Bali - Kuta again

After our epic journey from Sengiggi, Lombok to Kuta, Bali we again couldn't be bothered to walk around too long so we settled for a hotel on the main street, Legian. The next day we walked all the way up Legian street to Seminyak which is the posh area. There is good shopping all the way but it's quite far so we had to stop for ice coffee and then again for lunch. When we were getting really knackered we hit the beach to sunbathe and swim in front of one of the big, expensive hotels. It took us ages to walk all the way back down to Kuta but it was a good day. As we walked into our hotel David and Tom went pass on a bus so we met up with them. We went out for a pretty rubbish meal (although they did give us free beer by mistake) and watched Hamilton win the F1.

A somewhat quieter Seminyak beach:

The next morning was a slow one, it was practically lunch time when we had breakfast. The boys went off to get massages and Alexa and I went shopping, or rather, she shopped and I watched. We remet for a swim and then lunch and saw Ian drive past on a bus. In the afternoon Tom, David and I went for a group haircutting session. They were so scared! It wasn't a terrible cut for any of us but she definitely didn't grasp the all one length idea for the boys!

In the evening we went to Havana Club on to the boys recommendation. It was more expensive than we would normally pay but seeing as it was their last night we thought we'd celebrate. It was sooooo good. Alexa and I shared surf n' turf and fajitas and it has to be the best meal I've had whilst travelling. The steak was Argentina standard!

After dinner we headed to Eikon bar for their happy hour. We were happily sitting upstairs with our mojitos when tonnes of people came in and sat down and waited. Eventually a guy came up to us and gave us all Billabong wristbands and said we needed them for the free drinks....I was nominated/told to go up and find out what we could get. It turned out we had sort of crashed the after party to a surf competition and so were entitled to free drinks all night. We got a round of spritis in before they obviously realised what a bad idea it was and changed it to beer only. Not a problem, free beer is fine! We also managed to persuade on of the waiters to bring us our free drinks!!! They had a good dj on as well. All in all an excellent final evening!


Sad times, the boys left at 3am and Gary/Sid/Ian left sometime before we got up which wasn't until midday. When we eventually did emerge we found a note under our door, David and Tom had in fact got the wrong day (!) haha. David, Alexa and I went out for lunch and found an awesome restaurant - bamboo corner. We then spent a good couple of hours swimming and sunbathing around the pool until we relocated to the beach. Alexa and I got body boards which turned out to be knackering because the waves are huge but I think we were pretty good....! We watched a very disappointing sunset, at least the company was good, and headed back. After the previous evening we were definitely all requiring a quiet one. We went back to Bamboo corner but ate next door because it was so full. We relocated there for pudding! After a few rounds of cards we called it a night and properly said goodbye - for real this time.

On Wednesday, Alexa and I weren't in a particular rush to do anything. I read the newspaper whilst Alexa faffed with her rucksack. We eventually went to the internet but I got so cross with it after two hours we left. After a lunch we reattempted the net and still no luck. We had to have a swim, a beer and pina colada to get over the stress - what is it going to be like going back to the office?!?!! We went to Bamboo corner for dinner and had the seafood basket. It was highly exciting and messy - prawns, calimari, red snapper and crab all for less than 3quid between us! Crazy!

On Thursday we started badly with possibly the most stressful breakfast experience ever. Alexa ordered a portion of boiled eggs for us to share to compliment the rubbish free breakfast we get with our room. After waiting for about 15mins they brought us disgusting tea and juice. After another 15mins I sent the tea back and got coffee, our toast arrived and we enquired on the eggs. After some confusion it appeared they had forgotten the eggs so we reordered. After another 10mins we enquired again only to be met with confusion. I started to lose my cool and then completely lost it when they asked us again what type of egg! We didn't eat anything and stomped off, very cross.

After that episode, we got a taxi down to one of the southern beaches, Padang Padang. It was a little cove with shallow, calm sea. We sunbathed and swam there for a couple of hours and then started to walk south. It didn't take long until we caved and found a restaurant for lunch and shade. It actually turned out to be great food and we stayed there playing cards for an hour or so.

Padang Padang beach:

From there we walked about 3km to Pulu Luhur Ulu Watu Temple which is right on the top of a cliff. It's really touristy and we were knackered so we didn't stay long.



From the temple we got transport to Jimbaran beach where we found a restaurant and sat watching a very good sunset sitting on a table on the beach. After that we chose our dinner - a fresh red snapper and a squid. This has to go up there in our best meals. It was amazingly good!


The next day we had massages in the afternoon. We found a really nice spa and got foot massage followed by a full body balinese massage, a face massage and face masks. It was so good, I think we both fell asleep by the end, and so cheap!

After the massages I was in no mood to do anything apart from lie face down on my bed and absorb the oils! Eventually we got going, went out to dinner (same place again) and went for drinks - frozen margaritas. We bumped into some guys that we had met a couple of nights before so that was fun. We moved on to Eikon for mojitos and met some random Sweedish guys....who we successfully lost a.s.a.p when we relocated to SkyLounge. Unfortunately, they were serving rather strong drinks in SkyLounge for less than a pound and so the night deteriated! We did go dancing but not for long before we both just needed to go home and eat!

The next morning was our last day in Bali - sad times! We went for a last swim in the sea and nearly drowned the waves were so strong. We did some last minuite shopping, or rather Alexa did, and went for a last meal in Bamboo corner. We just about made it on to our flight to HK on which we drunk as much white wine as they would give us!

Lombok - Gili Air and Sengiggi

Everyone left Gili T on the Wednesday morning us included. We headed over to Gili Air to see the difference. It's much the same but just more chilled out which is exactly what we needed. We found somewhere considerably nicer to stay for the same price and headed off to walk around the island. First stop was an ice coffee break (one of our new favorite drinks) in a little booth looking out to sea. We then made it most of the way round until we stopped for lunch and ice tea....it was a hard day!

In the afternoon we went for a snorkel which turned out to be much better than Gili T but with really strong currents. After beng stung all over by mini jellyfish we called it a day and went to sit in our hammock on our balcony....

We avoided all requests to go out partying that evening and instead read about Hong Kong in our tent of a mossy net:
We got the boat across to the mainland early the next morning and battled our way through the crazy port again. Surprisingly the bus guys actually remembered us so we didn't have to fight or bargain and just got taken to Senggigi - few! We found David, Tom and Ian and all went sunbathing around our pool until the rain started. It absolutely bucketted it down so we all sat and played Yanif (which the guys didn't like) and ate. We spent the evening eating and drinking as normal but we especially liked "crazy time" in Papaya cafe which is a buy one get one free half hour on anything. We didn't need to buy anything else all evening and just sat listening to their live band.The next day panned out much the same: breakfast, pool, rain, cards, jaffles and killer pool. Then we headed into town for a walk and had some beers before repeating the previous evening almost exactly!
In the morning, Ian went off to climb a volcano, the boys went to Ubud and Alexa and I started our epic all day long on a ferry journey back to Kuta. We arrived, feeling very scanky, about 8.30pm.

Lombok - Gili Trawangan

We got the public ferry across to Lembar on Lombok (mission) and then the bus up to the dodgy port town near the Gilis where we had to sit around for another hour and get hassled. Finally, as the sun was going down, we got on a little boat to Gili T. Just the 13 hour journey in total...remind me why we didn't pay 10pounds extra and get the fast boat????
Sunset behind Gili T: We had absolutely no patience to walk around with all our bags once on Gili T so we took practically the first place we found, which inevitably was rubbish. We realised later on it didn't even have a sink but we stayed - for 5 nights! The owner was most irritating, as soon as you opened the door in the morning he came a did his English accent impression - "reeeallly" urg urg urg - so annoying! Anyway, two guys arrived about 10mins after us and got the room next door so we went out for dinner with them and didn't really separate for the rest of our time on Gili T!

After dinner and getting to know the guys (Tom and David) we all went for buy one get one free pitchers - a bad start. The night just got more messy and involved me being dunked (fully clothed in Alexa's clothes) in the sea by Tom, getting locked out, getting lost on the one bit of road and running round with no shoes on....it was a late start the next morning!
Alexa with Tom and David:

We spent the majority of the day on the beach, it was very currenty. The main activities on Gili T are eating and snorkelling and siestas so that's what we occupied the rest of the day with. We also bumped into some people the boys had met on the boat, Lisa and Ian, so we went out for dinner and drinks with them and two German girls they knew.

On the next day, Sunday, we all rented bikes and snorkelling gear and attempted to get round the island. It was quite a silly idea really because it wasn't that far and we ended up pushing the bikes most of the way because it was too sandy. We cycled for about 500m before our first stop to snorkel, then another 200m before we stopped for lunch!

We finally gave up with the cycling and went snorkelling off the beach but there were so many jellyfish we had to come in - sad! In the evening we went out for a fish dinner with everyone and had a great tuna steak! We followed it up with a few pitchers at our favorite bar, Rudy's:

On Monday morning I went for a dive off to the south of the island. It was the strongest drift dive I've ever done and the coral wasn't great but I saw some really cool things. e.g. cuttlefish, octopus, scorpion fish, stone fish, turtle and a snail. It wasn't a very colourful dive but good apart from at the beginning when I had to swap masks because mine was leaking - I'm a bit rusty on my skills! Once I'd tracked everybody down afterwards we went to the Irish bar for lunch. We got one of their video booths, watched Catch Me If You Can and all fell asleep. We went to Rudy's again for dinner and drinks and then found the others so that we could celebrate Chris' birthday. We had far too much to drink and went to Marlin's to dance badly.




The next day was another slow one. We all slept in until about 1pm then dragged ourselves out for some lunch and then slept in the shade on the beach. We spent a good hour hanging around waiting for water/electricity in our rooms until we gave up and went out for dinner which took 2 hours! Very slow day! We rounded off with another dvd in a booth and then called it a night.