Ubud, Bali

First, the weirdest thing we've have seen or heard since arriving. As we came back from our rafting trip (more about that, later), walking along the garden path into our hotel we heard a haunting and eerie, moving and varying whistle sound coming from the sky; it sounded like wee, wee, wee, wee...  Looking up at first we couldn't tell what it was, then we say a small flock of a dozen or so pigeons or doves flying around and the sound seemed to be coming from them!  We watched and listened for awhile trying to figure out what it was.  It turns out the birds are someone's pets and they have whistles attached to them that make that sound as the fly. Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore

My birthday on Tuesday started out with of us moving to another hotel, this one certain to be our last for at least a week. It is a beautiful sunken garden with massive stone and brick Balinese traditional buildings with four rooms each. We got a second floor room that has all the expected hotel room features (finally!). After unloading our bags we both went to the pool and relaxed.  It is so hot, humid and windless during the mid day that walking around and window shopping becomes an uncomfortable, tiring, sweat drenching survival march. We save our walking around for the evening.  After relaxing for a while Lily got a massage and a body scrub for 70,000 Rp or less than $9 and I spent that time uploading the pictures one by one (this was the first place with decent internet so I took advantage of it.). Anyway, someone had to do it.
For my birthday dinner we went to a nearby Italian restaurant called "Black Beach" so named because the bar on the second floor has black sand from the north coast beaches for a floor. Whatever. I wanted some cake, but by the time we finished dinner it was after 10 and the place that earlier we had identified as a place to get cake was closing. We said it was my birthday and I just wanted a piece of cake so they let us order and even sang happy birthday to me.

Wednesday, Oct., 27 The raft trip: We signed us up for a rafting trip or should I say the hotel manager got us signed up for one as soon as we arrived before we even got to our room; we had seen the brochures and talked about going so we were an easy sell. Everyone is selling something or knows someone who is selling something here.
The trip starts with about a 200 foot zig-zag decent down to the river along the lush, wet, jungle canyon via a staircase carved into the wall with no railing or rope to hold on to in case you slipped on the wet rocks. That part of the trip almost wore out a couple of the other rafters.
Note about safety: no one here wants you to get hurt, but the thing about Bali and so far all of Indonesia and probably all less developed countries is that safety is your problem, not theirs. If something doesn't look safe, then don't do it or don't go there or don't eat it; that seems to be the policy. This is not Disneyland where things might look dangerous, but aren't; things can be dangerous, you won't see a warning sign and no one will caution you; you just have to be careful.
  Back to the raft trip (spoiler alert, no one gets hurt). We were issued one-size-fits-all helmets (no they don't) and life jackets and a paddle before the climb down. The rafts were the typical large river raft with seating for six and the guide. The river was moving rather fast, but not wide and with rapids and big rocks and drops all along the way. It was not possible to navigate the river without bashing into the rocks and the sides of the canyon, but the boats were pretty tough and the trip was wet, exciting, but not really dangerous. There were many spectacular and beautiful waterfalls pouring a hundred feet on to the river. One of the more unexpected and interesting things was was a long section of black rock cliff that was deeply carved depicting scenes from the Ramayana, the sacred Hindu religious text. This went on for a mile or so! Amazing! Check out the pictures on the photo site.
The rafting lasted about two hours and was well worth the $40, but then we all got to climb back up the steep canyon on carved steps again. I actually enjoy that kind of challenge and because the guides kept calling me "Papa" which is how they refer to older people so thanks to years of Marin mountain biking and YMCA swimming I was able to sprint up most of the way to the top and waited for everyone else to come puffing and wheezing up to meet me. Today my thighs are aching, I won't be doing that stunt for awhile.
The raft trip was pretty well planned as it also included showers and lunch and a chance to buy a video or pictures of the trip (of course).

Oct 28:
The hotel manager, Made (pronounced "Mawd-day") invited us to go to a wedding in the late afternoon for one of the people in the hotel staff! What an opportunity to see something really Balinese! He provided me with the appropriate outfit, a sarong, sash and hat. Lily had to buy a sarong and sash and cover blouse. The staff dressed us and then we all took off on the motor-scooters for a 30 minute ride through the countryside to the village where it was to take place. Lily and I became a source of amusement to most people who saw us judging by the looks; blonde foreigners dressed in traditional Balinese outfits and Lily riding side-saddle on the motor scooter. I was now used to it having had the mud riding experience in Kuta, Lombok
As it turned out the wedding occurred in the morning and we were actually going to the reception. Made didn't explain that; I guess he didn't know the word for "reception".   There were about twenty five people at the event and the bride and groom were still dressed in their wedding outfits. The bride was gorgeous and looked like a doll (see the pix) and they both looked very happy and graciously received the odd looking foreigners. It also turned out that we were expected, as guests to give money (equivalent of about $10 each) in an envelope as gifts to the groom.
After about an hour and a half in which we met someone that spoke English pretty well and got an interesting tour of the home compound and had a light Indonesian buffet we headed back before the sun set. All in all interesting, but a little disappointing as we were hoping to see a wedding. The motor scooter ride gave us our first chance too really see the rice paddy countryside and little villages as we zoomed by. We'll probably go on another ride tomorrow to check things out. 

We're in Ubud

Blog #3 Oct. 22:
Today, our last full day in Lombok I (Jim) took the motor scooter and went off on my own as Lily was having a little GI problem and felt like resting for awhile. I went for miles and miles down a little paved road that I hoped would lead to a deserted beach I had seen on a map. The road turned into a dirt road with huge mud puddles then asphalt again then dirt and mud off an on for a mile or so.  I managed to ride around the mud holes pretty well until I got to a puddle that I didn't negotiate so well. I was only going about two mph when the front wheel slid into the puddle and stopped and I toppled over into the puddle on my side getting totally covered in mud. I wasn't hurt and picked up the motor scooter and pushed it off into the grass while I wiped some of the mud off of me. I gave up on further exploring and headed back so I could wash off. I looked like i had rolled in it and must have been an amusing sight, on the drive back I got a lot of stares and turned heads.

Farewell to Lombok, 23 October,
Lombok in a nutshell is still not an easy tourist destination. There may be some nice hotels, but, still pretty much for the backpacker travelers who don't mind basic and broken down hotels, dirt roads and funky little towns and shops and restaurants.  The beaches were better than Bali, at least in terms of there being remote, unspoiled light brown sand beaches (unfortunately with litter lining the shoreline). There is a beautiful lake at a the top of a 6,800 ft volcano that you can sign up for a three day hike to and lush forests. In every town no matter how poor it looks there are mosques, some quite beautiful, but most still under construction.   In Kuta the surfing is reported to be as good as it gets and it is a destination for the serious surfer. The roads a completely jammed with motor scooters, trucks and cars plus horse carts making travel a slow process.
There will be a new international airport in a year or so and that will bring more tourists and provide much needed jobs, but they have a long way to go with the necessary infrastructure. Maybe come back in ten years.

To Bali:
The roads from Kuta to the town of Lumar for the fast boat to Bali is under construction in so many places in combination with the volume of traffic that it was stop and go for many sections of the road and there was a tropical rain storm most of the way to add to the fun.
We finally got to the "port" (a beach, no pier, dock or anything port-like) where the boat would pick us up just in time and dragged our bags across the sand to a little hut and waited for the boat. The boat showed up, our bags got thrown on and the passage to Bali was uneventful in spite of the rain storm.

An hour and twenty minutes later we docked at the port town of Padang Bai on the east cast of Bali and got off along with thirty other passengers onto a small broken down dock that looked like it would fall apart at any minute; boards missing, broken or loose and the whole thing sagging dangerously off to one side. The main pier was connected to this dock by a rickety walkway that also looked about ready to collapse. People use this to get on and off the boat twice every day?
WARNING: Graphic description to follow
While I am getting our bags out of the boat Lily starts going to the pier with the other passengers and steps on to the walkway, but her foot goes through a board, she falls to the side and bangs her head full force on a big wooden handrail. I hear people making a commotion and someone calls me over. I see Lily being helped up holding her head with blood running down her arm! I run over have a look and she has a one and a half inch bleeding gash in her head on her scalp; ugly looking, painful, but fortunately not serious. Whew! I reassured her and went back for the bags because three of the other passengers turned out to be nurses from Australia and they quickly came to her aid. Her head was bleeding and she was hurt, but bravely toughing it out. One of the boat staff took her on a motor-scooter to the nearby little clinic and I went to the bus area with our bags to wait for her. about 15 minutes later she returned. They had cleaned the wound and stuck a big bandage on it and gave her some antibiotics. It was clear that the wound needed a couple of stitches and there are probably good clinics in Ubud. Lily bought a beer to ease the pain and we got in the van for the two hour ride to Ubud.
We arrived at our hotel, found a nearby clinic and $120 later we left the with two stitches in Lily's head and what looked like a patch of white tape stuck to her hair. it could have been a lot worse.
The next thing was to find dinner except it was after ten and most places are closing. We eventually found a terrific place with a great menu and finally got some food (I love tomato soup and every restaurant seems to have it, but all different recipes and delicious) as we hadn't eaten since breakfast in Lombok. What a day!

That brings me to a topic of the main difference with first world countries and the rest of the world. First, there is no "normal"; every place is either better, the same or worse than somewhere else. It is not normal for things to get fixed or built right in the first place. You have to constantly be looking out for big and little dangerous things like that dock or sidewalks with un marked open holes or rotted railings that would break if you lean against them or people driving the wrong way or running through red lights (actually, I've seen that so much here that might be normal) or little differences between the floor in one room to another that will make you stub your toe or stumble or stairs that are not constant in height just to name a few things that we run into (literally) almost every day.

Oct 23, day two in Ubud:
We bought two Nokia cell phones for $40 each so we can call hotels and each other and that we can use all over Asia. We also found a much nicer hotel to move to and so we did. It seems that that is our process; get a hotel the first night and then the next day find a better one and move. The problem is that it takes half the day to do. The first place looked real nice with a pool and beautiful grounds, but the room was all white with no decorations and had a bare florescent light in the ceiling and no reading light. Who thought that was a good idea?

After we settled in to our new place; second floor with air and a nice pool and right in central Ubud we went window shopping and later out to looking for a place to eat dinner. The problem we have is that I am happy with the first restaurant that has things on the menu I would like (like tomato soup for one) and Lily wants to see all the restaurants before she makes her choice. Lily not only considers the menu, but also atmosphere and if there are other people in there ("it must not be good if no one is in there") and if there is a view and music, etc.  I just want to eat. We call this "dinner death marches". Somehow we always manage to find a place without killing each other.

Oct 25, day three in Ubud: We rented a Honda Vario 115cc automatic motor scooter and it is Monday and the office where we can get our visas extended is open so we spent the morning dealing with that. Then we found an even better hotel so tomorrow we move again (for the last time). It was hot and humid so we spent the afternoon at the pool and I (Jim) got a massage for $8. Pretty Balinese girl, jasmine oil, gamalon music... ahhh.  Sorry, worker bees, but someone has to live like this.
Tonight I am pretty sure we burned up a lot of karma because we took the motor scooter and drove out to a nice dinner spot and as we were eating a tropical storm came through and the rain poured. We didn't bring anything to keep us dry on the motor scooter so we had some dessert and hoped the rain would stop and it did. We paid the bill, wiped off the seat and rode back to the hotel and just as we got back it started raining buckets again. Thank you Shiva or Buddha or whom ever!

Oct, 26 (my 63rd birthday): Moving again. This time to a real beautiful place with rooms that have all the basics; breakfast included plus a beautiful view and wi-fi for the bargain price of $55/night because we agreed to stay for seven days.
Well, off to the pool.   More later and pictures, to; I promise.

From Kuta, Lombok

Day five, Leaving Bali for the Gili Islands:
We headed off with no accommodations booked and figured we could find something pretty easily as there seem to be lots of places according to the book and the Internet search. It started out with a two hour bus ride to Padeng Bai where we had our first chance since we arrived to speak English with other travelers during the ride. We loaded our gear on the fast boat (I imagined something like the ferry between Larkspur and San Francisco; it turned out to be about a 40 foot enclosed shuttle that holds 30 passengers with four 250 HP Suzuki outboards). The passage was actually fast and pleasant as the seas were calm and several of us went outside on the top of the cabin for the breeze and the view.
We literally beached the boat at the shore of Gili Trawangan and waded ashore. There were lots of people on the beach to meet us and to take our bags and to offer us accommodations. We followed two guys who had grabbed our bags up to the main "street" and they and the horse cart driver loaded our stuff into the cart. We got in and took off at a trot to look at the place.
Unfortunately there was a big marathon going on and this night is the weekly "full moon" party (not related to the phase of the moon as it was a waning crescent) so the accommodations were mostly full except for the very expensive and the totally crappy. After going to several places we decided to try the method from our last travels. After paying the cart driver $8 for the 15 minute "tour" we unloaded and I sat with our gear and a walkie-talkie and Lily went off in the hot sun to try to find a place. After an hour Lily said she was exhausted, hot and tired, but had found a villa for about $60 and everything else she looked at was horrible. She came back on a horse cart, we gathered our stuff and went to this villa.

The explanation for the unexpected situation was that the governor of the province was coming to visit with a big 3 day festival that started the day we arrived.  What were the chances?

Thoughts on Gilis Trawangan:
Number one is that it is more expensive than we expected or that it should be.  It seem so be a party destination for Australians (it is only three hours from Perth) and Europeans and surprisingly Russians. Also, and I'm not complaining, for some reason there is a highly disproportionate amount of beautiful young women; tan mostly blonde, 9.5 to 10's in bikinis. They are in groups and with equally attractive surfer boyfriends from what sounds like Austrailia. We found out that the islands are only about 4 hours flight from Australia so this is a popular party place.
The eating is also quite varied, all good, from traditional Indonesian foods to pizza. Last night Lily had a wonderful chicken schnitzel and I had chicken cordon blue that was fabulous. Total cost with drinks: $26 (food is cheap, but drinks are about $8 each). All while sitting five feet from the where waves were gently breaking on the beach.

Yesterday we went on a snorkel cruise stopping in three spots off of each of the other Gili islands (Meno and Air). The reefs have been long ago damaged by storms and careless fishing and anchoring. There was the usual assortment of colorful fish, but nothing to really recommend it. We did see two sea turtles.  We stopped at Air for lunch and I had a fabulous tomato soup and cheese sandwich. Air is more undeveloped than Trawangan, but still expensive.  Lily walked around looking at accommodations thinking if there was something cheap we might come here for a couple of days, but the prices were the same as Trawangan.

Day 10:
This morning we got up at 6:30 to get the ferry to Lombok. Lily found us accommodations in the beach town  of Senggigi at a beautiful garden resort on the beach called Windy Beach Cottages.
The boat beached at the port of Lamar and immediately guys from the beach grabbed our luggage and ran up to the waiting collection of donkey carts where I guess we would be driven to where the buses are. We are still learning, we presumed our "porters" were part of the crew or something, but they were independent hustlers. These guys grab your bags off the boat before you can stop them and carry them 100 feet to the donkey cart and then demanded the equivalent of $5. I offered $2 and they looked like I was going to starve them. I ended up giving them $3.  I really wanted to offer them nothing and state that since i didn't request the "service" they could just GTFO, but they new that anyway and i was a rich tourist so just pay them. The donkey cart cost another $8.You have to establish the amount first and with the "porters" you have to stop them before they grab your bags without asking. A good monthly income is $300 for an office worker so we're getting scammed.

 The little resort is nice, well manicured grounds. Our room is a basic cottage, and the shower is fresh water and has a curtain so that the rest of the bathroom won't get soaked; not typical in Asia. There is a beautiful swimming pool and soaking pool that we jumped into as soon as we got settled. A restaurant in town was recommended and they provided a free shuttle so we went and enjoyed another (now typical) fabulously delicious, cheap meal and walked around town to see what was there. Basically, nothing but restaurants and the usual tiny shops.

  The next day the hotel manager arranged a driver for us to take us on the central tour; a famous water fall, a water temple and a couple of crafts factories. We saw how tedious the hand work at a loom was to make the beautiful cloths; most would take a week to make a couple of feet! We bought two table runners and a gorgeous batik of tropical fish.  Easy to pack fortunately.

  We stayed only two nights and left the next morning to a little island farther south called Gili Neggru.  We unloaded in the main town across from the island and took an outrigger on a twenty minute ride to the island just off shore. Uh... The place was a wreck. From what we could see every structure was either unfinished or in serious need of repair! Too late to go back now. So we selected one of the least awful bungalows and tried to make the best of it.  The bugalo was two story with the room on the second level and at least it had a breeze blowing through it which was good because there was no fan. The bathroom as it was, was down steep stairs, no fresh water shower, wash with salt water, rinse from a tub of fresh water. Everything in this place is either broken or worn out.

  After unpacking we decided to check out the snorkeling.  WOW!! We've never seen more variety of fish in one place before! There were dozens types of fish of all sizes and colors and mix of colors and coral and all in less than ten feet of water. Best snorkeling ever. Score: accommodations =1, snorkeling=10

There was a restaurant shack and the food was actually good; I had pizza"  At dinner we met a fascinating guy; the personification of the international man of adventure. He was Australian and had been a pearl diver for twenty years and a dive instructor and lived in Jakarta studying and was traveling with an Indonesian girlfriend half his age.. He had been to or lived in every place we wanted to go. He had endless stories and travel tips and it was all we could to to break away to go to sleep. Sleep in our hot room with no breeze (no breeze at night when you actually need it) or fan and the bathroom down a steep staircase is not very good. In the morning we agreed to leave/escape.

  Day 14:
Leaving the idyllic castaway paradise of Gili Neggru (good riddance!) we headed off on an outrigger to another recommended little nearby island called Gili Gede with hopes that the accommodations would be as pictured. The resort is called "Secret Island Resort" owned by an American. We had high hopes, the pictures made it look so nice. Unfortunately it was also a run down, dilapidated dump. We decided to have lunch there while figuring out what to do next and met an interesting British and Canadian couple who worked as English teachers for the British Consulate in South Korea. We chatted about traveling and various places and got some more Bali and Vietnam tips.
After lunch we decided to just go to the nearest town on the mainland optimistic that we could find more suitable accommodations and that the next place would at least have a fresh water shower and a ceiling fan. Once again we loaded our gear into a small outrigger and motored away across a beautiful blue bay towards Lombok.  On the far distant shore there appeared to be some kind of hotel on the beach and told our "boat captain" to drop us there.

You never know how the day will end we always say, especially when they start out like ours did. We landed at a wonderful little place called Bola-Bola Paradis owned by a Dutch couple who as luck would have it were there. We were shown a wonderful little room with... wait for it...  OMG, a fresh water shower and a big ceiling fan AND a little fan right on the bed and a safe and a closet!  All for 350,000 Rp or about $40.
We quickly showered and cleaned the two days of salt and sweat off and then enjoyed an iced coffee on the veranda. That night we had a wonderful dinner and later sat with the owners and another Dutch couple (the only other guests) at the bar and got lots of good Bali travel tips.
That night, sometime around midnight it started raining, seriously raining! The roar of the rain on the roof was deafening. This along with lightening flashes and rumbling thunder kept us up off and on until after 3. It was raining so hard that rain splashed through spaces between the roofs and actually sprinkled on our bed. Other than that it was a good night.

Wednesday, October 20
The tropical rain storm was over and we woke to a beautiful morning. After breakfast we decided to see the nearby town and walked about two miles down the road to it.  BTW, no one walks here. Everyone is riding a motor scooter, kids, old people, whole families on one bike. We were the only people walking and there is no place but the road to walk on fortunately the drives are not going too fast and honk to warn us so that we can step out the way in time.
the walk made it obvious that we are in a developing country. No trash pick up so trash is everywhere, cows and dogs wander the road, half finish/destroyed structures are everywhere and next to nice ones. What looks like a convenient, but somewhat dirty roadside outhouse was in fact not, but in fact someone's "home".  The people seem friendly and all the little kids wave. Anyway, it was hot and tiring and there is no real town except for a few shops and a clinic and a school. We trudged back covered in sweat. After a cool showere and a rest that night we had another nice meal, talked at the bar while watching Bollywood music videos. Unfortunately, there is no internet here this far from civilization. Tomorrow we leave for

Everyone said we should go to Kuta which is about two hours by car. Best beaches, surf and bunch of backpacker hotels and one nice Novatel hotel. Why not? We called a place that was recommended and arranged a room at the Matahari Inn, a Balinese run place.  We figured it would at least be pretty and the rooms had air conditioners! And a pool!  All for about $35/night. We hired a driver to take us there and pick us up in two days and take us back to the fast ferry terminal for our return to Bali and civilization.

Kuta, Lombok:
The Matahari Inn is a Balinese looking place with Hindu gods carvings and all the usual look of a Balinese place.  Like everything in Lombok so far it is a little run down, but the room has air conditioning and even a hot water shower! We had to look at several rooms before we settled on the best compromise of air, shower, bed, lights, etc.
In order to get around in this place you need a motor-scooter so we rented a Honda 125cc with manual shift and automatic clutch for about $6/day plus gas which is about $/gal. The little scooters are quiet, almost comfortable enough for two big adults and powerful enough to take us up a long steep hill. Which we did to a vegetarian restaurant on the top with a sweeping view of the whole area. Ashanti looks like a hippy den with pillows and low tables and reggae music and incense. The only customers were other travelers. Food was good and cheap and the view was fabulous with a cool breeze.

In the evening we planned to go buzz around and find a restaurant and an Internet cafe, but a tropical rain storm came in and fortunately only lasted for an hour so as soon and it stopped off we went, but by now it as 8:30.
We found a little thatched roof place by the beach with classic country western music for a background. Had another great meal and went to the internet shack. It cost $3.33/hr and they had about 5 pc's with 13 inch CRT monitors. I turned on the iPhone and found a wi-fi signal with the default login. LOL, free Internet.

Notes on traveling:
The daily routine involves putting on sun screen and bug spray whenever we go out. In Lombok it is claimed you can get malaria or dengue fever. Don't want any of that! You also have to carry water. Because we are staying in most places for only a day or two we don't bother to unpack except for what we need. We've become super organized and every little thing has it's place so we could find it in the dark. Once we get up we have to go find breakfast and replenish our water. Then it rains for an hour. Then off to do or see whatever, then in the afternoon find lunch, relax and read or write and maybe the beach, then look for dinner.
Washing clothes is also part of the routine because everything you wear gets saturated with sweat so it can't be worn more than twice or maybe only once. On our last travels 17 years ago we invented "launder-obics" for washing our clothes. Put the dirty clothes in the shower or a bucket, add laundry soap and stomp and scrub for 5 minutes, rinse, wring out in a towel and hang up to dry. Usually, the next day they are ready to wear or put away. Launder-obics: Exercise and laundry all in one!

Question: How can nature create a bug no bigger than a speck of pepper that can fly, find me, find the one spot I missed with the bug spray, bite me and leave an itching welt that lasts for an hour? Seriously.

Traveling with electronics:
I am using an iPad for communications, writing, music, books, amusement, but if I did it again for everything but reading I might  have taken a decent, cheap net book or maybe a used 13 inch MacBook and a Kindle for reading. Many travelers are carrying laptops, which is more bulky than an iPad and more temperamental, but i guess it works for them.  Everything about the iPad is wonderful and as reading I may never go back to paper, but the problem is that the current iOS installed browser is not compatible with Google blog; meaning I have to create all blog entries in HTML. Other than that I love the iPad for traveling. Maybe the next iOS 4.x will solve that.

Finally got the blog in English

Adjusting to the 14 hour time change has been pretty easy so far; we slept the first night and subsequent nights, got up at 7 hungry for breakfast. So far we've had no problem, it's as if there was no time change.

Weather has been very pleasant, 85 degrees, 85% humidity, gentle breeze, some clouds and some light rain the other night. Last night we got a taste of tropical rain storm; sheets of rain that would soak you in a minute.  Fortunately it only lasted about an hour.

The beach at Nusa Dua is brown and gritty. The tide rises and falls over six feet leaving the hotel's beach a shallow seaweed bed during low tide. The ocean is probably 85 degrees which is about perfect, but the pool is also about 85 which is not so refreshing and too warm to stay in for long.

  We seem to be the only Americans at the hotel, everyone else is speaking French or German or Russian and in large tour groups so we haven't had a chance to meet anyone yet. We think this place is intended as a group package tour for Europeans. There is no one to help set up any outside activities. The groups have their own planner so we're been on our own.

Yesterday we contacted a driver that was recommended by a friend and had an amazing tour to a famous temple site at Tana Lot, then to a butterfly farm that is a huge covered beautiful botanical garden where they raise the butterflies along with some other exotic insects including a variety of huge beetles, stick bugs that look exactly like a big stick and leaf and orchid bugs that also look like their name (pix will be on the photo site shortly). The docent even let us hold them in our hands! The were so big they looked like toys. Amazing experience!
  After that we drove to a primitive natural hot springs spa in the middle of lush bamboo forest setting where we had to hike in past terraced rice paddies for and for $4 soaked in a private pool for awhile. Finally we drove past picturesque rice paddy landscapes and sited another beautiful temple site on a lake in the caldera fo a volcano. What a day!

Tomorrow, October 12th we check out of this place and begin our real adventure.  We're going to take a fast ferry (2 hours as opposed to 6 hours on the not fast ferry) to the Gili Islands off the coast of the nearby large island to the east called Lombok. The Gilis  are three little white sand islands all near each other with no cars or motor scooters; you get around by walking or donkey cart. It is popular with the backpacker set (us, sort of) and has great snorkeling and diving but not much else.  We expect to relax there for 4-5 days then back to Bali and then. We do not have a room arranged, but expect it to not be a big problem.  There are plenty of hotels and many inexpensive ones.

  We have discovered that the advantage of having the internet for researching and booking hotels is not as efficient as hoped.  Yesterday we spent about two hours looking for a hotel on the Gili island and ending up with nothing as the Internet speed is frustratingly slow when forced to share the WI-FI link with others to the point of uselessness. We could have found a room quicker in the old fashion way of going from hotel to hotel until we found something suitable.  Maybe this will improve in other locations.

Day five, Leaving Bali for the Gili Islands:
We headed off with no accommodations booked and figured we could find something pretty easily as there seem to be lots of places according to the book and the Internet search. It started out with a two hour drive to where we had our first chance to speak English with other travelers during the ride. We loaded our gear on the fast boat (I imagined something like the ferry between Larkspur and San Francisco; it turned out to be about a 40 foot enclosed shuttle that holds 30 passengers with four 250 HP Suzuki outboards). The ride was actually fast and pleasant as the seas were calm and several of us went outside on the top of the cabin.
  We literally beached the boat at the shore of Gili and waded ashore. There were lots of people on the beach to meet us and to take the boat back and to offer us accommodations. We followed on guy up to the main "street" and he and the horse cart driver loaded our stuff into the cart, we got in and took off at a trot to look at the place. Unfortunately there was a big marathon going on and tonight is the weekly "full moon" party (not related to the phase of the moon as it was a waning crescent) so the accommodations were mostly full except for the very expensive and the totally crappy. After going to several places we decided to try the method from our last travels. After paying the cart driver $8 for the 15 minute "tour" we unloaded and I sat with our gear and a walkie-talkie and Lily went off to find a place. After an hour Lily said she was exhausted, hot and tired, but had found a villa for about $60 and everything else she looked at was horrible. She came back on a horse cart, we gathered our stuff and went to this villa.

The explanation for the unexpected situation was that the governor of the province was coming to visit with a big 3 day festival that started the day we arrived.  What were the chances?

Thoughts on Gili:
Number one is that it is more expensive than we expected or that it should be.  It seem so be a party destination for Australians (it is only three hours from Perth) and Europeans and surprisingly Russians. Also , for some reason there is a highly disproportionate amount of beautiful women; young, thin,tan mostly blonde, 9.5 to 10's. The are in groups and with boyfriends.

  The eating is also quite varied, all good, from traditional Indonesian foods to pizza. Last night Lily had a wonderful chicken schnitzel and I had chicken cordon blue that was fabulous. Total cost with drinks: $26. All while sitting five feet from the where waves were gently breaking on the beach.

On Wednesday we went on a snorkel cruise stopping in three spots off of each of the Gili islands (Meno and Air). The reefs have been long ago damaged by storms and careless fishing and anchoring. There was the usual assortment of colorful fish, but nothing to really recommend it. We did see two sea turtles.  We stopped at Air for lunch and I had a fabulous tomato soup and cheese sandwich. Air is more undeveloped than Tarwangar, but still expensive.  Lily walked around looking at accommodations thinking if there was something cheap we might stay here for a couple of days, but the prices were the same as Trawangan.

Indonesia has surprisingly excellent restaurants. You can order anything from traditional Indonesian food to Italian and this is on this little island that you probably won't find on a map.

Day 10:
This morning we got up at 6:30 to get the ferry to Lombok. Lily found us accommodations at the a beautiful garden resort on the beach called Windy Hills. We are still learning how to deal with the "porters" and donky cart drivers. The porters grabbed our bags before we could stop them and carried them 100 feet to the donkey cart and then demanded the equivalent of $5. I offered $2 and they looked like I was going to starve them. I ended up giving them $3. The donkey cart cost another $8. You have to establish the amount first. A good monthly income is $300 for an office worker so we're getting scammed. Oh well