Cycled for 3 hours to get to Pandangbai and it was mostly downhill. Once again we had lots of smiles and 'hellos' shouted at us by the locals. We stopped off at the Elephant Cave on the way and I can say that Nic looks lovely in a sarong! Here is the entrance to the cave:
We also saw this lovely elephant on the way:
We are not taking many photos because there is just sooo much stuff that blows your mind.
We had 2 nights in Padangai doing a bit of snorkelling and relaxing. Then we got the local ferry over to Lembar, Lombok, which is only 25km away but it can take upto 8 hours! Luckily we had a great crossing and it only took 3 1/2. Here is me on the ferry - lots of plastic on the seats! We had people trying to sell us everything from t-shirts to peanuts for about 45 minutes until the ferry actually left the harbour. Great entertainment. We are picking up a bit of the local language e.g. Tidak, which means no thanks
When we reached Lembar we cycled for about 20km to get to the capital Mataram. It's much greener on Lombok and the views of the mountains and paddie fields was lovely. We had lots of smiles and 'double takes' (not so used to western cyclists here) and even the police man shouted 'be careful' to us.
We loved Mataram and had 2 nights there in order to extend our visas by another 30 days (60 days in total). We'd heard that it was much easier to extend it here than in Bali and this turned out to be true. We met an Indonesian man sponsoring a girl from Belgium and he offered to help us for a very small fee. We got it all sorted out in a few minutes and picked up our visas the following morning. Awesome!
The traffic in Mataram was not as crazy as Bali as there are more horse-drawn carts and motorbikes than cars. There are very few tourists here and the people stared at us but as soon as you say 'hello' or smile they are really friendly and welcoming. We loved walking around the mall, which is so unlike any other mall at home. Below is me next to some sort of walking, singing animal that you can hire to put your child on when you're walking around the mall. Why do we not have these at home?
When we were in Mataram we contacted a chap called Axel who lives in Lombok and organises the Lombok Audax. Anyway, we ended up going to his house and meeting his lovely wife, Tenne, and her son Ekkie. Here I am in their lovely home:
We all got on really well and they even ended up cycling with us the 6km to Senggigi and bought us lunch. Such amazingly nice people.
We had a couple of nights in Senggigi at different hotels. At the second hotel we ate twice at a tiny Warung (cafe) and met the owners charming family. He was so kind and only charged us local prices and gave us free coffee.
Next we cycled to Bangsal harbour to catch the boat over to the Gili Islands and Axel and Tenne came to meet us. Axel cycled with us and Tenne was in the car and kept stopping to take lots of photos of us puffing and panting up the hills. Here I am with Axel and Tenne having a coconut at the top of one of the short steep hills:
It was a very hot day but the views were wonderful. Luckily I had my bags in Tenne's car so I got to cheat!
When we got he the harbour we had missed the last boat to Gili Air so we ended up getting a boat to the busier Gili Trawangan instead. Tenne's cousin and 3 of her friends were also on their way there so it was great to have some help getting the panniers and bikes on and off the boat.
This is the view of Gili T when we arrived - paradise!
We've been on Gili T for 2 nights and we're going to make our way to Gili Air later on today. I've had a cold so couldn't dive but I'm feeling OK now so hopefully we can get in the water tomorrow. There is supposed to be masses of marine life here and we can't wait to see some of it.
We also saw this lovely elephant on the way:
We are not taking many photos because there is just sooo much stuff that blows your mind.We had 2 nights in Padangai doing a bit of snorkelling and relaxing. Then we got the local ferry over to Lembar, Lombok, which is only 25km away but it can take upto 8 hours! Luckily we had a great crossing and it only took 3 1/2. Here is me on the ferry - lots of plastic on the seats! We had people trying to sell us everything from t-shirts to peanuts for about 45 minutes until the ferry actually left the harbour. Great entertainment. We are picking up a bit of the local language e.g. Tidak, which means no thanks
When we reached Lembar we cycled for about 20km to get to the capital Mataram. It's much greener on Lombok and the views of the mountains and paddie fields was lovely. We had lots of smiles and 'double takes' (not so used to western cyclists here) and even the police man shouted 'be careful' to us.
We loved Mataram and had 2 nights there in order to extend our visas by another 30 days (60 days in total). We'd heard that it was much easier to extend it here than in Bali and this turned out to be true. We met an Indonesian man sponsoring a girl from Belgium and he offered to help us for a very small fee. We got it all sorted out in a few minutes and picked up our visas the following morning. Awesome!
The traffic in Mataram was not as crazy as Bali as there are more horse-drawn carts and motorbikes than cars. There are very few tourists here and the people stared at us but as soon as you say 'hello' or smile they are really friendly and welcoming. We loved walking around the mall, which is so unlike any other mall at home. Below is me next to some sort of walking, singing animal that you can hire to put your child on when you're walking around the mall. Why do we not have these at home?
When we were in Mataram we contacted a chap called Axel who lives in Lombok and organises the Lombok Audax. Anyway, we ended up going to his house and meeting his lovely wife, Tenne, and her son Ekkie. Here I am in their lovely home:
We all got on really well and they even ended up cycling with us the 6km to Senggigi and bought us lunch. Such amazingly nice people. We had a couple of nights in Senggigi at different hotels. At the second hotel we ate twice at a tiny Warung (cafe) and met the owners charming family. He was so kind and only charged us local prices and gave us free coffee.
Next we cycled to Bangsal harbour to catch the boat over to the Gili Islands and Axel and Tenne came to meet us. Axel cycled with us and Tenne was in the car and kept stopping to take lots of photos of us puffing and panting up the hills. Here I am with Axel and Tenne having a coconut at the top of one of the short steep hills:
It was a very hot day but the views were wonderful. Luckily I had my bags in Tenne's car so I got to cheat!
When we got he the harbour we had missed the last boat to Gili Air so we ended up getting a boat to the busier Gili Trawangan instead. Tenne's cousin and 3 of her friends were also on their way there so it was great to have some help getting the panniers and bikes on and off the boat.
This is the view of Gili T when we arrived - paradise!
We've been on Gili T for 2 nights and we're going to make our way to Gili Air later on today. I've had a cold so couldn't dive but I'm feeling OK now so hopefully we can get in the water tomorrow. There is supposed to be masses of marine life here and we can't wait to see some of it.
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