06.40 It's morning at Prima Cottage in Sanur. Here in room 5A, there are two exhausted men. I just coughed and it was followed by a sneeze from Christer. Today we'll be moving on. It will not be on land or in the air. We're going on the waves.

07.34 The TV-channel Al-Jazeera reported about unrest in Syria, South Sudan and Guinea. Plus they had a report from Brazil. It was about a religion that was a mix of Catholicism and African beliefs. We also heard about the "green" growing maize in Guatemala. Is it maize or corn in English? Maybe both? Enough of this now it is breakfast.

07.44 Patricia just discovered that Christer had lipstick, not on the collar but at his coffee cup. How did it get there? Not cleaned properly maybe?

08.33 The checkout from Prima Cottage went smoothly. The two traveling men are currently sitting on a couch in the lobby. The ladies are up and running. We are waiting for transport from here to the harbour here in Sanur. We will be picked up here at the hotel.

08.47 Scoot Fast Cruises is written on the white minibus that stopped at the hotel and let us inside. Now it's off to the harbour here in Sanur. There are, in addition to us, four more tourists here. We’ll be travelling with the company Super Scoot Cruises (http://www.scootcruise.com).

The minibus from Super Scoot has stopped outside the ticket office on its way to Sanur harbour.

Luggage is carried to the Super Scoot fast boat.

09.02 The minibus has stopped at Super Scoot´s office. Here, some of our fellow passengers will get their tickets. For our part, this has already been arranged. However, Patricia has arranged with personal tickets instead of printed paper. We have received a handwritten sticker to attach to an upper body garment. It says Gili T on the patch. This is for the staff to keep track of where each passenger to get off.

09.36 We were driven to the harbour/jetty. There we had to wait on the beach and the backpacks were handled everything but prudent. Our shoes were left in a plastic box and everyone had to wade out to the boat. Basically everyone got pants or similar leg covering garments wet. The ticket price was high, 650 000 rupiah, so why is the money not enough for a proper harbour bridge or gangway? Now we have left Bali and we head out on the sea.

09.51 We have prepared ourselves with motion sickness pills and are a bit nervous about this trip. A ride like this can easily cause nausea and the sea is not completely quiet today. However, it has gone well but there is bobbing, splashing water and the speed is high.

Inside the fast boat Super Scoot.

We have reached this trip´s first stop, the island Nusa Lembongan.

10.23 Our fast boat is about to dock at the island Nusa Lembongan which is located southeast of Bali. It's not where we're going. However, I shall take this opportunity to straighten my legs during the stop. It is meager space for legs on board.

10.53 Our journey has resumed. Now it remains about two hours before we reach land. It is thankfully not too high waves today. We had feared that it would be worse.

11.16 Christer just said; here comes the water. It arrived with salt through the front window and as freshwater in bottles from those who served aboard. We also got some snacks, crackers, cheese sandwich, and hard candy. Thank you!

12.42 We are surrounded by only open water. I 'm glad we had the wind and the waves with us on this long journey.

12.59 Our boat has docked at a port again. We are in Senggigi. It's time to get off if you're going to visit Lombok. We are not getting off here, not today anyway, so we remain seated.

13.18 We have started today's final journey across the open sea. We are now travelling north.

Our transport has arrived to its final destination, Gili Trawangan.

Christer´s and Patricia´s names were found written next to the reception desk.

The reception at Banana Leaf Bungalows.

We have checked in at Banana Leaf Bungalows. Peter is sitting outside our house.

The village chief has a message to the tourists.

14.08 Finally we arrived. The boat docked the shore with the first to stern first and we stepped out into the breakers. The boat then went out again to add the bow first. After this was done the luggage was loaded out to the waiting on the beach. One of those waiting on the beach had a t-shirt on which it stood,”Banks Beer of the Bahamas." Bahamas, we have not been there. Our small group took the luggage and went to our accommodation, Banana Leaf Bungalows. The man that was supposed to check us in was resting / sleeping on the reception desk. He was awakened and now Christer and I are in bungalow 2 and the ladies are living next door. We are on Gili Trawangan, the largest and most visited of the three Gili islands.

14.48 We are disappointed with the boat trip here. It cost us, as I said 650 000 rupiah, over US$60. We had to wade on and off the boat, got the clothes wet, sat not so comfortable and it was not much food aboard. Here they have invested a considerable sum on the boat. Should it be so hard to build a bridge, landing place? No, enough with the whining, it's vacation and soon it's food.

15.07 The call to prayer has been disturbed by a noise that sounded like an attempt to rap. Gili islands is by the way low-lying atolls, paradise islands that were "discovered” by fishermen from Sulawesi and then by backpackers. Here on the island there are no dogs barking at cars. Neither cars or dogs are welcome here.

15.21 It is time for a late lunch here on Gili Trawangan. We're at the restaurant Kafé Kecil & Taman Thai which is located near our bungalows. On the other side of the street is a shop run by a Swedish woman. Now passed a cidomo (horse and carriage) on the street behind us. These and bikes are the means of transport on the island.

Patricia and Christer is reading about Gili Trawangan.

Peter has finished his lunch at Kafé Kecil & Taman Thai.

We are walking along the main street in Gili Trawangan.

16.22 We've walked along the main street here in the "village”. There are dozens of restaurants, hotels, bars, travel agencies, dive schools and everything else under the sun. We hear various languages, English, German, Italian, Spanish, and even Swedish is heard from others than us.

16.48 The beautiful turquoise waves are rolling onto the beige beach. We stopped at the Turtle Conservation. Here are two open tanks, 4-5 meters by 4-5 meters. In 15 centimeters deep water small tortoise kids swim around. This is a local, non-profit effort to preserve these wonderful animals. The young are born in freedom, brought here and live here for a year before they are released again. Everything is sponsored by donations from locals and tourists like us.

17.07 Now it's afternoon at the café Balé Sampan. We will also surf a little on the internet using the Wi-Fi and Patricia's Ipad. On the wall there is a quote by Oscar Wilde, ”I can recist everything except temptations."

18.50 On the way home we stopped at the travel agency ”Global Tour and Travel" where we booked a shuttle for a future trip, namely the journey from here on Saturday. Now we eat fruit on the porch here at Banana Leaf Bungalows. We had planned to have a fruit break already in Bali but we found no time for that. Patricia bought various exciting fruits that we will be testing.

The beach on Gili Trawangan. In the background you can see the neighbooring island Gili Meno.

This project saves sea turtles.

We visited a travel agency to arrange with the transport from the island.

19.31 This year's fruit evening is over. We've tried the mango, passion fruit, longan and salak, also known as snake fruit/adders' eggs. We can again hear the sound from the mosque some distance from here. Now we will wash our clothes before getting dinner.

20.25 We are three people who dine at the restaurant Juku Marlin. Susan has stayed at home. Christer has just proposed that we two should invite Patricia to dinner. It's a thank you for the fruit she bought and all the help so far during the trip. Our waiter has a bandage on his forehead. The band aid guy just told me that he has no tenderloin even though it says so on the menu.

22.36 There was a lot of talk about a little of everything here at the restaurant before we paid. On the way home was purchased water and lemon water. We continued down to the beach where we watched the moonlight in the sky and the reflection of it in the ocean. Now we are home and can hear the mosque again, what is going on there? It´s a strange sound, are they testing the speakers?

23.10 It sounds even more from the mosque's loudspeakers. It seems to come from two directions, or at least from two different people. I wonder how long they will hold on and if I will be able to fall asleep. The question is what they do; the last prayer of the day was at sunset.

Finally we found time for our fruit evening.

We had an excellent dinner at the restaurant Juku Marlin.

Thursday 25th of July

08.40 Last night it was the sound of people that were heard before we went to sleep. This morning, Christer was waked up by a rooster. After having fallen asleep again, he was brought back. This time it was the rooster again, however, in a duet with a mewing cat. I have not heard anything at all during the night and morning. The only time I heard the rooster was when I showered. Our shower room is partially out in the open and it hangs a bunch of bananas above the shower area.

09.10 Now we have taken ourselves out of the bungalow 2 and have knocked on the ladies door, no answer. I think they've woken up and are out walking. We are on our front porch, waiting for the breakfasts we just ordered.

10.04 The young happy man who came with breakfast area could speak a little Swedish, good morning, breakfast and banana pancake. We taught him new words, coffee, sugar and spoon. Now, the ladies returned from their walk and the four of us will go out and see more of the island.

Banana pancake breakfast at Banana Leaf Bungalows.

10.26 All teeth have been brushed and my pale skin is covered with sunscreen. We begin to feel ready for the scorching sun out there. It rarely rains here on the Gili Islands. It is one of many explanations for the popularity. Rain clouds glide past the flat islands and drop rain on the mountains at Bali and Lombok. The two gentlemen are sitting on chairs on the women's porch. We hear a rooster, looking at a banana tree and wonder if it will be hot or cold today.

11.04 We've walked along the street that runs through the entire principal town/village on the island. We continued further and eventually reached a house and a blocked road. A Dutch man appeared and said we could cut through his site, apparently he owned the house. Instead, we took a detour further into the island, went through a hotel area and came out on a track at the island's north coast.

11.30 After some searching, we found a lovely beach. The sea rolls in from the north and an outrigger is bobbing on the waves. Just now I was attacked by a wave and got wet sandals. It does not matter, they dry quickly.

11.40 We left the beach to explore more. This was a good idea. We found a beach where there are roofed tables. Here you can also order from Nusa Tiga Bungalow and Reastaurant. The juice offered included ”peanaple” and ”pepaya”. It is so-so with the English spelling here. Small crabs run around down where land and sea meet. A young gentleman has just tried to sell a pearl necklace to Susan. To show that it is the real thing he lit his lighter and used it upon a pearl. It would have melted if it had been made of plastic. The show did not impress Susan and there was no deal.

A cidomo is passing through the main street on Gili Trawangan.

Wonderful beaches on Gili Trawangan.

12.23 The ordered juices, pineapple and lemon have been carried out twice to us. We will, as soon as our interiors are cooled, do the same for our outer areas. This is the real holiday, to sit comfortably in the shade, watching a beautiful turquoise sea and has no deadline to meet.

12.40 The waves are very high and the bottom here is rocky in places. There are small and large stones that come with the wave movement. Unfortunately it will be difficult to swim right here on the north coast. It's open sea to the north and the waves come with too much speed. There is something here that feels a bit strange. Here we are with heat, sun and sand. In all this, a horse and carriage pass through, a horse with bells. All of a sudden I am thinking more about Christmas and winter wonderland.

14.03 Now we have finished our lunch here at Nusa Tiga. It was cheap and very good. It was a good choice to have lunch far away from the major tourist flows. We'll see what we do next. Perhaps we will move to some other place, maybe it will be home for siesta or maybe it will be something else.

Finally we found a good place where we could stop for a while.

Paradise beaches on northern Gili Trawangan.

Conversations in the shadow.

Pineapple juice on the beach.

15.08 On the way home, Patricia negotiated with the travel agent that we booked a trip with yesterday. It was about a possible trip on a glass bottomed boat around the island. The price was bargained down from 900 000 to 550 000 rupiah. The price of a glass boat ride also included snorkeling. Now it remains to be seen whether we are accepting the offer or not. Now it will be a refreshing shower at the accommodation before making new discoveries.

16.33 We have slept, rested a bit. Whatever it was that we did that was needed really. The hot sun sucks the energy out of the bodies. Soon we will knock on the neighbours door and taking them out for a walk. We have decided to forgo the glass boat. Other things attract more tomorrow.

16.54 We have returned to the cafe Balé Sampan. They have delivered us bad news; they do not have a working coffee machine. We must look further.

17.07 It is the Samba Lounge which will serve us our afternoon coffee today. We have after some consideration, because of high prices, decided to order just coffee, nothing more. I was tempted to order the ”Strawberries Romanoff". It´s fresh strawberries mixed in Cointreau and mint leaves with vanilla ice cream.

17.38 Soon two cups of Americano coffee are drunk and ten postcards are written. Dance floor music, electronic blipping, rap, house or whatever it is called was played in the background. I think it sounds like a hacking computer game. It is more stressful than relaxing.

18.30 Patricia has just bought a freshly grilled corn on the cob. Our plans to climb the island's only height (hill) and see the sunset from there has been postponed. We are now almost at the end of a concrete pier. Why did not the boat dock to this or why isn’t this kind of bridge where the boat docked? Right out on the bridge a few men are standing, trying to catch fish.

Just before the arrival of the darkness on Gili Trawangan.

19.54 The darkness and hunger has come crawling. We went back home with a few stops for the purchase of drinks. In the beginning we despised places where juice cost 30 000 rupiah, around US$3. It's more expensive than at home. Eventually, we ignored that the price was high and bought a liter of juice each. The high price is due to the hassle of transporting goods here to the island. Another reason is that most of the customers are tourists.

20.09 If you want to drink juice, it is good to have something to drink it from. To solve this, I have on yet another trip cut two glasses from plastic bottles. Maybe we should start to have our own mugs of hard plastic on our coming journeys.

20.45 We're back at the restaurant Juku Marlin. This evening, I will finally get my tenderloin with blue cheese. Behind Christer a man just doubled over and coughed again and again. One of the waiters was less happy and the girlfriend of the coughing man promised that they would leave. This happened as soon as he had finished coughing.

22.48 Yet another delicious meal is ingested. After that, we looked at some funny YouTube videos on Patricia's iPad. Now that we have just come home, we have preliminary booked bikes for tomorrow as we are going to do an excursion. The sound from the minaret/mosque reaches us even this evening. The call sounds tired, worn.

23.35 The sound of the mosque continues. Rarely, not to say never have I heard that is this long. Well, the rooster is anyway quiet. It can actually sleep. Soon it's time to turn off the overhead light and follow the rooster’s example.

A big fish is being prepared for dinner.

Friday 26th of July

08.02 The insects are buzzing, the horse carriages whine, the rooster cries out and a man just coughed. It's morning. Now someone sneezed. It can get cold in the room when the air conditioner is on. Today we're going out on wheels.

09.10 After some waiting when nothing happened, things have now started to happen. We have had our pancake breakfasts, the ladies have got theirs and the first bike is here. The bikes are brought here to us, great service! We ordered the bikes at the restaurant where we ate the day before yesterday, Kafé Kecil & Taman Thai. Now, the last morning chores are over for me. Christer has told me that before he went to sleep last night, he got ear-witness to a fight between two cats. The fight was under the floor of our bungalow.

10.21 The saddles are set. We will, once the tires are inflated, go out on a bike trip. If the bikes are going well and we have enough energy we will try to ride one complete circle around the island.

10.34 It's always uncomfortable at first when you are going to ride on a new bike but it is pretty good to get around. The most difficult thing is to avoid collisions with strolling tourists and oncoming horses and carriages. We have started cycling southwards and are heading out of the village towards more peaceful areas.

Peter is ready for a bicycle adventure.

We are starting our bicycle trip. We are heading south to start with.

Some places offer more luxury than we can afford.

Two men with bicycles are preparing for a trip around the island.

11.16 Instead of travelling on eight tires we've put ourselves on a deck. We rest in the shade at a dormant or abandoned tourist resort. The cycling is coming along nicely. Sometimes, there are plenty of people, sometimes it's completely empty. The only inconvenience is when the bike path sometimes consists of sand. Then you have to push the bike.

11.46 We enjoy this place. The sun is shining but the sea brings a nice breeze. We photograph a little and it´s peaceful and quiet.

12.25 After a hearty rest with drinks and snacks we continued our bike ride. We have now reached the west coast and it becomes more and more sand where we are going to ride. After that I just found two horseshoes and we are resting in the shade of a tree. The trail is sandy and hard to bike on. We passed some really nice tourist facilities located here on the island's quieter west side.

12.48 Our bike ride in the beautiful terrain has taken us back to Nusa Tiga Bungalows on the northern shore. Here it should be ordered lunch, just like we did yesterday.

14.21 It was big and good meals. Hmm, there's a small spider in the travel journal right now. After lunch we had the help of a local to make a shortcut through a forest. Then we rode on and now we are at the beach where we made a brief stop yesterday. Patricia and Christer are swimming. I sit here to get dry after my visit to the sea before. Now I’ll read and sunbathe a little.

We are taking a break along the south coast of Gili Trawangan.

Peter and Patricia are waiting fo the lunch at Nusa Tiga.

Patricia and Christer are cooling down among the waves.

14.57 "Tour de Gili" is over for this year. All four came home unscathed after a lap around this beautiful island. In the afternoon we will once again make an attempt to bring us up at the hill we planned to visit yesterday. It is possible that Susan will not join us in the evening. However, instead Lena from Saarland, Germany will maybe go with us. She has just checked in here at Banana Leaf Bungalows and asked if she can join us later today. Before that, she will try to snorkel. She wants to borrow one of our bikes to do this.

16.40 We hear the sound of cutlery and crockery. It is time for afternoon tea. We are at Kayu Café, an ecological, organic cafe along the main street. Here we have found two of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, both are in Finnish. To the right of us there are a few Danish girls.

17.27 We have returned home after the coffee. Now it's once again time to use the bikes. Will Lena join us? The cat can still be heard. It sounds disappointed, hungry.

17.36 There will be no visit to the hill today either. We talked with one of the guys at Banana Leaf and mentioned our plans. He insisted that we would not make it up there before it got too dark. The plans have changed. Instead, we´ll bike towards the south coast of the island to watch the sunset.

18.01 Four in a row, is a game which I played in the eighties; four in a row now sits on a wall and are enjoying the beautiful sunset. From a place some distance away we can hear music, Bob Marley with "Could you be loved”. The fourth of us in line is the German Lena.

18.07 We are not alone here. The whole beach and the area around are teeming with tourists who want to enjoy and capture the sunset. It is really worth seeing, incredibly beautiful!

18.14 During the study of the setting sun, I have shared with you my past life philosophy. "Before I die I want to have seen so much of this world that I'm ready for the next world."

We are in a happy mood at the beach.

We came here to watch this beautiful sunset.

Peter is walking towards the light.

The big sun says good bye, see you tomorrow!

19.13 After the sun has set, we biked back home to Banana Leaf. On the way home we met horses, carriages, cyclists and pedestrians. Once back, we paid for our time here on the accomodation and ordered breakfast for 07.30 tomorrow morning. Lena has ordered breakfast and asked whether she wants to have toast with marmalade or André. André is the guy who served us breakfast. When we got to the reception a Swedish girl were sitting on a shelf and watched TV together with the front desk guys. Banana Leaf Bungalows is a nice place but it's a little annoying to hear the guys who work here believe that every female tourist to fall for their charms. Now let's take a shower before we go out and have dinner.

19.59 Now it's time for dinner. We are back for the third time at Juku Marlin. Sure, it may seem boring but we do like it here. One new feature, however, Lena is with us this evening.

23.04 It was a nice and tasty dinner with sharing of our knowledge. Patricia told Lena what she should not miss when she visits Singapore later in her journey. We also noticed how Lena switched her English to a completely incomprehensible German dialect when she was on the phone with her dad. When she talked to her mom, we got proof that Germans are like Swedes. The German mother worried about her daughter and thought everything nasty from malaria to violence would happen to her here. Now we have to say Guten Nacht to Lena and should pack up all our belongings again. During dinner I received a text message. Sunday's flight to Denpasar is brought forward 45 minutes.

Peter is telling Lena about previous trips on resedagboken.cc.

Saturday 27th of July

06.48 We woke up just as planned here in our bungalow. Now the question is, will it continue as planned? Will it be breakfast at 07.30 like we ordered? Will the transport be as they promised? Will we arrive where we thought?

08.06 The breakfasts arrived according to plan. However, there was tea instead of coffee but it was OK to change. The juice which we bought the day before yesterday had a mysterious aroma and flavour. We got the feeling that it has become old. The best before date is not passed but the smell did not invite to drinking.

08.35 A strange and a honking sound were just heard. It sounded like a horn of the kind that a small child owns. We also heard a whistling man. Both Christer and I wait and prepare for the next phase. This phase means that we will check out from our accommodation and eventually leave. Gili Trawangan is a stunning island, a paradise but the genuinely Asian, the real Indonesia is missing here. Most of it is about tourism.

At Banana Leaf Bungalows there are of course bananas hanging above the bathroom.

08.57 We're back in the area where we landed on Wednesday. Now we are at the beach, waiting for the boat that will take us over to Lombok. The waiting is for a half-hour boat ride. It will possibly be longer depending on the boat and knots. We took off our shoes and once again we need to wade to take us on board.

09.16 We have been directed to the right boat. The baggage has been placed on the bow of Makmur. Our craft is a long, narrow wooden boat. We are, once everyone has embarked the boat, going out on the blue waves. There will be no long journey. Gili Islands are quite close to Lombok.

09.28 Our long boat with about 40 passengers with possessions travel towards Lombok. With us there are also several large plastic bottles. They will most likely be filled with fresh water and then taken back to the water poor Gili Trawangan.

09.53 Makmur landed in Bangsal on Lombok with the stern to the beach. A man took my backpack and stepped ashore. I followed him and the backpack. It was put on a horse cart. My travel companions continued and I pointed out that I did not want my backpack on the cart. We carried on and came to a man who had a note with Patricia's name and number 4 on. The man said something about a car and my backpack went up on another horse carriage. There was a carriage to the aforementioned vehicle.

10.09 We had to pay for the short horse and carriage trip though we actually paid for our entire trip in advance. Certainly, we could refuse to go with the transport and walked a bit. The reason for this is that the cars are not allowed to drive right up to the dock area. Now we have found the right driver, gave him an envelope that we had with us from the travel agency and now we go by car towards the next destination and the next accommodation.

This group of people have gathered to make the short boat trip from Gili Trawangan to Lombok.

In Bangsal we had to use this transport to find our car.

We passed a burning car, actually it was a water car which was on fire.

10.32 We travel south towards Lombok’s capital Mataram. The road runs through a mountainous area with rainforest. Just now, we passed a car accident. A small truck that transported water was on fire. It was far out of the oncoming roadside. Christer and I guess that the cause of the fire may be electrical fault.

10.55 It's great to see an undulating landscape, large forest areas and even cars again. Now a hotel would also be lovely to see. Gili Trawangan was a lovely experience but we are thirsty for civilization.

11.14 The driver had no problems to find the way to Mataram. He asks, since he is not from the city, a colleague in a Bluebird car, a taxi from Lombok Taksi. He asks for directions to our hotel.

11.31 The questioning gave results and our driver found Crown Hotel. We also hope that he will find his way back home. The four travellers have found their rooms. For Christer's and my part, it means room 111.

12.29 Now that we've taken a shower and we'll head out for lunch and we would also like to see a bit of the city and make some necessary errands.

13.10 After ATM withdrawals, we went to Mataram Mall. The mall and the shops were open, no problems with it. The eateries that we were looking for was, due to fasting month of Ramadan, closed. We crossed the street and walked towards Pizza Hut. They were open, but only for takeaway. McDonald’s might possibly be open but we do actually want food. We are completely unprepared for this dilemma. Ramadan has lasted a few weeks but this is the first time we can not get food.

Mataram Mall.

This shopping mall had lots to offer, but no open restaurants.

Mataram, Lombok.

13.31 Patricia has found Redwood Café & Lounge. We first planned to have some coffee here but they seem to actually serve food, real food. Amazing!

14.18 We changed table and got really good seats in a quiet comfortable setting. It was great with food.

14.40 Lunch ended and we went downstairs to Melissa Bakery where we bought something to savour later tonight. Now we are sitting in some furniture in a small TV room in the open, right next to the hotel.

16.28 After enjoying the purchased things we moved to Christer's and my room. Here we have looked at Patricia's iPad and seen an episode of Fawlty Towers. Now we are trying to find another episode.

19.24 After washing clothes, reading and more clips from the wonderful Fawlty Towers, it is now time to move towards the evening meal.

20.13 We first went to the mall Mataram Mall for some evening shopping at the grocery store Heroes. Now we are back at Pizza Hut. Now it is full here, filled with people, sounds, and unfortunately also cigarette smoke. Can´t we make the world go smoke free?

21.14 We're back in the room at the hotel. On the table between us stands the coffee, in two cups, Christer's and mine and in powder form in two bags. We have received a package of Indonesian coffee each by Patricia, thank you!

22.27 Now the last things need to be packed. Soon it's time to set the alarm and initiate rest. Tomorrow is a new day.

Crown Hotel, Mataram.

Tonight´s dinner was at Pizza Hut.