Gone fishing.....

The whole idea behind spending a few days at the beach in Sengigi, Lombok, was that it looked to be a reasonably big town, perhaps with some kind of nightlife....... we were clearly hoping for too much! But as it turns out, this wasn't such a bad thing as we were all feeling pretty tired after our boat trip. So Day 1....... we discovered just how small and empty Sengigi was. The day was rescued by the local spa, whose 20% off offer enticed us in! Tam and I finally had the dirt from India scrubbed rather rigorously off our faces (needless to say, we were a little concerned about our tans also being scrubbed off!) and Adam tried out the ear candling - a bit of rolled up paper dipped in wax and shoved unceremoniously into your ear and then lit! We reconvened after this at a local bar where we stumbled across some of our fellow tour boat members. After a drink with them we decided that the lack of anything else to do in Sengigi meant that we should revisit the spa for more pampering! The rest of the evening was spent having a few more drinks with our boat friends and then a meal at a local pizzeria where I got bitten alive, but thought it a fair price to pay to be able to watch some rugby on the restaurants TV!!

For the following two days Tam had a well derserved rest with Mr Turtle at our very plush hotel (don't panic people, we haven't suddenly got rich - we're staying in the attached "hostel".... two cheap rooms with a living room and DVD player - SCORE!!). As I'm sure you've all noticed, she was very productive during this time and uploaded a lot of blogs (sorry that we're lagging on the uploads by the way!) and LOADS of photos to facebook. Good work Tam!

I was less productive...... The second day in Sengigi Adam and I went out on a fishing trip. I'm not sure about Adam, but I was expecting to catch a lot of very pretty and colourful fish (which I was rather hoping I would sneakily be able to throw back into the sea before our captain saw!!). Alas it was not meant to be. Our captain caught half a bucket full of fish, including two large ones which we merrily eat for lunch on Gili Air pre-snorkelling (which was disappointing - oh how I miss Gili Meno!). Between me and Adam one fish was caught - a red snapper. Who actually caught this fish is currently in dispute though. How can catching a fish be in dispute? Well, it was my rod and I reeled it in, but for the five seconds that Adam was holding my rod whilst I faffed about with clothing, he swears he hooked the fish..... hhhmmmmmmm..... I think he was just bitter about being the only person in the boat who hadn't caught anything.... :-)

The following day, the three of us spent the morning by the pool, and then Adam and I returned to the spa for some more, very painful, pampering. Adam has some awesome bruises on his legs currently!!! After dinner at the hotel restaurant we all watched a film and then headed to bed.

Today we have travelled to Kuala Lumpur. Not too eventful a journey. Whilst trying to organise the transfer to the airport in Bali, which involved a car, a boat and then another car, Adam and I discovered that I am not good at letting other people haggle for me! But a cheap transfer later we were at the airport in Bali. Although starving hungry, we were cutting it fine for check in so we decided to prioritise that. But after check in we were informed that we were no longer allowed to leave the airport! Lame! For once, thank God for airport taxes and our lack of organisation! We had no money left so they had to let us out to get cash for the exit charge (yes, you have to pay to leave the country!). But the moment we were through the security doors and back out into the humidity we ran for the nearest McDonalds! I love it when we beat the system ;-) Then back in, through security again, and onto the plane. Several hours later, we arrived in KL and our ride to our very, very central hostel meant a beautiful drive through the glittering lights of the city. We like it here already!

Jo xxx