...We decided to spend a few days in Candidasa just relaxing. After the isolation of Tulamben and Lovina we needed the presence of things like a mini-mart and decent restaurants. We took a day trip over to Padangbai and found a secret beach for locals and expats. We had a nice lunch in the little shack there and met a guy who'd just come from Lombok, the island next to Bali. We decided that we'd heard to many great things about Lombok's Gili Islands not to go. Little did we know we'd be taking the world's worst ferries to get out there. This ferry was the one for the trip out. Does that rust make you as nervous as it did me? The lack of a seat for 4 hours didn't improve my mood. Neither did the mix of urine stink and diesel smoke. The only upside was the great view of Mount Agung, the "Heart of Bali".

Needless to say we eventually made it to Lombok. Unfortuantely,we still had another hour on the bus and another hour on a small boat. The travel took the entire day but man was it worth it! The Gilis are made up of 3 small islands, Gili Air, Gili Meno, and the furthest from Lombok, Gili Trawangan. We decided that Trawangan would be our best bet since it was the most developed for tourists. Now this place is paradise. The view looks out across to Lombok or Gili Meno, where we spent most of our time. There are no motor vehicles on the island and all the transport is either by bike or horse carriage. The beaches are mainly deserted and fairly pristine except for the one on the south side of town full of topless sunbathers! I've never seen so many topless babes that I actually thought "Man I'd like to see her topless!" Besides the beautiful babes, we got to eat fresh pineapple off the core, fresh mango off the seed and sip fresh coconut milk out of the shell! I'm sure you could guess that Amanda was in heaven. In my book nothing much is better than fresh fruit and rock n' roll on a soft, sunny beach. I could have stayed here the entire year! We really weren't looking forward to going back but we promised our friend Nick that we'd meet up again with him in Sanur or Kuta before he left. So after a few days of paradise in the amazing Gili Islands we were off again for a terrible day of travel back to Bali.

The second ferry for me was even worse. Again, the top deck had no seats and there was soot everywhere. I still have soot stains on my only pair of shorts! This guy had the right idea by camping out by the only life saving device on this rust bucket. Only later did we learn you could have flown for $10 more!

From the ferry we got to sit on another Perama bus for 3 hours while it went out of its way to Ubud before going south to Kuta. We stopped in Sanur to meet Nick. We had a great time with Nick before he had to leave for the UK. I'm hoping he'll send some of his waterproof camera pics frmo our day at the beach. The waves out there were HUGE with 20 foot crests at least!

So, a night in Sanur and 2 nights in Kuta brings us up to speed for our little trek.

I'll post more when we get it. We may be cutting the bali part of out trip 2 weeks short so we have more than just 2 months to see SE Asia.

See you soon!

Josh