Don't be deceived by how peaceful we look ... as we wrote home:  Little did we know that the 4 hour ferry ride meant buying our bags back from the "porters" who swiped the bags off the bus and insisted on outrageous tips before they would release the baggage (it's wonderful being a woman in this society) and sitting on the oily upper deck with no shade and wafting urine smells from the very scary toilet (Julz had to go at 10am and decided to hold off until it was "safe" - aka 4pm that afternoon on the dry land of Gili Air) in the hot sun(Scotty's dream of 3 hour uninterrupted tan time, and Frik &  Frak's nightmare, while they tried to concoct a sarong sheild/tent to protect themselves from the laserlike sun beams.  Basically they were the entertainment of the top deck as they readjusted every 10 minutes with the comment "Is that you that smells or me?")

 Our Island was a delightful little paradise: Gili Air, aka Noah's Ark, Land Of Honeymooners, where everyone walks in pairs.  On the 2nd day we finally met a couple that wasn't married - of course 15 minutes into the conversation they announced that they'd gotten engaged the night before.  So we deided to try our luck on the party island of Gili Trawangan.  Scotty's luck apparently ran out with one bad chicken and salad sandwich, and spent the 2nd of our 2 days there in bed (and the bathroom).  THe first day was great though - since accomodation was scarce, we had an impromptu slumber party with the 4 English guys we'd been racing to the last room on the island (of course we were in a horsecart and they were on foot, but it was a remarkably close race)... being the ladies that we are, we offered to share instead of making them sleep on the beach.  After a night of dancing and petting monkeys (that Frik and Frak tried to set free the next day since they were tied to their little cages on 2 foot leashes), Scotty crashed on the porch in a hammock, and frik and frak spooned while the boys split 3 mattresses between them.  While Scotty was recovering from food poisoning, on this island in the middle of nowhere, frik and frak watched 4 hours of free Brad Pitt movies on LASERDISC!! (he's single, we can dream...)

This little boy carved pineapples with a machete and offered them to you like an ice cream cone (too bad it wasn't as cold as an ice cream in that heat!)