There are essentials in life — water, food etc., and then there’s transport. Anyone who has travelled independently will know that transport becomes something that you need to learn where to source, will it get you where you need to go, and how to try and understand if you are paying a fair price.

Indonesia has great transport systems for all markets, the local, which is cheap and regular, and the tourist, which is more comfortable but much higher in price.

Now, I understand this! People need to make a living, but tourist transport always removes you from any interaction with people living in the area, who really are the most interesting people to talk to. Most backpackers have the usual polite chats (about how long have you been away, where have you been, and where are you going), which is nice, but you only find out about the ‘sights to see’… whereas some local knowledge can lead to finding some much more interesting things.

To complete our 2-day journey to Java, we did opt for the tourist transport to get back to Bali, as the local ferry wasn’t worth the effort and additional time.

To get off the Gili islands you have to take a few steps. The first was to get the local boat, direct from the beach over to the larger island of Gili T.

From there you pick up the larger fast boat back to Bali, which takes about 2-3 hours.

Arriving at Padang Bai harbour in Bali is an experience in itself. Before you’re even off the boat people are shouting at you to go with them. We had pre-booked a shuttle bus back to Kuta, as this is much cheaper. The local guys in the dock know this, so when you say you’ve pre-booked you will get all sorts of answers as to why that transport won’t take you.

We’ve landed here a couple of times before and know that you just have to unfortunately ignore everyone and walk to the office you have booked with. However, two people we saw didn’t know this…

First guy: a local chap shouted at him that he was from his pre-booked shuttle bus company, and told him to give him his ticket (he was supposed to take the same bus as us), off they went. We never saw him again! He would have ended up in a taxi, probably.

Second guy: was again booked on the same shuttle bus as us… he was talking to a taxi driver at the office where we were catching the transport. The taxi driver told him there was a delay and that the bus would take 4 hours (it takes 1), and it wasn’t leaving for 2 hours. Now during all of this the people we pre-booked our shuttle bus with were just standing there not saying a word. I said to the chap to just smile and ignore the man, we left 5 mins later and it only took about 90 mins!

We managed to make it back to Kuta in time for a beer while watching the surfers as the sun set. So, all good…

Day 2

We had seen on the internet that there was a public bus for the journey to the Bali-Java ferry. This was about a 4 hour journey and left about 5 miles away from where we were staying, so we couldn’t go there that evening to check the times and if it was running.

It was also impossible to get any information from the local tour operators as they would just say it’s not running, it’s dirty, they won’t take you etc.

So, in the spirit of what the trip is about, we decided to just turn up to a bus station that we weren’t sure still existed, to catch a bus that we weren’t sure was running, and if it was, what time it left.

After a quick taxi ride, and against all local advice, we arrived at the bus station (that did exist), and hopped straight onto a bus that was leaving in 5 mins. Perfect.

After the bus journey it was a quick ferry ride across to Java…

So here we are! Staying tonight in a hostel. £7 for both of us for the night.

https://www.thegoodfeeling.com/en/

Now, I suppose we need to plan what to see now we are here 😎

There are several islands known as ‘Gili’ in Indonesia and generally they are dotted off shore from a larger neighbour. We headed for Gili Meno which is just off the coast of Lombok, and about a 3 hour ride on the fast boat from Bali. These islands are a series of three within a mile crossing of each other and local boats take you from the mainland and between the islands.

Meno is the smallest island in the middle, and the quietist, then Gili Air, to the right, which is slightly larger than Meno and has more of a surfer-hippie feel, and lastly Gili Trawangan, on the left, which is the full-on party island.

I’ve often heard people say you shouldn’t return to a place as ‘it won’t be the same’ or ‘ it’ll ruin your memory of the place’

We visited these islands in 2001 and they have certainly changed since then. In 2018 two earthquakes struck within a few days of each other and caused significant damage to the area, leaving over 500 people dead and 200,000 homeless throughout the Lombok region.

Meno only has a population of 400 and around 2000 on all 3 of the islands and 70% of buildings were affected.

Lombok had another earthquake of 7.1 in August this year, but thankfully no major damage was reported.

You can read more at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_August_2018_Lombok_earthquake

The Covid pandemic and lower number of backpackers visiting the area has also added to the pressure.

We revisited the area back in April this year and even in this short interval between then and now the island has seen further closures and more areas that have fallen into disrepair

However, there are signs of how resilient these little islands are. There are people boat building on the shore line in preparation for the busier season.

Locally owned bars and restaurants are also investing, updating their beach front properties, the one below was a favourite of ours in April where they had updated the restaurant

and built cabins for rental, which is where we stayed.

https://www.booking.com/Share-QHewPb

There is also a newly-opened resort style complex, which suggests that large developers are taking an interest in the island. Although it does look very impressive, I’m not sure what this type of investment will add, in real terms, to the quality of life for the local population or economy.

https://baskgilimeno.com/

The coral reef off the islands was badly damaged during the earthquakes and areas of it has died. However, there is still a large population of turtles living around the reefs, and all the islands run small ‘hatching’ stations, where hatchlings that have not made it into the sea are cared for until they can be released .

The chap running the place said they collect them after they have hatched, and care for them until they are 6 months old, and then release them on the beach.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g664665-d10060153-Reviews-Gili_Meno_Turtle_Sanctuary-Gili_Meno_Gili_Islands_Pemenang_Lombok_West_Nusa_Teng.html

If you make it to Indonesia the trip out to these little islands is well worth the effort. We’ve been here for 9 nights, but 2- 3 nights would be plenty to get a feel of the place.

It’s sad to be leaving, but the next leg of our journey will be new territory, so very excited to see what we can find!

When you say Bali, most people would think about crisp clear tropical beaches and palm trees, and then there’s Kuta. Lots of people head to Kuta as a base for seeing other places in the area, such as Ubud, or to catch ferries out to the neighbouring islands.

I think it’s not unfair to say you’ll either love or hate Kuta. On one hand it’s a bustling seaside town with a lively restaurant and bar scene, where you can literally find anything you are looking for! On the other, it’s loud, a little bit dirty and just complete mayhem.

We’ve been really motivated (won’t last!) to get our average steps up to 20,000 a day (on 16,000 so far), so we decided to walk up to Seminyak which is slightly up the coast.

So, after about an hour’s walk we ended up at in a bar, aptly named The Mixwell Bar, that Richard’s barber said we should check out.

LGBTQ rights in Indonesia are not favourable, so to find a bar that was openly for LGBTQ customers was amazing, and it really was like something out of the 80’s where I would have been too scared to go into in my younger days, people were even smoking inside!

I even managed to get one of the stars to strike a pose

So after many beers and very late night we walked back to Kuta knowing we had to be up at 6am for our transport, clocking up 30,000 steps

Now that was a Drag……….

How many times have you booked a flight and had to change planes in a place you’ve never visited? Singapore was always one of those places for me. I’ve passed through it many times on my way to Australia. But it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I stopped off for a week and explored the city, and what a great city it is!

Bizarrely it was cheaper to fly via Singapore than directly to Bali, this is always worth checking out if booking long haul flights, ask when booking if you can have a couple of nights stop over, or book 2 separate flights, which is what we did. It may seem like a hassle but you get to see another place you haven’t been and a couple of nights will give you plenty of time to have a whistle stop tour of a city!

Richard really wanted to see the National Museum of Singapore: https://www.nhb.gov.sg/nationalmuseum/

Now usually when at a museum I spend most of my time in the cafe or the shop.

However, there were some great exhibits and I really enjoyed it ( the air conditioning might have helped).

Plus it offered a great view of one of Singapore’s most unusual hotels, the Marina Sands: https://id.marinabaysands.com/

We spent the remaining time on a culinary world tour, breakfast in Chinatown and dinner in Little India, both were amazing.

And of course you cannot go to Singapore without afternoon refreshments at one of the most famous landmarks.

So short stopovers? Try something new you might like it!

It’s a little surreal but we are finally on our way!

Over the last few weeks lots of people have asked if I’m excited, and I got the feeling that my response was a little underwhelming!

It’s probably the usual worries that stop us doing the big things, leaving family and friends, will we have enough money to do what we want to do to make it all worth while! Plus we made the decision not to make any big plans just take it a leg at a time, so really didn’t know where we we’re going!

So for all those people, apologies, but I’m hoping…

Countries to visit (places we haven’t been before)

South Korea, Tibet, Bhutan, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Buenos Aires, Brazil

Plus some old favourites, people that know me won’t be surprised to know Australia will be on the list !

Goals

Get my average daily steps up to 20,000 a day

Lose 10kgs

Not worry about the small things.

So quite a list to get through!

Now i’m excited 😎