Hi everyone,

Our first week has been a pretty casual acclimatisation, not to the weather as that’s a perfect 25-30 deg, but to a different world. Bali/kuta was pretty and we met Mary & Lewis (sister & nephew from Geneva) then came over to the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok. It’s about 1 km long coral island with palm and shade trees and a local village in the middle surrounded by beachy hotels around the edge. No cars or motorbikes allowed so we had a few rides on teeny horse & buggies, VERY peaceful.

Arriving was quite surreal as we had a moonlit boat ride across, unloaded into a few of the buggies & trit-trotted through the village to our hotel/shack. It’s handy having Grant speak indonesian, but will no doubt become more so as we leave the tourist areas. Lewis did some dives & we snorkelled on the reef. Quite exciting as they drop you off & you follow the current and look at the pretty fish & turtles & clams & coral, then they chug down & pick us up. I managed to relax a bit when it looked like the kids were managing & enjoying the experience, & not disappearing off with the current; so had fun ‘flying’ over the coral. I’ve always had flying dreams so that’s the nearest I’ll get I think!

It’s been great spending time with Mary & Lewis in such a casual setting. The kids have been making a movie with Lewis’ camera and such creative pursuits. The Premiere is on tonight in our room! We came over to Senggigi beach for the last 2 nights together & are in an amazingly cheap fancy hoteloverlooking the sea with beautiful gardens & pool & even had a massage!  The flowering trees are a delight. Life’s gonna get a teeny bit tougher after this I think! We can see Bali with it’s big volcano, from here, about 25 km away.

Tomorrow Grant is going trekking up Lombok’s volcano, Rinjani, 3,700m. We 3 will hang out for a couple of days in the village high up where his 3 day trek finishes, and have a few walks around there – more suitable to my current capabilities! It’s the second highest mountain in Indo, so should be a good view!

Mary & Lewis will catch an early flight to Bali & back to KL to continue on to Australia.

Our next stop is fly to Flores on 29th, then big boat to Sulawesi on Aug 10.

We’ll start leaning indonesian more systematically after this little holiday within a holiday, and pump up my fitness campaign!

Hope you’re all well & happy.

Cheers, Shauna, Grant, Freya & Winton