Lombok and the gillis
Okay sorry it's been so long... we have been on the gilli islands in lombok..
it's been great here really relaxed.. there are no cars or motorcycles here so i'ts a much slower pace. so since there are no cars or motorbikes when they call "transport" they mean a pony 'n' carriage as you can see amanda is making friends ..

although we later found out she is quite allergic to them. Amanda and i flew over to Mataram and got a car to take us to bangsal where we prepared for the worst... craig, bonnie and craig had warned us that there are a lot of people there pretty much just trying to rip you off there and we had both read articles saying the same.. but when we got there it was so easy we wondered if we were getting taken by the scam... i was only offered a hat from a little kid and that was it.. we got on a boat about 5 ins after we got our tickets and that was it.. apparently the key is to go during lunch..
So we got to Gilli Trawagen.. so here is a pic of the main drag..although so parts do have cobbled road but this gives you the gist

..so we found a place to stay after looking at some real dumps.. and then we were told by everyone here that we had arrived in time for the full moon party ... lucky us.
we rested most of the day swam in the ocean a little.. the water is amazing.. and then went for a walk in the evening.. we ran into a guy we met in bali so we had a couple drinks with him..later we went to the full moon party but it was not quite the ones in thailand... terrible dance area and the first 2 dj's were not too good.. they were playing really hard music and it just didn't fit... so amanda and i went home.
for the rest of the time here we just did the usual sleeping.. eating and napping with a bit of swimming thrown in there once and awhile.
after a few days of that we thought a new island would be a good a good change so we booked a boat to the next island over gilli meno. this island is the smallest island of the three and it's definatley the most quiet.. lots of the hotels were not even open..but this was a good speed for amanda and myself.
so we were here for a day and we ran into paul the guy we had originally met on nusa lombongen.. he was with an israeli guy.. so hung out with them for the night and had some drinks..since that island was a little too slow the next we all went to the next island over.. gilli air
gilli air was a mix of the two islands..the first night we stayed in the same resort as the guys but then the next day decided we wanted a pool as the tide is always low here during the day so there is not as much good swimming on this island. we were also completley sick of salt water as there was not fresh water in any of the places we had been staying recently. so we had some laundry done and a room with a nice bathroom.
we were there for a couple nights.. the same program as all the other days.. my sewing is getting much better..i'm a few pages away from finishing another book.