The next day we basically just hung around until our boat was supposed to leave for Gili Air at 4pm. Once we arrived on Gili Air and got a place, we found dinner and that was basically it. The next day we went for a walk around the island. The thought was to possibly go snorkeling somewhere off shore, but we didn't end up picking a spot. It turns out, the 'best' spot is actually in front of the hotel we were staying at. We did snorkel there for a bit. Joe and I just used our swim goggles while Sandra used her own snorkel gear. We didn't bother getting fins. It was neat, but renting gear wasn't really necessary for such a short time. Dinner that night was really good. They had tempe kabobs and tempe 'steak'. Super yummy.
This morning Joe wasn't feeling great, so we had a quick breakfast, then got a pony cart to the harbor in order to catch the boat to Lombok at 8:30am. Once we arrived in Lombok we had to catch a shuttle bus to Senggigi where we will be leaving on a 3 day, 2 night boat trip to the Komodos tomorrow. Sandra found us a nice place to stay that has wifi. Unfortunately it doesn't reach the room, but there's power in the restaurant, so it works out fine. Joe's been trying to sleep this afternoon. He has a fever so we'll be watching him closely. Hopefully it's nothing.
-Miranda
A pony cart.
There are cats all over all the Gilis. This was a kitten that climbed on top of Sandra's bag.
Joe snorkeling.
My view from the cafe where I watched the bags on Gili Air.
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We decided to head to the Gili Islands to check them out. Sandra had heard a lot of good things about them. There are three. The 'main' one is Gili Trawangan. We took the boat over in the afternoon and found a place to stay at Bubble Dive. There are no cars or motor vehicles here. Transport is by walking, bicycle or covered pony carts. While here, Joe and I decided to get our Advanced Water certification. It just consists of doing 5 dives, so pretty easy.
The day after we arrived, Joe and I did our first deep dive down to 30 meters. It was also a drift dive, meaning the dive is in a strong current. It was pretty nuts. I was busy watching Joe since he takes a bit longer to get down (especially on his first dive), then I looked at the bottom and realize I was zipping along! I had to watch where I was going or possibly run into some coral.
The first dive went well. To complete it in two days, we decided to do a night dive. A few of the things you are supposed to avoid during a night dive is strong currents, high surge and surf and diving in an area that has things you can get entangled in. This area had both strong current (not as strong as the afternoon dive, but still a significant current) and we were dodging boat anchor lines... It was super creepy. I would be watching for Joe to come down, then look over and see a rope coming at me that I had to dodge. Once we were down, it wasn't too bad. There were also cages that were built down there that have a current running through them in order to help the coral grow faster. We had to dodge those as well, but the really neat fish were under those. We even saw an octopus! We watched it hunting. I think we both could enjoy night dives, but that one was pretty freaky.
The next morning we dove off the shore. On our way back in, the jellyfish were everywhere. They just feel like pinpricks. They're not dangerous, just annoying. The next dive was at Shark Point. We went down to 30m, saw some turtles and 4 White Tipped Reef Sharks. The last dive was a pretty easy one. We were pretty tired after two days of diving.
Sandra met up with a friend of hers from Switzerland while we were diving. She had enjoyed being able to take a break from speaking English all the time. She and her friend even rented bikes and went around the island. One cute thing is they have a turtle sanctuary. It's basically three large tanks with a bunch of baby turtles in them. They keep the turtles for a year, allowing them to get bigger, before releasing them to help up their chances of survival.
Saturday we went on a snorkel trip around the three Gili Islands. It was neat and fun, though the small boat was a bit crowded. We felt a bit naked in the water after doing all that diving.
The internet hasn't been great, hence the lack of updates. Hopefully it will get better later.
-Miranda
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One of the goals, since Joe found out he could SCUBA dive, was for me to get certified. Bali is apparently an amazing place for diving, so we researched dive centers here and chose one.
The class consists of 5 chapters or theory from a book (4 quizzes and 1 final exam), confined water skills (typically done in a pool) and 4 open water dives. This normally takes 4 days, but some often do it in 3. The guy that I ended up doing the course with, needed to complete it in 2 days. He only had the weekend. So, the first day we did all five chapters spread throughout the day, the 4 quizzes (really short and easy), the confined water dive skills for chapter one and our first open water dive.
For the second day, we went out and did the rest of our confined water dive skills, then headed out for our second open water dive, which was at a small boat wreck. We saw a Frog Fish! So crazy! I highly recommend looking these things up. They are nuts. I never would have spotted it if my instructor, Darta, hadn't pointed it out. We also saw a decent sized cuddle fish, some lion fish, a scorpion fish and quite a few blue spotted rays. Very neat area. After lunch, we went out on the boat and did two more dives. They were also very fun and interesting. Once we got back, we took the final. I got only one wrong. :D So, I am now certified! Woohoo!
Today, Sandra, Joe and I went for a dive trip to Tulamben (http://www.aquamarinediving.com/sites_tulamben.html). It was very cool. It's an old WWII wreck. There were fish everywhere. A huge school was right by the wreck when we were approaching it. There were also some large tuna not far off. We did one dive around the wreck before coming up for lunch. After about 50 minutes, we went back in and this time went inside some areas. We saw Humphead Parrotfish, which was really big.
The diving has been amazing. So much fun stuff to see.
-Miranda
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We flew to Bali from Kuala Lumpur without incident. Took a cab right away to the Ubud area. This is the town in Bali featured in the recent "Eat, Pray, Love" Movie. (So I hear, I haven't seen it.) All of Bali is covered in Art shops. All of high-level/skilled art. Stone carvings, wood carvings, paintings, all over. We drove 40km and there was a shop within sight of another the whole way. Crazy. Ubud was nice. We met back up with Sandra there. We stayed a couple nights in a fancy hotel with our own garden cottage which opened up to a very artsy swimming pool. We visited the monkey park and enjoyed avoiding the hundreds of naughty monkeys strolling about, some tiny babies as well. The stone-carved temples and statues in this authentic jungle setting were pretty cool. A few times I banged on the statues to make sure they were not foam. ;)
After ubud, we traveled to Pandang Bai. A small coastal town hosting some of the best scuba diving Bali has to offer. Today Miranda completed day one of her intensive 2 day scuba certification classes. (Most people spend 4 days
go Miranda!) Sandra and I rented a little scooter and tracked down "Hidden beach" and it was well worth the hike. Very Paradisical, with quaint little restaurants right on the beach. (Sat 6ft from high-tide level.) The beach was very quiet. Every restaurant we look at has several vegetarian options, many have half their menu vegetarian. It's been great fun eating, and It's usually very healthy food. Lots of Gado-Gado (fresh veggies in peanut sauce with rice) for usually $2.25. Fresh, real juices are often for just a bit over $1 (carrot ginger, Banana, mango, all great and 100% fresh fruit made right then.)
Our massive hotel room is on the 3rd floor looking out above most of the village. Between the limited ocean view, the constant colorful kites flying in the sky, and all of the artwork,sculpture and clay-tile rooftops, it's a wonderfully different view
Accommodation is roughly $36/night including internet and fancy breakfast (banana crepe,coffe/tea and fresh fruit). We were worried Bali would be too touristy, but it has been a very welcome relaxing break. No stress here. Everything is easy and cheap. The Indonesian island retains loads of character, and the people are nice.-Joe
The front of our "cottage".
The bill for our first dinner in Bali. The big numbers make it very amusing. 8500 = $1
Some of the stone work in front of a temple in the Monkey Forest.
Sandra and me in the temple.
Monkeys!
Our super yummy lunch the day we left Ubud. Notice the wonderful muddy rice parries in the background.
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We've been pretty boring since we've been here. Sandra left for Bali two days after we got here. We've been working and walking around a little. We went to Little India a couple times to have lunch and dinner. We found a fully vegetarian restaurant that was excellent.
Yesterday we went to the Batu Caves to check them out. It was pretty neat. We climbed the stairs and ende dup inside a huge cavern. Temples were scattered around and once we got to the end, there were monkeys everywhere. Many of the people were feeding them bananas, etc. Pretty crazy. My camera's battery was dead, so I didn't get any monkey photos.
That evening, when we went to find dinner, I stopped at a shop in the Central Market to get a henna tattoo. My first one.
-Miranda
Apparently the largest statue of Lord Murugan. It was definitely huge. See stairs to the left. Those were tall also.
My henna tattoo.
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