Lombok, Indonesia

Our journey back to Gili Island to wait out the rough seas was an interesting adventure to say the least. We had booked our shuttle bus ride to the Harbor along with our boat ticket the previous day. They rushed us up the coast to the Harbor which happened to be closed, with all the boats landed around the peninsula out of the wind. 

We “mud bogged” our way through the bush to get to the shoreline where the boats now resided. We were suddenly engulfed by total and complete chaos. There were shuttle busses stuck in the mud everywhere, 100’s of tourists and their luggage abandoned all over the place, and locals relentlessly running, yelling, screaming all around as if they were in the New York Stock Exchange pits! The tourists had arrived from Gili earlier in the morning expecting to catch bigger boats to Bali. One problem being the bigger boats were not coming as the sea was too rough to get there. We took one look at the little wooden fishing boat they had reserved for us, and noticing the raging sea - No Thanks! We hitched the first ride we could find back into town to the nearest travel agency to book a flight back to Bali.

Knowing we wouldn’t have to get on the sea, we were able to watch the wind storm from the safety of our hotel. The wind was howling, knocking over trees and signs producing monster waves slamming into shore. We enjoyed some pizza and watched the waves splash up onto the resort grounds. This also proved to be a good time to empty the large ant colony out of Renee’s backpack which she had unknowingly carried around on your back for a couple days. We estimated Renee had become the mother of 200 or more of the little guys.

Tomorrow we make the short flight from Lombok back to Bali. According to our travel agent “By the time you sit in your seat and light your cigarette, you have landed in Bali.”  Apparently I need to go buy some smokes before they let me fly to Bali.

On a side note, I wanted to share a comment from our tour guide “Gana” from Lombok. He had just finished telling Renee and I that it is legal for a man to have 4 wives at once. Renee and I asked him if he has any wives. His response in a thick Indonesian accent was   “I will start looking shortly, mainly using my smooth talking skills. If that doesn’t work I will use my spear gun, and if that doesn’t work I have a BIG net!” So that apparently is how you get yourself 4 wives in Lombok?!...haha

COLIN