Everything happens for a Reason...

Last night as planned, I met up with Eileen & Gary for dinner @ Scallywags beach-front restaurant. I tried a local dish called Mie/Bakmi Goreng which is a plate full of thin egg noodles, shredded egg, chicken, nuts & veggies tossed in a scrummy sauce and mixed altogether, served with chicken satay skewers. Scrum diddly umptious!

I must say I am quite enjoying the food out here. It isn’t anywhere near as spicy as I had anticipated. I half expected the food to be similar to Thai food, which I struggled with on my last trip, however I am pleasantly surprised by the food here.
Firstly, it’s not really that spicy.
Obviously, you can always ask for hot / mild as you would back home in your local curry house, but overall, I would describe the food here as fragrant & clean (as in not oily) with a hint of chili, peanut or coconut in most cases. Andrew, avoid Indonesian food at all costs! Nuts are in everything!!!!

After dinner, we took a stroll down the strip until we came across a cute little shisha bar with outdoor seating, harem style. E&G had never tried shisha before, so we had a few drinks there before moving on to the Reggae bar which so happens to be the bar we went to last time….

I smell trouble….

Sure-enough we got smashed again. Video footage and photos on my phone indicate it was a rather raucous affair with lots of singing involved. My voice has gone today as a result.

At some point of the evening I bumped into one of the lads that worked at my hotel, called Robby(which probably isn’t his real name). After the club had closed, Robby took us down to the sea and showed us the plankton. Now for those of you that don’t know what plankton is, it is basically fish food, an organism that just floats around the sea. The wonderful thing about plankton is that at night, when disturbed, they light up! You may know them from that scene in ‘the beach’ where the water lights up when they are kissing in the sea? That’s them! Robby picked up a few and I got to hold one - really really cool to see this blueish white jelly thing glowing in your hand! Eileen was feeling rather creative and in a playful mood so she stuck one on her forehead, bhindi style!

We called it a night around 4am I think…
Needless to say, today was a bit of a right-off. I just chilled on the beach all day nursing a hang over. I don’t actually mind to be honest, as I’ve had such a horrible and busy past month that I was close to burn out before I flew. At least the 2 hangovers I’ve had have actually made me stop and chill out. Otherwise I would have no doubt gone exploring again and not actually rested like I know my body needs. Unfortunately, I was so chilled out that I fell asleep in the sun and I am now bright red all over! Ooops.

Although I say today was a right-off, it wasn’t really. I was sat on the beach, looking out to sea, chowing down on a sandwich, thinking to myself at how upset, disappointed and pissed off I was that I hadn’t seen any turtles. Tomorrow I am leaving the Gili Islands, so being my last day and still having had no turtle action, I was not best pleased. I then turned my head and saw a small group of people out at sea taking pictures and getting excitable. TURTLE. I bet you it’s a bloody turtle!!!
I threw my sandwich on the floor, grabbed my trekking sandals, GoPro camera and water mask and I RAN.

Now yesterday I posted about the seabed being very ragged with coral. No way can you walk fast bare footed, so I donned my sandals as quick as I could and pelted my way through the sharp seabed like a woman possessed. IT WAS A GINORMOUS TURTLE!!!!! Mask went on, camera on, and in I went. The turtle was swimming off at this point and the other spectators all had bare feet, so they couldn’t keep up with the turtle due to the sea bed being such an obstacle course! Not for me though as I had my trekkers on! Ha!

So I ended up swimming side by side next to this turtle ON MY OWN! It was amazing. The down side was the tide was coming in and was quite rough so was disturbing the sea bed which meant the visibility wasn’t at its best. That was a tad annoying - But who cares! I FINALLY got to swim with a turtle! Made my day! My week even!! Eventually the turtle picked up pace but what

with my recovering dislocated knee, I can’t swim very fast, so I couldn’t keep up. I must have looked like a Cheshire cat by the time I got to shore, as a young couple immediately approached me and asked me if I had seen a turtle or something. I was buzzing. Absolutely Bloody Amazing.

I was desperate to get back to my hotel after that, in order to check out the footage and share this amazing experience with you all. I mean, what are the chances. There I was thinking at that very moment about how I have to leave without seeing one - and there it was!

Just goes to show, fate has things in hand - you just don't always know it at the time. Some things in life can’t be forced. You can try and force things in life, try to make things happen, try to influence people or events or things. Yet the second you stop forcing things and just be…. It happens. Sometimes it doesn’t happen but you have to trust in fate and say ‘what will be will be!’. Everything happens for a reason.. I also believe someone upstairs was listening to my thoughts and sent that turtle to me… I was on a BUSY beach, right in front of my hotel, and it appeared at the eleventh hour of my Gili Island trip - right in front of me.

Anyway.
And here is where I am kicking myself.

I could actually cry.

I didn’t turn the camera on…

I thought I had! I definitely pressed the button but clearly was in too much of a tizz over the turtle that I didn’t check… So unfortunately people, there is no photo evidence to show you. However, I am taking this as a positive too!

This moment was sent to me and was solely for me.
Again, everything happens for a reason and for whatever that reason may be, this moment was mine, and mine alone and was not meant to be shared…

On another note.
Turns out I’m having IT issues and can’t seem to save any of my photos from my cameras to upload onto this blog. I called IT at work and will have one of the lads do a pc take over remotely tomorrow, in order to fix the issue. Once that is sorted I’ll upload a few snaps for you all to see.

Today I tried a Nasi Goreng. A traditional dish from Lombok, which is basically the same as the Mie Goreng but with fried rice instead of noodles and a whole fried egg on top, served with prawn crackers. It was nice, but not as nice as the Mie Goreng that I had last night. As you can tell, I am clearly working my way through the Indonesian dishes, so fear not mother, I will not lose weight on this trip! That I can assure you! I only lost weight in Thailand because I didn’t like the food and basically starved for 2 weeks. That is not happening on this trip, trust me!

…. This evening I am taking it slow.
My knee is really hurting today (always seems to be the case after a night out dancing). So here I am tapping away, ice on my knee, Bintang beer next to me, having just popped into town for dinner and a quick last minute night time beach visit to say goodbye. I need to pack tonight too as I am getting the early boat tomorrow back to the mainland.

Tomorrow I am going to Ubud. But I will tell you more about this place once I am there..

All I can say is this. I am very very excited to be going there.
If I love it as much as I suspect I will, I may not be returning back to England…

TTFN xxx