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Hello from Indonesia, we say Indonesia as we haven't spent all our time lazing on the beaches in Kuta, Bali. We have infact been very busy as we have visited the neighbouring island of Lombok and their paradise islands the Gilli's.
A short flight from Singapore we arrived in Kuta, Bali. This is great for surfing, nightlife and plenty of shops. Because the tourism has been hit by the bombs a few years ago, everyone is keen for you to buy from there shop or take their transport- this does get very irritating after 5 minutes of walking down the road being pestered/harrassed! Carly even ignored some one on the beach for sooooooo long that the woman got the right hump and called her a rude snob in the end! Oh well!
Kuta is good for surfing so as Paul has dabbled in Newquay he rented a board for a few hours. We only had 2 nights in Kuta before heading off to Lombok. We caught a small, sorry, tiny plane(we even had to be weighed to balance the plane) to Lombok before meeting our driver for a guided tour of Lombok. This was in extreme contrast to Bali as there are few tourists and the island is much less developed. We stopped at a weaving factory-hut, the women weave all day, they dressed us in traditional wedding outfits (don't worry, no wedding or rings of any description!) Next was the Sasak Village to see how a normal Lombok family live. Pretty basic, although they seemed happy. We then hit a lovely secluded beach just as the heavens opened! We didn't realise it's rainy season in Indonesia at the mo! When it rains, it rains proper! Spent 2 quiet relaxing days and nights in Lombok befor heading to Gilli Trawangen.
The Gilli islands are a group of 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok. We stayed on the largest one. I say largest, it only took us 1 sweaty hour to cycle around the whole island. The only means of transport is bycle or Horse and cart(we experienced a crazy ride!). The beaches were lovely and the snorkelling off the coast was amazing! We went on a trip around each of the 3 islands in a glass bottom boat stopping frequently for snorkelling. We saw many tropical fish, 2 giant turtles and clams.
Most of our evenins here were spent watching dvd's in the private huts or lounging in the big screen cinemas. This was a great excuse to chill out as the bars were pretty empty as it's low season. Paul had a permanent bad stomach aswell which didn't help!(it's now ok- no worrying).
Back to Bali after 4 nights on the Gilli's, we headed to the North to Penelokan to visit a live Volcano. On the way we stopped to watch a traditional Kris Dance called The Barong. This was very dramatic but we weren't really sure what was gong on, think it's something to do with good vs evil and all that..... We visited a typical Balineese house, hindu temples, silver jewelery factory, art studios and on the return from the Volcano a coffee plantation and the Elephant Cave. We returned to Ubud, our home for the next couple of nights, Ubud is the the cultural centre of Bali, here we visite many art galleries, museums, markets and the Ubud Palace the residence of the King and his wife.
Were now back in Kuta before we head to Oz this evening. Today we done some watersports at Nusa Dua, Carly done the parasailing and must have enjoyed it so much when she had to pull the chute to gently lower herself down ignored the mans instructions and floated in the air for a while longer. Paul also had a go of the parasailing before trying his hand at wake boarding. It was really good fun althogh hard work and he did have quite a few big crashes!
Think thats put you up to date with the past couple of weeks, the time is absolutely flying by unfortunately. Hope all are well and not missing us too much.
Love to all.
Carly & Paul
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