Lombok, the Gilis and Bali

                                 

    After the dragons Louise, Anna and I cruised the islands for a few days then headed off across the north of Sumbawa to Lombok. Sumbawa itself is pretty large and it took three days of sailing in the day and pulling into a bay, or harbour at night to get across the top of this island to Lombok.

Louise checking the minimum size requirements...there are none!

We purchased a few fish and lobsters from the locals as we cruised.

      We first went out to Gili Trawangan on the north-west corner of Lombok where Lou’s friends we had met in Queenstown, Bas and Georgie were caretaking/managing A J Hackett’s resort property. Man, we had a good time there with them. We lost Lou at Trawagan from where she was returning to the cold winter of Queenstown and her hotel business at Queenstown House, and we returned to the official anchorage of sail Indonesia, Medina Beach on the North West corner of Lombok. A pretty and sheltered spot in a cove in the fringing reef. We had a good time there.

It was here that our mates Chrissy Asher and Susie Williams were meeting us so Anna took a car down to Senggigi to meet them and stayed with them a couple of nights at the Senggigi Sheraton. My sister Sally and Chris also joined us here. We all went on a bus trip around the main features of Lombok and visited the main city of Mataram returning for a night at the local resort where we had the place to ourselves. It feels a bit eerie to have this beautifully lit pool and dining facility and 18 staff and just the 6 of us. Easy to believe it was our own private mansion! But back to the boat and next day off to Gili Air then on to Gili Trawangan...to meet up again with Georgie and Bas!

More drinks on Salanjo, then another night ashore.my health could not take too much more of their hospitality!!
Bas and Georgie and their mates Debs and Wild Man took us on the resort’s vessel to the luxious resort of Tugu on the northern end of Lombok. What a great day!!Great place..great hosts..great fun!

Bas and Georgie's Resort vessel.

Chris and sally with us for lunch on Bali half way to Ubud overlooking the famous lake in the crater of the volcanoe.

The Lombok  / Bali team.

All on our sides at Gili Trawagan with Bas and Georgie

                                 










We have to keep moving though, so next morning, off to the Gilis at the south west end of Lombok for a little explore. They were really nice islands, not too much tourism yet. We walked to a little lodge built by a Swedish couple, visited their fairly basic bungalows and had coke with the local family who run it when in season. The season is fairly short around here...two months, July and August. This will grow as the place becomes more popular. The next day we had a good breeze for a decent sail from the south west corner of Lombok right across the top of Bali Island to Lovina Beach on the north coast of Bali. This is a really nice little spot. Here were some nice little restaurants; we were able to watch some RWC rugby...especially the Ireland versus Australia pool game! We took a car to some waterfalls at Gip Gip then a nice lunch at Singaraja. The next day we went west for some diving and another great lunch, then it was time to say good bye to Susie and Chrissy who were heading back to Legian beach to finish some shopping, pack and fly home. We had a great time for the 10 days they were here but time keeps moving on! So the four of us, that’s Sally and Chris, Anna and I took another car and headed for Mt Batur, the temple there and a nice lunch overlooking the mountain lake formed by the volcano. Then we went on to Ubud. This is said to be the cultural centre of Bali. We found it a bit touristy, but there were places that were just magic...and we found some of these too! We really loved it. The next morning after Sally and Anna had had a bit more browsing in the shops we headed off to Denpasar to drop Sally and Chris off at the airport. Their time had come and gone..and Anna and I found ourselves alone again..as the song says..! We had rented the same driver and car for three days and had two more to go so we had a look at the beaches you read about in Bali..Kuta, Legian and Seminyak. We like the last two and Anna spent the afternoon there browsing the shops while I had another massage. It’s all just one long beach really..but they are different in that the clientele is different at each, and hence the type of shops and hotels etc change as you progress up the beach. We liked Legian and the shops at Seminyak! For the evening we went over to Sanur..and that was pretty special. We enjoyed walking around there and along the boardwalk in the morning. A lovely spot!

Driving back north we visited a number of little villages with jewellery and art for sale. We found the villages in the country so appealing we have promised ourselves a month or so here in Bali one day!

Back in Lovina Beach, we picked up Jim Dance again as our third crew member and headed off for the 400 mile sail to Kalimantan and the orang-utans.