Christmas on an Island

It's has been an eternity since I have posted!  Maaf. (My apologies.)

I went with four of ladies from school to an island in Indonesia called Lombok for Christmas.  It was a great trip, filled with hilarious stories, good chats, and several police confrontations.  Ahh!  I''ll give you a picture run down with stories along the way. 

To Lombok we go! 

Flying into Lombok. What a great view to get us
excited about the days ahead.

Snorkeling was our first adventure on the island.  We took a little boat out to several smaller islands off the coast of Lombok.  The first spot that we stopped at was absolutely gorgeous.  We saw colorful fish of all shapes and sizes.  The fish seem to have their own personalities.  I would find myself watching one fish and following him way farther than I needed.  But the second location was specifically so we could see sea turtles.  I saw the first sea turtle and gathered all the girls to come and see him.  Caroline (only one not pictured above) was the last to see the turtle. As soon as she saw him she chased after him and didn't stop until the turtle had obviously beat her and swam down off the drop off.  After the chase I asked her what she was going to do if she caught up to him.  She replied "I don't know.  I just wanted to touch him!"

The next day we rented some motor bikes and took a scenic drive around the island.  Here are some of the sights.

Lombok has the nicest road system  No potholes!

Check out that water!

Of course there were rice fields. 

Tropical River!

We drove through a monkey forest on our scenic drive.  The monkey shown above is the first monkey that we saw through the pass...and that is our bag of peanuts!  So the story goes like this.  We pulled over on the side of the road to check out the first sighting.  Melissa asked for the bag of peanuts so we could feed him.  Well, this wan't the monkey's first time dealing with tourists.  He scrambled for the bag of peanuts as soon as he laid eyes on it and had five girls screaming and running around like "baboons" to avoid getting too close to him.  He took off with the whole bag, opened it right up, and didn't even share with his friend.  So rude!  Indeed, we were Mugged by a Monkey!

The next day we drove for three hours (one way) to get to a waterfall that I found on a map.  One the way we got stopped by the cops for going straight in a turn lane.  Pretty legit, but in Indonesia the cops don't want to write you a ticket; they want to barter with you and take the cash.  This incident informed us of Kristin's amazing skills at bartering!  My favorite quote was when Kristen told the cops, "We'll tell our friends you're cool!" to get them to lower the price.   Somehow it worked!

As for the waterfall...this is as close as we got.  The old Indonesian man at the end of the line helped us get to the trail that we needed to hike to the waterfall.  If it weren't for him we would have never found it.  But time was against us and the trail was too long. We turned around before we ever saw the waterfall.  Guess that means that we'll have to go back!

Guess who is on stage??

On New Year's Eve we were forced to go to a "Compulsory Dinner" at our hotel.  The hotel forced us to pay $37 a person for this meal in order to stay at their hotel.  Guess what our prize was for praying $37?  We were the entertainment!  The picture above shows me, Caroline, and Kristen leading the dance to the song "Gangnam Style."  Rachel and Melissa joined us later when we all had to do solo performances.  Hilarious!

Kuta Beach, Lombok

Before heading to the airport we stopped at this hidden gem.  Absolutely gorgeous and I really want to make an effort to go back there.  It was breath taking!

Well that's a wrap!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the stories.