Auntie Jilly
Trip Start
Apr 29, 2006
1
55
129
Trip End
Apr 29, 2007
Where I stayed
Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia
Friday, September 29, 2006
Unlike Bali, Lombok is Muslim and we chose to come here in Ramadam.. Therefore the "Party Island" has no parties. (And the pesky mosques are back!)
Basically we spent our days here sleeping, roasting, eating, snorkelling and drinking - FANTASTIC!!
Nights out were cool, not hugely busy, but a nice island vibe - far superior to any Nighlife thus far in Indonesia (but I still miss the more real experience of non touristy Malaysia/Singapore) Met some really nice people including Adam the Scot (who'd just broke up from his mrs and was a little crazy, but did beat us 10-1 at table football), Lina a Dane (a past divemaster who was really interesting), and some other Danish guy who was really in to Big game fishing. Helps a lot if you dive, cos conversation was a bit fishy. Lina was on her 7th visit to the island (on her honeymoon this time) Just goes to show what an awesome place this is!!
Most nights spent at Rudy's where we made mitakes of drinking such delights as "Jungle Juice" - crikey, that stuff's extreme! Staff there were great (as at most places in Indonesia - I'd say award to best staff on our trip would go to Indonesia, on par with Goa and Turkey but WAY ahead of elsewhere.) However Tir Na Nog had rubbish staff (we tried them twice) they just werent interested in serving - and the food was way overpriced - but they did have movies on personal teles on the beach.. (Beautiful Life was better though)
Decided to explore the island - as there is no motorised transport allowed, we had three options:- Horse and cart, cycle or walk. I thought that full suspension bikes were a bit OTT until 5 mins later we left the dirt track and encountered a virtual sand pit. Only took an hour to cycle whole island, but was very exhausting, due to constant struggle to keep bike upright!
Snorkelling was superb, off the beach affair again - coral was rubbish, but loads of fish, including my old nemisis the Trigger... Adam told us that one bit his fins when diving! So odd that under the waves things are so different, I wonder if those swimming realise what's down there (Between us we saw Sea Sanke and Barracuda!)
By now we should have gone to the mainland to climb Rinjani, but after a CBA we CBA. (Cost Benefit Analysis we Couldn't be Assed). Most people do diving when here, but Rat had a sinus issue (cheers Jnr!) so we didnt go. Second aborted dive, combined with Rinjani climb further illustrates what bums we've become!
One morning we awoke with a pretty extreme hangover so I decided to try out the local fungus. It seemed to work , and by mid-day hangover was gone!!!
Despite this being an amazing place a strange thing happened after five days of beach and booze - We felt we wanted more out of travelling...
Its all too much, I scream in vain,
My blood is poisened, a world of pain,
Mushrooms and movies I try and immerse,
But its all too much, I just feel worse...
