Day 37 (Wednesday 22nd November 2006)

Sarah was ill all through the night and in the morning, Bjoern's wonderful sister Andrea gave her some pills to help the cramps and nausea. With Sarah dying and Marc having to adapt back to a land mammal, she went back to bed and he went off to the internet cafe, where we moped until 14:00.

Marc, however, did find a little something to smile about whilst surfing the sports news... Arsenal going top of their champions league group with a 3-1 hammering of Hamburg!! Go on the inclusion of Theo once again and go on 'The Beast' with his first goal! get in there boys!!

After Marc caught up on the footy, we went for lunch and what turned out to be our last meal at the Gili Air Santay. Once we'd gobbled up our sarnies, in an attempt to get some sort of excersise we tried walking around the island again. Unfortunately, only having completed a few hundred metres, it all became a bit too much for us so we turned back...sad ay?

We sat and solked at our bamboo hut and decided that perhaps now was a good time to move on. If our afternoon walk was anything to go by, there was no way we'd manage to conquer Rinjani, so we contemplated heading somewhere where we could enjoy some home comforts and possibly even tune into the cricket!!

We considered Senggigi, on the Lombok mainland, but then our old friends Bjoern and Chantal came up with the perfect suggestion...Gili Trawangan! It's one of the Gili Islands here and only a stone's throw away and because it is the more touristy island of the three, it would provide us with a bit of comfort and the sports channels for Marc, as well as still having excellent beaches and snorkelling! Now why didn't we think of that and if it was too busy, it would be easy to come straight back. Gotta' love Bjoern and Chantal, although he's not Scandinavian, he's German and she's not American, she's Canadian...easy mistake to make!

So with that decided and nothing much else to do, we did what I'm sure everybody does when they're bored on a tropical island, we designed the garden of a house that we don't even have (and probably never will) as well as our many tropical fishtanks we're having inside it! We've got some great designs here so our parents had better start saving our deposit for us!! Have a scout around your way Marc's mum...one with a nice big garden, thanks!

A few hours passed and we slipped back into reality and somehow mustered the energy to walk around the other side of the island to catch the sunset. On the way we settled our bill with Blue Marlin...(whoops, that much?)...before watching a very unspectacular sunset over Gili Meno.

Before the day was up we visited Kira Kira restaurant again where we had our pre-ordered potato and chicken croquettes...yum! The meal was delicious and Marc went to bed dreaming of watching another England Ashes triumph unfold in a sports bar in Trawangan...wohoooo!

Day 38 (Thursday 23rd November 2006)

Well so sad to here about Marc's grandad's ear!!!! Send our love and we hope that he's back home and well soon! Puts Marc's ear infection in to perspective doesn't it!!

When we woke up we found a note under the door from Bjoern, Chantal and Andrea, who had made the early morning pilgrimage to Rinjani. Along with the note, Andrea left Sarah a whole drugs cabinet to keep her fighting fit...bless em'!

Us thinking there was no rush, took our time packing our bags and checking out of the lovely little bamboo hut that we'd grown so attached to. However, once packed up and ready to go, every boat on the island wanted 150,000 rupiah to take us to Trawangan. Well, we're not in to paying 9 quid to hop across a couple of islands, so we strolled up to Blue Marlin, where we waited until nearly 16:00, just to grab a free ride...how tight!! To kill the time, we had lunch at the dive centre as well as taking a little stroll down the island to say our goodbyes to Buti and the rest of the crew at Gili Air Santay.

Finally, about 16:30ish, we were in Trawangan and this helpful little dude with a horse cart found us a nice, cheap place to stay. After rejecting one rather scabby place, we embarked on Lisa's homestay, a simple little guesthouse just off the beach in the village. It's nothing spectacular, but it has everything we need, with a little more comfort, and as well as being super cheap, has brekkie in the morning too!

So then we took a walk to check out our new tropical island home and, most crucially, find a decent waterhole for Marc to park his bum all day tomorrow to watch the cricket! The Irish bar had to be a winner, with its big tv's and sports channels, but you can't rely on the Irish for anything. Bemusement was all Marc got when he mentioned the word cricket, so he grabbed the remote for their satellite television and scrolled through the tv listings for the next day. Nothing, not a Dickie Bird or even a Billy Bowden for that matter and he was not happy!

To compell his misery further, whilst flicking through the sports channels he caught a glimpse of what mysteriously looked like Ashes action on a news bulletin...it had started already!! There was Ricky Ponting, bat aloft celebrating his century. What's going on? Why does the second test start on a Friday then? Marc was missing it, England were getting stuffed and Sarah was getting pretty tired of Marc's tantrums by this point.

She tried cheering him up by pointing out bangers and mash on the menu and once busy filling his face and watching some champions league highlights on the tv, his fat face lit up a tad. As well as catching all champions league goals, including 'The Beast', he also saw all the weekend action from the premiership...go on Thierry's freekick!

By the way 4P, Selby and the rest of the scouser brigade out there, Marc just wants to say that he was wrong, very wrong about Kuyt...he's class! Reminds him of his self a little, just without his electic pace...very intelligent footballer guys, wish Wenger got him.

Sarah picked herself up off the floor, Marc having admitted that he was wrong about something, and having not seen any rain for over a week (sure you guys back home are familiar with that), the heavens opened over Lombok. The almighty storm brought with it a power cut to Gili Trawangan and we went to bed with no fan, just the sound of our next door neighbour's snoring, grumbling through the walls!