The island life

(Dec 22, 2011)

The day after our freediving course, we checked out of Ozzy Bungalows and into Villa Almarik, the more upscale hotel that we discovered on our bike ride north of the island to Coral Ocean 2, the restaurant with delicious pizza but mangy cats wanting to steal food.

Almarik was beautiful. For double the price (apparently we negotiated a very good rate) of Ozzy, we got full housekeeping, excellent breakfast, free welcome massage, free introductory scuba dive, and a bunch of hotel amenities like DVD player, and shampoo.

It was a good thing we switched to this nice hotel too because we ended up spending a lot - and I mean a lot - of time in our room. Both of us were still feeling sick and mostly lying in bed or on the beach chairs. Too sick to even go into the water which was a shame because apparently the snorkeling here is excellent.

I suffered through a combination of drenching sweats at night, nausea that hasn't resolved over two days which is unusual for me, and lightheadedness.

Hopefully it will go away by tomorrow and we can do some snorkeling before we return to Bali.

I actually really like this island. It is similar to Caye Caulker in Belize in that motorized transportation is not allowed, so people get around on bike, horse drawn carriages or walks. It is more charming though, busier, and has real beaches.

It is a busy little place with restaurants trying to get your business each time you go by their menus. Dive shops galore line the street and accommodations of varying degrees of luxury can be found.

Although it takes a really long time for food to come out, the fresh mango juice more than makes up for the delay. Last night, Shannon and I had dinner beside the water watching a lightning storm over Lombok island.

It is dang hot here. It gets over 30C with heaps of humidity. Just laying under an umbrella reading causes me to be drenched in sweat. This would be a perfect time for a fresh fruit juice, except that the power has gone out on the island so the blenders don't work.

The power went out on me a couple nights ago when I went all the way down to the south end of the island to tell Steve we couldn't meet him for dinner. In addition to feeling sick, the chain fell off my bike, and the power went out. All of a sudden, the booming music was doused by silence, the street completely black with the stars emerging in the sky.