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Tim and Em

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Trips:

Round half the world!

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Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Although every place we had visited, has monuments relating to the war, all collectively known as the Killing Fields. Phnom Penh has perhaps the most moving memorials and museums relating to the the war in Cambodia. We visited the Killing Fields of Choeung EK, effectively it was an extermination camp during the war. Here they have exhumed some of the mass graves and a memorial has been built with the human remains clearly on display, it was an incredibly moving place and a graphic reminder of the barbaric regime of Pol Pot.

Phnom Penh - Choeung Ek

What amazed us, learning about some of the history, is how recent it is and what little, it appears, the West did at the time to help the Cambodians. Its something that we will probably read further on when we return home. With such a sad recent history, the Cambodians appear to be very optimistic people.


From there we went to the Tual Sleng museum or S21, it was a former secondary school that was turned into a prison during the war.


Phnom Penh - S21
The building has been left pretty much untouched since then with the razor wire still up places and the cells remain intact. The most harrowing thing were the rows of black and white photo’s of prisoners, taken like mugshots. Virtually all the people in these photos were later killed.
In all it was an extremely sombre day but I am glad we went, we learnt a great deal about the history of Cambodia of which we were previously unaware.
The following day we checked out the vast two main markets in Phnom Penh, we bought a couple of Christmas presents, not the first of this trip either. Although tempted to buy a couple of other things, we resisted because of our budget and the logistics of getting it home! Had a little adventure around the supermarkets as well as our Marmite stock were running low – I know its sad but I cannot tell you how good it tastes each morning, like a little slice of home!
In several places in Cambodia you can have a massage from a blind person, several different charities run these places. We went to a place called seeing hands and had a really good massage, its great because just by having a massage you are supporting charity and helping the people that work there – I think this is called a win-win situation!

permalink written by  Tim and Em on May 22, 2010 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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Battambang

Sisophon, Cambodia

We wanted to see as much of the country as possible so after a few days headed to Battambang – Cambodia’s second largest city. Although developing fast, Battambang was quite rustic, we checked out the centre and booked ourselves onto a cookery course for the next day. Unfortunately, what we ate for lunch that day didn’t agree with us so we had a day knocked out of our plans – we postponed the cookery course!
We had recovered sufficiently the following day, so had a bit of tour with our tuk tuk driver (this time called David!) First stop was the peace monument, a giant sculpture made entirely out of old weapons found and handed in after the war.

Battambang - Bamboo Train

Then it was to the bamboo train – this was something I had been really looking forward to. There are no passenger train services in Cambodia and although there is railway track, it is in really poor shape. In places the locals have devised an ingenious way to move people and goods around, very aptly named the bamboo train. It consists of two axles with wheels, these are the first to be lifted onto the rails, you then have kind of platform or chassis made of bamboo on which sits a small engine. The chassis is then put onto the wheels – no bolts or fastenings, it just sits there. A fan belt is then stretched from the axle onto the fly wheel of the engine and there you have it the bamboo train! We took a ride on this thing, hurtling down the track it was great fun although the odd stray cow on the line slowed down the ride. If there are any other bamboo trains either in the way or coming in the opposite direction, you simple stop, dismantle and reassemble – it takes about 3 minutes!!
We then went to an old (disused) Pepsi factory. During Khmer Rouge times, pretty much all factories were shut down, accordingly the last bottle to roll off the production line at this Pepsi factory was in the 70’s. Although we couldn’t physically get inside, we had a look around. It was quite eerie, through the windows you could see crates and crates of old bottles, even the Pepsi logo was still attached to the building outside, if slightly rusty. There are several other factories that were abandoned during that period around the same time, sadly they have not been used for anything since.

Battambang - Rice Paper Pancakes Drying

We toured a couple of other places – a village that is famous for making rice paper, another village that makes fish paste (very smelly!) It seems as though almost each village has its own speciality. It was a massive plus having a knowledgeable tuk tuk driver with us who spoke good English as he was able to explain things and where necessary translate for us.
The next day we had our cooking course at a place called Smoking Pot (of the cooking pot variety!) We met the owner, Vannack, who was our instructor for the day. First stop was the market, where we bought all the ingredients we needed. The butchers section kinda puts you off in a way, no fridges here to keep the meat chilled, its all out in the 40 degree heat! Vannack talked us through some of the more weird and wonderful vegetables and herbs. For example, there are 3 different and distinct types of basil in Cambodia. In addition to the normal purple aubergine’s we are used to seeing, there is also a much smaller green sweet version.

Battambang - Smoking Pot Cooking Course

The course was well set up and Em and I each had our own gas wok burner, outside naturally!! It would be an understatement to say that it was hot cooking even though Vannack had set up a fan to cool us down while we cooked. The end results were quite pleasing, a traditional Khmer Amok curry, fresh spring rolls and a beef stir fry with spicy basil. Em likes spicy whilst I don’t but her stir fry was inedible due to the fact that she had put 5 chillies in it. I only put 3 in my version but it still blew your head off.
After our cooking course, we chatted with Vannack who had also just opened a new bar in town. He asked for our help to write a flyer for it. He then took us to the bar and wanted our opinion on some of the music he had – we spent two hours writing and rewriting drafts for his flyer whilst categorising his music collection!

Battambang - Phnom Sampeau

Battambang - Phnom Banan

The following day we went to another temple which involved a strenuous climb of 358 steps, still guess we needed some exercise after the cooking course the previous day. We also visited a local vineyard, I think the only one in Cambodia, and did a little bit of wine tasting. The vineyard produces 10,000 bottles each year and is distributed all over the country. That night we ate at Smoking Pot and couldn’t believe that the flyer for Vannak’s new bar had been printed and our suggestions for it had been used, word for word! There were even guys on the street handing these flyers out.
Its been quite tricky writing this entry for Battambang because we did so much there. Despite being ill, we managed to cram a lot into our stay, the above, is the condensed version!

Battambang - Phnom Banan, cooling off

permalink written by  Tim and Em on May 20, 2010 from Sisophon, Cambodia
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Cambodia - Siem Reap

Siem Reap, Cambodia

After a quick stop overnight in Kuala Lumpur, we flew to Siem Reap. It felt really good to be back again, the town had grown substantially since we were there two years ago. We had booked a hotel which had a pool, so spent two nights there. However, on a foray into town, one of the bars was advertising room for 15 dollars a night, nice room with all mod cons including free wifi – so we moved! It didn’t have a pool, but when the pool temperature is mid 30’s, its not that much of an attraction to be honest!
We had pretty much done the whole Siem Reap Temple trail when we were last there but we couldn’t resist going back to Angkor Wat to see the sunset. It turned out that there wasn’t much of a sunset that night but Angkor Wat was just as impressive second time round.
Siem Reap is a great place to just chill out and thats pretty much what we did. We revisited Dr Feet, our favourite foot massage parlour – of all the places our feet have been massaged, this is definitely the best!

Bang Melea

We wanted to go and see a temple called Bang Melea which was a bit further afield, 70 Kms from Siem Reap to be precise! We had read about it and although it was pretty much in ruins, it was worth going to see. We had found a really reliable tuk tuk driver (Mean, pronounced Mee-Ann) who had been ferrying us around and he agreed to take us there. It took two hours in his tuk tuk which was fairly interesting in itself, he stopped on the way so to show us the sticky rice sellers – basically its rice, coconut and black beans stuffed into a piece of bamboo, its then cooked on an open fire. We bought some and Tim thought it was pretty good, I wasn’t so keen, it tasted a little bit like rice pudding, but not enough if that makes sense – cue longing for a tin of ambrosia!
What we had read about the temple was very accurate, ie it was a ruin. In places, you had to clamber and climb to enable to see it properly. Although it was falling down, some sections were still intact, the sheer scale of it amazed us. As its off the tourist trail, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Bang Melea

We also had a good wander round the markets in Siem Reap and had some great dinners – Cambodia was once under French rule, so the bread is wonderful, it felt a real treat after some of the places we have been.


permalink written by  Tim and Em on May 17, 2010 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
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Malaysian Borneo

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

We flew to Kota Kinabalu (KK) from Jakarta and spent a couple of days exploring the city and just chilling out. On the second night we found a nice hotel with all mod cons which, to be honest, encouraged us to stay longer than we probably should – we even managed to watch some TV! This is the first hotel we have ever stayed in where you get a choice of having a window or not, we opted for the windowless room as it was cheaper – the window/windowless room thing is quite common in Malaysia.

Kota Kinabalu - Fish market

Kota Kinabalu - Night food stalls

The main highlight of KK was the markets. During the day, there is a large wet market selling mainly fish with some meat. Come 4pm, an empty parking lot is transformed into a bustling maze of food stalls with smoking barbeques. To give an idea of size, the food stalls are probably as big as 2 football pitches, you then have 10 metre long trestle tables lined up with chairs. At the end of each length of table there is a barbeque, effectively each barbeque is a separate eatery.

Kota Kinabalu - Night food stalls

You can choose the fish you want them to cook for you – Tuna, Lobster, Snapper etc. At each table there is a mixture of condiments, fresh chillies, limes and soy sauce for you to make your own dipping sauce. The fish was fantastic, we feasted on Tuna and rice most nights for less than £4. One night the place where we went didn’t have any Tuna so we simply went to the wet market, bought two large raw Tuna steaks and took it back to the barbeque for them to cook for us!
From KK we took a bus to Sandakan, the buses in Malaysia are much more civilised and we got to watch Avatar on the journey. What was not so great was the lady sitting opposite us with 3 kids all of who were travel sick in a big way. We had a lunch stop (we were not feeling hungry) and watched in horror as the lady bought each of her kids an ice cream – we don’t need to tell you anymore.

Sepilok - Orang-Utan hanging around

The main reason for going to Sandakan was its proximity to Sepilok where the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre is based. When we visited, we were worried that we wouldn’t see any but fortunately one little cute guy (or girl) came out to play. A couple of Orang-utan facts which we didn’t know – they share 96.4% of human DNA and Orang-utan translates as man of the forest. We learnt quite a lot while we were there such as the loss of habitat to Palm Oil plantations - all quite sad. At the current rate, these lovely creatures could be extinct in 10 years.


Kinabatangan River - Proboscis monkey
We also booked ourselves on a river boat journey on the Kinabatangan river in the hope of seeing some more Orang-utans. We chugged up the river and on the way saw copious monkeys – long tailed Macaques and Proboscis, the Proboscis monkey is not the prettiest of beasts, it has a really large dangly red nose!! We continued on some more and were told that there was an elephant ahead. There in the middle of the river was a Pigmy Elephant swimming across, at times just the end of his trunk was visible – a bit like a snorkel!



Kinabatangan River - Cute Baby Pigmy Elephant!

On the bank of the river were about 30 elephants, including babies, some wallowing in the water and some on the bank – we were able to get quite close to them – truly magical, Em took a great video which includes an elephant trumpeting!!

Kinabatangan River - Pigmy Elephants

On the way back we stopped to observe a crocodile, this was a bit unnerving given the size of the boat and how low it sat in the water. By this time, it was getting dark, we have a very eerie picture where you can only see the eyes of the croc reflecting, nothing else. As a final bonus, when we got back to the lodge, we saw a snake, not sure what sort but it was about 1.5 metres long with black and yellow stripes, we were advised not to worry as it was only mildly venomous!!


Kinabatangan River - Mr Snake

Due to the current issues in Thailand, we have changed our route, so we are skipping mainland Malaysia for now. This will mean that should Thailand still be a no-go, we can travel through Malaysia with Polly when she joins us in July. Next stop Cambodia...


permalink written by  Tim and Em on May 11, 2010 from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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Batu Karas

Cijulang, Indonesia

We booked transport from Yogya to a tiny village on the coast called Batu Karas – this was billed as one of the best places to learn to surf in Java. Rather luxuriously, we had a minivan to ourselves for the 6 hour journey. Although the physical distances in Indonesia are relatively small, the roads are so awful that at times it would be quicker to walk. It is for this reason it takes so long to get to places particularly the smaller, road less travelled places.

Batu Karas - Surfs up

The accommodation choices were somewhat limited but we did our usual and booked one night and found a better place the following morning. The beach was pretty nice and the surf did not disappoint! Despite all the time spent in Cornwall, I had never properly surfed, only bodyboarded, so was determined that this was the time and place we were going to master it! Tim was not quite so enthusiastic, but agreed to give it a shot. The surf lessons were run by local Indonesians, who looked as if they spent more time in the water than on land.
We had some practices on the sand, at which I failed dismally - balance not being great, I wondered how I would get up on the board in the sea, when I could not manage it on dry land! However once in the sea, something strange and unusual happened and I stood up!! Not just once either, and managed to ride waves the whole way in. Tim was not faring quite so well (a first for me to be better at something than him) and was nearly there but not quite. After having a rest day to let the bruises and aches subside a bit, we hit the waves again, and Tim was soon vertical on the board as well. At times there was a shoal of flying fish jumping all around us – very strange. The surf guys were absolutely brilliant and we loved it!

Batu Karas - Em surfing

Batu Karas - Tim surfing

Batu Karas was pretty magical, due to its size, everyone knew everyone, and we soon knew people by name and to chat to. The only negative was the lack of food choices. There were a few rustic cafes on the beach, all of which had identical menus, rice, noodles, omelettes and pancakes – breakfast, lunch and dinner. This was ok for the first day or two, but after that, I began dreaming of roast potatoes and even toast! The enjoyment of pancakes for breakfast was somewhat diminished after the discovery of shallow fried ants as a topping!

Batu Karas - Fishing boat at sunset

We had arranged to get the train to Jakarta, and had splashed out on a business ticket , which included air con. When we got on the train after a 3 hour car journey, our hopes were dashed, the aircon was a fan, and dreams of a buffet car were out the window!! After 7 hours on the train, we arrived in Jakarta, where our taxi driver could not find our hotel. After driving past it 3 times, we finally arrived at 2 am in the morning, and were so hungry we were eating dinner at 3 am! It felt pretty good – and to have a hot water shower again was heaven. Next stop Malaysia!

permalink written by  Tim and Em on May 3, 2010 from Cijulang, Indonesia
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Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

After our usual first night, dodgy hotel charade, we found somewhere decent, which conveniently was near a decent coffee shop – heaven! It felt strange to be in a city again, but quite nice in a way. We explored some of the sights, including the local markets. The bird market was interesting but a little sad to see some of the birds in such small cages. Despite being it being a bird market, there were also bats, cats, dogs, lizards and poisonous snakes (much to Em’s relief, they were safely locked up!) Less impressive were the live maggots and various bugs and creepy crawlies that also were for sale, presumably as bait or food.

Yogyakarta - Spice stall at the market

The local produce market was huge and really interesting. We had a personal guided tour of a spice stall by the owner where he insisted we sniff, scratch, smell and taste everything presented to us! The array of chillies for sale was incredible and we managed to get some good pictures. Our visit was cut a little short by Em sighting a rat as big as a cat, this was somewhat perturbing as you could barely move through the labyrinth of stalls. We made our exit as quickly as possible!

Yogyakarta - Chillies at the market

We made friends with a becak driver and, after several different journeys, Tim insisted on having a go. The driver was most amused to sit in the front for a change and let the tourist do the pedalling.

Yogyakarta - Tim Becak

After pedalling for about 3 Kms with this guy in the front, Tim was pleased to get out of the saddle and hand the responsibility back to the driver!. These Becak drivers are incredibly fit and some are relatively old. One guy, cycles 20 Kms into town each day to pick up his Becak, then spends all day pedalling other people around town before cycling home again.



Borobudur

We had booked a bus trip to Borobudur, which is the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Unfortunately 5 minutes before we were due to leave, they told us it was fully booked and the only way we could get there was by private car i.e spending a lot of money! As it was our last day and, not to be defeated, we hired a moped, and managed to navigate the 40 Kms there without incident.

Borobudur

I don’t think pictures prepare you for the sheer scale of some of these landmarks, Borobudur was no exception – it was immense with 5 or 6 different levels and some extremely steep stone stairs in between. We had a good look around, it was quite sad to see that some of the ancient Buddha heads were missing due presumably to stealing. We were meant to be there for the sunset but we were kicked out just before which was quite annoying –unbeknown to us, you had to buy another ticket from the local hotel to watch the sunset at further expense!

Borobudur - Tim & Em

Borobudur is the top tourist attraction in Indonesia but, once again, Em & I seemed to be a walking tourist attraction to the Indonesians. We were asked for numerous photo’s including one large group – each one wanted their own picture, so a bit of a photo-shoot followed. We thought this rather amusing so we took our own photo of the group. It had now got to the stage where I suggested that perhaps we should start charging!



Borobudur - New found friends!

permalink written by  Tim and Em on April 29, 2010 from Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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Smoking volcanoes

Probolinggo, Indonesia

We left Ubud and headed to Denpasar to catch a bus that would take us from Bali to Java. As we boarded the bus, the TV was playing Indonesian Karaoke, we had visions of people getting up and singing for the next 10 hours, much to our relief, the TV was switched off as the bus pulled away. Most Indonesians seem to drive like they are possessed and our bus driver was no exception despite it being a 52 seater coach. Every single small gap in traffic was an overtaking opportunity not to be missed irrespective of how close the oncoming traffic was.
After about 7 hours, we stopped for dinner which was included in our fare. This caused much amusement amongst fellow passengers as the menu was completely in Indonesian – everyone was looking at us as we were advised by the cafe owner what was what. By now we were well off the usual tourist trail and there was much interest in Em & I – more to follow on this.
We eventually arrived in Probolinggo, this was to be our rest stop for the night. We found somewhere to stay and had spotted a KFC when we came into town. Whilst I am slightly ashamed to admit it, we feasted on the Colonel’s finest chicken that night – sometimes you just have to do it!
The following morning we went in search of transport to Cemoro Lawang, a small village in the mountains which is the base for seeing the active volcano Gunung Bromo. After quite a long of hanging around in for enough people to fill a mini van, we finally set off for the hour’s journey which winds up the mountain side to Cemoro Lawang. When we got there, we checked into our lodgings and booked a sunrise trip to Bromo for the following morning. We had a look around the village, at one stage we were almost mobbed by a bunch of school kids who wanted to have their photo taken with us – there would be a recurring theme of random strangers wanting photo’s of us.

Bromo at sunrise

As we were so high up it was refreshingly cool, particularly at 3am when we had to get up! We squished into a 4 x 4 with 4 others and then trundled up to an old extinct volcano to see the sunrise over Bromo. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy, but the mists cleared for a couple of minutes to give us a decent view.

Bromo at sunrise

Bromo view


We then drove to Bromo, and climbed what felt like 10,000 steps up the side of the volcano! Although I exaggerate with the steps, we were really high up and it was pretty challenging due to the reduction of oxygen in the air! The volcano was pretty amazing, as it was smoking, fortunately no eruptions while we were there. After our early start, we then went back to the hotel for breakfast (jam sandwiches!) and then we were off to Jogyakarta, on yet another epic 10 hour bus journey.


Bromo - smoking!

permalink written by  Tim and Em on April 25, 2010 from Probolinggo, Indonesia
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Ubud

Ubud, Indonesia

Small boat, walk, bus, walk, small boat, big boat, small boat, walk, bus – this was the sequence and 8 hours later we arrive in Ubud. The journey was incredibly hot so as soon as we found somewhere to stay, we jumped straight in the pool to cool off. I won’t ramble again about the place that we stayed but it was good and it was only 18 quid a night – bargain. After our swim we had a stroll but it started to rain, we were forced to seek shelter in the form of a massage table!! It was very therapeutic to look up from the massage table and see the rice fields. By the time the hour was up the rain had stopped.
Day two we checked out the town properly and did a big circuit of the main streets. It was incredibly tempting to buy lots of different things but unfortunately budget and space in our rucksacks would not allow. We did contemplate buying a teapot and some other cool crockery to send home but the thought of it arriving smashed prevented us.
One of the main streets in Ubud is called Monkey Forrest Road, very aptly named as on it is a forrest with....you guessed it! We decided to take a stroll through the forrest to see the monkeys and to see one of the temples within.

Nit Nurse Anyone?
Very stupidly, we purchased some bananas to give to the monkeys. Almost as soon as we went in, the monkeys smelt banana, Em was forced to throw several decoy bananas so that I could stuff the remainder in my pocket.


Who stole my banana?

There were hundreds of monkeys, they were everywhere in all sizes – from tiny babies clinging to the underside of Mum to quite scary looking Dad monkeys! There was one or two occasions where we had to run, as these monkeys can be a little scary, they have a tendency to jump on you if you give them a chance. The temple was small and some of the stone carving were amazing, I particularly liked the Komodo Dragons!

Ubud - Stone Komodo's


We hired another moped for a couple of days to try to get off the beaten track – we managed to do this quite successfully. We visited Tirta Empul which are holy springs allegedly discovered in 962 and holding magical powers


Tirta Empul - Holy Waters
.

Then we went to Gunung Kawi, these are ancient monuments which have been carved into the rock, standing 8 metres tall. The site is at the bottom of a steep valley which you have to walk down god knows how many steps to get to.


Gunung Kawi
The bonus though is that the site is surrounded by terraced rice paddies – although these views are the typical tourist pictures you see in magazines, it was so beautiful to see the lush greens – stunning!


Easy Rider!

By now, we were getting pretty good with the moped, I was able to go quite fast without being told off and Em was not only leaning the right way she had stopped clinging to me like a limpet!! The next day we were really adventurous and took an 80km round trip to see Gunung Batur, a volcanic cone by a lake – again very picturesque. Most of the tourists stay at the top of the plateau but we went right down to the lakeside which rather intrigued the locals. One guy offered to take as to his village to see a dead body in a tree – we have subsequently learnt that this is, in fact, a tradition in some parts of Indonesia where the dead are put in trees – not sure for how long and what happens afterwards. Whilst it was an extremely kind offer we declined!
Despite a couple of scams, the Indonesian people are lovely, they are extremely friendly and are inquisitive of where we are from, what our names are and whether we are on honeymoon!! I think this is what has perhaps struck us the most on this trip is the sheer friendliness of complete strangers where there is sometimes a language barrier.
To close a few stats – a litre of unleaded costs 33p, yes thats 33 pence folks, an hour’s massage is £4, a bed for the night can cost as little as a tenner, a small beer £1.40, moped hire for day is £2.96, the local dish of Nasi Goreng can cost under a pound but strangely a box of tampons is £5.11!
Next stop Java but we’re not looking forward to the journey!


Nice view for lunch

permalink written by  Tim and Em on April 23, 2010 from Ubud, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

Another boat journey but this one only an hour long, took as to Gili Trawangan – this is the
biggest of 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok. Pretty much as soon as we got there we knew we were going to really like it.

Gili T - pass me the Bounty
Firstly, There is no motorised transport on the island at all, the options are walk, hire a bike or pony and trap (known locally as a Cidomo). We had already booked accommodation at a place called Martas. A short stroll took us there and to say the place was fantastic would be a vast understatement.

Gili Trawangan - pool at Marta's

We had our own bungalow built in traditional style, a porch outside with a day bed where our breakfast was subsequently served to us every morning. The pool was fantastic and the garden was very pretty. Originally we planned on staying for 3 nights but we ended up staying 5.
The snorkelling from the beach was truly incredible, it was like swimming in an aquarium. You only had to swim out for a few metres before you saw fish. Saw so many fish, I only wish I knew all their names – there were tiny vivid powder blues ones only a few centimetres long to big silver fish almost two feet long. A lot of work has taken place (and still is) to maintain the reef and regenerate the coral, from what we saw they are doing an excellent job.
Really need to mention the food here as it was fantastic. A couple of places had barbeques where you choose the fish you want to eat (giant prawns, snapper, tuna, mahi mahi, etc) and they then barbeque it for you. Without doubt, we ate the best Tuna we have ever tasted here.
We hired bikes for the day and cycled round the island, well we cycled some of it, in a lot of places it was too sandy to cycle so we ended up pushing.


Gili T- Boats at dawn

To give you an idea of the size of the island, you could walk around it in 2 hours. There is a lot of development taking place on the North of the island, hopefully this will not spoil it. Currently, most of the places to eat, sleep and drink are on the South part which contrary to Lonely Planet is the best beach.


Gili T - Boats at dusk

We were both very sad to leave Gili Trawangan, it was a really really chilled out place and we loved it.

Ferry From Gili T

permalink written by  Tim and Em on April 18, 2010 from Gili Trawangan, Indonesia
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Senggigi, Lombok

Lombok, Indonesia

We had a fairly interesting journey to Lombok. Firstly, there was a 3 hour journey in a rickety old people carrier – it was literally falling to bits inside with holes in the dash where instruments should have been. The driver took no prisoners on the road and undertook some imaginative overtaking manoeuvres which many a sane man would not have attempted.
We then arrived at a tourist office at the ferry port, most journeys seem to end at a tourist office (more about this later). After only a short wait we were told it was time to go, so we start to walk over when the guy from the ferry office says we need to hurry up because the ferry is leaving. With this, a guy appears out of nowhere to carry one of our bags. We were told to run, as we were nearing the ferry, cars were still being loaded but we guessed that pedestrian passengers must have to get on first. Slightly breathless, we got onto the ferry and the guy carrying one of the bag put his hand out, this is when it becomes apparent that we have been scammed, the ferry didn’t leave for another 20 minutes!
After a 4 hour ferry journey, we then get into a less knackered old people carrier for an hour and a half to be dropped at yet another tourist office – a pattern has already started to emerge! In between power cuts, the guy at the tourist office phoned around a couple of the places, that we wanted to stay but strangely there were all full, miraculously the hotel that he suggests has room! Fortunately, the place is just down the road but when we get there we’re not hugely happy. Despite being very tired, we head out and check out a few other places to stay so that we can move in the morning.
The following morning, we moved to nicer and cheaper accommodation. Senggigi itself is quite a nice beach resort although the Lonely Planet built it up as something idyllic which I don’t think it is. We checked out the town, local eateries and bought ourselves a SIM card. Chilled out by the pool from which you could see the ocean.

Senggigi - sunset

On day 2 we hired a moped so that we could get out and about and see some of the island. I considered this great fun although Emma seemed to insist on leaning in the wrong direction around corners.


Lombok with Gili's in background
We had a really nice ride around with only a few close shaves with other road users. Stopped at a forrest which was home to a lot of monkeys who seemed pretty happy for us to be relatively close to them and take pictures. Also went to a temple which is right on the beach.

Senggigi - Temple

permalink written by  Tim and Em on April 13, 2010 from Lombok, Indonesia
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