Out of the three islands, we chose Gili Air where it wasn’t too quiet like Meno, but wasn’t all party like Trawangan. Our first evening, there was a guest DJ and Holo and I got our dance on till the wee hours of the morning. Off to a nice start! 🙂
The island life is simple: Sleep, swim and eat. Repeat. We found a great little guest house complete with breakfast. Every day we passed around the Sudoku puzzle book, read our books while lounging in hammocks, and took turns with our snorkel gear. One afternoon, Holo and I decided to go out for a snorkel and even spotted a turtle! Evenings were spent walking the beach-side restaurants to see who had the best deal on the freshest seafood we could get. By the end of our week there, we knew the locals and ordered the usual sea food platter for a cheap $10-12 for all of us. We also found a yoga studio and joined a class, as well as had our own personal training session with Holo, who based a lot of it off of our Hawaii work-outs with professional personal trainer Boe Trosset – god I miss that guy and those days! I was in my best shape ever… Towards the end of our stay, the guys decided they wanted to do some diving, before we moved south to Lombok.
After a short boat crossing, we got our personal van to the southern tip of Lombok and beach town of Kuta. A popular part of the island for surfing, it also had the most magical beaches and sunsets. And soon we were to find out that it was also the popular spot to meet the local kids, who want to sell you their hand-made bracelets. It was a cold harsh reality that these kids were waking up every morning to go to school from 7am-12pm and then selling bracelets from 1pm-9pm. They are just kids! And though our answer for them was often ‘No, thank-you’ (for the millionth time!), we instead took the time to engage with the kids, play cards and get to know them. A couple of times, we even bought the kids some snacks, and some dinner one night. They were all smiles as they slurped up their ramen soup, giggling, pointing at the tourists. It was nice to see them forget they were selling bracelets and just be kids.
We rented motor bikes and went from beach to beach. Holo got his surf on, and unfortunately had a spill on the bike, but was better in no time. We shared many beautiful talks while digging our toes in the sand, and even a couple of singing sessions, like back during our Kahumana days. Before we knew it, our Lombok adventures came to an end and we took the ferry back to Bali. This time, we spent a couple of days in the party and surf capital of Indonesia: Kuta, Bali. In secret, I was excited to see all things Hindu again…ah, gets me every time!
Our S.E. Asia tour was coming to an end and it was hard to believe it. We tried to take in as much as we could of our last days, visiting the holy island temple of Tanah Lot and the amazing temple of Uluwatu. The guys got their surf fix. It was Blake’s first time, but he was a natural. All the while, I was trying to drink up as many coconut’s as possible. We poked through the cheap shops and made sure there wasn’t anything imperative for our next destination. After a couple of days debating, I finally bought a ‘Made In Indonesia’, Yamaha guitar (finally!) and she’s a beaut. I have yet to name her but it will come…
This journey has been so amazing thanks to my Beelake and his incredible support (& itinerary- making abilities!) It’s safe to say, this traveling thing is addictive… and though our families would have preferred us home by now, looking at the map and seeing the short distance as well as getting cheap flights, we just couldn’t pass it up. And on to NEW ZEALAND they went… follow us here: http://thirtyeightbelow.wordpress.com
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