Slept awesome last night, finally! Beds were like the premier inn hotels where you just sink into the pillows. Although Ellie did wake me up at 11.30pm shouting at me “have you put an alarm on!” She woke up in a panic I think haha.
She did tell me this morning that she did it again about 1am waking up in a panic that she had missed the pick up for the trip.

It wasn’t until 9am that they were supposed to pick us up. When we got pretty much just around the corner and down a few side streets to the office there were lots of travellers sat down in there drinking free tea and eating free Indonesian snacks, there was a sign on the wall outside for Swansea and Abertawe Mosque or church or some sort of religious organisation that was helping the city after the damage (not sure what damage or if they had suffered an earthquake or volcanic eruptions) it looked like the island needed a damn good clean to be honest.
We bought some booze for the boat,- few Bintangs and braved the homemade Lombok rice wine - with sprite of course! Haha.
We set off at 11am so we were sat around waiting for a long while before we got going, then when we did leave in a fleet of 4/5 vans our bus driver was late for work, came speeding in on the back of moped and then five minutes later he asked if we were okay to wait for him for five minutes so as you do you say yes expecting someone to come and bring him something or for him to pop to the petrol station. But he pulled up on the side of a main road; a moped pulled up in front, two people got off and he got on and rode away. It was the funniest thing because you just didn’t expect it. Everyone had their headphones in, I think it was only me and Ellie that saw it so we just looked at each other and laughed like ‘only in Asia!’
Parked on a main road with no driver for around five minutes until he came back driving down the pavement, the only thing different that I could see was that he had a bottle of water - I could have got him a bottle of water from the shop on the way!

It took around 2.5 hours to get to the opposite side of the island for the boat, we stopped for an ice cream or much needed pee stop in my instance. There wasn’t a shop, restaurant, house, paddy field, drain or tree that we could see either side of the road for the entire way without a piece of rubbish or plastic under or in front of it. So bloody sad that no matter how hard people try to recycle and get rid of the plastic there will still be places like this with uneducated people about what’s right and wrong with it all. There are clean ups going on around Indonesia and on beaches but this was ridiculous to how much crap there was everywhere.
When we got to the pier there were two boats leaving, both with the same company and fairly the same size.
There was a big upper deck and downstairs where they would put food and everyone could sit along the sides, there was a kitchen out the back with two toilets next to it which you had to flush with a bucket and water and a shower head hanging over them (let’s wait and see if there is fresh water coming out of them and not salt).
The deck class was on the top but out the back end of the boat, loads of thin mattresses lined up in two rows each with a pillow and a small blanket (this was deck class sleeping) we were under a cover but could see out the sides. This was going to be fun! Haha. Not sure how fun my back may think of it though but we will see.

Soon after a spot of lunch we were off on a very choppy sea to Kenawa island for a small hike up a little mountain or more so hill to watch the sunrise, the water was so clear which made you want to get in but it was so cold. The island was tiny and had no body living on it, just a few huts I’m guessing for tourists or locals in the high season. It was nice but the sunrise only went half way into the sky because of the low clouds around lombok.
Climbing down was fun, we accidentally took the hard way and had to rock climb down instead of walk the route we came up on. We didn’t fall surprisingly, Ellie’s feet were slipping all over the place from her shoes so bare foot she had to go.
Dinner on another very choppy and swaying boat before a Bintang on the deck watching the amazing starry sky, next to no air pollution from lights or engines - it was so so pretty! Almost like we were in the Milky Way!
One of the crew members thought my name was ‘Bat’, probably because they can’t pronounce ‘th’ he found it hilarious so I’m guessing that’s what my name will be from now on until the end of the trip. His laugh was wicked, I’m not sure how to describe it, almost like a hyena or the joker from batman it was so funny. (I’ll try and put the video up on here).