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Due to our backpacker budget we had caught the slow boat across from Bali, which definetly lived up to it's name by getting pointlessly stuck in the harbour for what felt like hours! We headed straight down to Kuta- a small beach town on the south of the Island- which we had heard was drastically different from the Kuta in Bali (a party place for fat Australians, we had been told to avoid like the plague.) In comparison our Kuta really was paradise. We stayed in an amazing guest house right on the beach called Sekar Kuning, or yellow flower in English, where we had a lovely room and whose staff turned out to be some of the most helpful we have encountered.
We could have stayed in Kuta forever apart from one major problem: the need for a moped. The town itself is a lovely sleepy place with lots of excellent cafes and restaurants, but the real appeal of the area is the chance to explore the surrounding coastline and the dozens of beautiful deserted beaches. The best and by far the cheapest way to do this is by motorbike or moped. Now Kat and I have not had many rules whilst travelling. But promises to parents and years of hearing about and seeing the scars of friends accidents on mopeds in Asia, meant we had a NO MOPED RULE. Unfortunately for me (or more specifically my right leg) the lure of beach paradise meant we broke this rule.
On the first day, after a quick practice and even quicker fail on the moped, we decided to pay a local man to drive us to the closest beach. He charged us far too much but the beach was beautiful. Luckily the next day two boys we had met (Justin and Jake) offered to drive us around if we paid for petrol. It was an absolutely amazing day where we visted 3 different but equally beautiful beaches, ate fresh fish and watched in amazement as talented 15 year olds surfed some of the biggest waves I have ever seen.
The next day, however, the boys had left and so we decided to have another attempt at driving the mopeds ourselves. Well Kat did as my inability to ride even a bicycle meant there was no chance I was giving it a go. After only 2 minutes on the moped Kat had veered off the side of the road and I had got a very nasty burn from the exhaust pipe. We decided again that mopeds were not for us. Luckily the staff at the guesthouse came to our rescue and one of them even offered to drive us around for the day for FREE. On the way to one of the beaches he took us to his families home, where he introduced us to his Uncle and Aunt and tons of cousins. They couldn't speak a word of English but we managed to communicate through hand gestures and smiles. Despite it being Ramadan and not being able to eat or drink themselves, they seemed very keen that we eat as many coconuts as humanly possible. One of the cousins was sent scuttling up the very tall tree and retrieved over 10 coconuts for our consumption. Unfortunately neither of us are massive coconut fans but we didn't want to be rude after the famliy had been so welcoming and we hilariously struggled to drink and then eat the white flesh. We haven't touched another coconut since...
After five days in Kuta we decided it was time to move onto our next destination- Tetu Batu. It's a small village in the hills from which Mount Rinjani (another volcano, which we sensibly decided not to climb having already been up 2) can be seen. We spent an enjoyable couple of days exploring the area, visiting waterfalls and local villages where traditional handicrafts are made. We spent the evenings drinking the excitingly named volcano wine (local rice wine) and eating one of the best chicken currys of our trip. We were also constantly surrounded by rain and thunder and the echoing chants of the nearby mosques who seemed to be competing to be the loudest.
Next we got a bus and then a boat to the Gilis- a set of three islands off the North of Lombok. We had decided to try out Gili Air first and spent the evening on the beautiful relaxing island. The next morning, however, we decided we had had enough relaxing, and headed to the 'party island' Gili Trawangan. The island was just as beautiful but much busier with hundreds of tourists and endless bars. We embraced the nightlife, which was continuing despite it being Ramadan but had been adapted to make it less noisy- with a massive silent disco every night instead of the usual thumping noise. We also went on a very fun party boat trip around the islands with lots of backpackers and plenty of alcohol, and another boat trip where we went snorkelling and swam with turtles and fed beautifully coloured fish. But possibly the best thing about the island was the night market - which sold delicious and very cheap seafood. We ate there every evening without fail.
After four days and far too much alcohol it definetly felt like it was time to move onto the third and final island, Gili Meno. We had decided to save some money and regain some purpose in our lives by volunteering at a project we had heard about: the Gili Meno Eco Hostel. It is run by a lovely English family with the idea being that they want to create a hostel built by travellers for travellers on the quietest but arguably most beautiful Gili Island. Unfortunately the last few days had caught up with me and I had gotten pretty ill but Kat got stuck right in with volunteering, building her very own bench. It turned out beautifully and she was more proud then she had been on graduation day. We spent the days volunteering and snorkelling during the lunch break (you could swim out about 20m and see turtles!) and the evenings relaxing and hanging out with the other volunteers. It's an amazing relaxing place and we probably could have stayed longer but camping in the heat and without any running water when I felt so ill was not ideal.
So we headed back to Gili Trawangan to have a shower, meet up with old friends we had met along our travels and to enjoy our last few days in Indonesia. This time we explored the island more and headed inland where not many tourists go. It was interesting to see the contrast from the very tourist strip. It was also the world cup final which we somehow managed to stay up until 5 for. We watched the pretty boring game in a very crowded bar and were pretty much asleep on our feet by the end of the game. For our final night a group of six of us headed back to Kuta in the south where we had a final delicious meal of seafood , before catching our flight to Malaysia.
Love Sof xxx
- comments
Sheila Miller Sof, Love your blogs...what an amazing time you are having!! Hope you are fully recovered. Love your post cards but can't wait to have you back Much love granny & grandpa