12. Gili Trawangan Tennis Tickets...

Ah, back by the water....heavenly.  Ah, by the mosque...not so heavenly!  I, luckily, am quite a heavy sleeper but poor Leah had a terrible nights sleep.  Its almost the end of Ramadan and there is obviously some ceremony that goes all night around this time.  Despite this we managed to get out of bed and head off to breakfast.  This included fruit, toast and coffee that a spoon could stand up in, and was served on the terrace of our villa.  This was a pretty basic breakfast, based on what we were paying for the accommodation and what I had experienced both in Ubud and Candidasa.  It seemed the more you paid the less you got.  I might have said this before, sorry!

As it was Monday 29 August, I had warned Leah that I would be preoccupied trying to buy tickets for the Australian Open (tennis).  This is the presale available to Australian Open members.  It only cost $70 to join and I got front row seats this year for one of the quarter finals. Of course I was in Costa Rica but Mark and Di got to see the great man, RFed, play his match.  They also give you a free tournament magazine, access to the AO lounge and two free ground passes so its not too bad.  As we didnt have wifi at our hotel we went to a restaurant along the beach front so I could be online at 9am.  Leah went off on recky (reconnaissance) for boat tours, restaurants and the general lay of the land.  I was really disappointed that despite being online at 9am the best seats I could get in a series package was Row S.  So I decided against buying tickets.  My intention was to wait a couple of days and try again.  Not sure why I thought that would work, but it was a plan.

The day passed quickly as it does in paradise, swimming in the pool and the ocean.  Before we knew it we were at the cocktail bar at Vila Ombak's Seaview Restaurant and Bar.  Sitting up at the bar we were joined by Michael, who sat down and announced that he felt like champagne.  Not wanting to stereotype but it did make me laugh as he was about 25 tops, fairly heavily inked, dressed in singlet, baseball cap and boardies...not your every day champagne drinker...!  As I laughed out loud I did have to explain this to him and he either wanted to make a point or really did want some champagne as he promptly paid about $200 for a fairly average bottle (eg Trilogy).   He was a character and it was fun chatting with him and he shared his champagne with us, which we really needed after a couple of cocktails, but it would be rude to decline..right?  He was with a group of friends who were in the restaurant having dinner.  His friends tag teamed to come and join us also, probably checking what he was up to.  Even one of the girls came over and she was very pleased to hear that her boyfriend had pointed her out as his girlfriend while he was chatting to us.  Boy, did he owe us for those brownie points..:)!!  It was an interesting discussion about relationships from their perspective and ours.  He gave me his card and also invited us to catch up with them all where they were staying.  I told him that he wouldnt remember us at all and as it turned out, he looked a little surprised when we said hello to him a couple of days later in the street....:)!

11. Ubud to Gili Trawangan

The four days in Ubud had gone by in a flash.  It was now time for our trip to the Gili  Islands.  One of the services that Blue Water Express offered was to pick you up from your hotel and take you to your closest port.  From Ubud we chose to go to Padang Bai which was only 20 mins down the road from where I was staying in Candidasa and is also where Blue Lagoon is located.  From Ubud, the trip takes about an hour and a half.  Despite the late confirmation, the driver arrived right on time and away we went before the traffic got too crazy in Ubud.

It was a very pleasant drive, through many rice paddies and scenic hilly areas.  The shortcuts to avoid the traffic were usually small, one lane roads with hairpin bends, always interesting !   We arrived at the Blue Water Express office in plenty of time and just had to take care of our payment. Unfortunately their EFTPOS machine was not working.  After trying several times they decided we needed to pay in cash.  They would tae us to the closest ATM which was only 5 minutes away.  What they didnt mention was they would take us on the back of the motorbike, luckily one each, but I wouldnt have been surprised if they had intended to take us both on one bike.  Leah was a little shocked but it was literally 5 minutes away and it was a fun ride.  It was comparatively a pricey trip at about $150 return but it only took 2 hours where the public ferry is a fraction of the cost but takes about 5 hours.  We were aiming for maximum island time!!

So having paid we had about half an hour to wait and other people started arriving.  Always comforting.  Getting close to the time we decided to wander out to the pier.  As we waited a local fisherman came sailing in in his outrigger, very happy with himself as he had caught a fish the length of the outrigger!!  Who knows how he caught it and got it into the boat but he did.  As he went past you could see the tail of the fish sticking up over the side.  It was a real "old man of the sea" moment.  No doubt it would end up in some restaurant that night.

Finally we were on board and on our way.  The boat was reasonably full having come from Serangan, further south, near Denpasar.  When looking for transport I had heard it described as "if you have ever wondered what it feels like to be in a high speed boat ride like you see in the movies"!  This should be interesting!  We were lucky as it was reasonably calm that day and it didnt seem that bad.  The trip took us along the coast and I was able to show Leah where Candidasa was and we also passed White Sandy Beach.

Gili Trawangan was the first stop (it also went to Lombok) and it was a "wet landing" meaning we had to jump off the boat into the water.  This was no big deal as we were really close to shore and it was hot so quite cooling to do so.  The crew unloaded our luggage onto the sand and we collected it from there.  We were excited, the island looked gorgeous, the sun shining, beautiful blue sea and restaurants all along the beach.  There was a narrow road and then accommodation, tour places, more restaurants and shops on the other side. There are no cars on the island only bicycles and cimodos.  We jumped in a cimodo (horse drawn wagon) to take us to our hotel as we werent sure how far away it was.  The horses looked reasonably healthy although they were small and after a while I decided they spent too long in their harnesses and carried too heavy a load.  I didnt use them after this.

Due to the difficulty of getting accommodation, we had decided to spend a bit more to get something nice.  We werent disappointed (not yet anyway!).  The room was lovely with its own pool that you could sit in and look across the little road to the beach.  The room was spacious and clean (well when the guy who was cleaning it when we arrived had finished).  We had to ask for a couple of things like soap and towels but hey, we loved the view.  We jumped in the pool and the people from the other two villas were friendly.  We were booked into Kelapa Kecil for the first 3 nights, then Dive Trawangan for the next night.  After Leah was leaving I had booked further accommodation which again was a bit piecemeal with one night at Dive Trawangan and 3 nights at Kelapa Kecil.  I had booked this because I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to love the island....!  We did our usual investigation of the place after our swim and looked for somewhere to have a cocktail and a late lunch as it was about 3 pm by now.

10. Ubud Pampering and Cycling Tour

Leah went off to one of the yoga classes we had found the day before and I decided to continue on at the Lynda school of yoga on the balcony again.  I kinda feel like things should be relatively priced, you know like the $5 classes in Boca del Toro in Panama.  The yoga classes here were about the same price as back home.  There's that "no income" person again....eek...:)!  Leah went for a wander around and I investigated availability of spa appointments for the afternoon.  I found one that could fit us in that afternoon so we went off to have some lunch and then be back for our pick up, all part of the service!

We had booked into Bliss Spa and when we arrived the setting was beautiful.  Surrounded by rice paddies, peaceful and serene.  My experience was all downhill from there.  The wording in the brochure was not correct and not all treatments that we were expecting in our package were included, you had to choose....strike one  I tried to explain why I was disappointed and negotiate a discount with some limited success.  I was actually reluctant to go ahead but Leah was keen.  When I made the booking I had requested separate rooms.  Now that we had sorted out what we were getting and how much, they then said there were not separate rooms available...strike two!  They did say we would have access to separate flower baths.  So we relaxed into our facials and massages which were very enjoyable.  Of course then there was only one flower bath available ...strike three!  They did offer us a free jacuzzi as a replacement....but of course we had to share that with a whole lot of other people so we declined.  I have to say I found the whole thing quite disappointing rather than relaxing and enjoyable.  Our driver took us back to the hotel and as we got ready for dinner we got a phone call from the walking tour we had booked for the next day.  This tour had been cancelled but we were invited to go on a longer cycling tour.  We decided to go ahead and do the cycling tour although Leah was a little reluctant.  In amongst all of this, we still hadnt managed to get a confirmation in writing of our boat transfer to Gili Trawangan.  Thats okay, we are not going till Sunday and its only Friday night, right?? 

We got up early and had breakfast in preparation for a big day cycling on Saturday 27 August. We were the first pick up and were expecting a group of 11.  Somehow it ended up being just 4 of us.  We were joined by an Austrian couple, George and Petra, who were just delightful.  The trip consisted of the van taking us to a point up the mountain and then we jump on bikes and cycle down. On the way up we stopped for breakfast sitting on the balcony overlooking Lake Batur and its volcano of the same name.  Despite being a little misty it was beautiful and who doesnt love Nasi Goreng for breakfast!  Next stop was the Luwak Coffee Plantation where we got to try several different kinds of coffee including ginseng coffee.  These were all good.  The pick of the coffee was the Luwak coffee which has actually been eaten by an animal called a Luwak and then "processed" by the animal and then made into coffee.  Without a word of a lie, if you do a google search on "poo coffee bali" you will find it...:)!!  It just tasted like coffee, thankfully.  We had a look around the gardens and there were a couple of Luwaks in cages (unfortunately) and then we were ushered into the gift shop.

 

We finally arrived at our cycling spot and the bikes were in excellent condition, complete with helmets.  We had a bit of a spin around the carpark to make sure all was in order and then off we went with our cycling guide.  It was a lovely thing to do, riding mostly down the back roads, through or along rice paddies.  There were some really sandy tracks that were a little tricky and we had to make sure we didnt lose George who was mad for taking photos and kept stopping along the way.  He was probably the best cyclist amongst us so he caught up easily.  We stopped along the way to look at temples and visited an art school which was really interesting.  While we were there the artist told us about his family and the home that they shared of which the school was a part.  We got to see the family kitchen which was dark and basic to say the least.  Sometimes its easy to forget how poor some of these people are and how they live compared to us.  Petra was telling us about a guide they had taken for lunch and he was so poor he had never eaten chicken or fish before, only vegetables.  We continued our ride 'enduring' light drops of rain occasionally.  Most of the trip was downhill which made it easy and it could have been loads of fun if we werent restricted to staying behind the guide.  It was easy to pick up speed!!  We cycled through some beautiful countryside and it was such a lovely way to spend the day.  The stops were good for me as my bottom seemed to be bored with being on a bicycle and kept going to sleep....eek!  Our last stop was near a bridge and was very picturesque.  We were reluctant to get back in the van but we were close to the outskirts of town so in we got.  Last stop was for a late lunch.  George and Petra invited us on their sunrise tour to the volcano the next day but unfortunately as we were heading to the Gili Islands we were not able to join them.  We farewelled them and the van took us back to the hotel.

We were pleased to see on our arrival we had received a confirmation for our boat ride, to be signed and faxed back of course, and that they would be there to pick us up at about 8am!  Success at last, with persistence and calm nerves.  That evening I managed to get my legs waxed which they really needed.   You know its time when the hairs are blowing in the breeze as you walk along.  It was a caramel wax which I had never had before.  It seemed to be effective, although I felt a bit like a toffee apple by the end of it.  And it had that sweet sugary smell that you just want to eat...!  Then a trip to the yoga shop which Leah had found but no purchases were made but they did have lots of interesting stuff.  We ended the evening with another delicious meal and caught the last half of the football at one of the bars.  St Kilda, Leah's team was playing and had a good win.

9. Ubud investigation

A walking day today, Thursday 25 August...up at 7am and did yoga on the balcony.  Had to wear clothes to do yoga for the first time in a long time...I know...tmi!!  After our free breakfast Leah and I headed out to see all that is Ubud!  Out of the hotel and turn left today, as we went right yesterday.  We walked and walked and walked.  There is shop after spa after shop after spa after shop.  Im not saying this is necessarily a bad thing :) but its a bit overwhelming, particularly coming from Candidasa where there is only one street about half the length of one of Ubud’s smaller streets.  We looked at lots of summery dresses and some beautiful wood carvings, collected brochures from the spas and tried to find some yoga places.  It would be good to do a class for a change rather than just doing it on my own and Leah is keen. The food here is particularly good...so far anyway.  We lunched at Casa Luna and I had an awesome potato and spinach curry with raita.  Man, I cant tell you how good that yoghurt tasted.  I could get it occasionally in Candidasa but only flavoured stuff.  This was tasty tasty, along with the rest of the meal.  Leah enjoyed her Nasi Lamur also. 

We wandered around most of the day and then decided to have a massage.  At $10 for a 1hr full body massage and reflexology...who can go wrong but I have to say, you get what you pay for!  The same with manicures and pedicures, they are cheap but they don’t do all the cuticle treatment and buffing as thoroughly as others I have had.  Dont get me wrong, Im not complaining, Ill take a $7 manicure or pedicure anyday!!

We decided to keep up the cocktail tradition we had started the night before and went to the Laughing Buddha Bar.   Of course, no wonder Buddha is laughing as they get you in on a happy hour basis but I didnt read the board properly and instead of two for one cocktails were three for two which doesn’t work quite as well as two for one, unless of course you have six but of course their prices covered the free one anyway...doh!  We had tapas to eat which were nice.  After dinner we went to a Legong Dance performance.  This was interesting and the costumes were beautiful.  There were a variety of dances and the performance was quite good but we did feel like we might have been at the amateur theatre version! Apologies if this sounds a bit whingey....must be too far from the water...:)!