Gili, Lombok

One of the bestest places ever. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Gili Islands at Lombok. I might have gone there a bit too late because its FILLED with tourists to the brim. People who go there to literally do nothing and have zero plans.

My villa was like 50 steps away from the beach. And theres no form of motorised vehicles there. Just horsecarts (which I HATE because the horses look so pitiful) and bicycles (which made my butt super cramped due to the uneven roads). The air is very clean, you are so relaxed there. Theres just you, the sun, FOOD, clear waters and very friendly people.

I went snorkelling because apparently to dive there is like to run a marathon when you have just learnt to walk. (Thats what my instructor said but I highly doubt so but the waters were crazy choppy that day, it might have been.) It was my first time snorkelling without a life jacket (with fins). WHY DIDNT ANYONE TELL ME HOW EASY IT WAS! I have a love hate relationship with the sea. Im so damn scared of it but once I am so comfortable, its like Im in my element or something. Its SOOOOOOOOOOOO calming and relaxing. My shoulders like de-tensed.

Food was AWESOME and relatively cheap compared to Singapore. The taste of the grilled snapper pictured above is still lingering in my memory. It costed about $13 for a whole snapper. Its really super good I shall try to recreate that.

What I REALLY LOVE about Gili was that the whole island is like your neighbourhood. You’re right in front of the beach, you walk around or cycle and everything is by the beach. Its THAT small. Everyone is so friendly, locals and tourists alike.

I pray I get to go there again like regularly!

Black Coffeee

We were  supposed to go somewhere on the last day but our driver basically got lost and brought us on a joy ride. Haha. Above is the new school premises. I kind of miss the old campus but not the nights there thanks.

We went to the market after but because it was HOT and there was nothing really for us to buy, we sat down at the coffeehouse and got the famous aceh coffee. That by the way is already with lesser condensed milk. Haha. I mixed it with half only. Its like triple shots of expresso with milk and condensed milk. YUMMMYYYYYY.

Quite sad to leave but it was a very very good trip and its high time we reunited with our beloved kids and chatted with them and woke up to such a peaceful sight and familiar smell. LIKE!

I would really like to go back there and bring K and maybe my brother and I know Asi is dying to go back there again!

xoxo

 

Jelly Sea and Nasi Uduk

Breakfast was held at their patio overlooking the padi fields with mountains as backdrops with light breeze and the perfect level of sunshine. We were served everything from toast with cheese or jam to nasi uduk which is their traditional food kind of like nasi lemak. YUMMMM. By the way, yesterday for dinner we ate durians as well. YUM!

For some of us, this was the part of the trip we were most anticipating for! To Sabang we go! Sabang Island is basically an island off Aceh but we were headed to Rubiah Island which is beside Sabang. This place is actually quite not developed yet/at all but a lot of Australians and Europeans and Americans I think go there to dive and omg. Wait let me continue, firstly water,’resort’ facilities were barely nonexistent there ok. So basically only me and three other people had only 1hr to snorkel around. WITH NO TOILET OR CLEAN WATER TO BATHE AFTER. Aica said well the only way to pee is to snorkel. Thats her reason. Its true. Haha Pak Nusa brought us straight to the deep end of the island. What happened there was truly hilarious to the max! But not the point. It was BEAUTIFUL! I will DEFINATELY go back there to dive when theres MORE TIME and proper facilities and more friends. Haha. Visibility was probably 839210843920 m (exaggerating). The moment we finned off, it was 4-6mtrs deep and there were schools of fishes of every colour and we spotted an octopus! I cant imagine what the divers can seee in the middle. It was funny lah there. I hope no one took a video of Aica trying to swim back. Hahaha. Such a pretty sight. We went to the well and had a pail each of water to rinse ourselves. Because the sea water was so clean, we werent even sticky after drying.

At night, we had a barbecue dinner organised for us and we also had time to finally mingle with the kids. A few of the original students were still there, some came back and ALL of them are like TALLLLL and handsomeeeee (for the boys lah). Haha seriously shocking.

After that we were to play badminton with them and watched some of them finish their art pieces constructing wooden houses using basic tools. And we ended the night the same way.