I'M IN THE GILI ISLANDS, INDONESIA!

WELL! What a time I've been having. But first I'll pick up from where I left off, tired and travel-weary in Singapore. The journey down to Bali was fairly uneventful. I fell asleep on the plane and dribbled on myself. Standard. Arrived at Bali airport and it was all abit much being alone, it's busy and hot and I just got straight in a taxi to Kuta. It's the main surf resort on Bali where thousands of aussie tourists head every year. Took ages to find somewhere to stay, and I realised that Bali definately is not a place to travel solo. Accom. is all rooms, and it's so expensive if your not sharing. Spent a pretty lonely 24 hours wandering round surf shops (I was in surfwear HEAVEN) and wondering what to do with the next two weeks on the island. A friendly yank in Singapore had given me loads of advice on where is nice to go, but I was having some decision-making issues. Kuta is a mad place, the traffic is dreadful, and its got a mad nightlife, which I didn't induldge in by myself. The beach and the waves are gorgeous though, and the people are so friendly, although most of them just want to sell you things.

Decided the best thing to do was to head to the Gili Islands, which are off the coast of Lombok to the east of Bali. Bought my boat ticket, and headed off the next morning. Had a very hot 4 hour bus trip to the port, and then got crammed into a tiny little boat with about 30 other people. It took us out to a much nicer bigger boat though, all was well. Immediately spotted the Brits on Tour team; 3 lads who were having cans of beer before the engines even started. That was my cue to strike up conversation... and well, the rest is history, as they say! Three of the loveliest and soundest guys I've ever met. Cubbie, Parker and Jonny (yeah I know they sound like a boyband but they're actually an Olympic syncronised swimming squad!). We got straight down playing some word games and proceded to drink the boat dry. The trip was pretty cool, huge big rollers coming in - so glad I didn't get seasick. The water looked like it was computer graphics. It was WEIRD. Landed at Gili Trawangan, the main island of the three Gilis and got straight to looking for accom. I had some sort of personality transformation and turned into a world class haggler/negociator and got the four of us a sweet deal over the phone to this manager guy! Then it was off for an evening swim on the beach. The water is incredible, blue, crystal clear, warm, full of tropical fish. The white sand and soft and there is coral EVERYWHERE. Jealous? Hehe. At some point it got dark, we were diving off one of the moored glass bottom boats, only to find all our clothes and stuff gone when we got back to the beach. Disaster! After wandering about for abit feeling hard-done by, some local just showed us where they were. Nothing was missing. Very odd. Don't leave stuff on the beach eh?!

So since then many crazy and outrageous things have occured. Mainly to do I think with the well stocked bars of Gili T. I blame the lads. They are a terrible influence, haha! We've spent most of our time on the beach, chilling out, eating lush food and snorkelling some too. Had some great debates with Parker and Jonny, listened to great music courtesy of Cubbie's Ipod and speakers, and had many, many laughs. It's really just like I'm on holiday here, I feel almost guilty for having this much fun. The island is a tropical paradise, made even more perfect by the fact there are no cars or vehicles, just horse and carts and bicycles. It's full of gorgeous tabby cats (strangely, not a dog to be seen) and me and Jonny keep trying to adopt them all. Yes. I'm in heaven. We went on a great snorkelling trip and saw turtles, so many awesome fish and beautiful coral. Watched the Man Utd game and generally been abit of a Brit Abroad. Oops. Gotta do it at some point though havn't I? Other happenings have included; Peeling an unripe pineapple with our teeth (not big OR clever!), a legend of a local woman called Anna, lots of late night swimming with phosphorescent plankton (I love that stuff), a huge storm that flooded the streets, the death of many flipflops (and scavenging for new ones), an incredible sunrise over the volcano on Lombok, epically-failing to walk all the way round the island, amongst many more adventures... Just having far too much of a good time to be honest, and I know I always say this but I really, REALLY don't want to leave. We think we're going to spend one more day here, and then go back to Bali. I'm gonna stick around with the guys I think. Can't really fault them for company. We're like a little family! Aww.

That's all for now folks. Miss you all and take care.

El