Ubud and beyond

Gili Air

Ubud turned out to be a great place to spend a few nights. With our bargaining skills honed by months on the road we managed to secure a room in a great hotel with swimming pool and breakfast for less than £6 a night which made us all very happy. It’s a great town with seemingly a temple on every corner, art galleries galore and lots to see and do and certainly plenty of expensive boutiques if you’ve got money in your purse. If you can ignore the constant cries of “transport, taxi, massage” that fill the air it really is a very nice place. The rest of the guys did the culture trip which meant that I didn’t have to, phew!! so I hired a bike to visit the rice terraces and such like. More my sort of thing. Although I did go to the monkey forest which housed 300+ macaques in a beautiful setting. Or it would have been beautiful if I wasn’t so scared of of them! One or two are okay but 300 was a bit much for me. We also found a Mexican restaurant with the best fajitas ever so happy days for all and Ben kept us laughing with his tales of his emergency use of the pages of his rough guide to Australia book and his saving of the letter P for Perth.

They might look cute but they're very very scary honestly!!

Not the worse place we've ever stayed.

We reluctantly left Ubud and travelled on a ferry across to Lombok. A scenic ride led us past deserted white sand islands, schools of dolphins and turtles. However it also led us to believe that Lombok would be similar. Unfortunately not. We arrived in the main resort of Singiggi somewhat surprised. The postcards show sweeping bays of clean white sand, in reality it is volcanic ash mainly covered in rubbish. Maybe because we have seen so many great sights on this trip we have been spoiled but certainly I wasn’t impressed. It could be that we are on the wrong part of the island, who knows. It could also be the fact that we have been travelling so long we are getting weary and things don’t appear fresh anymore. I do miss my family, my dog and especially my bambino, so maybe it’s just that, but at least least it’s warm here!




Catching a ferry to one of the Gili islands, Gili Air, the next day cheered me up. Situated just off the coast of Lombok these really are the islands that postcards are made of. White sand, deserted beaches, lots of snorkeling and swimming along with a great bungalow to sleep in all for less than £5 per night! It also had the most chilled out manager ever maybe due to his chain smoking of dubious substances. I opted to sleep outside on the balcony which proved a great choice enabling me to watch a fantastic sunrise every day. Plus it bought out the gypsy in me. Don’t think I’ll try it at home though. A run around the perimeter of the island takes about 40 minutes and again I’m privileged to be able to run amongst fantastic scenery. Running with the sun setting over the Indian ocean and the sound of the mosque calling for prayer is amazing.  Myself Heather and Roberta spent a day snorkeling and had a great time, spotting giant turtles, a huge variety of fish and the most amazing coral.  The Gili islands are famous for diving and snorkeling and rightly so.  We also saw fantastic sunsets, definitely a place I would return too.  It was the perfect end, or nearly end, to Asia for us.  After 5 relaxing days we caught a boat, bus, ferry, bus in the Indonesian tradition of hurry up and wait and are now in Kuta sorting our bags out for the flight to Australia.  Kuta is a major holiday resort for Australians and as such full of tacky bars and very similar to Benidorm, maybe without the pensioners!  Still a couple of nights are ok.  Next stop Perth.  Thanks Roberta for the photos.