Back to Kuta

Hello all,

After I wrote yesterday afternoon, Julia brought me a booklet that had some interesting info about the Gilis. 'Gili' means 'small island' and 'Trawangan' is derived from the Indonesian word for tunnels. This is because during WWII the Japanese occupied Gili T and forced the locals into labour. They also dug a series of tunnels underneath the island that have since been filled in.  There were a few words of advice regarding customs we hadn't know of as well!

I read lots of my book and then met the group for our final dinner together. The location was great, a table right on the beach with romantic lanterns, and even some fireworks at the conclusion of our meal. However the service wasn't very good, Leah ended up going to the bar herself and grabbing the bottle of wine that her, Michelle and Julia were sharing - haha!

We went back to Jiggy's and I spent most of the night in the outside area facing the beach with Greg, Manuel and Claire chatting about life, travel and the stars. Greg had this awesome app which is a map of the solar system, so we could tell which planets and constellations we were looking at. 

We headed back to the hotel at about midnight for a pool party, but I wasn't feeling it. I couldn't be bothered getting wet and needing to shower again, as well as getting my bathers wet. So I went to sleep. I slept horribly due to heat and noise, but never mind. I'll catch up on sleep before work goes back next week. 

This morning I had breakfast with Claire and then packed up. Claire moved into my room with Reyann as they are both staying an extra day at Gili T, but I'll be seeing both Reyann and Claire tomorrow at the hotel I've booked in Kuta. 

When Claire was packing up her room she checked her drawer and found a travel journal documenting the travels of a girl named Helena from the UK. It had six months worth of stuff in it, we had a little bit of a read trying to figure out where she was and how long ago she had been on Gili T to see if we could reunite her with it. Thanks to some detective work and the wonders of modern technology, we deduced that she had left Gili only a few days ago after a Wanderlands tour and Claire found her on Facebook. She messaged her and received a swift response thanking her, it was obvious straight away she had really missed the book. Leah and Michelle are going to leave it at reception in Kuta at the hotel we are staying at because Helena will be going there next week. How lucky for her!! She sounded quite similar to myself a few years back. On one page in her book the book had a section asking why she was travelling, and she said a long term boyfriend that had "broken her heart and freed her to travel" she then proceeded to use some expletives to describe how he had cheated on her. It's interesting how something seemingly negative at the time can happen, but it can turn out to be a wonderful thing. All thanks to that moron ex boyfriend of hers, she's now on a six+ month journey learning loads about herself, her capabilities and other cultures. It really struck a cord with me due to the fact that I started travelling alone after a particularly disastrous and frustrating trip to France, Spain and Portugal with a lazy ex boyfriend followed by a messy breakup resulted in me realising that until I found the right person for me, I should go it alone and not let not having someone to travel with stop me. I'm so pleased she will be able to continue writing in it once she receives it next week. What a feel good story - hopefully her cheating ex is stuck in the rain at home in a boring job hating his life ;)

I said goodbye to those still at the hotel and boarded the ferry with Ryan, Julia, Jan and Dominik. Unfortunately we stopped at Gili Meno, Gili Air and Lombok so an extra hour was added to our journey. I did see a dolphin jump out of the water thought which was pretty cool!! Eventually we made it to Padangbai and all got on our appropriate shuttles - myself, Jan and Dominik to Kuta and Ryan and Julia to Seminyak. 

Unfortunately for us, the shuttle had no air conditioning. So it was a very long two hour ride in the van with the windows down, inhaling exhaust fumes and goodness knows what else!! All part of the experience I guess. I got chatting to a guy from New Zealand and his Norwegian girlfriend who were really nice and that helped to pass the time. We stopped at a petrol station and they had individual servers who got the petrol for you which was interesting! I think it used to be like that at home a long time ago. The traffic and driving was pretty scary though. Overtaking on blind corners, running red lights. I'm looking forward to driving myself again!

I got back to Kuta and was so hot and exhausted. The five minute walk to my hotel made me quickly sweat through my clothes (ew - sorry). I'm fairly sure this was the hottest day we've had here yet, my weather app said 31 today and not much cloud. I got to the hotel only to find out I had somehow booked a room without an air conditioner. Luckily for me they had one spare room with an air con. The guy told me it would be an extra 100,000 ($10) a night but I bargained him down to $7 as he told me if it rains part of the wall leaks a tiny bit. The weather forecast is clear the next two days though so all good ;) The air con is beautiful and my room is an ice box. 

For a while I just sat and regained my energy. Then I unpacked a little and set off. I walked to a shopping centre called 'Beach Walk' which was very uncharacteristic of the area. It had Zara, H&M and a massive proper supermarket (that was why I went there). I stocked up on cash at the ATM and bought some snacks and water for the waterpark tomorrow. Then I stopped at a small restaurant up the road where I enjoyed some Mie Goreng and watermelon juice for just $4 total!!

I walked along the beach on the way home, mainly to avoid all the annoying taxi, bracelet and sunglasses people. I'm much more of an easy target now I'm alone. They're annoying me already! I'm walking because I want to - I DON'T WANT A TAXI!!! Haha. The sunset was obscured by some clouds again but once again the light was beautiful. The beach was packed, much more than a few days ago. A Malaysian lady asked me for a photo which was weird and funny at the same time. So now I'll be in her photo album somewhere!!

I came back to the hotel and had a quick swim. The pool is really nice!! Unfortunately my sinuses are really sore from my cold though so it was short lived. I've just had an amazing shower and am having a really early night in bed reading my book and maybe watching a movie. Unwinding at its finest! :)

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox