Hi,
It’s us again, this time back in Ubud after our to sojourn to the tip of Lombok (the island next to Bali).
We travelled from Candidasa on Friday to Padangbai, the main ferry port for travel between Bali and Lombok, and then got on a boat to Gili Air, a very small island off the north western tip of Lombok. The trip was pretty good across the Lombok Strait -which is about 30km wide. We saw lots of flying fish, two Pilot Whales, and a few dolphins. The trip took about 4 and a half hours.
We arrived at Gili Air about 7pm and went off and found a hotel. It wasn’t the best maintained hotel, but it was clean and the staff were friendly. We stayed therefor three nights. Most of the time we spent cycling or snorkelling or just chilling out. There are no cars or motorbikes on any of the three Gilis – just bicycles and cidomo -horse drawn carts. We cycled around the entire islan in less than an hour! Apparently, it only takes an hour and a half to walk.
We can recommend the Blue Marlin Dive Centre for great helpful service and free boat rides to other Gilis for snorkelling. Again, the snorkelling was wonderful and we saw so many amazing tropical fish… and green sea turtles.
After three peaceful days, we returned to Bali. This time, we had to catch a small boat across to Bangsli in Lombok, then travel by bus to the very beautifal town on Senggigi, and get on the boat back to Padangbai. This took about 3 and a half hours, then we returned to Ubud by bus.
This morning we went to the Bali Bird Park which is just incredible – we saw three different kinds of bird feeding displays and Komodo Dragon feeding. If you’re going to Ubud you have to see this place! We had Birds of Paradise hopping over us to eat and got to hold Brahminy Kites and owls.
This afternoon we have been shopping, with the obligatory trip to the Ubud markets. Tomorrow is our last day in Bali and we fly out to Darwin at 9.15pm.
Perhaps more tomorrow.
Happy Birthday Mandy!!!!!
xxx Syme.