Gili Air

DAY 121 - BKK TO BALI

I got up bright and early, still mortified by my fluorescent hair, and I mentally prepared myself for a long journey back through KL towards Bali. I had booked one night in a guesthouse by a port, but as you will later find out, that port was not the one I needed to go to. I had a nice and ginormous maccies to use up my Thai baht. By the time I got to KL airport I was a rather hungry girl but I thought it best to get through to my gate.

The holding area in question was hell on earth, super busy, no natural light and it turns out my flight had been delayed for 3 hours, not ideal. I plotted up, bought a coffee and got my laptop out. To be fair to the lady working there I had been at her café for a while nursing a singular iced americano but when she asked me to move I said no and proceeded to sit there for another 30 mins. Flexing my free will.

I entertained myself further with a nap, some chicken nuggets and eventually I got on my flight where I bought a biryani.

Every time I write this fucking blog its no wonder I’ve put on weight. Probably could’ve done without the biryani in hindsight. ANYWAY, Bali airport is fucking mayhem, you have to queue up and pay £25 for a visa and then I had to get my simcard, but after a while of faffing around I found the grab station and got a taxi to the mysterious port. Sarangan Turtle Island Homestay was lovely. I ended up sleeping at about 1.30am and was able to book a transfer to the correct port for 7am the next day as I wanted to go to Gili Air (I paid £25), an island in the region of Lombok. After what was a major travel day I was happy to get even a few hours shut eye.

DAY 122 - Old Man In My Room

The lady at the guesthouse had woken up extra early to make me breakfast which was a really lovely toastie. She was also making her daughter, who is a nurse, lunch to take in to work. She was telling me about how hard it was to have her business throughout Covid and how she had to borrow money from a friend. The guesthouse is back on track now, which is great.

I fell asleep in the car and then I fell asleep in the second car. I walked in delirium to the fast boat where I also fell asleep. The boat journey took about 1 and a half hours. Every boat I have taken subsequently to this one has been fucking so long, the process of waiting, the condition of the boat and the length of time on the boat really varies. There are no cars allowed on Gili Air so I had to trapse across the island for about 20 mins but it was actually very beautiful and the sun was shining.

Gili Air is one of the 3 Gili islands the others being Gili T, which is the party one, and Gili Meno which doesn’t really have much to do on it, I think it's more for snorkelling.

I checked into 'My Mates Place' hostel which was gorgeous and I knew I was going to thoroughly enjoy myself here being very fucking lazy. I met two American girls who were working at the hostel and Lily even braided my hair for me, I felt like one pretty princess indeed.

I got in some afternoon tanning and had a lovely vegetarian randang at a place called Rainbow. I got bali belly when I came over Christmas so vowed to be on a strict vegetarian diet for the foreseeable.

I caught a lovely sunset and then watched a bit of Netflix in bed thanks to Solene giving me her rather lovely password. I was watching the new Anna Kendrick film called ‘Woman of The Hour’, a true story about a woman who went on the American version of Cilla Blacks Blind date and the guy she picked was a serial killer. Quite a scary film and not good foreshadowing for the following reason.

The small issue at the hostel was that in a 3 bed dorm was me in a single bed (not a bunk bed), and then over the room (in my eyeline) was a 21 year old German girl on the top bunk, and on the bottom bunk a 70 year old Canadian man called Alex. The prospect of having an old man in the room with us readily available to watch us while we sleep didn’t fill me with comfort, the German girl felt the same. Often there is an age limit for hostels, or if not there are definitely clearly hostels for a younger crowd and others with a more family vibe. More on this to come. Despite this I had one of the best sleeps of my travels, the bed was super similar to mine back home and I actually prefer sleeping in places without curtains now.

DAY 123 - Pizza with German Girl

I got up nice and early and spent the morning tanning, the UV in Indonesia Is tasty to say the least.

The German girl and I went for a stroll, I bought an expensive coco butter cream because it smelled so nice and we enjoyed a chocolate crepe and a coffee. The people on Gili Air were super nice, always saying hello to us and I got lots of complements on my hair which was starting to calm down in colour.

I dropped off my laundry at a bit of a sketchy place but I thought if my bags get lost they're mainly full of shit anyway. We also had a nice pizza dinner together at a place that gives you 10% discount if you wear something pink (hehe). The pizza was average but I was really in the mood to have some western food.

DAY 124 - Old Man Touches My Shoulder and Thigh

After another early tanning start where Alex (70 year old man) touched my shoulder a few times throughout the morning, not ideal. There was a big old rain storm so I embarked upon my new project of writing comprehensive notes on my favourite book 'Sapiens'.

I had a wander and went to pick up my laundry which was miraculously waiting for me. Throughout this process I did not speak to one person, just dropped the cash and dipped. I ended up returning back to Rainbow for another veggie curry, super cheap, like £3 with the mangie smoothie. I was feeling very rested and very healthy.

After what was quite a peaceful day I went into the bathroom to have a nice shower before bed when I saw a big rat scurrying across the floor in the bathroom. I jumped on my bed and shit a fucking brick. I told the guys at the hostel who basically said, this is a tropical island, stop being a little bitch. But actually the tough love encouraged me to put on my big girl pants. While the workers double checked rat and co had gone I was laying on the day bed Alex (70 year old man) came to give me a pep talk and in doing so put his hand on my leg. Now I had 2 rats to worry about.

DAY 125 - Best Sunset I've Seen

Who knew not drinking would feel so good, I was sleeping so well and getting up nice and early. I actually managed to plough through so many books on my kindle because I really felt good and had nothing else to do. The reading list included Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams which has been on my list for ages and A House in The Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett, a memoir of a woman who was kidnapped and held hostage in Somalia for over a year. It was really harrowing but such a gripping story, I really enjoyed it.

Gili Coffee Roasters ended up being part of my routine in Gili Air, while it is a very ‘digital nomad’ vibe the food and the coffee was so good and the staff were really smiley. I enjoyed a bruschetta breakfast every day subsequently.

I had a little burger from the hostel for lunch (accidentally ate chicken, whoopsie) and had a bit of a breakthrough moment with Alex (70 year old man – thank you therapy). I was very pleased of myself for telling him that it was inappropriate to touch me and it made me feel uncomfortable and he responded quite well, thanking me for being up front with him. Yay me!

I then decided to go on an early evening stroll around the island and I am so happy I did. After having some rice and vegetables for dinner I accidentally caught possibly the best sunset I have ever seen. I called my lovely mum to share the moment with her.

DAY 126 - Roni

Today I decided to break things up with the breakfast situation and went to a different café. I got chatting with the manager who told me about some cool places to go in Lombok (the next large island along from Bali) so I made plans to head the following day. The baba ganoush I had was piss poor in comparison my usual bruschetta business but sometimes you have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

I went back to Gili Coffee Roasters with the American girls from the hostel to try their infamous carrot cake and it did not disappoint. I also stocked up on some more bruschetta (to fill the void).

For dinner we enjoyed some pesto pasta from the hostel which was honestly 10/10, I really miss eating pasta all the time. The trio caught one last sunset.

TETE BATU

DAY 127 - Sketchy Boat Ride

I packed up my bag ready to head to Tete Batu in Lombok an went out for breakfast with my new friend from the other café. He even let me ride his bike a bit.

When I arrived at the harbour it started torrentially raining and I had somehow paid for the local boat instead of the fast boat. While it was super cheap an Lombok is only about a 20 min boat ride from Gili Air (which is technically a part of Lombok), I ended up waiting for about an hour and a half for there to be enough people on the boat for it to leave. On the rickety boat ride I saw my life flash before my eyes more than once, but as a solo traveller you have no choice but to swag it out and look confident, it can be stressful at times. I was really sad to leave Gili Air but ready to possibly be more active somewhere new.

Roni had told me to hire a moped from the port and drive to Tete Batu, about 2 hours, but the combination of; there being a major fucking storm, being hassled by so many taxi drivers at the port, having to wait hours for my boat and being hungie, I decided a nice Grab taxi for £25 would be a better use of my time and money. I am so happy I did as well because there were loads of fucking monkeys on the roads and I genuinely think I would’ve had to sleep in the port because I am so scared of monkeys. About an hour and 30 into the trip the taxi driver said he had ‘accidentally’ forgotten to press go on on the Grab app, meaning that money had been taken from my account but he said he didn’t have it in his account. I was in a foul mood, I knew I was being scammed because he wanted me to pay him in cash. According to reddit this is quite a common thing for Grab drivers to do on long journeys, but its not so much a scam, more that they get the business and 100% of the money if they take cash. The guy was super nice about it I just wish he would’ve told me the game plan from the start to I didn’t have to panic check on Reddit for ages. Regardless, we stopped at an ATM and I got his money and his business card.

I had booked a guesthouse on Booking.com and I was so pleasantly surpsied, there are actually a lot of them in the area but hardly any tourists. I can't find the name of the place but if anyone wants it I have the guys WhatsApp number. I paid about £10 per night and Tete Batu is really beautiful, super quiet, rolling rice fields and lush greenery.

The guy working at the guesthouse, Riz, was a 17 year old boy and he was so sweet. We smoked loads of cigarettes together and had some coffee and I enjoyed a really yummy Indonesian dinner after watching another lovely sunset. I got to try some Lombok specials like the cucumber with coconut and coconut fried vegetables and he taught me how to roll the local tobacco which was even tastier than normal cigarettes if you can believe it.

DAY 128 - Tour with Riz and Trying New Fruit

Riz had told me before bed that Lombok has a 100% muslim population and there are so many mosques everywhere, therefore the call to prayer is very loud. The room I was in was made of wood and my God this call to prayer literally felt like someone had a megaphone to my ear. There were obviously different calls to prayer throughout the day but the morning ones seem to be the loudest.

Breakfast was included in the stay so I had a nice omlette and some rice before embarking upon our tour (basically just the 17 showing me around). It was a really cool experience being the only person here, I am super cringed out when people say they want to have a ‘local experience’, but I think this is the closest I’ve come to one on my whole trip.

The day with Riz was very special for so many reasons. We started off walking through the rice fields where he told me many fun rice facts, but obviously not super fun because I cant remember any of them. He grabbed me some different fruits off of the trees, even climbing up a tree to get me the best guava he could find. We took shelter in a little hut and smoked more cigarettes, listening and singing along to Night Changes by One Direction, one of Riz' favourite songs.

We then went to a waterfall and took lots of photo. It was my first time swimming in a waterfall and it was so special. After stopping off for some traditional Lombok coffee where I met a lovely French woman called Laura and agreed to have dinner with her that evening. The weather was torrential. Riz and I ran through some rice fields, I actually loved it. To shelter ourselves again we stopped off at a small stall where I got to try so many new fruits. Here are the following vericts:

Guava – not my favourite but Riz told me to eat the skin which I’m not sure if that’s what you’re supposed to do. Didn’t have much taste or texture in my opinion, always a difficult game when you’re going up against a mango. 6/10

Snakefruit – very tasy, like a pear but a bit annoying to peal. Have bought some subsequently and often the top can be a bit mouldy. 8/10

Jackfruit – a real highlight for me. Very stringy and sweet, I thoroughly enjoyed the texture but there were points when the taste reminded me of a banana. 9/10

Passionfruit – I have not had a passion fruit like this one back home. The colour was much more pale and the taste was not sour at all. 9/10

Mango – I have of course had mango before but this one was really something special. 10/10

After the fruit tasting selection, the smoking of one million cigarettes and the drinking of 14,000 cups of coffee we tried some little fried things and I bought some for us to take home. Later on in the evening I went down the road to meet Laura at her hotel for dinner. She was staying at a really boujie place owned by a French couple. It was really busy but that made me sad for the local people who had guesthouses. Don’t get me wrong, the food was unreal and the place was beautiful but I was very pleased to go back to my room.

PAWENANG

DAY 129 - Mysterious Droppings

Laura had stayed in a nice guesthouse in the jungle closer to the port I came from and recommended the place to me, so naturally I decided to head to Rangsott Inn the next day. I was considering going to the South of Lombok to Kuta, a surf place, but I decided it would be better to stay by the port because I was meeting Rachele in Bali in a few days time. I had one final breakfast with Riz where he cut me up the mango I had bought the day before. I embarked upon the 2 hour car journey and while I was pleased to arrive at the guesthouse I was in a very antisocial mood. I had a nice chill in my room courtesy of Solene's Netflix and started watching a documentary about aliens.

When I went down for dinner I thought they had accidentally assumed that there were 2 people staying in the room because there was so much food. WRONG! All for me. I’m not gonna lie I hadn’t left enough room for all of this food so I spent the next few days fasting before the mega dinner every night. I still think this food was the best I had in Indonesia. While a lot of it was fried which gave me the shits for a few days after, everything was so tasty and it was all vegetarian which was a bonus. I had tofu, rice, tempeh, fried onions, some of it with fresh tomato stuff on, extra tasty.

While I was laying in bed I noticed a miscellaneous substance on both my laptop and my bed, I hoped it wasn’t poo but I geniuinely didn’t want to know because there was no other option of places to stay. It could have also been a catapillar or something off the roof. More to come on this later, I’m just setting the scene for you.

DAY 130 - Scooter and Sengigi

I had a rather naff breakfast at the guesthouse (disappointing given the sensational food the night before). The call to prayer here was a little quieter than Tete Batu but it would still wake me up at 4am. I hired a scooter and drove around, but it's always a bit stressful when you're alone because you don’t know where you're going and the bike didn't have a phone stand. The sights were beautiful and I ended up around the beach area of Sengigi, I even bought myself a little green dress.

I was really excited for another tasty meal at the guesthouse so I had lunch there as well it did not disappoint. I managed to eat a lot more than the day before, almost like a squirrel preparing for hibernation (or a greedy and slightly lonely English tourist).

I experienced a little problem this evening. I was thoroughly enjoying my alien programme and I saw one of the droppings drop from the ceiling onto mi hid! As it transpires there was a huge gecko on the beam of the roof. I shat my pants. I told the guys at the hostel who came armed with a big stick and some light fumigation. 10 minutes after they left I found an ant infestation on the floor near all my stuff. Excellent news. I closed my eyes and thought of England and tried to imagine I was Repunzel from Tangled because she has a little Gecko friend and it actually did make me feel better. Honestly I love to be an island gyal but these animals man, they’re cramping my style.

ANYWAY, I had a really nice dinner at the hostel, surprise surprise, where the guys cut me up a mango from their tree as an apology for the gecko incident. Really wasn’t their fault but I appreciated the free mango.

CANGGU

DAY 131 - Reunited with Rachele

I was so excited to go back to Bali because I was meeting Rachele, a lovely Italian girl I had spent a few days with in Seoul. She was supposed to be going straight from KL to Sri Lanka but I worked my wicked charm and we had wangled 12 days of quality time to spend together, the most either of us has spent with anyone whilst travelling. I scoffed down my banana pancake (I have been trying to convince myself I like banana by microdosing it). The boat was actually hell, it was hellish. The only thing that was worse was getting hassled by a million men at Bali port trying to get me in a taxi. BUT I made it to Canggu, The Farm Hostel and I was so excited to see Rachele.

She arrived about an hour after me and we went out for a lovely poke bowl dinner which was really expensive, but we didn’t mind because we were having a nice catch up. We had both had had long travel days so we had a nice early night.

DAY 132 - Old Man's (different from the actual old man) and Mexicola's (very sweaty)

I got up early and carried on with my hyperfixation of the week, reading my kindle. The free breakfast at the hostel was crap and I actually didn’t love the hostel we were staying at. My more avid readers will remember my Hanoi post where I said I hated the resort style mega hostels, this was one of those. It was full of Dutch people and it felt a bit pretentious but maybe this is also just Canggu in general. None the less we went for a tasty bagel (the hostel was in a really central location to be fair) where I accidentally forgot I was vegetarian and had a BLT bagel. Rachele and I went to the beach and had a couple of cold ones watching the world go by. I even had my first aperol spritz of my travels. This was a really good sunset, I think the ones in Indonesia are the best I’ve seen in general.

We grabbed some dan dan noodles on the way back to the hostel and the night was looking young and promising, as were we. Circling right back round to the moisturiser I bought in Gili Air we were having some drinks at the hostel and I didn’t even feel that hot but my god I was fucking perspiring. It was almost getting to the point where you could wring my top out and I had beads of sweat falling down my face in a synchronised fashion, mortifying. I was worried I had some tropical disease but I'm pretty sure it was just the cream, which was a shame because it smelled so nice but I really don’t think I can ever put myself through that again.

We went to Old Man's Bar but left because it wasn’t really our vibe and then went to MexiCola's where we danced on the table to the hit tune Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys and Jay Z. It wasn’t a super late one, but we grabbed some chippies on the way home, I had little parmesan and truffle on mine.

ULUWATU

DAY 133 - Learned to Play Pool

We wanted to stay at The Farm for one more day just to feel a little bit more settled but it was fully booked so we headed to Uluwatu (South Bali) after having some lunchie at the hostel. The 2 hr drive was super easy and while the new hostel Surfers Green Bowl didn’t have the nicest rooms and bathrooms, the vibes were nice and the pool area was lovely. We went straight to Padang Padang beach which was small but beautiful but also busy and then to the hostel for our free dinner. They also had a pool table at the hostel so this was the first of many pool games Rachele and I played.

DAY 134 - The Loft and Catch Up With Louis and Anna

Initially Rachele and I had planned to rent a scooter but Uluwatu was so much busier than I expected. Rachele had been the year before so at least we had a rough idea of where we were going. The café culture in Bali is crazy, even driving through some random streets you would find the lovliest cafes. We went to one called The Loft which was actually pretty average but we did get to go to a nice beach afterwards called Thomas Beach. Rachele wasn’t feeling too well so we chilled all day and it was lovely. We had another free dinner at the hostel (they do free dinner every night if you haven’t yet realised) and while Rachele got some rest I had a catch up call with Louis and Anna, our first 3 way call in ages.

DAY 135 - Beach Hopping with Patrick

Rachele was not up for doing anything today I was planning to stay at the hostel all day so I just went to a place down the road for some below averge avocado toast and coffee. But we had been speaking with a lovely Irish man (aptly named Patrick) the day before and he invited me to go and explore some beaches with him on his motorbike.

We drove 10 minutes to Green Bowl Beach which was absolutely stunning but fucking hell it was a bit of a mission to get down there and even more of a mission to get back up if you can imagine that. Hundreds of steps, sweltering heat and some monkeys loitering around. But honestly it was worth it. 10/10 would recommend however be careful of the drag of the water, never been sloshed around in my life before so much. We went back to the hostel to eat some mangos and snakefruit which Patrick enjoyed, before playing some pool, having a bintang and heading to beach number 2, Balangan Beach. We had a poke bowl and coffee at Jimmy Cafe and then read our books in the sun, it was lovely. I was just finishing up Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent which was fantastic. I had previously read Janette McCurdys memoir called I’m Glad My Mom Died, which was pretty good but not as good as Strange Sally Diamond which is a novel set in Ireland.

DAY 136 - Early Start and Single Fin

Patrick and I decided to go and watch the sunrise but it turned out to be crap because it was so cloudy. We ate an apple and had a scooter around the area. We were where all the resorts are so was super fancy and I really enjoyed strolling around. There were loads of people exercising in a park and you could see the beach from it which was beautiful.

We stopped off at one of the many cafes on my list called The Sandy Shack which we had driven past and had a toastie and a coffee. All of this before 9am it was absolutely incredible. After chilling back at the hostel for a bit we went next door for a spot of lunch next door. Later on in the evening we went to a bar called Single Fin that everyone raves about. Patrick and I shared a spicy mango margarita jug which was just as tasty as it sounds, but it was super fucking expensive.

KUTA, LOMBOK

DAY 137 - Beach Babes

It was our last day in Uluwatu and Patrick’s last day in Asia as he was headed back to Cork the following day. Rachele and I spent the morning planning what we wanted to do for the next couple of days. I think we both wanted to get out of Bali. The other options were Nusa Penida which is an island 30 mins from Bali, or go back to Lombok. Rachele likes surfing so we decided to make the tretcherous boat journey once again.

For our last afternoon with Patrick, after many days spent together we went back to Balangan beach. We had a poke bowl again and smoked one million cigaerres. The sunset was a good one, and we even manage to get a nice lady to take a picture of us.

DAY 138 - Goodbye Patrick, Hello Lombok

The next morning Rachele still wasn’t feeling well so Patrick and I grabbed a quick breakfast. We were on a budget so had to get to the beach on the back of a bike with our backpacks, a 30 min drive. Mine was manageable but Rachele clearly has abs of steel because I was certain she was going to fall off and die. En route Rachele nursed herself back to health with some plain crackers and a Pacari Sweat electrolyte drink.

When we got to the port we had a naughty little hour wait for our ferry and the conditions on the boat were truly abysmal, no AC, ropey as fuck. But when we stopped off at Gili T and everyone got off (we were going further as we were going to Lombok) we went upstairs and it was major party vibes. Very fun, I feel we missed out.

We arrived at Botchan Hostel which Rachele has stayed at before and it was really lovely. Such a good pool, decent size rooms and we were very pleased with the pool table. Straight away I had a little swim, we went for a noodle dinner and then had a drink at Rasta Bar. On the way back I had a chocolate crepe for a good price from a man on the side of the road.

DAY 139 - Freedom, Mangoes, Pinapples

The big scooter day had arrived and we both couldn’t be happier. I think we both knew that Uluwatu was not the vibe for us and Lombok was already so much fun. Rachele made very good friends with the ladies who were selling things on the beach, one of whom was Sandy who spoke really good Italian. Rachele bought a lovely little orange skirt and we spent the rest of the day basking in the sun and eating mangoes and pineapples. I tried my first ever Gado Gado which is vegetables in a peanut sauce, rather tasty, while Rachele told me some fun facts about her book ‘A Little History of the World’. On the bike on the way home we began our tradition of singing together. We started off easy with some Camp Rock and moved on to some more advanced lyrics from the High School Musical saga. We really found our footing with Talking Heads 'This Must Be The Place' and it became the song of our trip. She had showed me this song when were in Seoul so even though the lyrics weren’t 100% memorised, the melody and enthusiasm were definitely there.

In the evening we played some pool, I had a couple of Bintang radlers and we drove on the scooter for a bit (Rachele not drinking).

DAY 140 - Pipes Hostel and Buffet

Rachele and I moved from our hostel to the famous hostel called Pipes, which was about a 5 min drive down the road. I have met people throughout my travel that say this is the best hostel in Lombok but obviously it gets booked up quite quickly. I really liked Botchan, there was definitely more communal space than pipes. We were also staying in a 12 man room (all single beds, not bunks) with no AC, only fans. Safe to say we were not particularly impressed but actually I preferred sleeping in this room than one with AC and a bunk. There were also some cats which would come in and out via the open windows, and while they had a real liking to Rachele they didn't bother me too much.

After some very sensible shuttling with the bags and the scooter we continued our journey back to the beach. Rachele and I chilled out to some tunes where I started downloading all my favourite songs when I was younger by artists like Frank Ocean and Jay Z.

For dinner we went to a buffet place which I was originally sceptical of but Rachele had been before and said it was fine, I daren't touch the meat though. The food was a bit average and cold for me, but it was very cheap (£1.70) and the water was also free so all in it was a successful night. We finished off by playing some terrible pool at Rasta Bar.

DAY 141 - Surfing

The best thing about travelling with someone is that they usually encourage me to do more than just sitting around all day (which I really like doing). Rachele has done quite a lot of surfing so we booked onto a morning of lessons. We had a healthy fruity breakfast and then hit the scooter singing karaoke as we went.

They gave me a funky little skin to wear in the water and Rachele and I went our separate ways she headed towards the golden gates of the intermediate lesson (she even has a swim suit which makes her a semi-professional surfer). We got the boat out and there were a lot of people there. We were rotating taking waves depending on when the instructors were free, so it was not a 1:1 lesson. After 3 attempts I actually managed to stand on the board, and while I probably looked quite shit it was easier than I thought it would be. I find snowboarding really difficult because of the impact on your legs, whereas I found the hardest part of surfing the arm workout from paddling back every time.

After a really fun morning we headed back to our favourite beach and had some lunch at our favourite place where I opted for more gado gado, the sun was shining. We bought some more mangoes and necklaces from the ladies, supporting the local economy. I continued to support the local economy by getting a manicure and pedicure which honestly took hours (even though I had one person on my hands and one for my feet) but I managed to make it back to the hostel for a BBQ dinner. It was truly sensational and only cost £3.75 for an all you can eat buffet. It was a good excuse for us to socialise and have a couple of bintangs.

DAY 142 - Secret Admirer, Rasta Bar and Last Night in Lombok

I met up with a girl called Shauna for breakfast and got to try a rather riveting coffee called Americano Lemonade which was complemented by a bruschetta type dish. When I got back to the hostel everybody was watching the Tyson and Logan Paul fight, I didn't understand anything but we watched the whole thing. There was a terrible storm in the afternoon but luckily we were plotted up for lunch at a nice place called Munchies. After the storm passed we grabbed some fruit from the supermarket and I watched a little bit of Netflix (thank you Solene). I watched the documentary about Martha Stuart which I would really recommend.

Rachele and I had a heart to hear moment watching the sunset, after so many lovely days together I was sad it was coming to an end.

The dinner the vibes were set, we were in a very silly mood for our final night together. We arrived at the cheap restaurant we went to on our first night in Lombok where they had ran out of beers to we had to run to the shop to buy our own. I had a final Nasi Goring (fried rice) and Rachele showed me some of her best acting, one scene in particular from Girl Interrupted was particularly powerful and slightly peculiar. After some serious yapping, a little boy who was selling bracelets came over to me and told me than a man on a different table had brought me a bracelet. I was really chuffed, the guy didn't even ask for my number, it must have just been love from a distance. By the time we got to Rasta Bar we were in a very silly mood and played some very silly pool. We started chatting to some Kiwi guys, one of whom took Racheles liking. The dance floor was sweaty but I couldn't stop laughing, too much silliness in one space.

DAY 143 - A Long Travel Day to Australia

Rachele and I woke up nice and early to spend our last breakfast together as she was staying for a few more days then heading to Sri Lanka. We grabbed some fruit from the Warung next door and smoked many cigarettes. We had one last little drive around and sing song of Talking Heads and then I embarked on what ended up being a 17 hour journey to Cairns. Saying goodbye to Rachele (again) was very sad, it is the longest I have travelled with anyone and I think we complement each other really nicely. While we spent a lot of time together, we also spent a lot of time in silence, reading books or listening to our tunes (and singing karaoke of course).

Before I came to Indonesia I was originally planning on spending 6 weeks in Japan, but for financial reasons (which can only be briefly touched upon for legal reasons) I decided to spend my last 3 proper travel weeks somewhere a little more affordable. I paid £88 from my flight from Bali to Cairns (in the North East of Australia in Queensland) thinking it would be a brief hop over the pond. I must say it was not as straightforward as I had once imagined.

I paid £20 for everything (all the way to Bali airport) through the hostel. I started on a 2 hour bus journey from Kuta (South Lombok) to Bangsal Port (West Lombok) and did some crying on the way after saying out goodbyes. I was not best pleased when they said there was an 1.5 hour wait till the next boat. The boat ride was very gnarly and very sweaty and took another 2 hours back to Bali port. The guy running the shuttle bus the other side said it could take 4/5 hours to get to the airport so depending on my flight time I should consider getting a taxi, but I would've had even more time to wait in the airport before my 11pm flight, so I thought look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves and opted for the shuttle bus. It actually wasn't that bad.

The bus ended up only taking about 2 hours so I still had plenty of time to kill in Bali airport so I had a nice pizza and watched some more of the Martha Stuart documentary. I touched down in Australia at 3.30am Indonesian time, 5.30am Australian time. Not an ideal time to be somewhere when you have no simcard, no friends and are running on little to no sleep.

Stop 17: Indonesia