20th April,2017

Hello All, I hope you have enjoyed the last few journals, they were pretty long ones. Yesterday we had a little wander around Bali. Of course we would need weeks to actually see everything but we did spend a day driving around. We payed 700,000IDR for the driver and he took us around. We’ve seen 3 temples, one of them is on a lake and the last one, Tanah Lot is actually in the ocean. There was a Hindu temple festival as well So we saw like thousands of people. The highlight of the day was the giant rice paddies which is part of the UNESCO. It was amazing. Unfortunately the weather went very bad and rainy so instead of a very long walk between the rice paddies, we could only take a short,45 mins walk. Just got back in time before the heavy rain started and we went to have some nice lunch. Well,nice isn’t a good word, it was rice with some chicken and salad…just the usual. A friend of mine asked why we aren’t eating sea food. For some reason they don’t really sell too much seafood apart from some type of fish and also, it is fairly expensive -to our budget-. I did have fish a fair few times and also some other seafood but if we would always eat that,we would be out of money soon. Talking about money, I don’t know how they did it but when we travelled across South America, everyone who we met and been in SE Asia said, it’s cheaper here than in America. That is a lie. While we both took back about £300 from SA, here we are already very close to reach our limit which was £3000. In fact Rich has already reached his somehow. We spend our money together, there is no ‘you have this, I have that’. We put both of our money in a pot and spend it together. But with the flight tickets and the visas in the beginning…it killed our money. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining,I’m just telling YOU in advance in case you would ever do the same, just to let you know…it will be more expensive than you think. I mean, we also did lots more here than in SA, way more trips, lots of island tours and other stuff. Flight ticket can be cheap within certain countries, but also can be pricey for what it is. Indonesia,we find it NOT cheap at all. So far I think we spent most of our money here if we are talking about daily limit. We constantly exceed our limit,every day since we are here. Accommodation isn’t expensive if you aren’t picky, food isn’t bad either if you can eat rice and noodles every day -I gave up…-, tours and trips aren’t cheap though. We booked a ticket today -which I’m very excited about- to comodo island and Flores from here. What I completely forgot is that there is an island in between Lombok and Flores which is a very long and big island. To take that by bus from here would take ages,so we booked a 4 days boat trip which has 3 times food/day, water, all entry fees, it also stops at some places to snorkel and we will have a bed (mattress) to sleep on overnight. All cost 1,800,000IDR which isn’t bad comparing what it includes. So we leave on Saturday and we get to Flores by the 25th. Then we can still stay there for a few days before we heard back to Bali (which again, will take a day at least unless we fly). So that is about travelling around here. I actually realised how stupid we were, we should have allowed way more time here in Indonesia; it’s beautiful and it’s so much to see. I will definitely come back for a month just to travel around here.

By the way, we are at Gili Meno island now. There are 3 small islands by the west side of Lombok, the Gili islands. We picked the smallest and most peaceful one, the other 2 are more party places. It’s very nice and very small. We walked around today and took about 45min-1 hour to walk around completely. The sea is beautiful and the beach is nice, even it’s a ‘bit’ of a coral around as the water brings the dead corals out. We literally didn’t plan anything apart from sunbathing tomorrow. It saves a bit of money and it isn’t much to do here anyway. I also need some tan, so people can actually believe I was in a hot area. There was so many rain in the last few weeks, we never really had a chance to get a good colour. Well, me at least. But tomorrow hopefully. Also have to menation, Rich got a bit of cold, -HOW???- and his man flu is horrible..he literally thinks he is about to die, so that’s what I have to deal with right now. I hope I could help you a bit with prices and also how things working here. One thing is sure, EVERYBODY have to come to Insdonesia before the last supper.☺️