Good morning, Gili Meno!

We explored this beautiful island…white sand beach and clear water ocean…FANTASTIC!!!

I was too excited. And it happened. I stepped on poop…what a wonderful way to start my day!!

We started making a plan for today while having breakfast at this fantastic beach side cafe.

 What about Scuba diving? Or motorcycle diaries in Lombok? Let’s do it!!

We checked a boat to Lombok and it had just left 5 minutes ago…

Again, we missed a boat.

But this time another boat would leave in an hour so we were playing on the beach while we were waiting!

There were only a few tourists around…I LOVED IT!!

Gili Meno was my favorite of three islands.

Then we arrived at Lombok.

We rented scooters and started our Motorcycle Diaries in Lombok!

Green mountains, vast rice fields, cows crossing a road...such a wonderful place!

The landscape was great, but what amazed me the most was that the roads in Lombok were perfectly paved, which is unusual for most developing countries. I could fully enjoy touring by scooter without worrying about driving on rough roads, which was the best thing on this island. Infrastructure is very important!

The locals looked very different from the ones in Bali.

Yes, most of the locals here are Muslims while most are Balinese-Hindus in Bali. The way people talk was also different. The islands were so close to each other but the culture was very different, which was very interesting. I visited different islands in the Philippines when I was living there, but I didn’t see the difference of culture as much as here. (Of course each island in the Philippines has unique culture but the religion was the same everywhere except Mindanao...)

We found a place to stay while having lunch and started heading there.

After ten minutes, it started raining. And it was getting worse. We escaped under a tree and then inside a little store as the rain got stronger and stronger.

SQUALL!! Or I would say RAIN STORM!!

The wind got so strong that a food stroll fell down. I thought the little store we refuged would also be blown off!

After 30 minutes or so, rain and winds were gone. We were surprised because we never experienced this weather in Bali. Sometimes the sky gets dark but it rarely rains in Bali. People, culture, and climate…everything became so different by crossing the sea for an hour.

We drove along the coast and arrived at this beautiful villa. It has a pool and a cute exciting dog...I felt I didn't deserve this gorgeous place but I could do luxury experiencing once in awhile. Only once in awhile...and that was FABULOUS!!

We visited a national park nearby, where we felt as if we were in one of Ghibli movies. (Both of us are Ghibli geeks.)

Sunset from Senggi was marvelous.

It was so beautiful and I got too excited…I left Tom behind and didn’t realize! Oops, sorry!

We had a fancy dinner with Mizuho, a Japanese volunteer working for tourism promotion in Lombok. She’s been reading my blog and contacted me. That was great! I was very happy to know that someone was reading and getting inspired from my blog!

She gave us some advice that Bangsal Ferry Terminal area where we were going to take a boat back to Bali was not as safe as other places so we should be alerted. And despite her advice, we got into a trouble at Bangsal next day...