16 & 17. Finally a boat trip and my new home...Vila Ombak

I had to combine these two posts as blogger wants to date stamp #16 as being posted in 2012!

16. Finally a boat trip
I went to my second yoga class on Friday morning.  Another excellent class.  The instructor was taking a long weekend to see her boyfriend in Lombok so there would be no classes in the morning until next Wednesday.   Doh I leave on Monday!   I prefer to practice in the morning but I decided to get out of my comfort zone and do the evening class on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to use up my 5 pass card that I bought.  This class is a 1.5 hour vinyasa flow class.  Vinyasa means breath synchronised movement so the instructor directs you to move from one posture to the next on the inhale or exhale of breath.  This is generally a more rigourous class.  That means I did two classes on the same day...eek!

Today was also boat tour day.  Actually it was my only day left if I was going to do the free diving course.  Basically, what the tour consists of is a boat out to three of the best snorkelling spots around the three Gili Islands.  This included Goodheart at the top of Trawangan, Meno Wall at the top of Meno and Hahns reef on the north east of Air.  The snorkelling was fantastic and it was a great day.  Meno Wall is good for seeing turtles and as I jumped into the water from the boat a turtle swam right passed me.  Awesome.  We saw about 6 in the area and the guide was excellent at spotting different fish of interest.   He was also a pretty good free diver but I mean really free, no weights or super long fins.  Its really impressive.   

In between Meno Wall and Hahns Reef we stopped for lunch on Gili Air.  I met a lovely French Canadian couple and had lunch with them.  He was a camera man and she was an accountant.  French was their first language but she spoke excellent English and had visited Australia.  He could understand me if I spoke slowly enough.  They were both lovely.  As I ordered before they invited me over, I was a bit embarrassed when my meal came (and went ) and they were one of the last to be served.  In Indonesian terms, this means the meal took about an hour to come.  This also happened a few times on Trawangan.  There is no point worrying about it.  You just have to relax and accept that sometimes things take a while.  Gili Island is more remote and less spoilt than the other two.  Gili Meno looked interesting as well.  It just wetted my appetite for heading back there to spend some more time on those islands in the future.  Ah sigh, maybe one day...so many places and so little time.  

We arrived back about 4 pm after a final snorkel and trip back to the island.  I had plenty of time to shower and get ready for my first Vinyasa Flow yoga class at 5.30pm.  It was amazing.  Kate Middleton was the instructor, not the royal Kate Middleton, but a "student of life and world adventurer" from Canada.  She had a manner about her that really connected you with the practice on all levels, breathing, postures, spirit, mind and body.  It is one of the best classes I have been to.  I have been very lucky to find some amazing yogis in some rather remote places such as Kate here and Laura Kay in Bocas del Toro.  Kate is also a freediver and instructor.  I was looking forward to coming back tomorrow.  Unfortunately that would just be for yoga as my sinuses had completely blocked up meaning there would be no way I could equalise to free dive so I had to withdraw from the class.  Another reason to return!

17. My new home....Vila Ombak

Saturday I set my alarm and got up early to watch the sunrise.  It was beautiful sitting on the sand in just my sarong, listening to the waves caress the shore and watching the light start to illuminate the hills across the water.  The three islands, Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air are all quite close and the sun is actually rising over the hills on Gili Meno.  There was a couple on one of the lounges that were obviously watching the sunrise from the night before!  A great start to the day.

After breakfast I packed all my gear and got ready to check out.  I left my bag while I had some lunch.  About 1pm I picked up my bag and had a chat to Adam about property on the island.  I got his contact details in case I decided to do anything about it.  There was a lot to like about this place.  I then moved from Dive Trawangan to a Deluxe Ombak Room at Vila Ombak for my last two nights on the island.  This resort is located down the other end of the street from our original accommodation where I think the beaches are better.  It was still walking distance though and as I travel reasonably light it was not too onerous.  On the way I saw the French Canadian couple I had met the day before.  They were trying to get the ferry over to Gili Air to spend some more time but had missed the one they thought they were on.  I think they decided to just go for a walk along the beach and settle somewhere in the shade.  

The resort itself and the grounds were lovely and the room was enormous with another lovely, but this time large, outdoor bathroom.  The other bonus about moving here was that I had a TV here and given the two hour time difference, I was able to go to yoga  and be back in time to order room service and watch the Carlton v St Kilda match, the last home and away round for the year.  We lost unfortunately but I was there cheering them on as always...rah!