Indonesia continued (Gili Islands and beyond)

From Kuta I headed to the Gili islands, which consist of three small islands off the coast of Lombok. There is no motorized transportation and no ATM's on these islands, so one must come prepared with cash and their walking shoes. I payed $4 dollars a night for a small bungalow and it came with complimentary cockroaches. I also learned that it is worst to kill these suckers because it spreads their eggs, they are asexual, and I learned this fact a little two late and these cockroaches were the size of my thumb. Maybe bigger. Cockroaches were all over the island and everyone I talked to had seen a few in their rooms. I was awakened every morning by roosters, which brought me back to my childhood and teenage days. There is a farm behind my parent's house in Vacaville and I woke up every morning to the sound of a rooster, I was not a fan growing up and I was not a fan on the Gili's. On my second day on the island I rented a bike and went for a cruise around the island. It took a few hours and I did not encounter another person for almost the entire time, it was great. Almost all the tourist shops and guest houses are located on one side of the island and the other side is completely undeveloped. I stopped a few times to crawl onto a random hut and read and relax and to enjoy complete solitude. I went diving, a lot. I decided to take the advance course which allows me to do deeper dives as well as night dives. As part of the course I got to do 5 dives and additionally I did two more fun dives. Absolutely incredible, on my deep dive I saw my first shark. I always thought that I would be scared if I saw a shark, especially 33 meters under water, but I wasn't scared at all. I was so in awe and at peace and it helped to know that this type of shark (white tip reef shark) is completely harmless. I saw tons of sea turtles, octopus, eels, blue spotted sting ray, tuna, giant trivali, and two more sharks (black tip reef shark and its baby). The Gili's was such a wonderful spot to go diving, on my deep dive the visibility was 30 meters, the corals were so colorful and breath taking. I love diving!!! I have not been sick since December, that is 3 and half months of being sick free while traveling throughout India and Southeast Asia, I guess that is some what of a miracle. My luck with good health ran out and a virus got the better of me, luckily it only put me out of commission for a day. But it was a lousy day, I was becoming disoriented and very dehydrated and I was starting to get worried because I could not hold water down. But all is well because I got better the next day, yeah for electrolytes.

From the Gili's I booked a four day boat trip to Komodo and Rinca Islands, home of the Komodo dragons. There were about 15 other people on the trip and we all slept on the upstairs deck with small mattresses laid out on the floor. It was cozy but all the people on the trip were great and I had such a great time. We stopped at random islands to snorkel and went for short walk on one island to a refreshing waterfall. The boat was really small and would had been devoured by waves if we encountered bad weather. I also don't think there was much in the way of a radio and navigational system. And we had a crazy captain, Captain Yoyo. I am convinced that this man consumed magic mushrooms every morning. One day he made a speech of about ten minutes trying to convince us that our breakfast would be much better if it included magic mushrooms. He also told all of us ladies that those on their "menstrual cycle" should beware of the komodo dragon because they are attracted to blood. I laughed but I also wanted to slap him. During his "information sessions" he left the entire group in a complete state of confusion and uncontrollable laughter because he spoke such nonsense. It was great. The trip was peaceful, we spent majority of the time on the boat, but the scenery was beautiful and we always had views of many islands. We saw komodo dragons on both Komodo and Rinca, but we saw one dragon on Rinca that still had blood on its neck from a recent kill. Probably water buffalo. One a dragon bites a buffalo it takes about two weeks for it to die and the dragon tracks and follows its future meal. The dragon doesn't have to eat again for another three weeks of so. The boat trip ended in Flores, where I went diving (of course). Flores is suppose to be one of the better spots in the world to go diving. I loved it of course, did much better with my air consumption, which meant, we can stay under water for a longer amount of time. I would have loved to explore the interior of the island but I had to make my way to Bali to catch my flight to Singapore. I have seen such amazing places and I know that I can always come back another time. The journey to Bali took two full days. I had to take a five hour ferry to the island of Sumbawa, where I had to take a small bus two hours to the main bus station. Took an eleven or so hour bus to the other side of the island, then another ferry to Lombok, maybe a few hours or so, then another two hour bus through Lombok to the port, then a five hour or so ferry to Bali, then an hour bus to Ubud, which is where I stayed two nights before I caught my flight to Singapore. Wooh, I am tired just thinking about it. But the bus ride through Sumbawa was absolutely stunning! I was suppose to fly out of Indonesia on the 18th of April to Malaysia and I was going to spend my last ten days in Asia there. I decided early on that I was going to spend every last minute I could in Indonesia because I loved it so much, good people, beautiful land, amazing scenery, and the list goes on. I left Bali on the 25th and headed to Singapore where I spent two days before I flew to Greece to meet my mother.

The line of questioning from locals in Asia went as follows; 1)Where are you from? 2)How old are you? 3)Are you married? 4)Why not? and When do you plan on getting married? The best answer to the marriage question was not yet. Better than just answering no. The most popular question from non American travelers was "Who do you want to win the primaries?" Hilary? or Obama? Besides on the island of Bali where the people are Hindu, Indonesia is a Muslim nation. In fact, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world. And it has the fourth largest population in the world. Next to China, India, United States, then Indonesia. While we were trekking on the island of Rinca, the guide warned us to be careful of snakes and he named off three of the most poisonous snakes in the world, Cobra, green mamba and something else. Many locals expressed frustrations regarding their government, the central government is located in Java and almost all major politicians are Javanese and the locals that I spoke with expressed that they felt that they were misrepresented and neglected. Many people are poor and do not get any support or help from the government. I had such an amazing time on all of the islands and I loved getting to know many of the locals on the numerous islands that I visited. I will return someday!!