Day 163-5 - Gili Trewangan

Day 163 (Wednesday 26th) - En Route

Long day, up at 6, bus all around Bali, lengthy wait at port for six hour ferry ride to Lombok - after a while we paid the extra 10,000 RP for VIP seats and watched about a million episodes of Seinfeld - fine, but a little grating after a while, and we missed the ending of the last ever episode as we arrived on Lombok. Cue another bus to the hassle capital of the world, Bangsal Harbour - here we had a 40 minute wait in a crowd of hustlers trying to sell us necklaces, fake tickets and mosquito coils, refusing to take no for an answer.

The boat was OK, although it decided to absolutely piss down for the duration - soaked and panicky, we settled for the first place we saw - an impossibly luxurious 'rice barn' style bungalow at 400,000 a night - about 8 quid each I think, and way above our budgets. We settled down for a drink or two, which turned into hundreds as the really friendly guys at the bar next door (especially Bagus, who said he'd be my wingman/partner in crime) made us feel welcome and plied us with drinks based on Arak, one of the local boozes.

After a really fun few hours here we went of to find the party, at Tir Na Nog Irish bar - they rotate the party nights around the bars here, as only one place can have a late licence each night - smart. It was packed, as it was the only place to go, and a little frantic for our tastes - Marcus and I had a bit of a sit and a drink, chatted to some people then returned home -it had, after all, been an extremely long day. So long, in fact, that I awoke at 2pm the next day face down and fully clothed, having evidently starfished onto the bed when I got in, and not stirred for 10 hours or so.

Oh, there was a drunken Russian named Sbass on the bus this morning, who had no luggage, was drinking beer at 6 am and was going for only one night on the fast boat. We saw him later in the bar, and found he had scoffed a load of magic mushrooms (available all over the place here, and apparently entirely legal). He was just starting to fall under their influence when we met him, so we assured him everything was cool and he agreed with us, then after a while lost the power to speak English and was enthusiastically explaining how he felt in Russian. We tried to point out that we didn't understand, but after a while decided to humour him and gazed in rapt attention with the occasional nod and exclamation of "Da, da!" This seemed to please him immensely, so I think we chose the right course of action.

Day 164 (Thursday 27th) Snorkelling, Monsoons and Hot Deaf Chicks

The friendly chaps at reception allowed us ti check out 4 hours late with no fuss, and we walked along the road for about 20 metres before a chap offered us snorkelling, internet and accomodation. We took him up on the latter of these, and found ourselves in a nice little room, with a fridge and TV for some reason, for only 150,000 RP, an agreeable step down in pricing. It also had the benefits of an open air bathroom, so you could shower in the sun, which is a pretty cool experience. Marcus and I quickly hired some snorkelling stuff and went to explore the sea, which held life in incredibly abundant quantities. We saw loads of cool stuff, not least a school of Batfish and a fair sized Hawksbill turtle, who allowed us to swim right down next to him while he was eating. Also a few Trevally, and thousands upon thousands of shiny little colourful ones who surrounded us as we swam. The water was incredibly clear, with visibility of up to 100 metres I would say. Just a small way off the beach the sea floor dropped off at a 45 degree angle to unknown depths, which is where all the cool stuff we saw was hanging out.

Stunned and happy, we returned to our room just as things became torrential - there was an enormous storm which battered the Island for a couple of hours, while we sat and watched it from the comfort of our porch with a few beers. It ceased just as as suddenly as it had started, so we navigated the lakes and rivers that were formerly the road and returned to Oceane Dua, the place with the friendly staff. Here we had an intriguing encounter - we mat a deaf Indonesian girl called Nini, who was gorgeous and friendly and more than a little hard to understand. It all started with her inviting us to go to the other side of the Island, on bicycles, for a swim at 2 in the afternoon the next day. While we were (sort of) conversing, she made it clear that she had designs on either myself or Marcus, possibly both. We were all hanging out for the rest of the evening (it later became evident that the designs were on both of us, but tending towards Marcus more than myself), and the atmosphere became odder and odder. Filip and I left them to it, but mere moments later they joined us and Bagus in the bar next door, just as we were discussing, with genuine interest and in a respectful manner I feel, what kind of noises she makes in certain situations - I mean, apart from any slightly more unsavoury talk, her laugh was pretty incredible, like a sound of pure joy untempered by considerations of volume or pitch, and quite unlike anything I've ever heard. And she laughed a lot. She inexplicably began to disrobe at one pint, after a hurried and unintelligible hand signal explanation, but this was put a stop to for the sake of decency. They departed soon afterwards - it was later found out that she was one of a pair of pretty girls we had seen the previous night with an old Canadian guy, who was married to her sister (the other girl). Apparently at breakfast she said/signed something to him, and he replied with a curt, menacing & unnoticed "fuck off bitch" and a finger raised in her direction. This guy sounds like a prick, and we considered (for a matter of seconds) in some way avenging Nini when we saw him next. This avenging took the form of some stern glares in the bar the following night. We are cowards.

Day 165 (Friday 28th) - Good Luck Hannah!

Despite the fact that I'm writing this the following day, I have yet to receive news of my sister's driving test results, so I'm sending her this post-hoc luck. Anyway, a slightly earlier start to today. Marcus and I went for an adventure round the Island, Snorkels in hand. We crossed to the other side and found it to be very very different from here - this side is ramshackle and built in a very make-it-up-as-you-go-along sort of way, whereas the other side has widely spaced resorts and spectacular bungalows - a true honeymoon destination. One place had an enormous concrete ship as you walked in, which the owner (an Irish fellow who had recently acquired the place) had absolutely no idea what to do with - he greeted us, in fact, with "want to buy a ship?"

The snorkelling on this side was just as good, if not better, than back on the east coast. The water was even clearer, and we saw more turtles and thousands upon thousands of cornet fish, tiger fish, Moorish Idols and loads of other cool stuff. Oh, and another Hawksbill turtle too. Awesome. We snorkelled gleefully about for a couple of hours before returning to our side for noodles and a drink on our porch -0 we bought a bottle of the local wine, a concoction that looks like watered down ketchup, smells and tastes like bad Sangria, and has a slightly meaty aftertaste. Bloody hell it was strong though, and shockingly easy to drink. We went back to Oceane Due and had a pretty cool night, meeting some people who were going over to Gili Meno tomorrow, as are we. We moved to Rudy's (the site of the party that night) and I had to go home as I was feeling decidedly odd. After an hour or two of attempting to sleep, with the aid of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour (the Moon and Sleep episodes), I was just nodding off when Marcus burst in to use the loo, and I heard sniggering on the porch. Filip and Bagus stumbled in laughing - a small argument ensued, as MArcus had told me they were there, and they had been planning to come in and jump on me to freak me out. Marcus said this was a bad idea as I was clearly in a world of trouble and I'd go mental. Bagus then admonished me for failing to act on my promise of being his partner in crime - something I was entirely incapable of considering, let alone achieving. Having finally shooed them all away I was able to get a few hours sleep, interrupted only briefly by their exhausted, confused and separate return.