Blog 29 - Lombok

At 6am in the morning Jelle, Mark, Joris and I left for Lombok. Made picked us up and brought us to Padang Bai from where we were going to take the ferry to Lombok. The ferry tide took us nearly 5 hours and the guys rented some mattresses to sleep on, while I had my yoga mat :-) When the guys told me they went to Lombok and asked me to come with them I spontaneously said yes: it is always nice to be surfing different surf spots. Later on I realized that there is a risk of malaria in Lombok and I didn't bring any pills, since I wasn't planning on going there, but well, I did bring some mosquito spray, so no worries J It was another hour drive from the ferry to the 'surfers inn' where we had the VIP room (since it was the only available room for 4 people). The place was great! Room with air-conditioning, swimming pool, breakfast (banana pancakeJ) included and that for only 100.000 each (7 euro's). The next thing on our mind was arranging some bikes. Jerry had 2 kind of bikes: automatic ones and manuals. The manuals ones were cheaper than the automaticsls, so the choice was easy, but Jerry didn't really trust me (being a girl) with a manual. I have to say, I've never been driving one before, but how hard can it be?! So he said: you just show us now that you can drive it… After a short explanation from Jelle, I hopped on the bike and drove it around for a bit… No accidents happened, so I was allowed to drive the manual J Another problem was a helmet.. In Bali, if you're not wearing a helmet and having your divers license with you, you're really f*cked when the police got hold of you. It will take at least 50.000 rps to get rid of them. Different case on Lombok: nobody is wearing a helmet, although the roads are quite bad, and I doubt that anybody had got a license either. So when I asked if I could get a helmet, Jerry looked at me like I was crazy… I ended up with a huge helmet (the only one they had). Way to big for me and it would probably be more dangerous to wear it than not to wear it. As for the speed device on my bike: it didn't work! I found out later, back on Bali on my automatic bike, that I was easily going 90 km per hour… oops… that happens when you try to keep up with some cool surf dudes ;-)

So we went for a ride to check the waves and the surroundings. We had a late lunch and I didn't feel like dinner at all, so the boys went out for dinner while I was chilling out on the bed watching a dvd (Marley and me), not too bad of a life J After the movie, something happened that was going to happen a lot during my stay on Lombok: power failure.. Luckily it was after the movie (this time..).

The next morning we got up early to go and surf Gerupuk insides: an relatively easy wave, but quite crowded. The only way of getting there is by boat and I have to say that that was an awesome experience: some little boat that just drops you of next to the wave.. what a life!! After a while I noticed a girl in the water with blond hair and the same shorts I brought with me. Only one thought on my mind: I must know her! Those shorts I got in Mimizan last year, working as a surf coach. Since the surf camp was sponsored by Quicksilver, all the staff and coaches got some surf clothes and those roxy shorts were part of that. I peddled over there and as she turned around she said: hey Saske! It turned out to be Nikki, one of the staff members from Breakloose (the surf camp). How funny is that! Me not knowing she was travelling and the fact that I wasn't even supposed to go to Lombok! Nikki has been travelling through Bali and Lombok by motorbike for a couple of months until she arrived in Kuta Lombok. It was really nice to catch up and surf together.

After the surf, the boys and me had breakfast (banana pancakes… love them!) and a siesta afterwards. I did my yoga, had lunch and since Mark and Joris were already of surfing somewhere, Jelle and I decided to follow them. We couldn't find them, but after a hell of a road (seriously!) we ended up surfing Mawi, a very reefy surf break, especially since it was getting low tide. After one hour I suggested to getout, because there was hardly any water left at the end of a wave.. pretty scary! As we got back, we found out that the others hadn't surfed at all!! They were to busy checking the breaks lol! We had a really nice dinner and decided to watch a movie afterwards. We started watching Tom Cruise and Carice van Houten in Valkyre and… yeah you know what happened.. power failure… Oh no! the funny thing was that the air-conditioning didn't work either (obviously) and Joris had real trouble sleeping without some cooling air, so we laughed a little bit at him ;-) and he put the air-co back on in the middle of the night, when the power was back on…

The next day we started out with some nice banana pancakes, before we went to surf Gerupuk insides again (we did check Sagur first, but that didn't look good). After 2 hours we went to Gerupuk outsides, which is a heavier, more challenging wave, but not too difficult and there were a lot of people as well, but I caught a couple of waves and that made me very happy J

After 3 hours of surf, the banana pancake was long gone, so we had to go back to have some lunch. After lunch siesta time, butfirst I had to arrange my transport to the Gili Islands. Kuta Lombok was great, but it was time to move on alone again. So I booked a shuttle bus and a ferry to Gili Trawangan for Thursday afternoon. After the siesta another yoga session, shower anddinner. Dinner wasn't as great this time… actually it was horrible: I had green sea spinach with rice, but there was a lack of taste. Same for the boys… Some cookies later that evening made me happy again and we did finish the movie that night J At dinner, we saw Nikki, Nikki's boyfriend and Carmen and her local boyfriend again. Nikki's boyfriend doesn't like to surf: I like being on the wave, but then I get really annoyed by knowing that I have to paddle all the way back out again, so I really don'tlike surfing' ….. The statement of Carmens boyfriend was even more funny. Carmen told him she was going to quit smoking and he told her that that was great. When she asked him if he was going to quit as well he said: No, I don't have to Carmen: but smoking is not good for you He: that's not true, it's only bad for women; men don't get sick from smoking.

The next morning, the guys went to surf Mawi and I was meeting Nikki and Carmen for another surf at Gerupuk insides. The waves were quite nice, but there wasn't a single wave I caught without someone dropping in on me, which was really annoying.

I hopped on the shuttle bus at 1.30pm and it took me 5,5 hrs to get to Gili Trawangan. We had a stop over at Mataram for nearly 3 hrs! because the ferry from Bali was late… I did do some jamming with the people there and I booked my ticket back to Bali…

It was dark when I arrived at Gili Trawangan and I had to go to the dive school to pick up the book (yes I was going to follow the open water diving course) and I had to find a place to stay that night. The dive school Manta dive looked nice (my finish friend Emma, whom I met when I was living in Geneva recommended Manta Dive) and I was really looking forward to the course. After I picked up the book I headed for the 'cheap' accommodation and I ended up paying 50.000 a night in a room with a broken fan and no toilet paper lol (buta really nice shower). Well, what can you expect for 4 euro's a night… I was so tired that I didn't have the energy to start studying, so I set my alarm at 6am and I went to bed.

The next morning I studied the first two chapters (as I was told) and after that I went to the dive school (banana for breakfast), where they gave me a dvd to watch ( 2 hrs, 6 chapters) and where they told me it would be great if I studied chapter 3 and 4 as well. I watched the dvd at an Irish place, where there were some kind of tiny houses without walls, just a wooden floor and a roof, so that your in the shade, filled with pillows and with a television and dvd player… They've got 6 of those where you can just chill out with your friends and relax while having dinner or a drink and watching a movie (the cheap as movies that is… 10.000 each, 0,70 euro, but the quality isn't always as good...).

Anyways, there I chilled out studying for the next 5 hours (had breakfast there obviously). After that I met my fellow students and we went over the theory first and went into the swimmingpool after that. A very long day, because we were finished around 7pm. Nevertheless I had enough energy to go out for dinner with Michael, a man I met at Manta dive. He was in between jobs (like really in between jobs as in, starting the new job in a couple of weeks) and just went on a diving holiday by himself (leaving his wife and kids at home). We had a lovely dinner on the beach with lots of good food :-) (mozzarella salad, nacho's, fajita's, chocolate brownie.. mmmm…)

The next morning we had breakfast at Coco's, a nice little café with great yoghurt-fruit-musli breakfasts and an amazing cappuccino J I missed that!! At Manta Dive I finished the theory chapters 5 and 6 and we went for our first dive at Halik. The dive was great! I really enjoyed it! Too bad that the other guy, Matthew, a frenchy, didn't havea good air consumption. We had to go up after 34 minutes, because he didn't have any oxygen left. You start out with 200-220 bar and when you've got 50 bar left, you're slowly going up. He was at 50 while I still had 110 bar left…

After a Indonesian lunch we went to Hanns Reef for our second dive.Again we had to go up after only 38 minutes…

That evening, Michael and I chilled out at the Irish place with dinner and a movie (Cadillac something…) and after that I went 'home', but on my way home, I ran into some locals playing the guitar and we jammed for a little while: really cool! So I ended up sleeping way too late.. I was going to have my exam the next day…

Another brekky at Coco's, dive 3 at Manta Point (first turtle!!), where we did some stuff like mask and regulator clearing and hovering., dive 4 at Shark Pointwhere we saw 5 turtles, 5 blue spotted stingrays, a school of drummers, sweet lips, pufferfish, bat fish, etc. The 4th dive was way cool, because Tymberlee, our instructor, passed me on to some other dive guide, so that I could stay in longer! So I spend nearly an hour under water this time.

The exam was too easy.. multiple choice and just before we went through the theory again… I had 49 out of 50 questions right.. so I passed J

So we went out for dinner at the Beachhouse to celebrate J Sitting on a roof terrace, looking out over the ocean… paradise..

In the morning I went snorkeling with Michael and my super sonic shock and waterproof camera J We saw hypes of fish and I took some nice pic's and movies (check youtube - surfsaske). After the snorkeling I had my free fun dive!! We went to Bounty and saw hypes of fish again. Michael, my buddy, did a under water photo course, so he brought the camera! So cool to have all those pictures J and the movie of me and the turtle ;-)

As I got back I ran into Mark and Jelle, who arrived the day before and were going to do a fun dive aswell. Michael had to leave that afternoon, so in the evening, I walked down the main street and ran into Mark, Jelle and Joris, the moment they entered a restaurant, how funny…

We had dinner together, had a drink at the Irish and went to the blue marlin where there was a big party… I didn't stay long though… was really tired after all these early mornings, late nights and studying… The next day I had a raspberry smoothie (so good!!) for breakfast, passed by Manta Dive to pick up my SSI pass (and a free t-shirt :-) and took the Ferry to the mainland at 8am… At the stop over in Mataram we did some more jamming and many hours later I was back in Changgu… Tuesday evening 8pm…