Riding along in a holey boat

Well we've splashed out on our last expensive tourist meal, said goodbye to Brett's mum and moved on. We are now on an island.

The island is Nusa Lombongan a couple of hours boat ride off the coast of Bali. The plan was to get the local ferry over this morning, although in reality the boat was full of tourists and we got ripped off on the price. At least it was an authentically rickety, wooden boat we traveled in or we'd have been disappointed!

Now, I'm pretty good with isolation but it does take a bit of getting used to. We left the frenzy of Kuta in Bali and landed at Nusa Lombongan in the pouring rain (when I say landed, it was more of a half jump, half fall off the back of this wooden boat, a trip over the rope and a desperate stumble for shore, stubbing my toe on the way), but anyway, we landed. We all ran for shelter at the nearest hotel and peering out through the rain, a wave of panic came over me, it looked pretty desolate and isolated and I was seriously worried about whether we could get a hot coffee, and man - did I ever need a hot coffee! Turns out this was an irrational fear, heaps of tourists come here every day not to mention locals, of course they don't all get by without caffeine. But right there, standing with my bag in the rain, I was worried!

We found our hotel, which certainly ain't the Hilton but it is definitely an upgrade from the last place (which it turns out had a friendly room mouse to accompany the broken sink and stained bed sheets). We had a big cup of Bali coffee and splashed out on some hot chips and the world looked good again.

Nusa Lombongan is still quite a culture shock after the main tourist area of Bali, it is a very poor island and the villages are mostly made up of just shack housing (although kept pretty dam clean and tidy). There are lots of boats, lots of chickens and lots of motor bikes to rent. As we're here off season there is a nice balance of locals and tourists and everyone so far is chatty and friendly. The pace of life here suits me just fine. What else? - Oh yeah, there's beautiful white sand and blue waters and some good surf breaks around the island. Now we've found coffee and food and the sun is just about shining, the island life is not too shabby at all.

Oh and it turns out that a cyclone did hit Darwin and we managed to get on the last plane to fly from the airport before they closed it, so I'm taking this as a good omen for our travels (fingers crossed anyway because it's crossed my mind that I don't like our chances if a tsunami should hit here) Na, it'll be fine, there's a big old hill right behind us. Now it's time for food.