The Gili Islands

Well after the escapades in Ubud and the Kermit the frog episode, Erin (after not just a little waterworks) managed to get her hair fixed back to a slightly more normal shade of blonde (second time around and after much shouting at the hairdresser who profusely apologised for making it MORE green the first time he tried to fix it!!!)

We then set off in a Perama bus from Ubud to Padang Bai (on Bali) to get the Perama boat directly to the Gili islands - this cut off about 5-6 hours of travel time as we would have otherwise had to have gone via Lombok to get to the Gili islands via public boat.

When we arrived at the Gili islands (three small but beautiful islands in between Lombok and Bali) we found the locals very charming and friendly - and all of them wanted us to go into their bar to try the "magic mushroom milkshakes" - guaranteed to send you to the moon - no ticket required - is how they are billed.... you can imagine what the real ingredients are...

Anyway, we spent about a week on the Gilis whilst Erin got her Open Water and Advanced Diving certificates. Annoyingly, on her first dive she saw more than 12 turtles... (I hadn't seen that many in my life...) and then on her Advanced dives she casually mentioned that she had been swimming with 3 Manta rays - again, something that is very rare... she just didn't know how lucky she was.... I had a bit of diving but spent more of my time figuring out what the islands had to offer and meeting locals.... I also met a girl there who lives 100 metres from my place in London - another random meeting as she was my dive buddy for one of my dives...

If you are a diver this is definitely a great place to be - and quite easy to get to!

Incidentally - DVDs of new movies here at $1 !!!! Bargain if you want to see what has just come out in the U.S.!

When we finished up in the Gilis and decided we wanted to go to the Komodo islands we got our hotel (the Beach House if anyone needs a good recommendation) to book the flights from Lombok and a speedboat from the Gilis to Lombok - all very painless indeed...

We then stayed at a great beach hotel before jumping on a turboprop to Bali and the onward flight to a place called Labuan Bajo (on Flores) - the starting point for most trips to the Komodo National Park.

Next blog on Flores...