Well, we have been here for 2 weeks now - and it doesn't feel like we have done or seen much!
We wanted to get here to have one final chance to play with Maya on Saroca and to bid them farewell and good luck on their sail to Langkawi. The girls had a great 2 days playing. The next few days were spent trying to organise our visa extensions because initially, our visas are only valid for 2 months and the rally is 3 months. We didn't intend to go into the marina in Bali where the rally said
We could do extensions at the end of sept. The helpful couple, Robin and Peter who own Medana bay marina were trying to organise immigration officials to come to us if we could get a group of at least 10 yachties together. We did, but after much miss-information, robin found out that they would not come out because it was too difficult to bring all the computer stuff for digital finger printing and photos.... Plan B was in the works. Meanwhile, it was father’s day in Australia on sept 2 and our friends in SV scholarship were splurging at a resort nearby with a pool, they suggested we come As well. So on Sunday we went early , checked into our lovely " cabin" set on a hill amongst beautiful gardens with a great pool and restaurant waiting. Grants father’s day present was the 2 hrs he got to soak in the sunken stone bath tub while the girls slept!
We had a lovely dinner with Liz, mark and baby Dylan, the owner and an older Australian couple staying there. A very pleasant 24 hrs!
When we returned to the boat on Monday, we found out that robin was able to arrange for her to take all our passports and money to
Immigration, then 2 days later, cars would take us all into Mataram (the capital of Lombok about 1hr 15 min drive) and get all the finger prints and photos done. Thankfully, in the end it all worked out and we are good for another 30 days! We were trying to decide what to do next. Lombok is a beautiful island and has one of the tallest volcanoes in Indonesia on it. Grant entertained the idea of doing the 6-8 hr guided walk with porters up with the girls and camping over night, but we made a very wise decision not to do it - there's no way a 3 yr old and 9 month old would tolerate that. There will be other volcanoes to climb when they are older! We thought about flying to Bali to look around and leave the boat here safe, but I think we have decided to wait until we go anchor in northern Bali.
We hired a car and driver to take us and our new friend Jeremy off SV Raylah into Mataram to check out the mall and western grocery store. The drive down the west coast was twisty turny and beautiful. To our surprise, when we pulled up at the mall we were created by the "golden arches" and KFC- I just didn't expect it! Normally I avoid
these places, however, when I saw the kids play area in the air-conditioned KFC (it was better than the mc Donald's one) I quickly changed my mind lol! So we checked out the shops, bought a few things then went into "Hero" the westernised grocery store.
Indeed, it carried the biggest range of western products I have seem so far, likely to do with more tourists here! With our carts full, we pulled into KFC where Ameliana and Elora were on display playing on the equipment - it was like a glass bowl cause not only were the local Muslim moms in KFC loving them, but people were coming up and
tapping on the window and waving at them from in the mall - so funny. They loved it. After some maccas ice cream, we loaded up the car and our driver too is home the hilly inland route through the monkey forest where they were all hanging out by the road and with views to the ocean- just beautiful. We ended up going back to the mall 3 days later when we were waiting to go to immigration. So back to KFC and I found the Mecca of child play areas for about 50 cents entry they had a huge area on the top floor of a department store filled with
toys and climbing equipment- ball pools, jumping things, swings, you name it! I'm just sorry we didn't find it sooner! Oh well, grant still got KFC again! We also spent some very pleasant time with the local villagers. If I took Ameliana to play on the beach, ultimately the local would come over and hang out in the shaded gazebo type thing. While the kids played , we tried to communicate via my Indonesian phrase book- the problem was is they were Sasak people and spoke the traditional Lombok language - but they all pretty much know Indonesian too. It was very enjoyable and they were so good with the girls. One of the women put Elora on their traditional sling carriers for kids and she was happy as pie. When Elora started to get whiny for a feed and sleep, the woman put it on me and Elora fell asleep in it while I continued to socialise. When the woman's own little boy was curling up to her got the same thing I tried to give it back to her - but she round take it and ended up giving it to me ! So generous, I was speechless. I have big bags of toys and kids clothes that I have to give away, so I went back to the boat and gathered some up to give to the village. I feel like I should do more cause everyday they are around and so happy, helpful and friendly!
The weekend of Sept 9/10 I arranged for us to go to Gili Air for 2 days. There are 3 little islands referred to as "the gilis ", about 3nm from here and I think they are Lombok’s biggest tourist destination. The islands are small, white sand, turquoise water, great diving and snorkelling and no cars or motorbikes. Only bicycles and pony carts. Gili Air is the closest and has lots of nice places to stay and eat and hang out by the beach for the day. Gili Meno is the smallest and quietest and Gili Trawangan is the more social "party island" i.e. families stay away! We didn't want to take Wandoo cause we were unsure of the moorings at the anchorage so we took a Bemo to Bangsal where the ferry’s depart from (one of the local village guys flagged down the Bemo for us and negotiated a charter price so he wouldn’t pick up anyone else - we honestly didn't care but felt bad that this guy went to all the trouble for us!
It was about 8km to the ferry area. When we got there we spent the next 45 min trying to make sure we weren't getting swindled by the guy who offered a price for return journey including transfer back to Medana bay. It was much more than the public ferry - which doesn't go until they fill it up- but in the end we just wanted to get there.
It was a beautiful spot. We had a bungalow set away from the main beach strip. It only had a fan and cold water shower, but who cares - its hot out. We ended up hanging out at our hotel restaurant on the beach all day. They had covered sitting areas and lounges on the beach so we could eat, swim and relax - well as much as you can with 2 young kids. We did learn that getting a place with 2 rooms will be much better in the future for Ameliana's daytime sleeps, but our bungalow had a big front deck with a couch and Elora happily crawled around and explored while we read. I even got to go for a jog in the morning. Around the island was less than 30 minutes (at my slow sand
trudge! Just a tad unfit these days!) and the views were great. I saw one of the family boats in the moorings and later that day we had a bit of a yachtie corner with them and another few who were staying over on land. We returned on Monday to see how many more boats had arrived. The anchorage was definitely filling up! Grant had immersed himself in trying to find and email every marina from here to
Langkawi to get info about where to leave our boat. The best marinas seem to be further up the Malaysian coast or Thailand, but we would have GET there by November and grant hates rushing - and they cost more. Alternatively, there aren't many options here and we would have to get another 2 boat CAIT (the boats visa) and we have to have an agent to do that and grant has been getting different info from too many people about the procedure. The info literally changed daily. There is a marina with only moorings at the moment about 2 hrs south by car and 4 hrs by boat. It is on a little island and looks like it will be the only all year protection in the area. So grant took a
motorbike down to check it out. He said it is very beautiful, but remote (slowly being developed) so we would need security. Anyway, each day I lose track, but as of today, there is a chance that Robin maybe able to be our CAIT agent and we maybe able to leave it here on a custom built mooring for us. That way we can just potter around Bali and the island north of it, leave the boat in November - fly back to Brisbane to work then return between July / August 2013 and continue. But we have no price or deal yet! Keep you posted. We decided to take a half day tour last week as well – didn’t think the girls would last a full day! We saw monkeys and fed them, then to (I think) the only multi- denominational temple in the world (or something like that) Buddhist, Muslim and Christian together. To be honest, our guide had very good English, but with a strong accent, so I did miss a bit of info on the tour. Ameliana got a scraped knee and elbow souvenir after she stacked it running along a stone path. Then our guide and this little boy went searching around to find what looked like a piece of grass, but he ground it up and put it on her scrapes. (We also put some disinfectant on it at home, just in case)
We then drive to a small art market that had wooden and woven crafts, beads, pearls and other touristy stuff. There was no one else there so Elora was swooped up by one woman who held her the whole time and Ameliana learned how to do her new spinning top with some of the vendors. We decided to stop for lunch in Sengigi- a larger town about 40 minutes south of Medana Bay. On the way, we stopped in at a fibre glass boat builder to ask for a price off hand to build a dinghy - needless to say- we are NOT getting a fibre glass one built here. Anyway, we had a nice lunch – can’t go wrong with nasi goreng (fried rice with chicken / seafood), the indo signature dish and the fresh juices are great - so cheap too! Then it was onwards home to let the girls have a proper run around. I thought for sure Ameliana would sleep in the car in the way home but everyone but the driver and Ameliana had a snooze!

So I think that brings us to the present. I walked with Elora to the markets about 2.5km away this morning. It was nice to have a walk, once again everyone was very nice to us, I got a Bemo home cause I was laden down and it was getting hotter. We are all fuelled up and grant has just bought 400+L of drinking water for the tanks which he is pouring in now. The plan is to head off for Lovina on north coast of Bali Sunday afternoon (Sept 16) Ameliana has had a cough and sniffles the last few days and Elora and grant have it now ... Thank you public play areas - they have to toughen up their immune systems somehow. Thank god I am blessed with exceptionally healthy kids so far - knock on wood. We have enjoyed it here, but it's time to go - of course the rally party is next week and we'll miss it!