21st February 1992 Day 216

The Diary
Up early to catch the ferry but I have a feeling we'd have been up early whatever as the sound of several hundred Balinese cockerels is enough to wake the dead. Perhaps that's why they cremate people. The ferry journey was dull and uncomfortable, smokers everywhere, Sian threw a strop because Adam left their camera downstairs and Beth was still ill.


The Perama bus took us to Bangsal via Senggigi. The journey was quite interesting. Lombok has a different feel about it. The religion is different so the temples are not quite so dominant. I thought Lombok south of and including Mataram was definitely more affluent than Bali. North of Mataram the roads got worse and the population was more sparsely distributed.


We went through a very green and wet mountain pass, with monkeys running everywhere, before arriving in Bangsal. Perama even distributed free bottles of cold Coke, Fanta and Sprite to it's thirsty passengers. What service. Then it was on to our next ferry. Did I say ferry? It was a fishing boat and it was quite a way out into the  water.

Take your shoes and socks off, give your bag to a local kid, and wade waist deep through the water. The kids carrying the bags was obviously a well worked scam as they had your bag as soon as you put it down and it would have been quite easy to bring the boats in closer. Still I only parted with a 500rp tip. 13 tourists crammed in for the 45min trip to Gili Trawangan.

Our accommodation was a wooden hut on stilts, 3 beds with mosquito nets and an adjoining hole in the floor, more usually known as a toilet. Poor old Beth still had a squidgy bum and it would be hard to find a less hospitable place in which to be ill. To flush the loo you used a bucket from the trough full of rainwater.

The weather was dull and rainy and the beach was covered in wood that was floating in off the sea. Not at all what I would describe as idyllic. Sleep was mad harder by the noise from the local restaurant that went on until 3am, the TV in the school opposite and the damp air due to the fact it was pouring down. To cap it off Beth had left her hat on the Perama bus.


2012
It seems that there are plenty of scams still going on at Bangsal and that the kids carrying the bags is the least worrying of them all. 


I think our view of the islands was coloured by the poor weather and Beth's illness. If it was bright and sunny like most of the photos you will see I think we may have had a better first impression.