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