Lesson learned: Hit Save! So I just lost a big blog that I wrote... Here is the recapped version!
We are now on the Gili Islands - off the coast of Lombok, in Indonesia. We took a two and a half hour boat here from Bali, and have been here for two days now.
Right now we are on the biggest of the three islands, Gili Trawangen (Gili T). There are about 800 local residents living here, and there are no motorized vehicles. This is completely different from Bali, which had about 5 motorbikes for every car! We saw entire families riding on one motorbike - mom and dad, with a child squeezed between them, and another child up front! The roads are NUTS! The rule is that you look ahead of you, no need to be concerned of the traffic behind you. They are not afraid of passing, that's for sure! We learned the ways of the road en route to our white water rafting trip (which is a posting on it's own - but I'll let Matt tell that one!!) On Gili T, instead of bikes, they have horse drawn carriages. The drivers honk these ridiculous sounding horns, which basically means to get out of the way as fast as you can! We haven't ridden in one yet - the horses don't look like they are having all that much fun.
The ocean here sharply changes into about four different colours of blue, and the snorkeling is amazing. We saw a barracuda today, it was huge! Decided to skip the offered barracuda for lunch, but instead had barbecued tuna steak - delicious! From what we've noticed, traditional Indonesian food tends to be some sort of a rice dish - often with egg, or beef satay with peanut sauce - which is delicious, but it doesn't even put a dent in your peanut sauce Mum! A lot of the restaurants have little huts for individual tables. You sit on pillows, and most over look the beach.
On Gili T, one side of the island, white sand beach, is lined with restaurants, shops and accommodations. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other, and the feeling is very laid back, and the people are very friendly (and not nearly as pushy as in Bali!) As I write this (in the super hot internet cafe - It's about 30 degrees here, day and night!) Matt is next door with one of the locals, having a good 'ol Bintang! Bintang is a "Gold-Medal international winning Indonesian pilsener" - it's really good, and usually runs you about 18,000 - 22,000 Rupiahs, which is roughly $2 for a large bottle. Which reminds me, we are millionaires here! 1 CAD is roughly 9,400 Rupiahs. As you can imagine, we are paying 150,000 for accommodation, 30,000 for meals, and withdrawing millions at a time!
While the beach is beautiful, there is a lot of dead (white) coral scattering the shore. Apparantly they blasted a lot of it in their fishing efforts, which is really sad, especially after seeing the brilliant coral in Malaysia.
We have met a lot of European travelers here, compared to Bali, which was basically a mini Australia. Even the Indonesians had Aussie accents (Hello Mate, Alright, etc). Haven't come across very many Canadians yet though, although all the Indonesians tell us they love Canada! (Have you been there? No, but we love Canada!)
They have this outdoor movie theater here. With pillows for seats, they even serve popcorn! All you have to do is purchase something for a minimum of 8,000 Rupiahs, and you are good to go! They also have individual huts on the beach where you can rent a movie while you have your dinner. Haven't done this yet, but I'm sure we will!
We are going to rent bikes and bike around this island tomorrow. It only takes 2.5 hours walking, so we will see how long it takes by bike!
After Gili T, we plan to spend a few nights at the other two island - Gili Air and Gili Meno.
Hope everything is going well back home!
P and M
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WOW!!! That was some email! i can't BELIEVE you deleted the first one by accident... and it was longer! What a shame, how annoying!. But you are thankfully a super typer!
ReplyDeleteI just LOVE the description of Gili T! I think I would like to go there, of all the places you've been. (Why am I drawn to little islands all the time? I need to bust out.....!) Actually, I JUST got off the phone to Pip Moore, after I read your email! i found out where her son is, on the island of Sulawesi. Look, I even spelled it right, because I am sitting with the atlas in front of me! She said it is the island that looks like a big spider,and boom! found it! I can't find your tiny island though, not surprising, if you can walk around it in 2 and a half hours!! It did sound like her son's resort would be pricey, and they're into training scuba divers.....
Anyway, Mitch just walked in, and we found Lombok on Google Maps, but no way we could find your little islands, there are a gazillion of them! Pip Moore knows your island, though. She said, yes, they'll just sit around and talk to the locals... and there was Matt, having a beer with the locals!
Hey Matt, I would love to hear your rendition of your white water rafting trip! Finish up that beer, and come on over to the hot, sweltering "internet cafe" and tell us your story!
Life came to a complete halt here on SSI for a while for us.... Robyn was flat on her back with a cold (a really bad cold) for 3 days after the farm, then Mitch and I got it on Thursday and we've been so sick! It's Monday 19th now,and I'm feeling better, I think I can teach today. But man, it was a BAD COLD. Mitch's temp was high for 3 days, and the coughing! My stomach muscles were SO SORE one morning from coughing. And headache! and achy, ooph!!!
Now I have to separate this comment, and post the second half on another, because apparently I've written too much! Hope this works, be right back. mum
Part 2
ReplyDeleteANyway, the rain has stopped and we have sun again. It was the first real rain in about 6 weeks OR MORE, and everyone was complaining so much about the bad weather, i couldn't believe it! It's actually hardly rained since....June or something! The weather has been INCREDIBLE. The leaves on the trees here are brilliant this year, our yard is gorgeous, brilliant reds and oranges and yellows... we've never had a better crop of apples, either.
Ha ha, here's a funny story. So I know that Mark Toole LOVES local apples, so I invited him to come over and pick them anytime. But Deb said, oh no, Jennifer, he won't. They only taste good if he's STEALING them. So I told him, well, here's the challenge. Come and try and STEAL apples from my yard, if I catch you, you can only take one, if I don't catch you, you're allowed to pick 3 - 5! So he's been happily stealing apples all Sept and Oct! No way we can hear anyone coming down our driveway, it's kind of creepy actually. One mornng both Mark AND Deb were here, I was here, they took apples and took off, and I didn't notice a thing. Oh brother!! I always get a message by email when they've made another score.
You know our neighbour Wim Blom, the painter in the little brown house? YOu know those big huge maple trees on the border of our 2 properties? Well, the landlord FINALLY got some of them taken down! YEAH! Hopefully we will get some light on our deck in the summer afternoons now. But better, we won't have so many leaves to rake up! I am just hoping they take some more trees down, there are still huge ones at the top of the property, and they will only get MORE huge! They were becoming a real danger - they could easily fall onto our bedroom or living room, in a storm! So they are now (mostly) gone.... YES!!!!!! It took a faller 3 days to take them down, and clean up the branches.
What else? Well, Daniel is down from the farm now, and living (couch-surfing) in Vancouver. Mike McN offered him a job for the next 2 weeks doing basic carpentry, so he agreed! Make a little more money for his trip. Mike builds decks, and he needs someone to measure and use a skill saw! Good ol' Dan! Yes, then he told me probably the REAL reason he's staying in Vancouver, he met a girl! Typical short romance, he's leaving Nov. 2!! Oh well, it will be a nice send off! Daniel said he'd come home this weekend coming up, which is great.
I bet Daniel is reading this, if he's following your blog! I can't talk about the kids on this blog, your followers will all be reading this!! Hey you followers, how come you are not posting comments for everyone to read? I love reading other people's comments! Pippa, should I be emailing you at your hotmail address instead?
Okey dokey, enough from me.....
Much love to you and Matt, mum