We have been disgusting with regards to updating the blog.
We are currently sitting on the floor in Bali airport just chilling, you know,
in true African style. Myself and Lindsay are now officially the biggest freaks
in the place because we have not only set up camp outside a duty free shop
where there is a hamster offering massages to every passer by but we are now
the proud owners of neck pillows. I think mine will get used more as an
accessory than for its actual purpose. I am not joking, an Australian just came
past with a small suitcase attached to a leash, and his son was riding on it.
They never fail to entertain.
Now lets rewind to Gili Air. The most amazing place in the
world, Linds and myself are seriously considering running away, buying a plot
of land and opening a little bar on the beachfront. Our time on the island was
spent lounging about on the beach, riding bicycles and soaking up all the
sunshine. We also went diving, definitely a highlight for all of us. Lindsay’s
friend Nick is a diving instructor working on the island and he took us. Had
such a great time hanging out with him and hearing all his stories about the
Island and diving in general. So we went for our intro dive, we watched 2
videos that we are pretty sure scares people into never wanting to go ankle
deep into the sea, let alone go for a dive. We then had some paper work to fill
out and after that the fun began. In between Brandon not fitting his bintang
beer boep into his wetsuit and Stephan putting his on the wrong way round TWICE
we were kept entertained. We were taught how to flush our masks, how to adjust
our buoyancy and what to do incase our regulator came out. After lunch our new
skills were put to the test. I was extremely nervous and Nicks friend who came
with to assist him on the dive needed to calm me down and help me slow my
breathing. After getting over the claustrophobic feeling of the tank being
strapped to my back, I had time to just take in everything I was seeing. It was
such an amazing sight and we were all extremely chuffed when we saw 3 massive
turtles sleeping on a reef. We were able to get so close to the fish and coral
reefs, It was just breathtaking. We also saw lion fish and all sorts of other
things down there. The boys ran out of oxygen before us so we got a little more
dive time than they did.
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| Linds and Nick before the dive |
Our last full day on the island was such a typical holiday
sun, sand and a lot of laughs. We also managed to ride our bikes around the
island, it sounds very chilled and laid back, but hiring them was actually very
difficult, we all had to hire bikes from different places as the island was
very busy. Lindsay definitely had the coolest bike, baby seat on the back
included. Unfortunately there were no small children wondering the streets for
us to “surprise babysit” so Lindsays bag got shotgun instead.
After our little
bike ride round the island we found an awesome restaurant on the beach where we
just chilled out and enjoyed each other’s company. One thing we found extremely
entertaining throughout the duration of our stay on both Islands was watching
real chinas snorkeling in the shallows with lifejackets, you know, incase they
drown in the 30cm water without any waves, but im pretty sure I got more laughs
from the others when I decided to rent a mask and snorkel and go on my own
underwater adventure. I was overjoyed when Linds decided to join me after I
kept saying how many fish there were. We actually had such a stunning time and
even saw our first stingray. During all the excitement we managed to develop
our own language by speaking and screaming into the snorkel. This language was
accompanied by violent pointing and splashing, as our new language was not
effective at all.
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| Linds and Sam |
After this we went to find Legend Bar, as we were told it
was the best place to see the sunset from. We found it and quickly got onto the
beach and in the water to take pictures and drink our bintangs. We decided we
were going to go back to our room, which all 5 of us were living in, to get
ready, go out for dinner and then return for a little bit of a party. After
dinner we were all just so buggered that we called it a night, Stephan had
other ideas and ended up storming into the room at about 2:30 am. As we were
all awake he told us about his night saying, “The music was shit, but it was
cool because that guy was there, and the other guy, there was another guy
there, a whole bunch of girls and some more guys”. After this extremely
detailed description of his night out he went to bed, and so did we.
We woke up the following morning feeling as fresh as you can
when you are sleeping on crappy mattresses in a room as hot as a fiery pit of
doom, ready to scoff breakfast and rush to catch a boat to Lombok. Lindsay and
Stephan left the hotel first as Linds wanted to say cheers to Nick, and Stephan
needed to check us in. Brandon had his sights set on the many horse pulled
carts that is used as a form of transportation on both of the islands we
visited and decided he was not going to carry his bags all the way to the port.
So Sammy and myself jumped onto the cart, Brandon unfortunately did not take
his bike back and had hatched a plan to just leave it at the hotel, without
taking it back. This plan was not executed successfully as the bartender that
worked at the bar situated about 15 steps away from our front door, called him
out and told him to take it back. He reluctantly took it back. It was only
next-door so he still got a chance to get in the cart.
When we got to Lombok we got into a taxi that took us to go
see the waterfalls. By far one of the most awesome things we have done during
our time on Bali. The water was cold and very refreshing and we all had a great
time standing under the waterfall admiring the beauty of the area we were so
blessed to be in.
The trip back to Bali can be described the following word. Frustrating. We had booked an open return ticket with a company that we couldn’t find. Making it impossible for us to get back on a boat. We had to buy new tickets, which ended up making the trip flippen expensive, which put us in a testing situation. To make the vibe in the group worse, we all ended up becoming aggravated with each other and the boat drivers when we were originally told that the boat would be leaving in the next 15 minutes, when in reality it ended up being 2 hours later.
The boat trip back was quick but painfull as Linz almost got
to experience what it is like to hootch over the side of a boat. The boat was a
lot more stable than any boat we had previously been on, other than the ferry
of course. We also met up with 7 or 8 other students who had been on the other
island. A bus ride back to Seminyak was included in the price of our boat
ticket. Thank goodness, because by the time we got to Bali none of us were in a
state to organize a taxi. We were all a lot happier when we finally got back to
Taman Rosani and were able to have hot showers and nice clean and comfy beds to
sleep in.
The following weeks mainly consisted of a lot of school work
with us being expected to hand in assignments, go to classes, write an exam and
do our final defense. Speaking about this is boring. So we fill focus on the
highlights of our last 2 weeks on Bali. First one being Sam Peckhams 21st
birthday.
We went out to Alleycats for dinner, which was really great.
Sammys birthday falls on Halloween so there were plenty crazy Australians all
dressed up. I kind of wish we had done something like that, but we didn’t have
money for that so we just made it a typical 21st, lots of drinking,
laughing, dancing and club hopping. Oh and all the dutchies sang about 100
birthday songs to Sammy in Alleycats. Those buggers had gees for days. We ended
up in good old SkyGarden, which would later be described as “Satans Palace” by
the one and only Brandon Roux.
Next was my birthday, 4 days later. We were writing an exam
the day after so we moved it forward a day to let us go out for the Saturday, I
wasn’t complaining. We went for dinner, just us South Africans, which I really
liked because it was one of the rare moments we had to just enjoy each others
company. Not hating on anyone, so no bleak vibes please. I am sure everyone can
guess we then went to Alleycats, where we met Stephan and his sister. Double
doubles were bought, a deck of cards came out. I got on a bus. I had my third
and final birthday party on Bali. And man it was a blowout of epic proportions.
Our final days on Bali were spent with all the people we had learnt to love while studying, jolling and living with them. We all had an amazing time and met so many awesome people. We experienced a completely different culture to our own and learnt that it is good to be in new environments. It is safe to say that we all fell in love with Bali and in the end did leave with mixed emotions as we were going to have to say goodbye to our home and family that had grown on us over the past few months, but at the same time we were looking forward to our next chapter in Thailand.
Thanks to everyone who made this rollercoaster ride an
unforgettable experience, we will always have the memories.
Until next time. xx
