Journey Impressions: Bali -- Lombok

Lombok, indonesian island: approx. 2,40 Mil. inhabitants
Island capital city Mataram: ca. 0,36 Mil. inhabitants
Indonesia: approx. 217,6 Mil. inhabitants
Inhabitants growth in population 2004: 1,3 %
Inhabitant for each km² : 114


11.04.07 Gili Trawangan: Today Sebastian had literally taken a dive and was therefore not around for the whole day. Which is why I'm writing some of the report today myself. Good timing, because today I was having a day off. I explored the island and attended to flight plans, authorisations and the maintenance of the plane in Sydney; because tomorrow it's back to Bali and then at last to Australia.

Our Hotel, Vila Ombak, is supposed to be the best one on the island, but without doubt it's the worst to date on our trip. One of its peculiarities is the bathroom. The bathroom and toilet are outside the room, practically alfresco, it has a roof and is surrounded by 2.2 m high walls open at the top. So, we can unfortunately hear our neighbours going to the toilet and having a shower. The brochure described it like this: 'Semi-open bathroom with a little garden next to your shower' (and by the way we're talking about salt water showers). The 'garden' is a flower bed in the bathroom which a 10 cm long gecko (like a lizard) lives in. However, the food is a lot better than the rooms; fish, salads, vegetables, lobster and many other delicacies are on offer.

A trip around the island is magnificent and provides some of the most beautiful settings for a dream holiday. Sun, warm seawater and plenty of coral off the beach, lots of little boats which above all transport divers to the sea. The beach promenade is surrounded by pubs emitting the din of hard rock for the English and German tearjerkers for the older generation. The locals try to sell anything. On offer are various intoxicating substances. This is a paradise for dropouts, students in their last terms and divers, if hygiene and privacy are not so important to you.
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While Uwe Thomas explored the island, I had an appointment with the divers. At about nine o'clock we set off in the boat to 'Shark Point' on the other side of the island. We dived backwards from the railing into the 29 degree warm water and four of us plunged down to a depth of 31 m. At the edge of a reef, we saw two large, easily 3.5 m long white tip sharks, a lot of huge turtles, blue-spotted rays and many other exotic creatures of the deep. Unfortunately I couldn't get my underwater camera to work and was pretty worried that I would not be able to send any pictures of our dive. Luckily, my diving colleague Jaap Norbruis lent me a hand. He could handle his camera perfectly and afterwards I was allowed to copy some of his pictures.

The second drive took place at 12 o'clock, this time on Sunset Reef before Gili Trawangan. Right at the beginning we saw an over two metre long black and white striped water snake that came up for air – an incredibly impressive animal. We dived to a maximum depth of 23 m and were bowled over by the variety of life in the deep. Simply fantastic!

On the return journey, which took a quarter of an hour, I sat on the boat's sundeck without a T-shirt. That was a nasty mistake, as near to the equator it only takes 15 minutes to get sunburnt. Luckily it wasn?t too bad, so that during the night I could still sleep.

I spent the time between the second drive and night dive reading in my room. These trips are more tiring than you'd think. At 6 p.m. I met the head of the diving guide. I was the only customer, which I was pleased about because then I was free to explore underwater. Equipped with a torch, we dived in a really strong current along the reef. We saw 'Spanish dancers', crabs, dragon fish and several octopus and squid. Then we switched off the torches and waved our hands about. This excited a few plankton so that suddenly it began to glow green like glow-worms.

Goodnight from Vila Ombak ...