Destination: Gili Meno

I'm finally over the Bali Belly, thank God!! Lots has happened, but I'll just comment on the last two days in this post.

Yesterday morning at 7 am, we left southcentral Bali (Ubud) on a bus to the eastern Bali coast. We then boarded a large ferry at 9am like the one in the picture below. We then sat in port for another hour. Around 10am, we finally set sail. About 4 and 1/2 hours later, we made it to the Lombok (next main island east of Bali) harbor. We then proceeded to hang out in the bay for the next 3 and half hours supposedly waiting for the tide rise. Of course, there are no announcements, you just have to ask around and see if anyone knows anything.

The boat was packed. There was no more room on the second floor where there were bench seats and a blasting TV. We, along with many other tourists, proceeded to the 3rd level where we'd sit on a newspapers on a metal floor for nearly 9 hours.

We had another bus waiting for us (thankfully it was still there) that was supposed to take us to another harbor about two hours north of this harbor to catch yet another (much smaller) boat. After driving about an hour, the driver informed us that it was too late and we'd have to stay the night in this other town and leave out in the morning. Ugh!!

We spent the night and left again on the bus at 8am. We had too many other problems at the next harbor to write them all here. After much frustration, we finally boarded a little boat to our destination, Gili Meno. Gili Meno is one of three islands known as "The Gilis". Finally, we arrived at our island paradise!

I don't have time to adjust the pictures, but below is "the harbor" and a picture of the kind of boat that we took over. You have to wade to shore a little ways. It's kind of difficult with 4 backpacks and a heavy suitcase, but we made it!

Here is the bungalow that we'll be staying in for a couple of nights. It's cold water and fan only. It's very mellow here with much less hassles and touts than the other places that we've been. It's a nice break!

Here is the view from our balcony.This was our lunch spot today.

Ryan looking at baby turtles that they raise and then release in the ocean.

Lombok (and of course most of Indonesia besides Bali) is Muslim. Ramadan is just around the corner. Here is a picture of the mosque on this island and some of the local houses. They aren't all huts like this, but many are. This is a very small island that you can walk around in a few hours. There are no doctors or even police here.

For now, I'm off to bed to get ready for my first dive tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. If I like it, I may continue on for another few days and get my certification.

I don't have time to check my spelling or grammar. Hopefully it's not too crazy! Until next time...