Update

Saw Anisja yesterday. Leaving for Bali this afternoon.

Moved

We have moved for the last couple of days on Gili Air. It is closer to the port, but still very quiet. It is also supremely situated for sunset viewing.

Jumbo prawns

Yesterday we had a beautiful morning to start the day then it absolutely bucketed down all afternoon and evening. So much so, that our ceiling sprung a leak through the light fitting onto our bed and we had to change rooms.

Today we have had nothing but sunshine (fingers crossed). A swim this morning after breakfast. Book the flights back to Bali from Lombok and lunch at the Zipp Bar. Monika will finally get the jumbo prawns she has been hankering after.

Trawangan and Air

January 1 was crazy in Kuta. One of the public  holidays Indonesians get is January 1, and it seems they like to spend it at the beach. A line of cars and bikes started to stream past the hotel at 7 in the morning and was constant until past 7 at night when they were all returning.

It poured down with rain all day on the 2nd as we were driven by Eddie up to Bangsal Harbour to catch the public ferry to Trawangan.

The port at Trawangan was packed with tourists and their suitcases as they all prepared to leave the island and return to work (mostly Europeans).

We spent the night at Pondok Windy with 6 or 7 Dutch young things as heighbours. They partied well into the morning, finally petering out around 5:30 as the mosque call started up.

We decided to island hop to Gili Air the next morning but were somewhat tardy in heading out in the morning. The public ferry left at 9:30 (3,000 IDR per person, about $3). We got there at 9:45. The next public boat was at 4:00pm. We had no choice, CHARTERRRRR. 3,750,000 IDR (about $35) lighter and a short boat trip later we were on Air and settled into Pelangi Cottages.

The sun shined all day, so we had a few swims and a circumnavigation of the island (two islands in two days) before watching the sunset with a cocktail and then dinner.

We are up early for breakfast with a view at low tide of an exposed reef. Another day in paradise ahead.

Yet another one

Tanjung A'an - this panoramic gives it a very strange look. It's a long crescent with calm waters and great views. Monika recognises it as the place she stayed when she came to Kuta over 25 years ago.

Cross another b**ch off

We can add Selong Blanak to the list of beaches we have visited now. 13km east of Kuta, it's the ideal place if you want to learn to surf. Gentle, medium size, slow-moving waves. It's also a gorgeous swimming beach. Afterwards we went to Mawun Beach [previously] and then lunch at Ashtari [previously], which now has a paved road, unlike last year.

Along the way we also passed the illegal gold mines.

Let me tell you about dinner last night though. We went to the Anda Restaurant and Monika had a perfectly nice Mahi Mahi with a Sasak sauce. I ordered the vegetarian pizza. 

When it came it had the usual pale, insipid look of most Indonesian pizzas but that's alright I wasn't expecting much. I had already eaten there and had the only other vegetarian dish, Fettuccine Alfredo, which was quite nice. As I made my way through the third slice I started to chew what I thought was a particularly tough piece of onion skin which turned out to be plastic (probably from the bag of mozzarella). I put it down to 'there is occasionally an oversite in the kitchen'. When I got another chunk in the next slice I put it down to carelessness. 

When the the waiter comes over and asks if we have finished we say yes but I point out the lumps of plastic and say that we're not paying for this. He gives a sort of bemused grin (I don't think he understands what I'm telling him), collects the plates and heads off to the kitchen. While the bill is being prepared he hoes into the rest of the pizza. I guess strips of plastic don't bother him.

He comes to the table with the bill and the pizza is still on it. I repeat that we're not paying for it and he finally gets the picture and heads for the kitchen again. He comes out with a portly, bare chested chap wearing a sarong talking to him. The wiater heads for our table and the other fellow marches off to the exit to the hotel restaurant. The bill has the pizza crossed off and the waiter apologises and says that the chef has "taken his uniform off". Quiet what that means, I'm not sure, but the moral of the story is, 'don't order pizza at the Anda in Kuta'.

Composing

Wow! That post from yesterday looks like pure arse. That'll teach me to compose outside of blogger. I'm sorely tempted to spend some time fixing it up but life is too short. I'll leave the hybrid aol/MySpace looking monster as it is.