours of sarongs that are placed around temples, statues and trees: Yellow - Holy, White - Clean, Red - Wisdom and Black & White - Balance, which is where the Ying & Yang symbol originated from. We made two stops on the way to Lombok, one at Gili T, the party island where hundreds of people were waiting to board boats either back to Bali or to Lombok, the other to Gili Air my last stop of the trip which looked far more chilled and relaxed, the water was stunning, can’t wait to go there in a weeks time. We clambered off the boat 2 hours later and met our new driver and the monster of a bus that we had just for the 6 of us. In all honesty I’m quite pleased we had the big bus as the driving is absolutely terrifying in Lombok and I felt a lot safer in something that was higher than most mopeds. Lombok is a completely different feel to Bali in my opinion, a lot poorer, 85% of the population are Muslim here as opposed the same percentage being Hindu in Bali. There are no temples in sight, no brightly coloured offerings or the lovely scent of incense as you walk down the street. Instead there are huge mosques that appear out of nowhere as you drive down smog filled narrow roads. The coast however is very pretty, we stopped for lunch shortly after arriving in Lombok and sat on the beach to eat pizza and have beer. We arrived in our cottages in Tetebatu Village which are basic but there is a fully working shower and toilet so can’t complain! This morning we packed up and had left the hotel by 0900. We drove for about 20 mins passing coconut trees, banana trees, wild chilli plants, mandarin trees and lemon trees on the way, all wild that could just be picked by any one.
We arrived at the Ulun Danu Temple around 9:20 and it was relatively quiet. We met our guide who took us through the temple explaining the Hindu religion and describing the reasons why all statues and temples along the road are dressed in clothes. Hindus believe that if humans are clothed, so too should their gods and the temples so any temple or statue that you see as you travel through Bali will normally have a black & white or Yellow cloth wrapped around them. We then had 45 minutes to walk around by ourselves and take photographs. Mid way through there was the start of Prayer and a procession of people all dressed in Hindu sarongs walked through the tourists and into the inner temple for prayer. Two members of our tour group have a large number of tattoos which grows quite a crowd, especially with people from China and today from Borneo. Many photos were taken of our couple from Bristol and various tourists! After the walk round the temple we then drove around 15 mins to the Bali Botanic Gardens which we drove around and then stopped to allow us to wander about for an hour. I think I was the wrong time of year to go for flowers as there were none, just a couple of orchids looking very sorry for themselves! They had a cactus house however which was filled the brim wirh various species as well as numerous huge statues with gold leaf and intricate details. There was also a large group of woman practising a dance routine which then turned into a game of passing a large corn through the team using only your legs. They seemed to enjoy having an audience and there was waving and smiles from them as we left. Next stop was lunch! We had a two hour bus ride to Sanur and we were all starving so we stopped on route as this little restaurant that didn’t look like much from the entrance but once you had walked in were surrounded by bamboo and ponds with fish and life sized wooden carved horses ..... and a dinosaur....! We made it to Sanur around 4pm and walked around the little tourist shops for a bit before heading to the hotel to shower, dress and meet the 3 new people who would be joining the Lombok tour the next day. One man from Australia, a lady from Australia and another lady from Nottingham. After meeting them we all got together, new group and old group to have dinner which was on the beach until some twinkly lights with a live band. The food was, I had a none nutty fish curry and a couple of cocktails. When the night was done, we all hugged goodbye and promised to stay in touch. You really get to know people when you are in each other’s pockets on a tour bus for 9 days. I will miss them! This morning we packed up and had left the hotel by 0900. We drove for about 20 mins passing coconut trees, banana trees, wild chilli plants, mandarin trees and lemon trees on the way, all wild that could just be picked by any one.
We arrived at the Ulun Danu Temple around 9:20 and it was relatively quiet. We met our guide who took us through the temple explaining the Hindu religion and describing the reasons why all statues and temples along the road are dressed in clothes. Hindus believe that if humans are clothed, so too should their gods and the temples so any temple or statue that you see as you travel through Bali will normally have a black & white or Yellow cloth wrapped around them. We then had 45 minutes to walk around by ourselves and take photographs. Mid way through there was the start of Prayer and a procession of people all dressed in Hindu sarongs walked through the tourists and into the inner temple for prayer. Two members of our tour group have a large number of tattoos which grows quite a crowd, especially with people from China and today from Borneo. Many photos were taken of our couple from Bristol and various tourists! After the walk round the temple we then drove around 15 mins to the Bali Botanic Gardens which we drove around and then stopped to allow us to wander about for an hour. I think I was the wrong time of year to go for flowers as there were none, just a couple of orchids looking very sorry for themselves! They had a cactus house however which was filled the brim wirh various species as well as numerous huge statues with gold leaf and intricate details. There was also a large group of woman practising a dance routine which then turned into a game of passing a large corn through the team using only your legs. They seemed to enjoy having an audience and there was waving and smiles from them as we left. Next stop was lunch! We had a two hour bus ride to Sanur and we were all starving so we stopped on route as this little restaurant that didn’t look like much from the entrance but once you had walked in were surrounded by bamboo and ponds with fish and life sized wooden carved horses ..... and a dinosaur....! We made it to Sanur around 4pm and walked around the little tourist shops for a bit before heading to the hotel to shower, dress and meet the 3 new people who would be joining the Lombok tour the next day. One man from Australia, a lady from Australia and another lady from Nottingham. After meeting them we all got together, new group and old group to have dinner which was on the beach until some twinkly lights with a live band. The food was, I had a none nutty fish curry and a couple of cocktails. When the night was done, we all hugged goodbye and promised to stay in touch. You really get to know people when you are in each other’s pockets on a tour bus for 9 days. I will miss them! This morning we rose relatively early as Sookiyo our guide wanted to take us to the local market. We pulled the bus over onto a relatively busy street, got out and was led down a tiny alley, I can’t lie, the smell was horrendous. A few of the group gagged as we rushed through the alley and into an undercover market hall where fish were being sold. These fish weren’t fresh and looked more dried than anything but the smell was completely overpowering. We headed upstairs to the fruit and vegetable section and tried different fruits to eat including one called Snake Fruit, so called because the skin before peeling looks very much like scales. Once peeled you eat the white flesh around a brown stone in the middle and the only way to really describe the taste is that it is like a Haribo sweet! None of us wanted to stay in the market that long, the smell was still awfully strong and the flies were everywhere.
We left the market and were thankful to end up back on the road surrounded by car fumes to mask the smell! We got back on the bus and headed off to our waterfall walk. The walk to Munduk Falls was a nice straight 20 mins along a forest trail, we rounded a corner and the waterfall was right in front of us. Well over 100ft high the water shot over the sides of a green canopy and cascaded straight down into a very shallow pool before heading off down the river. We stopped for pictures and to just stand in the water spray which was lovely in 35 degree heat. We then headed back but Sookiyo took us the “better way” which was completely all up hill and by the time we had all got to the winding top we were drenched in sweat and our clothes looked like we had jumped in the waterfall! As a peace offering we were taken to lunch at a new restaurant that had just opened where you could sit overlooking another waterfall, this one about 100ft tall. We ate lunch and watched and listened to the really peaceful sounds of the water shooting down in the forest. I’m so pleased we came here. I find waterfalls incredibly beautiful forces of nature and they are never the same. After lunch we headed up into the mountains getting higher and higher every minute, you could tell we were reaching altitude as the temperature plummeted to around 17 degrees. Locals were all wearing coats and hats and us tourists were walking around with shorts and vest tops of shivering! We arrived at our cottages for the night at Strawberry Hill Hotel, settled in for a few hours then met at the restaurant for dinner where I had a vegetable curry (the only thing on the menu not cooked with nuts). We were all in bed by 10, every day is so busy and the heat can be really draining so by the time the evenings come we are all absolutely exhausted! |
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