Edd and I had an early start - were being fetched at 7 AM for a fast boat to Lombok. Edd’s mum and I printed off the accommodation booking we had secured the night before; our breakfast arrived just in time, as our driver was waiting outside. Edd’s mum was immediately in tears, as we were not going to see them again until after Christmas. After many bear hugs, we climbed in the car and waved goodbye; it had been a fabulous two weeks and we could not believe it had gone so quickly!
 
We were dropped off at the Bluewater express reception and waited with a load of other people for 8 AM, when the ferry departed. We sat and ate breakfast, also taking advantage of their free coffee on offer.
 
The ferry ride was 2 1/2 hours long and I had accidentally left my MP3 player in my jumper pocket, that was packed in my big bag. I had gotten used to being on a boat and did not need the motion sickness tablets that they handed out to customers before we left; I laid on my pink neck cushion and napped the whole time.
 
We arrived in Lombok at 10:45 and had to hold on to railings that lead along the sides of the boat, while we crabbed across a ledge to the front. Health and safety at its best; Edd's mum would not have enjoyed the disembarkation. Edd organized a taxi to take us to Senaru; I needed to go to the bathroom first, so was taken into a different building, having to walk along the beach to get there. The beach sand was black and I was unsure whether it was due to an oil spill, or if it had something to do with another natural phenomenon. I walked along a dirt path to the bathroom, passing 2 eagles in a tiny cage. I thought back to all the other animals we’d seen over the last 3.5 months, in cages and marveled at the Asian obsession with putting things in confined spaces, whether they were farm or wild animals. I wondered if it had something to do with the people feeling like they were caged in their circumstances and could not control it, therefore feeling the need to control whatever else they could get their hands on. Another possibility was that people that travel and see the world, tend to have more of an understanding for the need to be allowed to roam without restrictions. It could of course be as simple as wanting to own as much as they could, as it meant status and wealth. Whatever the reason, these 2 eagles were not designed to be side by side in a tiny cage, I wished we were somewhere else in the world where this was illegal.
 
I met Edd back at the taxi and we got comfortable for the 2 hour journey to our accommodation. It turned out that the sim cards we’d bought in Bali, which were supposed to work in the parts of Indonesia we were going to, were useless. We were back to radio silence and dependent on other peoples wifi.
 
Edd had thought to draw money in Bali, but then figured he could just do it in Lombok - the first set of ATM’s we stopped at, had one switched off, one did not want to even consider his card and then the third one, after seeming to work ok, refused his transaction. This was not good. Our taxi driver stopped at another 2 ATM’s for us, but they were the same as the ATM that refused his card after seeming to work; I hoped there’d be one where we were going, we had enough money to last us a couple of days and everyone seemed to take US dollars up till this point.  
 
We were dropped off at our accommodation and Edd had to speak to the owner, to arrange payment for the taxi driver - he did not take US dollars. We were then shown our room, which was lovely and went back downstairs to find food. One of the ladies in the reception area told us they made food, so we ordered lunch from them, not eager to go on the hunt.
 
The food was surprisingly good, mine served on a poppadom, beautifully presented. A man came and sat with us, while we were eating and chatted about what we wanted to do while we were there. He told us about a tour that was a 4 hour trek through traditional villages, paddie fields and then 2 waterfalls. We agreed to the ‘full package with a woman guide’ and paid him in dollars; we had to be ready at 8am the following morning.
 
The wifi wasn’t working, naturally, so we went back to our room. I attempted to org anise our photographs from the last week and Edd had a nap; I had just started to blog when I decided I was pretty tired as well, so joined him instead.
 
We woke up after 5pm and decided to go for a drink across the road, where the wifi was working. Edd got a beer and I ordered Sprite; I looked at the menu and giggled at the translation: vegable cary mint rice. Sounds delicious, we’ll have 2 of those please! A couple came up and sat near to we were, they were Swedish, living in Denmark, on a 4 week trip around Bali and Lombok. We chatted to them for quite a while and then all decided it was time for dinner, somewhere else.
 
I changed into warmer clothes, as the temperature had dropped quite significantly; even Edd put a jumper on. We walked down to the ‘main’ street and spotted some westerners going into a restaurant to our right, so followed them
 
Edd and I ordered fried squid with rice and spring rolls to share, while the Swedish couple had tempura prawns, soup and a massive dish of something I didn’t quite catch the name of. It looked amazing though, I had food envy for all of it except the fried egg.
 
We had a lovely meal with them and then walked back to our accommodation; they were staying across the road from us, so said goodnight. We were probably going to see them again the next day, as they were also doing the ‘full package with a woman guide’ and leaving at the same time as us. There was a good chance we were going with the same guide.