We decided to do 40 days adventure driving to discover every single part from Java to Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores
even tought most part of driving is always thoerge (2500km), and sari drove only ..hmm.... 80 km.... hehehe :P

Early Morning ,
4 am from parents house, we started driving to go to Bali. from home town,surabaya, it takes 9 hours to go to the port,to get a ferry from java island to bali island. On the way to banyuwangi port (ketapang), we passed bromo mountain,pasir putih beaches,Kalibaru,Sukamade Turtle beach ,and pretty lights from
Huge Electric Water Power for Java.
Ferry to Bali only takes 15 minutes, and u didn´t realize you already in the paradise island!

Bali
Got in Bali Port (Gilimanuk,West Bali)
West side of Bali,Pura Tanah Lot, possibly the best known and most photograped temple in Bali. Stopped a while for some view, The hindu temple on the top rock in the sea,and if you go down to the cave under, there is a holy water for hindu balinese people. When we got there, a balinese man gave water and prayed for us while giving a mark with padi rice on our forehead and flowers on the ear.

We had to go to south Bali, kuta-legian region
The first stop to stay, because we need to have stuff for snorkelling. Found few great shops that offered many stuff here, good dive shops on the side road otw by pass/ kuta,
The Kuta region is overwhelmingly Bali's largest and tackiest tourist beach & resort. In here it is good for shopping,nightlife and of course.. Surfing Point!

While staying in Kuta, we went to the Monkey Forest , which has houses holy temples in the trees. The sanctuary is inhabited by a band of grey haired long tailed balinese macaques. Temple of the dead (Pura dalem agung) is in the forest and there you get a real indiana jones feeling.
Walk around Ubud,is also a great choice. There are a lot of awe inspriring walls to surround villages or through the rice paddies. In here is very rich of balinese culture, for people who love to develop artistics skill,........ here is the place in Bali! You also can see kecak, legong and baraong dances here in the week.

In the evening, good choice to have a romantic dinner on the beach in Jimbaran Bay, is superb cressent of white sand and blue sea,
You can see beautiful sunset while finishing seafood grilled with many different sauces on the side and fresh fish from the local fishing fleet.you can choose your fish alive and they grill for you. Nice spot for taking photographs in the sunset with the fishing boat in the back. ROMANTIC

Went for diving spot,
On the way to the east side of Bali, there´s also good reason to stop in Pura Besakih, Side of Mountain Agung,is known as Bali's most important temple.
Tulamben, among the best and popular dive sites in Bali. Tulamben beach is quite different from other beach resorts, heavy,black, swim straight out and saw heavily encrusted with coral, many colorsful fish, but very crowded, sometimes you have around 50 buddies at once...
Padang Bai, located on a perfect little bay, they are many good variety of hard and soft corals, variaty marine life, sharks,turtles and wrasse. Nice the manta point and some nice corals, but be careful of the tourist submarine, it could hit you. If you mad of snorkelling and dives, you can check our trip in sulawesi,bunaken & Siladen Island is known as the best spot snorkelling and dives in Indo......fantastic.

Its the time off to lombok, padang bai is tiny port for ferries between bali and Lombok, boats to Lembongan and Nusa Penida. While wait for the ferry come, we Stopped over in local meal warung on the beach, and we had the fish grilled with balinese garlic butter sauce...yummy..

Lombok,
In Bahasa, Lombok means chili. And yes its quite spicy when you start trought discover all the spots in here.
Started from Senggigi , for few days, here we decided to stay for some nights in the quite spot in the north side of senggigi.
The cottage has its own spot private for the beach, nice. clean and calm water to swim, include breakfast on the beach for only 15 $US for 2 people.
Romantic Dinner candle lights in one of hotel's outdoor restaurant on the senggigi beach, nice romanitc atmosphere.....
They have aqustic band in the weekend, and pleasure to sing every song you want.

West side of senggigi, is also easy for snorkelling for fish, but we recommend to stay away from the fisherman.
Sari have an allregic trought these spot, in the middle of the night thoerge need to drive to Mataram to get sari in hospital,
that was not a good experience one, even now we could laugh so loud about it...
The doctor gave a shoot of injection in the bum against allergic.. euyh.. that was pain!

While in the west side of Lombok, we made a boat trip and stayed for 2 nights in Gili Islands, these three islands, have its own character. Trawangan has known as party scene,full of bars, restaurants,motels and tourists. Meno Island is very mellow,quite and nicer. Air Island's atmosphere is between other two.
In Gili Trawangan, also nice to take a bycycle trip around the island, you could see different part of this island, still nature and have other quite place to stay and its nice to be away from crowded. Gili Meno has the best beaches, clean white sands. Gili Air is a nice place to stay a night, and could see in the morning of the dramatic view of Rinjani Mountain.
Surround the islands, good snorkelling to see many of leather back (big turtle) swim around. We swam over the turtle and playing around with little fish like nemo(clown fish) unfortuneately the corals a mainly dead, but still a very nice spot for party & diving.

Back to the west side of Lombok, was nice to go to the waterfall in the morning, then drive around the the forest by Rinjani Mountain, little bit to the East side of Lombok, to catch the stunning views, and stop over for Monkey Spots. We found it really fun to stop feed dozens of monkeys in the forest with potato chips and they drank coke straight from can!

Got in the east, we took the ferry to sumbawa.

Sumbawa,
WOW... it was amazing, looks like we were in africa with the desert but surrounded by the sea.
Stop in Kencana Beach Hotel , still 11 km away from the sumbawa besar town, many bungalows, nice and very quite, no tourist at this moment,
what a honey moon, seemed the place is belonging to us....... hahaha
we decided to stay longer and longer here, cause its really nice and comfort , just wake up being lazy, see sunshine... and just walk 50 meter to the front from the bungalow to have wake up fresh swimming in the sea.
The hotel also have swimming pool over the sea view, restaurant with western mix eastern meals next to it,
walked by the beaches, little private hindu temple up to the hill on the beach, and a nice view from the top.

Drove around Sumbawa villages with tambora mountain view.
organized for next day,early morning a local fisherman boat to Moyo island, for snorkelling,and diving....amazing
Many tourist ship from bali to flores stop a while here for snorkelling and have a bbq fish.
Next to it, small there is a island called Satonda, good snorkelling and has little salt water lake in the middle of the island.

Some days later, we drove to the east to Hu'u ,lakey beach. bit ashamed got trouble with the car, after drove far back to sumbawa besar town,car been fixed in the garage, however it was to risky for the car condition to continue catch ferry for next journey to Flores,and Komodo dragon island
no choice. had to go back as soon as possible to Java :(

Lombok
Back to lombok, on the way to central lombok, often seen villages and paddi rice. Nice people and good to stop a while to have local warung meal by the paddi rice. Got in Kuta Lombok, we stayed 2 nights in Novotel Accor, nice dinner meals in restaurant and in that night they had fashion show of lombok sarong. It also has private beach in the front of hotel, good to have a nice break after driving far from the port. Nice to have 1 night cable TV and AC, but the beach is not so nice there.
Next spot was, west from Sekotong, the best surfing point in Lombok,many surfers abroad came stayed nights.
All Place was overbooked, we had to stay quite far from the point, in cheap 7 euro losmen, and has one big gecko behind wardrobe.... arrghhh....
but it worthed to walk up to the sekotong beach through the bushes in the middle of the night, with the lights only came from our torches.
We Layed on the beach and watched thousands stars on the sky. stunning!!!Thoerge had never seen such a clear sky and so many stars in his whole live.......awesome.

Bali to Java
We decided to stay a while in kuta-legian district,and catch up with friends who have restaurant in seminyak, called Dejava.
had little farewell dinner with old friends before heading back to surabaya, before flying to germany a few days later.
Excellent western and indo food here. good environment, and Seminyak probably known as the best spot in legian, for bars, clubs and good restaurants. The shops for clothes are also more fashionable than Kuta line.
Otw to the port back to Java, worthed to stop in lovina beach, stay 2 nights. Calm water,nice to swim. saw dolphin on the short boat trip during snorkelling coral life and fish.

finally we took ferry back to Java,and drove back to Surabaya.
Time ran very quick, but the journey.. was defniately more than well memorable---felt too short as usual...





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