Em & Tola's Travel Blog

On the flight to Indonesia, I felt like I was living in a dream, and 5 mornings later, I still feel like I am in the midst of a wonderful dream .. a dream come true. I listened to one of my Dad's messages on the airplane, and it was perfect as I listened to a story that explained how my Grandpa Germann realized he was supposed to focus on work in Asia and primarily Indonesia. Now we are in the land that my Grandpa had such a heart for.


Our first few days have been spent organizing plans for our first week in Indonesia, catching up on needed sleep, and traveling around a lot. We made our way to the eastern island of Lombok (east of Bali), and now we will be spending around 5 days on the Gili Islands, so we can catch up on sleep before heading back to Java. It has been absolutely wonderful so far. Yesterday we woke up at 6 AM to catch a bus that took us to our ferry to Lombok. In our bus: Tola and myself (newbies for sure especially since I get excited about everything we see), two Brits who wanted air conditioning, a Finn who over slept, and an Australian family who argued a lot. All of us were quiet for the most part as we took a beautiful drive through Bali, so we could catch our ferry. I was happy to find that the water was calm, and our ferry journey was a smooth 4 1/2 venture.


The ferry was crowded with people of many nationalities (mostly Indonesians), and we had a fun time people watching. Many Indonesians were curious to talk to us because they thought Tola was Indonesian. The people have been very friendly throughout our first few days. During our ferry crossing, we saw dolphins and I interrupted our game of cards abrubtly as I ran to see what the commotion was. I saw around 20 dolphins swimming behind our ferry, and it was a beautiful sight as the sun began shining brightly. Our trip then continued and we made it to Lombok safely.


When we arrived in Lombok, we were picked up by another bus, and everything was very organized. The bus ride along the coast of Lombok was beautiful. We drove along windy roads and through lush green forests. Monkeys were everywhere along the side of the road, and they seem to be quite friendly and tame (do not worry, I will not try to pet one). After we arrived at one more seaside town, we got on another smaller wooden boat that would take us to the Gili's. After seeing the smaller boat and the waves crashing against the shore, I became thankful that we had taken a trip to the Philippines previously because our typhoon experience prepared me a bit for boat travel. The waves proved to be quite small, and a group of foreigners ran to the boat one by one with luggage. As we made our way, the sun began to set, and we experienced yet another breathtaking view. Our boat ride was only about 40 minutes, and then we arrived safely at Gili Meno. We will now be staying on Gili Meno for two nights. It is the quietest and smallest Gili Island, but we decided it would be the perfect place to rest and relax after a couple long days of traveling. After Gili Meno, we will make our way to Gili Trawangan, and then we will be heading to Java.


We have only been on Gili Meno for 13 hours, but it seems to be a serene paradise. I am thankful for bug spray as Tola tends to get attacked by mosquitos more than the average person. Mosquito repellant is one of his best friends as sun screen is one of mine. Last night we enjoyed an ocean dinner along the beach, and we were able to look at the bright stars for the first time in months.

Now it is the morning of the 16th of January, and I found myself waking up surprisingly early out of excitement. I am so thankful that we are able to spend time in the beautiful country of Indonesia, it is a country I have always dreamed of visiting, and now we are here.