Saturday 19th March 2011, Gili Air, Lombok, Indonesia

Before leaving Trawangen we did two dives. We went to Manta Point and Shark Point where we saw our first shark, a baby white tipped reef shark - amazing. The diving was excellent despite some very strong currents and we both feel we are improving technically at diving. We have also dived from Gili Air, heading to Simon’s reef in the early morning. It is probably one of our favourite sites as the visibility is amazing - at least 50 metres and the diversity of the aquatic life was stunning.

After Trawangan we spent three nights on the smallest and quietest of the islands, Gili Meno. We spent our days exploring the island, snorkelling, swimming and sunbathing, after deciding that we needed to take it even easier before we go to Australia to find jobs!

Today is our third day on Gili Air, which is somewhere between the party island Trawangen and semi-deserted Meno. Again we continued our renewed attempts at taking it easy, snorkelling (which is phenomenal on all three islands) and generally sunning ourselves and honing our frisby skills on the white sand beaches.

Tomorrow we head to our final destination, Sengiggi which is on the west coast of Lombok. On 22rd March we begin our journey to Australia, flying to Brisbane via Darwin. When we arrive we’ve arranged to couch surf staying with an Australian guy who lives in the suburbs outside the city. We’ve met lots of travellers who’ve raved about couch surfing which is basically consists of a website where you can contact people around the world who are offering a couch to sleep on and arrange to stay with them. It’ll be a nice way to meet some locals on our arrival and do some cooking rather than eating out every meal, which sounds great but we’re really missing non-fried vegetables which are something very rare in S.E.Asia!

Thursday 10th March, Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia.

We travelled from Ubud to the Gili Islands in one long and very eventful day. The first hint that the day was not going to run as smooth as we’d hoped was when our mini bus ran over a puppy on the way to the harbour (fingers crossed for its survival). A few minutes after we arrived at Padang Bai harbour a speed boat exploded right before our eyes. The local people were in a frenzy, not really knowing what to do and worried for the one injured man who luckily dove into the sea from the boat as it exploded. He didn’t escape without some serious burns though and everyone was distressed as he came out the water screaming before being placed in a van and driven to the hospital. Once we got to Lombok, our bus broke down and we nearly missed the boat but we eventually arrived on the largest of the three Gili Islands; Gili Trawangan.

Our first impression was that it was much bigger and busier than we expected, although it is described in the travel bible as “the party island“! However we have been taking things easy generally relaxing on the beach by day and eating gorgeous food followed by a movie on the beach by night. The ocean is pristine and full or sea life and corals although the beach is a little stony and can lack the ’wow’ factor in places (the odd medicine bottle and flip flop doesn’t help but hey nowhere is perfect!).

We have had some adventures though, we rented bikes and cycled around the island on one day stopping off at various points to snorkel off the beach, where we saw two turtles feeding just before sunset amazing. Now we cant wait to go diving and hopefully swim with some sharks! Today we rented a surf board and practiced our surfing skills, although only a few dubious stand-ups, it was good fun. We have both been talking about what it will be like when we get to Australia now that it is getting really close. We’re nervous but excited about this next chapter, we can’t quite believe we’re going to have to get jobs though - how boring! :o)

Saturday 5th March 2011, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

We travelled to Ubud after spending 2 nights in Kuta, Bali. Numerous people advised us not to go to Kuta but this only made us more curious to check out the frenetic party place. It was busy, loud and brash but the biggest disappointment was the beach which was quite dirty and because of heavy rainfall recently, the water was brown - not a very appealing concept! So we booked a bus and left and so far the cultural town of Ubud with its dense forests, gorgeous crumbling temples and focus on art and crafts is much more our scene! Today is the Balinese celebration of ‘Nyepi’ which is their new year. Contrary to how we celebrate, in Bali the new year is seen in with a day of silence… allowing time to relax and reflect (and have stomach rumblings as all the restaurants are closed!). We are suffering from cabin fever a little but our little hut in a traditional losmen (a courtyard) provides a lovely backdrop to the silence…

Prior to Bali we spent 3 days in Singapore which was fantastic and one of our favourite places although we didn’t expect it to be. There is just so much to do, from amazing shopping to theme parks and water sports (you can water-ski and wake board in the local park!). We hired a tandem and cycled through the park on sunday morning enjoying the immaculately clean surroundings of this gorgeous and tiny country. Already we are thinking about what we’ll do on our next visit!

After Singapore we flew to Jakarta where we spent the day (only!) which was good. Again, we had many warnings to avoid it but it was charming and the people were really friendly. We went to an entertainment complex but with no performances on we settled for the cinema and ate popcorn - a not very Indonesian experience but a very welcome one!