Indonesia

We arrived in Java on the 2 August and had already decided that we were going to get another flight straight to Bali, so we did! Very excited to go to Bali after everything we heard about it. We decided to go to a place called Kuta because it was reasonably close to the airport and it was late. We knew Kuta was busy but we didn't expect it to be like Magaluf. The traffic was crazy and there were people everywhere and music blaring out. We managed to find a hostel but it was pretty grotty, which was a shame because it could have been lovely if someone bothered to clean it! The next day we tried to get a plan together. The public transport in Bali is non-existent and all the taxi drivers try to rip you off so after a lot of debate we decide we need to hire a car so we could drive around the island. The next day we set off trying to get a price for a car and we found one we were happy with. We weren't sure if we could drive on our license so we looked into it and it turned out we needed to get a international driving license which you could only get from the capital. The hire company said don't worry and if you get stopped by the police just give them some money! As neither of us were comfortable with bribing police officers and also knew if we had an accident we wouldn't have a hope in hell we decided we best get the license first. So off we went to the police station in a taxi only to find out it shut at noon!!!!!!!! By this time we had been in Kuta 3 nights and we were fast spiralling into depression! We went back to the drawing board and decided to bail and come back to Bali at the end of the month and start again! We arranged to take a boat over to a tiny island called Gili Trawangan which is one of three tiny Gili Islands off Lombok.

We heard Gili Trawangan was the so called party island out of the three so we were a little nervous about what we would find but it was lovely!! We jumped off the boat and walked down the main street to our home stay and it seemed so chilled out we knew we'd made the right choice. We found our accommodation which turned out to be a bargain as it's high season and it's hard to find a place let alone a cheap one. It was run by husband and wife and they were so lovely and looked after us very well. Breakfast on our porch every morning....with THE best banana pancakes ever! We also came to realise this was the island of cats as they were everywhere! We had a couple of regular visitors to our room which made it feel homely.

We loved Gili T and would defiantly go back there on holiday as it had such a chilled out vibe but if you wanted to party you could and the sea was an amazing turquoise colour. A lot of people go there to scuba dive. We liked it that much we kept extending our stay and ended up there 7 nights.

We finally decided to leave (only because there were no rooms left!) and we caught the boat across to Lombok.

We didn't really do much in Lombok. We went to a place called Senggigi, which was a bit of a ghost town. It was all set up for tourism, but wasn't really any tourists there. Our home stay was a little bit out of Senggigi, but you could catch the bemo in and out, which is a tiny little van you just flag down and pile into the back. The home stay was really nice and we were here for a week. The room was comfortable and clean, although having a squat toilet for a week did get a bit tiring.

The home stay was run by a young family, who had two little boys who reminded us of Archie & Hector. Probably because when ever Jamie came out of his room they beat the crap out of him! Again we were really looked after here. There wasn't much to do as it was Ramadan so everywhere was closed through the day. It gave us a chance to save a bit of money though.

One of the owners friends who was always hanging around the home stay spoke really good English and was always coming over for a chat. He was really spiritual and seemed to have been everywhere. We never got his name, but we nick named him the Oracle! When he heard Hilary hadn't been too well he told her he'll give her a massage therapy as he could tell by her eyes that she wasn't well. So on our last night, he came to our room to begin the therapy. Hilary thought it was going to be a shoulder rub, but he told her to take her top off and gave her a proper massage! It was then that he told us he was fully qualified and went to China and Switzerland to get his certificates in massage therapy and acupuncture. His job was curing stroke victims. Hilary said he was really good and I must admit he seemed like he knew what he was doing!

After the week we were ready to leave. As there wasn't really much to do there, it was good to get back on the road again. We're getting the boat back to Bali and are heading for a place called Ubud, which is supposed to be really nice.