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We left Kuta the next morning - supposed to be at 9am but we were asked to go at 11am instead, for what reason we're not sure, but it didn't matter to us because we weren't really in a rush! We got to Padangbai at about 3.00pm and found a nice guesthouse with an ensuite to stay at (3.50 pounds including breakfast!!). We booked the ferry/bus/ferry to go to the Gili Islands the next day. The ferry was fine (somewhat iffy, looked like it could use a lick of paint...) but it dragged on, and the crossing took about 5 hours. We were then packed into a rust bucket minibus with our backpacks tied to the roof with 2 bits of rope (along with about 12 other backpacks!!). When we were going along, you could actually see the road through the floor it was so rusted through! We saw lots of monkeys on the drive as well. The drive to the next ferry was 2 hours. We stopped after about an hour to get water, and the driver told us that if we didn't buy a return ticket from him for 200,000rp then we would end up paying 600,000rp to get back! We didn't buy it, becuase it sounded like a scam and luckily we were right!! He said that because it is Ramadan there are no boats. But his boat still goes. Yeah, right! The next boat was a wooden speedboat, and the sea was so rough. One girl sitting next to me was screaming the whole way! It was a little scary, the waves were huge and sometimes all you could see out of the boat was the waves towering over! We all got there safely though, even if a little bit wet!
We got off the boat and started looking for accommodation. All prices quoted in the lonely planet book were way off, about double and we were looking at 100,000 with no breakfast for the room. We walked around many places until we settled on one. The lady quickly scarpered once we said we'd take it, and we found out why - the fan didn't work! So we had to look around the island for her and tell her we couldn't stay there. We had looked at another place next door, so we stayed there instead. It was ok, like a beach hut, but it had salt water showers and we both felt gross the whole time, as you just get sticky instead of clean!
On our search for rooms, we made friends with a Dutch couple called Mark and Kim. They were also looking for rooms! We went out for dinner with them that night. The next day we hired some snorkelling gear and went for a snorkel. It was really good, and we saw some turtles! Really cool. We didn't do any dives as Jack wasn't feeling well and i've got a cold - more on that later though. That evening we climbed up the hill to watch the sunset. It was so worth it, we got a view of Bali's volcano in front of the sunset, and we got some amazing pictures. We went out for dinner with Mark and Kim after that again.
Not being able to dive, and the rooms and food being expensive we decided to leave the next day for Sengigi. This was only half an hour on the boat and 1 hour on the bus. We found a nice place for 50,000 (so half price of the gili's!) and it had a little 2 week old puppy there too which sold it for us! We went to see the temple on the beach, and Jack slept while i went and spent the afternoon at the beach. The next day we arranged the ferry back to Bali. This ferry crossing was even worse than the last one, and it was really rough. When we got to Padangbai, we had to wait out in the ocean as only one boat is allowed to dock at a time and we were just floating there for an hour, how annoying!! We went back to the same place we stayed at before - they recognised us and were pleased to see us! We got an early night, and arranged the bus to Ubud.
We are now in Ubud, the bus only took an hour this morning. As Jack hasn't been feeling well, we went to the doctors to see what's wrong. The symptoms he was showing (coughing, fever, headache and muscle ache) all pointed towards Typhoid so he had to have a blood test. We got the results back and it shows that he has had Typhoid before, but because we were immunised before we left he managed to fight it off, but now because he has a cough and cold he can't fight it off so he is on antibiotics. I've just got a cold! I think it was from the plane, there were a lot of coughers on there!!!
We are staying at a place called Junggut Inn, on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. It's very central, and near the monkey forest temple, where we will visit in a couple of days. There seems to be a lot to do here so we will be here for about 4 days, and so Jack can relax and get better. I had a massage today while he was sleeping so plenty for me to do!
We will be putting on pictures in the next few days as this internet actually seems to be ok.
Linsey and Jack xxx
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