Gil Trawangan – Old & Lost

17 April 2018 – Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – Round 2 – Day 3 – Our Butts May Never Forgive Us

Published on April 17, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

After breakfast we decided to borrow a couple of bikes from the hotel and to ride up to the Legion Beach area. Same direction as we always walked in, but further.

We rode for around 30 minutes but we ended up on the main roads and in traffic. It was getting hairy scary, plus we were on a slow roast. We have been traveling for 2 1/2 months now and believe me, we still have NOT adapted to the heat and humidity.

We got as far as here, which translate to Kuta Beach, so obviously did not make it up to Legion Beach.

The beach up here was much nicer than the beach that was further south, near where we were staying. If we ever get to go back, we will have to check this area out for sure.

The surfers seemed to be loving the waves today. Wonder if it is always like this here?

After touring around for a bit, we decided to head back to the hotel. Plus our butts were hurting and we still had the ride back. Back through the traffic. YIKES!

It was a very relaxing afternoon in the pool. I spent a good hour just floating around on an air mattress, while Doug guided me around the pool. We had really needed time to relax and we were getting it. Perfect weather and great bar staff. What more could a person want? We must have been really relaxed, as I don’t even have pictures of our lunch or my Chocolate Martini.

Should we ask what Doug is doing?

Pretty sure he was looking at his phone, while waiting for me, but we will never know.

Back in the room we did, yes, more laundry. This was the ideal place to get it done as it dried quickly in the heat and sun. After doing the laundry we headed back to the loungers to read, but soon discovered it was just too hot. Back to the room we went. Doug to watch Netflix and myself to work on our blog. We had pretty good internet here. Plus a nice view from our air conditioned room.

Dinner tonight was back at the pool bar as I couldn’t deal with seeing the poor cats again. It was heart breaking to me.

It had been a while since I had had any bites, but Indonesia did not disappoint me, and was sending me off with a doozie.

Later we packed up all our clean laundry, as we are off to Australia tomorrow!

15 April 2018 – Travel Day – Gili Trawangan to Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – Round 2

Published on April 15, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Today was another travel day and we were heading back to Kuta for a few more nights. We enjoyed our last breakfast here with our new buddy, the cat. I don’t think he was supposed to be on the table, but what the heck!

We gave him a little bit of our scrambled eggs, which he just looked at. What was he expecting, caviar?

We packed up and checked out of the hotel. We weren’t supposed to check out until tomorrow, but we had changed our plans. We did not ask for a refund, so they still got their money for the extra night. After all, it wasn’t their fault we left early.

We headed downtown to the Blue Water office.

Lots of horse and buggies here this morning awaiting the arrival of new tourists.

We had just been saying the other day, that these places should have a day when everyone, including the tourists, go out and clean up the beaches and road sides. To our surprise, we saw this sign this morning.

Our boat arrived at 1150 hrs and we loaded on, headed for Kuta. The price we paid also included our transportation from the port on Bali to our hotel in Kuta.

At the other end, we had to walk a short distance to get to their office where all the shuttle vans were waiting to take us to our hotels.

We arrived at 1545 hrs and got all checked in. We knew the routine, as we booked the Holiday Inn again. We knew it and we liked it. This room was not a large as the last one, but was still really nice. We had a little outdoor patio this time as we were on the ground floor.

If we hurried we would make it to the pool bar happy hour. Off we went. Mojitos for Doug and Cham 69s for me. Delicious!

Headed back to the room shortly after 1700 hrs and Doug did some hand laundry. Had the perfect place outside to hang it to dry.

The plants sure grow big here. Another one, a Croton, that I use to have as an indoor plant. Mine was only tiny compared to these though.

Dinner tonight was take out from the pool bar and dessert, which we brought back to the room. Enjoyed our dinner in the room while we watched some TV.

Another beautiful sunset.

14 April 2018 – Gili Trawangan, Indonesia – Day 3 – Bike Butts

Published on April 14, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Guess what woke us up AGAIN! Yup, the call to prayer. It seemed to happen a lot through out the day today. Not just the once that I remember from yesterday. But, who knows, maybe we just noticed it more today.

Today we thought we would head back to the little café that we had discovered yesterday for our breakfast. YUM….fruit smoothies and fresh croissants. We got the last 2 croissants. They sure do a booming business in this place. And, YES! we got a table inside, in the air conditioning this morning. Have I mentioned today, just how HOT it is here? After a great breakfast we headed back to the hotel, as we decided we would borrow a couple of bikes from them and ride around the island. Island can’t be that big, if you can walk around it. We haven’t been on bikes for years, but you never forget how to ride one, right?

We remember how, but OMG, did we forget about how sore your butt gets! Two hours on a bike…ouch

There were some nice looking bars, beaches and resorts on the other side of the island, but I guess you would have to take the horse and buggies to get to them, especially at night. Just to note, this island has no cars and supposedly no motorcycles, but we did see one motorcycle/scooter on the island.

Some places were nicer than others. It could be quite far in between places, not like the other side of the island, where the main street is.

Most of the over the water swings were occupied, but we finally found one that wasn’t. Had to take our shoes off to go into the water and oh my, that was not fun. Lots of rocks and most likely broken coral covering the ocean floor. Not a good experience at all, but I finally made it out to the swing.

The ‘road’ was getting narrower and narrower, and rougher, as we continued around the island. At one point it ended up being just a narrow sand path, almost impossible to ride on, and we had to get off our bikes, and walk them for a short distance.

We came upon a herd of cows. Looks like they may be tied to the trees. At least they have lots of trees for shade.

It took us around 2 hours to ride around the island and our butts were angry. It was time for a cold Bintang while we sat on the edge of the pool with our feet dangling in the water. It was so relaxing after our long bike ride.

Later we headed back to the downtown area for dinner. Picked out a nice beach side restaurant, IKAM and was given a table on the sand near the water. Moved from our first table as there were a lot of ants near that one. Didn’t want any ant bites. Everything else seems to bite me.

Dinner was pretty good and with beverages came to IDR Rp 559,00 = Cdn $48.39 Again, not cheap for SE Asia, but about on par for what we have found in Indonesia.

We stopped off at an ATM and successfully got money! Grabbed a couple of ice cream bars from the local convenience store and headed back to the hotel around 5:30 pm. We had to pack up for our speedboat trip back to Kuta tomorrow. Our port was Sanur and then they would take us in a van to our hotel in Kuta.

This is a good picture to show how nice this place was once you got over the entrance way. That is our room. The place was really quiet as I don’t think they were too busy. Only saw a couple of other people.

While we were packing up Doug had a run in with the bed frame. Thank goodness for our first aid kit, yet once again.

13 April 2018 – Gili Trawangan, Indonesia – Day 2 – Lazy Day – Boring Island

Published on April 13, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Today was Friday the 13th and we were awoken with the Call to Prayer at 0500 hrs!!!!!

We had been warned about this by Paden. It sure wakes a person up quickly. Broadcast across the whole island and turned out our hotel was not far from where it was broadcast from. Extra loud for us.

Breakfast was included and so we ordered breakfast. Not a lot of choice, but it was okay.

The resident cat made her appearance. What a softie. She quickly became our breakfast buddy.

We headed back to the beach area, once again in search of the Blue Water Express office. We had decided we didn’t want to stay on this island for the full 4 nights that we had booked. We just weren’t feeling this island. Thought we would head back to Kuta a day early and spend that extra day there.

One of the streets we had to walk down. Once off the main road, most seemed to be like this.

We passed the school on our way back onto the main road.

Back on the main road, we found a little café and ordered smoothies and banana bread. This place was busy and all the tables inside were full, so outside in the heat is where we sat.

Found the medical center. Sure hope we don’t need them, but good to know that there is at least one on the island.

The beaches that we had seen so far, that looked nice to sunbath on and go into the water, were full of boats. Really ruined it.

There were a few nice areas of beach, but not sure how you scored a lounger on them.

This place, restaurant/bar, whatever it was, was definitely NOT for us.

Back at our hotel we sat around the pool in a couple of the loungers and enjoyed a cold Bintang. This had now become our favourite beer. Pool had been cleaned up and looked so much better now. We managed an hour out there and just had to go inside. Couldn’t take the heat anymore.

EDIT: OMG Just had a good laugh. Looked at the picture and realized that I was drinking a Smirnoff Ice and not Bintang. Doug had the Bintang I guess.

Later on we headed out to get pizza. This place had been recommended to us by Paden. At least we think this was the place. We had checked it out this morning, but I have to say that it looked much better later on in the dim light.