We heard from a few people in Indonesia talk about these blue flames east of where we were. We decided to check it out on our way to Bali. We checked in to an amazing little hostel. Amazing not because of the room necessarily, but the people who ran it were really lovely, and mama made our stay memorable. We hired a moped and visited the waterfall, getting lost (obligatory) on the way. That night we woke up at 11 and sluggishly made our way up the side of a volcano crater on a motorbike. Charlotte not really wanting to take the reigns on this one, I drove the hour and half up the winding roads of the Krawah Ijen in the pitch black. As we neared the top the temperature dropped a degree every 500 metres. My icy hands gripped the accelerator whilst the other shivered over the break incase of stray animals or pot holes. We finally reached the top, parked up and started the hour and a half hike up the summit. We were followed and following the hoards of tourists that all wanted to catch a glimpse of this natural phenomenon that only occurred in one other place, Africa. It is where sulphur combusts with the air to create a blue lava-like fire. At the top we then had to descend into the crater armed with gas masks, unlike the men who worked there. We passed the workers carrying the baskets over their shoulders carrying up to 90 kilos of the sulphur that they collected from the burning blue flames at the bottom, for roughly about 10pence a kilo. Now bare in mind that this job takes about 20/30 years off of their lives. You have to ask yourself- as Charlotte and I did so many times 'why are they doing this? Why aren't there better conditions for this kind of work? Is this really the only thing they can do?' Questions that unfortunately went unanswered. The only consolation that we could give as tourists was to was buy a sulphur sculpture, a pointless artefact to anyone really but we felt it was the absolute least we could do. The blue flames did not disappoint and were in fact spectacular, Mother Nature never ceasing to amaze.
Back down the crater I asked Charlotte to drive. If I'd have known how slow she was going to drive I wouldn't have asked, I'm no speedy Gonzalez but I had to say something I was literally falling asleep. So I took over and Charlotte sat on the back, pissed off! I'd just insulted her driving skills. About half an hour into the journey with neither of us really speaking to each other I hit a chicken crossing the road, now all those jokes finally made sense to me....but neither of us were laughing. I started to slow down only to be met with cries from Charlotte to not look back and to keep driving, I was beginning to see the true colours of my girlfriend, and myself. I think it would have been us or the chicken really and I'm pretty sure it would have fed some people that night, we probably would have fed more though come to think of it. Anyway after chicken-gate we slept, made up and went to catch a ferry to Bali.
Our exit out of Bali was about as swift as our entry. We got ripped off by the ferry mafia (would you believe it), got caught in traffic-on an island!- and almost got majorly ripped off for our boat out of Bali had we not rekindled our savvy traveller attitude that we had priorly acquired but that seemed to escaped us up till this moment. We were a force to reckoned with once again. We didn't do much in Bali, rented some bicycles, ate, drank, the usual really. What we were after were a trio of Islands just off of Lombok next to Bali called the gillis. We got the fast boat there. A boat 5 years ago I would have enjoyed, the thrill of crashing against the waves at full speed enjoying an ice cold beer on the top deck whilst bob Marley plays and as for the stench of petrol from the 5 engines at the back of boat? I wouldn't even notice. Now however, I am searching for the life jackets and planning my evacuation route whilst simultaneously thinking of a more economically friendly way for these boats to travel.
This is simply just a way to get our to our destination now, I'm over the whole 'it's not just about the destination it about the journey' bulls***.
Anyway, we got to gili air unscathed and checked into one of the only hostels on the island. Gili air is the second most popular of the islands. You can't go to a bar without them asking you if you want a mushroom milkshake or some really expensive weed. It wasn't quite the tropical paradise I was expecting. We had some really good food and amazingly, a good coffee. The atmosphere of the island was pretty laid back with the ubiquitous yoga centre and healthy eating places run by Aussie expats. Charlotte and I decided to give the parties a miss though. Instead we Indulged in some really good food at scallywags and an after dinner cocktail of frozen margaritas, the best we'd ever had.

We got the boat over to Gili meno, you can literally see it from Gili air. Meno was a lot more what we were after. Paradise I'd say. It wasn't overly built up and it still retained a natural island feel with a mixture of tourists and locals. We went swimming everyday, we got up at sunrise, we watched the sun set, snorkelled with turtles and ate at pretty much every place on the island.....there weren't many. A serenity that we had been looking for in Indonesia amidst all the speculating and waiting that we were doing we had finally come to accept the terms of our conditions and enjoy our time that we had before Australia. We cannot change or control something that is so out of our hands and I got to grips with this on Gili Meno.

So back to Malaysia from here let's see how shanti shanti I feel there.....