Bali - Gili Trawangan - Apa Kabar? BAGUS!

We're here in Singapore - only for two nights. It's quite the clean city - and being that we're not really city people - we're off to Malaysia tomorrow.

Still no internet cafe that allows Picasa - but we will find one - oh yes we will... one of these days.

So - after we left Ubud - which we loved by the way - we made our way to Amed. A sleepy little black sand coastal town. We found an incredible deal of a place that gave us a great accommodations (with a pool) and 8 tanks for Scuba diving... the contract clearly stated 4 nights + 4 tanks x 2 PAX - which is how all the dive shops would write four dive trips for 2 people. All for $157 US... not too shabby. Well - as it turned out - the owner wouldn't live up to his word or his signed contract and only gave us 4 tanks total which is only 2 dives x 2 people - oh well - despite all of my arguing I couldn't convince him that he was not a man of his word. It was too good to be true. The diving though was incredible - we dove on the USS Liberty - which was an American freighter torpedoed during WWII by the Japanese - it was a huge hulk of a wreck and we were able to even get inside it in a few places. The fish were amazing and our first experience diving a wreck was one we'll never forget.

From Amed we took a SLOW boat across to Gili (which means Island) Trawangan. The scariest boat trip that either of us have ever had. We should've known when just before departing a wave broke on the front of the boat and snapped off a large piece of wood - nothing mandatory for the ensuing trip though so our departure was not delayed other than by the impromptu rigging of the engine with some twine - the aforementioned wave also snapped a part of the engine mount. I bailed water out of the bottom of the boat with the help of the first mate and our 2 hour tour was underway! There were times that the waves were so big that I was looking down at Liz who was on the opposite side of the boat from me in order to keep it balanced. 650,000 Rupiah - (a bit more than $65.00) - not too bad for almost dying - needless to say on the way back we paid the 1.3million (little over $140) for the safe speed boat back.

Gili Trawangan was by far our favorite part of the trip so far - except for all the diving we've done. We spent a week doing absolutely nothing - learned Indonesian and met a great group of Indonesian tomans (friends). Apa kabar means how are you - Bagus - is Good! We partied a bit more than we have the rest of the trip and had many a memorable sunset. Our Spanish friends from Nusa Lembongan had suggested we try this place out and we're sooo glad that we did! We whiled away our days reading books, drinking beers, ate pizza and some great pizza toppings, and twirling fire around the nightly beach bonfires. We were sad to leave.

The plan is to head to the Cameroon Highlands in Malaysia for some jungle trekking - then off to the Perhentian Islands of NE Malaysia for some more crystal clear waters, white beaches, and world renowned scuba diving.

Greg added an abbreviated group of photos from the wedding (not sure if I already mentioned that or not) - let us know if you've done the same - or if you have any video from the lovely day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gewing/MarkAndLizSWedding

For those that appreciated meeting Steve and Robert at our wedding - be sure to check out their webcast - www.uvnu.net

Ok - we're off to have a late night snack. Good night