This is the strangest mother’s day of my life. Not least as I am so removed from UK life, I hadn’t realised it was today till I got the texts from home.
So as dawn broke in Sanur, I was in tears thinking of England and feeling very very homesick.
In true Indonesian style, the morning soon evaporated into chaos, as I was ushered into the wrong transfer for my transport to Gili Air…fortunately we realised before I ended up somewhere else entirely….and by 9am I and my luggage were wading through the waves to board the fast boat service.
Along with thousands of others………..Nepyi, the Day of Silence, in Bali, means no one can go outside from dawn to dusk, so its not just westerners escaping, many of the locals were taking the chance to nip off for a few days. Even the atms shut for 48 hours. Consequently, despite low season, the boat was literally heaving, very low in the water, in rough waves.
But the gods were on our side, and three very rough and very noisy stomach churning hours later, I was finally unloaded onto the sands at Gili Air. I knew this place was tiny, but had no idea how so…no cars, no roads, no nothing much, other than spectacular scenery broken only by villages and the odd ‘hotel’.
‘Odd’ being an apt description for this one….having had the usual hassle with the donkey and cart transport to get my luggage up off the beach and through the tiny lanes (its all of 5 minutes walk but cost me 50,000 rupees, still for £3 worth it not to struggle in the heat, the poor donkey looked exhausted, bless him) this ‘hotel’ is a collection of huts, built in traditional Lombok style.
This means a) straw roofs b) mosquitoes everywhere, and no way to attach a net (though there is air/con, so I’m hoping that will blow them away, though as I type its not doing a very good job, and I’m covered in DEET) and……………
An outside bathroom!
And I mean outside; you open the back door of the shack, and there’s the loo, and the shower, open to the elements….luckily not overlooked, but ……………
I had a ‘moment’. Several, actually. But it does look as if most of the island is similarly constructed, unless one goes high end, which I’m not, so I’m stuck with it. So I’ve clambered over the stones and had a shower in the dark, fighting off the mossies….slightly concerned about what will meet me in the night when I’m bound to have to venture out, but I have taken the precaution of getting a torch from reception.
There is a tiny pool, which was lovely and did help lift my spirits. The island is beautiful. I walked along the beach front watching the sun set over the hills and volcanoes of Lombok and the neighbouring Gillis, dodging piles of coral washed up on the sands, and watching the fishermen and the water taxis at work,
It’s only 8.30, but there is no TV, no radio, and nothing to do, which freaks me out slightly-so much of my travels have been manic, and exhausting, and even the last week in Sanur, and the beach time in Goa, I had plans, places to see, even a little TV to occupy my mind in the evenings…the silence here is weird.
It’ll be interesting to see if and how, I can actually stop, and whether I can really do nothing…it’ll be good to have a chance to reflect and go through my memories of the last few months before they fade. At the minute I’m preoccupied with getting malaria, tonight will be an interesting experience!
So as dawn broke in Sanur, I was in tears thinking of England and feeling very very homesick.
In true Indonesian style, the morning soon evaporated into chaos, as I was ushered into the wrong transfer for my transport to Gili Air…fortunately we realised before I ended up somewhere else entirely….and by 9am I and my luggage were wading through the waves to board the fast boat service.
Along with thousands of others………..Nepyi, the Day of Silence, in Bali, means no one can go outside from dawn to dusk, so its not just westerners escaping, many of the locals were taking the chance to nip off for a few days. Even the atms shut for 48 hours. Consequently, despite low season, the boat was literally heaving, very low in the water, in rough waves.
‘Odd’ being an apt description for this one….having had the usual hassle with the donkey and cart transport to get my luggage up off the beach and through the tiny lanes (its all of 5 minutes walk but cost me 50,000 rupees, still for £3 worth it not to struggle in the heat, the poor donkey looked exhausted, bless him) this ‘hotel’ is a collection of huts, built in traditional Lombok style.
This means a) straw roofs b) mosquitoes everywhere, and no way to attach a net (though there is air/con, so I’m hoping that will blow them away, though as I type its not doing a very good job, and I’m covered in DEET) and……………
An outside bathroom!
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| The Bathroom! |
I had a ‘moment’. Several, actually. But it does look as if most of the island is similarly constructed, unless one goes high end, which I’m not, so I’m stuck with it. So I’ve clambered over the stones and had a shower in the dark, fighting off the mossies….slightly concerned about what will meet me in the night when I’m bound to have to venture out, but I have taken the precaution of getting a torch from reception.
There is a tiny pool, which was lovely and did help lift my spirits. The island is beautiful. I walked along the beach front watching the sun set over the hills and volcanoes of Lombok and the neighbouring Gillis, dodging piles of coral washed up on the sands, and watching the fishermen and the water taxis at work,
It’s only 8.30, but there is no TV, no radio, and nothing to do, which freaks me out slightly-so much of my travels have been manic, and exhausting, and even the last week in Sanur, and the beach time in Goa, I had plans, places to see, even a little TV to occupy my mind in the evenings…the silence here is weird.
It’ll be interesting to see if and how, I can actually stop, and whether I can really do nothing…it’ll be good to have a chance to reflect and go through my memories of the last few months before they fade. At the minute I’m preoccupied with getting malaria, tonight will be an interesting experience!
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