The Call to Cats

I’ve really settled into a nice groove in Ubud. With my runs and walks among the rice fields in the morning, yoga in the afternoon and often some sort of evening activity like a movie at the yoga barn, or just dinner out and home to bed early with a good book. Life is simple, relaxing and I feel like I’m rejuvenating my body and soul but I still want to explore some more areas in Indonesia.

So what does one do when they want a change of pace from the beautiful but busy Ubud? Go to the beach of course! There are some small islands off of Lombok (another island off Bali) called the Gili islands that I had heard wonderful reports about. Lombok, unlike Bali, is mostly Muslim as are the Gilis. My friend Debra and I headed out on a shuttle from Bali to get the slow ferry from Padangbai. The ferry boat took 4 hours plus then we had to get a shuttle from Lombok up the coast about an hour and then wait……….and wait some more. Finally, we got a small boat over to the biggest of the Gili's called Gilli Trawangan. We had some ideas from the guide book about where to stay and once we landed we headed down the beach front to find a place. Being that it is the slow time we didn’t have a problem finding a place called “Blue Beach” which seemed nice enough but we quickly discovered reasons to change accommodations the next day. During the night the generator kept switching off and therefore our fan did as well so I slept in a puddle of sweat most of the night and the blood suckers were out full force as well. Our mosquito nets were more decorative then functional. The worst of it was that at 5 am there was the first “call to prayer” for the Muslims and the speaker seemed to be right into our window and we discovered we were next to the Mosque. Quite the wake up call! Needless to say, we found another place to stay the next night.

The place we found was 100 times better and about 3 times more expensive but the price was still very affordable especially for what we got; air conditioned bedroom, a sunk in living room with TV and DVD player, refrigerator, and an outside Jacuzzi….never mind that the jets didn’t work, it was nice to have a cool soaking tub. Plus you can’t beat fresh water showers as most are salt water. We had two luxurious days/nights there and a relaxing time spent on the beach, snorkeling and enjoying fresh caught fish for dinner. I also enjoyed running around the island in the morning which I estimated about 5-5.5 miles around then jumping into the ocean for a swim among the fishes. There was a great spot on the island to enjoy the sunset which is a huge attraction and I took some great photos one night.

What I loved about island life on the Gilis is that there are NO cars or motorbikes! The only transportation besides walking is horse and cart or bikes. It was so quiet and no pollution. There were also no dogs to our amazement because on Bali there are so many stray dogs. The other thing Debra and I both loved about the Gilis was that there were tons of cats. They were mostly very well taken care of, feasted on fish daily and were very sweet and friendly. We had many cat friends (especially during dinner time) and we joked about how we preferred to have a “call to cats” instead of the “call to prayer” and how we could throw a huge party for all the cats in our party pad!

We decided not to endure another 12 hour day on the slow boat so we took the fast boat which put us back to Ubud in about 2 ½ hours with boat and shuttle. Had I not had my bungalow in Ubud for the month, I could have stayed on the Gili islands for another few days at least.

So, reality back in Ubud hasn’t been bad either. More yoga on the beach with the Balinese locals in Sanur (which is about 1 hour from Ubud) and my friend Elana and I spent the day at a beautiful cove called “Blue Logoon” which next to Padangbai (were I took the ferry to Lomok and the Gilis). It was also gorgeous with some pretty good reefs and colorful fish to snorkel among.

I was able to change my ticket and extend my visa to stay another 2 weeks in Bali then I’m back to Thailand to take a month long yoga teachers training on Koh Phangan. This wasn’t in the plan but that’s what traveling is all about!

I have a couple sets of photos for you to check out and I hope you enjoy! I miss you all but am having the time of my life :)

www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/morebali
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/giliislands