“Yes Lambok, No Bali!”

Ok, Cos I like to keep it up-to-date whilst I’m away from home, so I'm gonna try and write this post on my phone cos Windows Writer kept crashing on my phone, so I'm pretty much rewriting this whole post. I just wanted to get an update up online before I went to the Gili Islands. I'm currently in a Sports Bar watching the highlights from yesterday's World Cup games, so I'll be writing on breaks. I must be the only POM in here, no one else gives a dam about the football (and it's currently the Australia game on…bar’s full of Aussies watching the AFL)

So since my last post, Sandra and I have met up with Peter, to catch up and have a chat about what his project involves, and our involvement in it. In short, we will be setting up the base for Peter's project on Gili Trawangan. Then on this base we will be keeping an eye on and organising/arranging all Peter's other projects. As well as getting the right people/volunteer(s) working on the right project.

Fortunately for us, he had found a new contact that was looking for someone to help her move her things around in her villa(s). So last Monday we left our hotel in Kuta, and got a taxi to Seminyak (which really isn’t too far down the road). We arrived in Deb’s villas in the late morning, but Deb’s wasn’t here, but a load of Indonesian workers were. Gede showed us to our room, and we sat there for a while feeling a bit awkward, like “should we go out there and look around…but I know that we’re meant to be working and directing these guys….but I dunno which ones, and what, how, where anything is!?!?!?!” Before long Gede passed the phone to me giving with Deb on the other end, to which she gave me directions as to what she wanted doing…great! Except I knew where nothing was that she told/asked me.

Leaving our hotel room.

To be fair, it didn’t take us too long to get to grips with what was going on. And Deb did arrive later that the. The next few days involved us getting stuff out of the old villas and into the new villa, and getting stuff set up in the new villas. But it also gave us a room to stay in for a few nights.

Deb left for Australia last Thursday. And then Peter arrived here last Friday to start looking over the older buildings (on this site) that we would be stripping down and taking over to Gili Trawangan. We have pretty much been working on that since Saturday, us and some of the local workers.

 

And yesterday (Friday) morning, ass the truck turned up to pick up the first load to take over to Lambok

 

Aside from that, we’ve just been chilling and making the most of our time in Bali, Chilling with Pete, Gede, Adrian, Tom (deb’s son, who arrived back here on Monday night)before everything has to get shipped to Lambok, and then eventually Gili Trawangan. Clearing another room out on Tuesday, to move into there, to move out of that room on Thursday, to another room, so that that room could be gutted out. “We need a Bintang Night!”

The Doctor is ready to see you…..

I am not walking that far!

 

Getting ready for the World Cup.

 

So, gonna get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to watch the England Vs Italy game live at 6. Then dunno what else really tomorrow. The 2nd truck should be here on Monday, so soon after that we should be heading to Lambok. But we’ll see, nothing is definite yet, and nothing is rushed. But I think that we are both looking forward to moving on to somewhere else soon.

So which side of the road do they drive on here!?!?….oh, don’t worry about that, they drive on the pavements too!

I pretty much slept the whole drive up to Heathrow, after a pretty sleepless week, and a pretty sleepless last night in England. Leaving England on yet another raining May bank holiday (and after such a sunny Sunday), again, pretty much sleeping the whole flight (waking up to the Stewardess speaking to me in German asking if I wanted food!?!, “Ja, immer, bitte!…..Danke.”. Only to arrive in a less than impressive Wet Germany Day…..again.



Getting through customs and picking up my luggage with no problems (Heathrow airport: Take note of how it’s done!) Sandra was actually at the gate waiting for me this time. We headed from Frankfurt to Marburg stopping at an American 50s style diner for food, where Isabel came to meet us after she had finished work. Sandra and I then attempted a bit of shopping, which we both just endure, so that was over well quick, before heading back to Battenberg. The rest of the evening involved….well, we’ll leave it at sleep.



And into the following day which pretty much involved me catching up on sleep. But Sandra had to pack all of her stuff….so I slept more! But I did eventually get up, and came to the conclusion that I would defiantly need to repack my backpack, but ‘thank you airport security’ is all I can say there. I noticed that one of my straps was loose meaning that Security must've gone through it already, I opened the main zip, and BOOM, all of my clothes were sorted, job jobed!



The rest of the day involved spending some time with Lea, and Sandra’s parent’s Petra and Eckhard. Before heading out for an evening of food, with Sabrina, Steffi, and Schengül. Our last night in Europe, and we go for Asian food. But I did get to spend my last night in Germany and Europe with four stunning German girls, wie koennte ich mein leben nicht lieben.



Our last morning in Germany involved us getting our last bits together, having breakfast with Sandra’s parents, and Sandra’s family being over to do their goodbyes. Before Eckhard and Petra drove us back to Frankfurt airport.




And that is where I am currently at just over half way through this 11 hour flight from Frankfurt to Hong Kong. Both Sandra and I know that we should sleep soon to start trying to adjust to the time differences as it’s currently 2 in the morning in both Hong Kong and Denpasar, but it’s only just gone 8 in the evening in Germany. Sandra’s approach is by watching crap TV and my approach is by tryna slowly drink beers until it makes me drowsy…I’ve just been giving my 4th now since we left, and it’s not working, aber ich muss pipi nach mal!






OK, so the 2nd part of this entry, on Sunday night, and it's coming from our hotel room in Kuta on the island of Bali, one of the many many many islands that make up Indonesia. We have been staying here for the last 3 nights, and this is to be our fourth and final night here before we head off to a villa that we will be staying in. I believe that the plan is to stay there until we eventually head off to the Gili islands, but as always are plans are very vague but that is the way that we like it.

We arrived in Hong Kong airport after an 11 hour flight on Thursday morning, and after a 3 hour wait we boarded our 5 hour flight to Denpasar. And, in all honesty, it was great to arrive here, the flights weren’t long or bad, but it was just good to have them out of the way.



And unfortunately my plan, on the 1st flight, to drink beers until I felt drowsy didn't prevail, but it did seem to work very well on our first night here on Thursday…unplanned this time.

To be honest, over the last few days we have just been chilling and sorting things out really, but it has been pretty chill. Both of us slowly getting out of our Western European time zones and into our Indonesian time zone. Our hotel is about 10 minutes from the beach, and it doesn't take us to long before Sandra is offered an Indonesian baby “Miss, Miss, please hold our baby” Sandra’s face as a group of locals want a photo with us and in the next moment she is randomly holding one of their babies.

We met with Peter earlier today, and started talking about the plans for the Gili islands. And he has set us up with one of his Aussie friends whom will be hopefully setting us up with a room in a/her villa until we head off to the Gilis, in exchange that we help her to move out. But I believe that it will be a mile or two away from our current location and pretty close to the beach.



Not really a great deal to write about Indonesia at the current time as we really haven’t seen too much. But we know that we are here for a while, so we've taken a chilled approach as we will be here for a while, and before all the work starts. But both Sandra and I, and Pete, and looking forward now to getting up and running on the Gili Islands. But it looks like when we first get out there we will be getting everything set up and living with just the (very) basics, which (to me anyway) just makes it all the more exciting.


It’s hard for me to have a valued opinion on Indonesia yet, as you can see there are many island that make it, and I have only seen on tiny corner of one town, of one of these islands. But so far I can honestly say that the people that I have met are friendly (even if they do find your Indonesian hilariously bad). But the weather is great here in a Bali May/June. It is very touristy here, and I am enjoying my time here, but I am really looking forward to getting out and seeing a lot more of Indonesia, real Indonesia. And I really cannot wait to help out where I can.

So there you have it, after a short while out, Mr Sheen’s adventures are being tested again. As always, thanks for reading, and I will have more exciting stuff to post real soon!