We moved fairly quickly west from Komodo based on the limited decent anchorages on the North side of West Nusa Tenggara. We did one overnight passage and all of the shrimp boats, fish traps and unlighted small fishing boats made for busy watches. We stopped at a fancy resort on the west side of Moyo Island and visited a resort that charges $850 US per night. The bungalows are all air conditioned and have fabric tent roofs and are very plush inside. We did enjoy lunch there but it was waaay overpriced and after taking our money, we were relocated to a distant mooring.
We made a few more stops before arriving in the Gili Islands. One anchorage was near a factory and a horse-drawn cart was shuttling huge piles of hay back and forth along the beach. He was working fast to beat a rain storm that was coming.
The 3 Gili Islands just off Lombok give the locals a place to get away from city life. No motorized vehicles are allowed and all travel is by bicycle or horse-drawn carts. We enjoyed a Christmas sleigh ride complete with jingle bells all around Gili Air for $10.
There were numerous laid back restaurants and massage places and enough white folks that we blended in for the first time in Indonesia. Full lunches with appetizers, multiple drinks, and deserts for the three of us were consistently around $30-$40 US. We ate out every day for lunch and one day we all enjoyed 60 minute massages for less than $10 each.
They had a few unique craft shops and we bought a coconut that was hollowed out and the entire surface was carved by hand in dolphins and swirls. If it makes it home in one piece, I’ll put a light in the base.
After about a week, we moved two miles over to Lombok and took on 1000 liters of diesel to top up the tanks. They brought it out in 33 jugs and poured it right into the tanks for about $2.49 per gallon. We only had about two weeks left on our 60 day visa and wanted to move on to Bali before the new year, so we decided to make the one day trip southwest. We were told that the Bali marina power was so bad, we decided to go straight to a nearby anchorage behind Serangan Island.
Follow along, dear reader as we move on.
Tom
3 comments:
Merry Christmas to you all and good sailing in the coming year.
Merry Christmas guys!! We are enjoying catching up on your 2011 travels. We're headed up to Brisbane after a year in Sydney... need to fuel the cruising kitty there a bit longer before heading out. Will you ship EG to the Med or hang out in SE Asia for a while? Hope our paths cross again someday!
Merry Christmas to the crew of Totem and thanks for your comments. Our wallet is not fat enough to ship through the pirates to the Med. I think we will go around South Africa. If the Mediterranean countries loose enough cruisers maybe they will do something about the pirates. We will head across the Indian Ocean to SA in 2012 and then head back to the USA via Brazil and the Caribbean.
Tom
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