Magic mushroom island

We've had a busy week travelling about! We left Sanur to go tot the gili islands last Saturday. We miraculously survived the journey via two dodgy minibuses, a 5hour ferry ride on a boat worse than the lamma ferry and a teeny tiny boat ride/raft over huge waves to get to the island of magic mushrooms. When we arrived it was 8pm and surprisingly all the hostels were fully booked. We spent two hours begging them to find us a room and finally we found one that can only be described as a complete and utter shithole! The three of us squashed into the dirty, damp room which they were charging four times the usual amount due to 'high season'. We spent one night there before moving to another expensive hostel that was only slightly better than the other one (except there weren't stains and damp everywhere which was a bonus!) Despite the horrible hostels we still had a great time there. It was pretty lively with lots of tourists and backpackers and a nice chilled out atmosphere. The locals were all crazy due to an overload of magic mushrooms but they kept us entertained. The beach was beautiful with crystal clear sea and there were lots of pool bars that we could chill out in and top up our tan. Lots of the bars had little huts with tv's and dvd players so we could have a break from the sun and educate Nikki with some classic gangsta films! We hired bikes for an afternoon, which was an experience nad a half seeing as we havent ridden a bike for years. We set out to explore Gili Trawagan, only to find there wasnt anything else on the island except for beach huts and bars. Unfortunately due to the ridiculously expensive hostels, we had to cut our time on the Gili islands short and head to the island Lombok after 4days.

We arrived in Senggigi on Wednesday, a small, very quiet town in Lombok. Although it was high season (so everywhere charged ten times the usual amount for everything) there weren't too many tourists there and there wasn't much going on. So, on Thursday we decided to go on a little adventure to find the waterfalls of Lombok. This turned out to be a bigger adventure than we expected! We hired a guide and set off on our jungle trek to the waterfalls. The first waterfall was easy to get to. It was so beautiful and absolutely huge. We found it so hard to stand up under it due to the force, but it was a damn good massage!!! The second waterfall was a bit trickier to get to. We had to trek through the jungle, climb over rocks, over high, dodgy bridges and wade through fast flowing rivers and rapids!(which is were I lost my shoe!) Finally we made it to the waterfall which was amazing. There was a natuaral pool under it that was deep enough to swim in although pretty difficult as the waterfall was so forceful that it created a strong current in the pool making it pretty hard to swim. We had lots of fun playing about in the water attempting to get under the waterfall. The guide took us around the back of the waterfall under a cave, it was so noisy and because of the spray from the waterfall we couldnt even open our eyes. We had a fantastic time there, a little piece of paradise! After lots of playing about in the water Nikki decided to get out of the pool. Andy and I were just about to have a romantic moment under the waterfall when a great big metre long snake jumped on my back (and I am not exaggerating when I say great big metre long!) Andy tried his best to play the part of Steve Irwin but actually just looked at me in disbelief whilst i screamed and swam away whilst trying to beat the snake off my shoulder! We swam to the side of the pool in olympic record time then watched the snake climb up the rocks, and it was huge!!!! Luckily I escaped with no bites but almost peed my pants! Scary stuff! On the way back the guide decided to take us another adventure through 'the tunnels'. Teeny tiny, pitch black tunnels filled with water (imagine the Vietnam tunnels ontop of a fast flowing river) Andy was loving the little adventure whilst Nikki and I held on to each other for dear life, screaming everytime we felt something touch us in case it was a snake or a deadly spider! Despite the snake incident and being scared to death in 'the tunnels', it was an amazing day and I would recommend anyone going to Lombok to go for the day.

We left Lombok yesterday and returned to Kuta. As much as Nikki and I disliked it first time round, it is so much cheaper for everything and we thought Andy deserved to see a bit of Bali nightlife (magaluff style). As it's Andy's last two nights he has treated the three of us to a very nice hotel. Nikki and I were very excited about the hot shower, towels, bed sheets and tv, a little bit of luxury for us!! We are spending the next couple of days chilling by our OWN pool. Thats right, we dont have to lie and pretend we are staying in some fancy hotel to use other peoples pools, we have our own now.

We fly to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, so will update you then.

xxxx