28th December 2011 - 2nd January 2012
Feeling hugely better the next morning Djalma and I lay in bed and watched the rest of the Muppets' Christmas Carol that I had started watching while waiting for him to go and get dinner the previous night. I decided I felt well enough to work out and so Djalma went to meet the Brazilian Crew (BC) and wait for me while I did my thing. After working out in our hotbox room, I did some washing and then walked twenty minutes to find them, arriving as they were talking about leaving. I met the last two to join the BC, Diogo a German looking Brazilian and his wife Nina a Brazilian looking German, both spoke perfect English and I loved them immediately for that alone.
Not having eaten yet and feeling rather wilted from midday sun I couldn't get my act together in time to order. Of course, we were all on Brazilian time and I had plenty of time, instead of eating at the pricey beach side restaurant Djalma and I stopped at a small warung (kiosk) on the beach and ate some rather good, if not particularly fresh, food. We took our time eating, enjoying the rather bright view out onto the beach, just after a little driftwood/coral tree. Feeling a lot better we walked further down and joined the BC at another bar on the beach. I did nothing for several hours, in fact I did nothing for so long that I had to have a snooze. Meanwhile Djalma went out snorkelling with a few of the guys and guess what they saw? A turtle, a pretty brilliant introduction to the marine life round the island.
That night we ate at the night market, a large empty square by day it fills up with various vendors and their petrol doused coal barbecues under makeshift tents by night, everyone sells pretty much the same thing, so we pulled up chairs at a long table and ordered some fish and rice. We sat opposite two American guys who were talking to some other travellers about living on the island, we picked up a few tips about where to eat and drink cheaply and also about snorkelling. They were pretty cool although one of them did say that he was bored of turtles, I couldn't decide whether to be impressed that there were so many turtles or that he thought that such an incredible creature was quite so mundane. We walked further along the beach front and met up with the BC who were eating at a smarter restaurant, Djalma had a second dinner (true to form) and then we headed back for an early night.
The next day we were up bright and early with the sun and headed to the beach to walk round the island. Everything was quiet, a few people were out sweeping the main street parallel to the seafront and making our way along the thing strip of blonde sand we watched the sun come up behind Mount Rinjani on Lombok.
We walked along the sand and enjoyed the quiet of the morning, it seemed like a completely different island and further North up the beach it was. There were a few expensive resorts sitting behind tranquil if not exciting enticing seaweed covered coral flats and we soon started looking for a place to have breakfast. We stopped at one with tables underneath a huge spreading tree and shared and Italian breakfast – coffee, fruit salad and a banana pancake – possibly not the most Italian breakfast ever but it sustained us for the next three hours.
While we waited for breakfast to arrive we watched a couple of guys working their way along the shoreline and admired the coral strung from the trees branches by way of decoration. It was quite serene. Breakfast arrived, we shared it and then carried on our way.
The beach stretched out forever, the sun was behind some spectacular looking clouds which made it a pleasant temperature for walking, we watched birds fly over the coral looking for breakfast and further on children out looking for things in the low tide. We passed one eco resort which had made small arches with driftwood and hung strings of sun bleached coral from them, framing the view out to sea and little boats bobbing in tiny waves.
The next part of the beach was dotted with driftwood, I went mad taking pictures, it was so beautiful.
Rounding the corner this time on the pavement to give our feet a break from the rather rough coral sand we came to a couple of beach side restaurants and a table covered with goats, a big fat guy scared them off much to the amusement of his wife and son. There was a standalone toilet with a little turtle painted on, easily the coolest toilet I've seen, we left it behind and carried on walking.
The beach stretched out even further with the tide out and lots of green covered rocks stood in the shallow water. We could see the island of Lombok with it's green hills and volcanoes over a slim stretch of water and more guys standing in knee deep water fishing with rods.
We found another tree like the one at the restaurant where we ate breakfast and after a Russian style photo shoot we took some more photos of an abandoned boat with the becoming phrase “get your rat out” which reminded us of the lovely Jess and Jonny who we'd spent a month with in Goa.
It had been a good four hours since we started and we were now almost full circle and back at the end of town, it was busy with restaurants and bars getting ready for NYE and choc full of tourists looking for accommodation or breakfast or both. Our blissful little walk in the peace and quiet of the surprisingly beautiful island was definitely over. We bumped into Diogo and Nina on the way back and had lunch together at the small warung Kiki Novi's which was just putting out the different curries and dishes for lunch that day. It was gorgeous food, they put a big spoonful of rice in a dish and then covered it with whatever you pointed at, there was egg curry, chicken curry, beef rendang (curry), pumpkin curry, about six or seven different vegetable dishes, fresh coconut and beans, dry/fried coconut to sprinkle of top and tempe crackers which is a bit like tofu but from soy bean flakes rather than flour. It was cheap, the cheapest food we'd had in Indonesia and the best by far.
I headed back to have a shower and work on the photos while Djalma hung out in town. In the evening he hung out with the BC on the beach while I went in search of free and decent wifi – no easy task, to email friends and family and upload photos.
The next swung round, nice and sunny. We tried to sleep late but were awake at 7.30, marvellous body clock timing. We had lunch again at the same place and while the rest of the BC went out on a diving boat in the afternoon we borrowed a couple of masks and snorkels and went with Nina and Diogo to the beach where there was some pretty good marine life.
We started out half way up the beach in front of the main street but the current took us down towards the little jetty and the boats fairly quickly so we got out and walked further up the beach to a bend and got back in the water. Djalma had sarongs and things in the dry bag which he tied round his waist with our washing line and hung our flip-flops and water bottles off that. It was a great afternoon, we had to swim quite far out to get a bit deeper – there was plenty of sea grass but it was all too shallow to see many fish.
Fortunately for us the water was fairly clear and the sun was shining so we managed to take a few good photos, there were small starfish, lots of trigger fish and small schools of tiny brilliant blue fish, the corals were living and the sand was white, it was really lovely. The highlight of the day was a turtle, it was fairly close to me but I didn't see it until Diogo pointed it out behind me, it was beautiful and hung around for a little look before swimming off, I tried my best to stay still and not do the crazy hands thing I usually do, Djalma managed to get a good picture of it as well, bonus.
After a couple of hours in the water, my lunch was complaining and felt like it wanted to come out, without fins swimming was also quite tiring so I decided to head to shore, typically I missed out on the second turtle of the day, but I was more than happy with one. The others soon followed me out and we walked back drying out quickly in the hot sun. We stopped at the turtle breeding centre and watched lots of little baby turtles scoot round the big tanks or sleep with their little arms and legs tucked up over their shells, too cute for words.
We headed back to shower and get some rest before the celebrations that evening, after another workout and one more shower, I put on my party dress, clipping up the rather low and revealing neckline so I wouldn't flash and offend the locals on the walk through the village to the beach. Before meeting up with everyone else at Carlos and Carolina's hotel, Djalma and I had a rather nice dinner and cocktails at an Irish bar on the beach. The place was packed but we got our dinner fairly quickly, we shared a plate of calamari, some bruschetta with goats cheese and a Greek salad with real feta cheese and olives. It was gorgeous, it was also the first time in a long time that we'd made the effort to get dressed up for a night out, we washed our food down with a Mojito and a Margerita before calling the BC and rolling up with a couple of extremely strong Long Island Iced Teas (LIIT).
Everyone was sitting on the porch and listening to some nice music, it was all very calm after the rowdiness of the beach front where everyone was gearing to party. Someone had brought some vodka from Australia and after mixing it with fresh coconut water in big litre and a half bottles, they were passing the resulting coco locos around. Ademir was on his own short cut of neat whisky and well into the party spirit before everyone else, a role model for us to follow. We put some more upbeat music on, taking care to keep the volume down and not wake the cute little Luna who was sleeping. After the drinks were finished and midnight soon approaching we grabbed Mummy, Daddy, the baby and everyone else and headed down to the beach where we found a spot of sand next to a restaurant where live music was playing.
We got some more cocktails from the bar, apparently the best LIIT on the island, they were so strong they were undrinkable, so we got a can of coke and watered them down as we went. We had about an hour of drinking and talking and I found some time to share around some of my bindis left over from India, before midnight rolled round.
Our big group broke up into smaller groups to talk, I spent most of my evening talking to Nina, it was great fun we talked and drank and talked and went to get more drinks. I forgot that my watch was a little too fast and started celebrating the new year five minutes before everyone else, excellent timing as always. One of the Brazilian traditions at new year's is to make seven wishes for the new year while jumping seven waves, backwards. Nina and I got to five wishes when a huge roar went up along the beach and then everyone else joined in.
We hugged everyone in turn and wished each person a happy new year full of good things and then the party moved off the beach and into the little pit in front of the band. Everyone in the restaurant was sitting in their seats and enjoying the music and then the BC got in there and livened things up, the atmosphere was brilliant, the music was fantastic and the drinks were flowing. After a point the band tired, played three more songs for some extra cash and then things quietened down. Mum and Luna went to bed and the rest of us strolled up the busy street to the cheapest place in town, Rudy's. We got some more drinks and danced on the dirt with hordes of other budget travellers and locals.
At some point we needed the loo and Nina and I braved the floods of sandy water that protected the ladies loos. On the way back, fighting our way through the crush of bodies someone grabbed my crotch and my wonderful evening ended. I looked around for the culprit but couldn't find him, just as well I would have only got myself into a fight, what liberties! The mood thoroughly ruined for me I searched for Djalma who took ages to find , I told what happened and we promptly left the party, I didn't feel like hanging around for someone randy islanders to finish the job by groping my chest and pinching my bottom. In true English fashion I had to say goodbye to the excess alcohol in my system on the way home and after a few retches in the bushes I felt much better. We slept like babies in our hot little room and woke at ten the next morning feeling, remarkably okay. We went out in search of the biggest hamburger on the island, we found them. They were so big that I could only finish half, the rest we took back for the cats living next door.
Feeling worse as the morning wore on I went back to bed and slept for another three hours, Djalma taking the belated hangover much more stoically than me, went out to get more money for the group and do general organising and things. We ate at Kiki Novi again and then met up with some of the BC who were also tucking into burgers on the beach. As we were leaving the next day, we said our goodbyes making loose arrangements to meet up with Sciani and Dudu in Java in a few days and Carlão and Carolina in Bali after that.
We left the island the nest day, up early to get the public boat we had a rather forgettable breakfast at Kiki Novi's whose breakfast didn't even come close to the lunch buffet. We got tickets and then waited for the boat to fill up, the list of names full, we got on the boat and then spent more than twenty minutes sitting adrift in the bay while they tried to start the engine. Packed onto the boat and perched precariously on a big armchair (?!) I sat and wished that I had charged my Ipod battery. After countless fruitless attempts to get the motor going, a German got up to have a look and pointed out one vital (and obvious) missing part, the key. The key was located, put in the ignition and we were away, the ride was a lot smoother than on the way to the island and we were back in Lombok in just over half an hour. We dropped off the empty 20litre water bottle that we had got before leaving for Gili T and got our deposit back and then walked down the long road to the intersection to wait for a bus to Senggigi. After a while of waiting patiently, Djalma started to look around for alternative transport, especially because the buses going in that direction wouldn't actually stop where we wanted to go.
We ended up getting a taxi and drove in air-conditioned comfort round the winding coastal roads that had turned my stomach going in the opposite direction but with a sensible driver where rather nice and relaxing. We drove up and down “town” trying to find a cheap place to sleep, unfortunately for us, people were still charging inflated New Year prices, we ended up in the first place we stopped at and paid well over the odds for a dump with a crap fan. Home Sweet Home.
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