Part 2 - Off to Lombok!

Monday, 16th. of  May


We took the Villa up on the free brekky offer today as we were on our way to Lombok early.
The friendly and accommodating Wayan took me for a burn on his scooter after breakfast to check-out the Villa we had booked for our next trip in late Sept. with the same Villa group.  It's a very big villa, bigger than 'Cinta' but unfortunately I wasn't overly rapt with the location....an even longer walk down a lane. I altered our arrangements a little on my return home ( I was very glad I had checked it out, wouldn't have been happy there for over a week, but 3 days will do us nicely).

Jack our driver unfortunately had a family emergency but sent his older brother Putu who had Jack on the phone when he arrived, he was most apologetic .
We had some difficulty all fitting in the van, plus luggage. It took quite a bit of manoevuring to get it all in. Shaz and I had an interesting time of it in the back seat, we both squeezed into a seat meant for 1 ...hehe. It was a matter of  'ok,ok my foots gone to sleep are you ready? 1,2,3 move ..ouch ...oooo ..no wait,wait ..yea that's better. In hind sight it probably would of been more suited for a couple to be so up close and personal in the back ..it was a romantic trip after all! Very squishy but bearable and personally I felt closer to Shaz for the experience :0)


We reached Pandang Bai after about a 1hr. drive. We were booked on the Gili Cat easy peasy via the internet but I was unsure of it's location. I asked Putu if he new of the office location and he said he did. On arriving at the harbour..geez they just swoop on you hey ....you probably know how it goes. Putu was busy unloading the luggage and I'm just wondering where the office is so we can get the frick away from all these guys. One of the swoopers tells us it's quite a distance away. So it's carefully pack that luggage and all back in the van again to get over to Gili Cat. Wish Putu had been upfront and asked for directions and delivered us to the right place originally (maybe a man no map reading thing?) ..Jack would of.


                                                               View from the coffee shop

                                     The Pandang Bai wharf with the Gili Cat to the left.


                                       

                             We were interested in this guy's hat that had his bait in the little pot on the top.

                We realised how practical it was when we were on our way for a snorkel the next day    in a 'jukung' off of Lombok and motored past some fishermen that had waded out neck deep for their catch!

We had a bit of a wait and had coffees at the cafe. I think it may be associated with the Gili Cat. It was good because I could keep an eye on my luggage whilst we waited and for some reason I was a little anxious about a well worn Balinese leather back-pack that was like 15 years old, it had done all my trips with me. Just a beach and boat bag really. Funny I had never been anxious about it before..but it was present and accounted for.

         The luggage arrival , this guy was fun giving everyone the thumbs up and calling out 'just call me Donkey'. His smiling face was there to greet us on our return also.


We sat right at the back of the boat this trip. It was noisy due to the motors but my music drowned that out. An Ipod is a must for this trip I think. On this crossing the water was nice and flat. Geri camped out and had a much needed sleep as Lance wasn't well at all the night before. 1hr.20 trip.
We off loaded the Gilli T travellers and there was a bit of a delay when a guys bag with his wine in it had gone missing.I felt for him..Ahhhhh maybe I was right in being anxious about my back pack! Phone calls were made back to the office etc. and all the luggage was checked and double checked no sigh of it though. Hang on to what you can on these trips I say now. My back pack came with me on the return journey.

Arriving on Lombok our 'Jeeva Klui' transfers were waiting to whisk us away. There were a few anxious moments on this trip as we watched the car ahead of us with our loved ones in it overtake on a windy hill.!

                                          Our wonderful bungalow up front and center.


"Oka" checked us in with a nice juice and cool face washer (I sooo appreciate and love this). Right from the start this resort was fantastic. I guess I may have just been staring out blankly from the lobby as I had checked out the pictures on the website so often and now I was finally a part of it, Wow. 'Somebody please pinch me and tell me I'm not dreaming.'


We were shown to our rooms which were just awesome. The only thing between us and the ocean were a couple of lounges and a palm tree (and the occasional dragonfly, this one looks the size of a small bird,but it wasn't) ...bliss! 

The swimming pool and restaurant were a 30 second stroll away. A frozen Margherita and a Bintang were ordered and within minutes we had settled in nicely for the next 6 days.

                                The restaurant from our porch with the pool directly in front.

                                              G&L + S&K's 2 storey bungalow to the right of ours.


It was discovered early in the piece that there was to be a bit of a privacy issue in the bathrooms because there was a new 2 storey bungalow being constructed probably 30m behind ours and the alang alang roof was going on. The bungalows had these really nice outdoor showers with a glass door between the toilet and shower and the roof workers were clearly visible from the loo etc. and visa versa. We handled this by some strategic towel draping  over the glass door and only showering at night. No point in complaining as none of us wanted to be moved....we weren't going anywhere!!


That afternoon we met with 'Eko' who had come recommended on the forum and I had made contact with whilst I was home. He came to the hotel and we organised a couple of snorkeling trips to the Gili's with him for the next couple of days.


4 of us had a lovely dinner at the resort that night  but 'G&L' called it an early night to catch up on lost sleep. Then off to bed for us, these beds were like a King sized cloud thhheee most comfortable I have ever slept in ,with the sound of the waves lapping at the shore to lull us to sleep and the mystical sound of the 'call to prayer' up in the rain forest covered hills behind the resort, to wake us in the morning....Man oh man I loved this place.