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Hi,
We're now on the beautiful island of Lombok, east of Bali. Absolutely stunning scenery, more beautiful than Bali. In fact, it's the "new" Bali.
Spent two weeks on the Gili islands of Gili Trawangan and Gili Air. Gili Trawangan is the more upbeat, party island, although there wasn't many tourists there so still pretty quiet. We spent about a week there chilling, eating and watching films at the dvd-booths with sea view there was. Had planned to go diving, but unfortunately Jake got an ear infection so we were stranded on land for a while. The island doctor weren't much use either as he'd run out of eardrops! Walking around talking to other travellers, it turned out lots of others had got the same thing. Managed to get hold of some drops the next day, but Jake was in massive pain until finally the infection cleared after about 4-5 days. We'd then moved on to Gili Air, which is the "medium" one of the islands in terms of tourists and action (there's Trawangan, Meno and Air). During this time of year, it meant Air was almost deserted by tourists.
Both islands were great for snorkeling. We managed to do some on Trawangan before Jake got ill, and we saw some great fish and lots of turtles. They've got turtle conservation projects going on all the islands, where they breed and look after turtles until they're a certain age (to protect them from prey) before they're released into the ocean. Still, only about 2% of those turtles survive. Yet still, we saw quite a few of them whilst snorkeling so it must be doing some good! They're huge too!
One day Trawangan got SWAMPED with indonesian teenagers. They were on a school trip with the intention to improve their english by talking to foreign tourists. Only they outnumbered the tourists by about 10:1 and some of them could barely speak a word of english. We'd just got to the beach for a bit of relaxing sunbathing when suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by lots of schoolkids who wanted to say hi and/or just get us to sign a form they had with them. Guess the teachers had told them to speak to tourists and then get them to sign it as proof that they'd had a conversation (they had some questions on a list), but what most of these kids did (being teenagers) was to simply ask us to sign without trying to practise. We talked to some of them and started signing everyone's sheets to be nice,but it soon turned into mayhem as lots and lots of papers were put in front of us. Felt a bit like a celebrity since everyone wanted our autograph and have their picture taken with us, but it all got a bit too much after a while and we escaped into the water! But they were really nice kids, but only a few felt confident enough to try and speak english to us.
On Gili Air we checked into Sunrise Hotel. Had a great risebarn style house for ourselves, which had a daytime lounge area with hammock and daybed downstairs, and a cool, airy bedroom upstairs (accessed through a hatch and ladder)! Enjoyed the view of the beach and sunrise/sunset from our balcony off the bedroom on many occations. And all for Rp 100.000/7 pounds/ 100 kronor!
Best of all with Sunrise hotel was the great beach just in front. It wasn't so much the beach itself, but the life going there on underneath the surface! SO MUCH FISH! It was like being in a aquarium! Lots and lots of tropical fish: Clown fish (think Nemo!), Trigger fish (think scary - they're smaller than you but they can attack visciously!), exotic colourful crabs and great coral! We'd have huge schools of various fish swimming around us and also following us around (think of Nemo when he goes to school, it sometimes was like the fishes were out on a school trip to check out the snorkeling humans!).
As Jake's ear had by now cleared up, we could finally do what we'd come to the Gilis for: diving!! We went out for several dives with Blue Marin dive centre. The diving was cool, although we weren't too impressed in the end as there often was very strong currents and not too many fish that far down. Still, we saw some white-tipped sharks, turtles, and even a manta ray (everyone else at the dive centre was well jealous of our group when we returned as they're quite uncommon here)! I (Agneta) also took a deep dive certificate, so I can now dive down to 30 meters rather than just 18 m which is great! Lots more dive sites I can do now. Had to do a test at 30 meters below the surface to see if I got affected by nitrogen narcosis. Basically, when you dive deep it affects your blood and you can start acting like you're drunk and do some foolish things. But I was ok! Had to do a test involving numbers. First you do it on the surface and then underwater to test how the difference in the speed I can do it. I was a lot quicker at 30 m down rather than the expected opposite! Should try and do any furture exams underwater from now on, ha ha (although I've finished my studying so don't know what it'd be!).
 We also did a night dive, which was a different diving experience. We were diving through the pitch black water with only our torches to rely on. It was cool as we got to see some fishes sleeping amongst the coral and rocks, and got to play with the glowing sea plankton (which glows when we turned off our torches and waved our arms around in the water - really cool, felt like being in space!). Ascending and seeing the starstudded sky as we reached the surface was incredible too.
After a week on Gili Air we moved on to Lombok. Took a day tour to a couple of waterfalls in the north. Had a swim in the cold water of the biggest one, and had a photo op with Indonesian teenagers at the other one. The holidaying teenagers here really like having their picture taken with tourists! Also visited a traditional Sasak (Lombok) village along the way, where life is very simple and they live in one-room houses and illiteracy is high (although we spotted a  HUGE satellite dish amongst the commune!). The houses are built mainly by using walls made by woven coconut-tree leaves, and the floor has been made by partly using cow s*** (appearantly very good for filling in cracks and getting a shiny floor, and once it's dry it no longer stinks!). But nowadays they're starting to use concrete instead of cow s***, as they're getting government sonsorship and more money. An interesting glimpse into traditionl Lombok life.
After the tour we got dropped off in Senngigi, where we currently are. It used to be the thriving no 1 tourist place in Lombok and it's full of expensive hotels, but most of the tourists have deserted the place. It isn't a great town. There are lots of beaches but they aren't really that fabulous, and wherever you go you constantly get hassled to buy something. You can't even sit in a restaurant to have a meal without being hassled at least 10 times, often by the same guy! Met a little 12-year-old boy tonight though, and he told us he needs to come here every night to sell so he can go to school in the day as his parents otherwise cannot afford the school fees. We bought one of his bracelets.
Jake recovered from the ear infection he got in his right ear on Gili Trawangan, but only a few days later he got it again! And not just in one but BOTH ears! Poor him... He still isn't alright, but on the mend. There have been quite a few painful days and nights. We think it has got somethin gto do with the water around the Gilis, as not just him but so many other divers there had ear infections too. Our theoy is that it is the waste water. Think it just get pumped back into the sea without proper filtering. Waste management is a HUGE problem here. Especially plastic. It's everywhere.
We'd planned to get out of Senngigi quickly and head back to Bali, but what has been keeping us here now for over four days is the prospect of a little bit of Lombok land for ourselves! Been looking into it as land is really cheap here at the moment, and an international airport is on the way which should boost tourism here big time and make Lombok catch up with Bali. It is a really beautiful island. So we've been looking at land with a real estate agent and seen some very interesting plots. Great for investment and future selling or to build ourselves a nice little holiday home! Got some serious thinking to do...
That's it for now.. Going off to Bali soon to do the volunteering. Got accepted so we'll be teaching English sooner rather than later! Nervracking!
A&J, xxx
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