One word: paradise

29.01.2013

Ok. So. Finally I can say; NOW WE'RE TALKING!!

(Toim. huom. nyt on horisontit hiukan vinossa, ei jaksanu oikoa ja editoida, sorry.)

We made it to Bali as planned, and we left Bali a lot faster than planned. We stayed two nights in Seminyak (close to Kuta), and to be honest it was quite a terrible tourist town. The beach was long and would've been beautiful if it wasn't insanely dirty, full of trash, plastic bags and bottles. There were a lot of hawkers everywhere and their selling technique was aggressive, it seemed like during the low season they are especially desperate to get customers so they become pushy and rude. At least I was very surprised – is this the legendary Bali that all the fuss and hype is about? I couldn't really believe it.

We went out in Kuta on our second evening. It happened to be Australia Day (26^th of January) and the streets and bars were packed with drunk Australians. It was another mission impossible to find a bar that would've seemed nice, everywhere was too loud or suspicious in some other way. Anyway we went to a few bars just to experience it and to make sure we're not missing out much. In the end it was fun though, but I definitely got enough of Kuta for the rest of my life.

One good thing about Bali; our lovely hotel!

The next morning we took a mini van and a boat to the Gili Islands and since Thomas (a guy who I met in Laos 3 years ago) was in Gili Meno and said that we have to go there, we went. We sat on the top deck of a speed boat for 1,5 hours and when we reached our destination I couldn't believe my eyes. What a beautiful island! The water could not be any more clear, the sand is white and powder-like. You can see the mountains of Lombok in the horizon and small boats being rocked by the waves. As soon as we got off from the boat a man came to us to ask if we already had our accommodation sorted out, and since we didn't, he showed us the bungalows his brother runs and we got a lovely bungalow (including breakfast) for 5 euros per person a night from a place called Meno Smile. During the night the room gets too hot though, since we didn't want to spend our money on air-con... But otherwise it's close to perfection.

Baby turtles being saved

Our bungalow

Our breakfast included

The middle of Gili Meno

The mosque of Gili Meno

An extremely observing little boy showing off with small crabs he found

Thomas in the middle. After three years we met again in Asia :P

The scene from one of the restaurants

Now it's the tourism low season in Indonesia, because January and February are the two rainiest months of the year here. All the resorts and bungalows on Gili Meno are almost empty, prices are low, and the atmosphere is extremely friendly and easy-going. We talked with a waiter at one of the restaurants and he said that during the high season (July - August) the whole island is packed with tourists, mostly Europeans, and people even camp on the beach because there is no other accommodation available. He also said he likes the low season way more, since it's more relaxed. I totally agree, I'm sure that Gili Meno would feel like a completely different island during the summertime.

We're not even too annoyed by the rain so far. Yesterday we spent the day on the beach and instead of raining, it was actually way too hot and I didn't drink enough water so in the evening I felt terribly dehydrated, got a bit of fever and didn't feel like eating or drinking anything. This hadn't happened to me before so I didn't know what was wrong. When Inka and Jenny stayed at the beach bar watching the sunset, I was rolling around in my bed feeling at times too hot and then again too cold, listening to the loud hypnotic prayer from a mosque nearby, and thinking that life can be pretty absurd at times. Hopefully I learnt from my mistake and during the rest of our trip I'll take better care of this water-drinking problem.

A massive boat. And when I say massive, I mean massive.