Food

Today we headed out with Scuba Froggy to a 2 dive day trip to the Gili Islands, after breakfast of course.

It took half an hour to drive to the boat along a windy road which went up and down along the coast. We saw lots of cows, goats and chickens along the way.

The boat we travelled on was like most of the other boats around here - wooden with stabilisers and a big engine. We had a few others on the boat, half and half snorklers/divers, and we had our own dive master, Harman.

Our first site was the Bounty Wreck, and the first sea creature we saw as we descended was my favourite - blue fishies! The water was very clear, and we discovered a resting turtle in a cave - he was huge. We also saw some Nemo's and I tried to tickle them but they hid instead. I almost patted a scorpion fish by mistake because he was camouflaged on the wreck so well and that would not gave ended well. All in all a pretty good first proper dive after a 3 year break.

It was then time for lunch at Gili Air. After getting money from the ATM we headed to the place recommended by the crew which also had a small swimming pool.

Unfortunately it also took 75mins for out lunch to be made, so it arrived just when we supposed to be back on the boat. However everyone else had also been eating at the same place and had only just finished theirs so were happy to wait.

Back on the boat we headed to our next dive site, Meno wall. On this dive we saw a big manta ray gliding its way through the ocean, giant sea cucumbers almost a metre long and larger than a loaf of bread, and a bright yellow box fish.

Both of our dives were at about 20-25m and went for about 35min. Back on the boat Ben and I headed upstairs to the sun deck to dry out and take in the amazing views on the way back to Lombok. The green, mountainous terrain looks like you are definitely on an island paradise.

Back at the resort by 5.30pm and just in time for pool bar happy hour(s). Slushie time again - this time some fruity concoction.

As the sunset I wrapped myself in my towel and read a book on my Kindle by the light of the pool fires. Usually on a Tuesday I would be at Floorball training, but this seems far more civilised.

At the resort the special dinner was "Taste of Indonesia" so we decided to give it a go.

The highlights were : the spicy satay sauce, satay sticks, a pancake type pocket filled with chicken or veggies, and a dessert of shaved ice and fermented cassava with grass jelly and syrup - called Es Campur.

The area where we had dinner was next to the pool, and they decorated it quite nicely, and had some entertainment - we even got asked to dance!