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We made it home after one night in KL at our favourite hotel.  We got to see a film and eat cake !

So - here we are below back in rainy London after nearly six weeks of adventures including: a three night/four day trek up to a volcano rim, white water rafting, elephant trekking, cycling down a mountain, bare back horse riding, snorkelling in open sea (and spotting turtles), seeing rescued turtles, learning to surf, eating lots of different foods, learning all about different cultures and languages and making lots and lots of new friends!

After the trek - and the last week as surf dudes

 

 

 

We spent two nights in Senggigi chilling and sorting out our various wounds and ailments from the trek.  See Amie and Alex above battling it out at chess!

 

 

We then caught a local cab to the port Telek Kode (see above ?!).  The driver stopped down a p from sandy track which ended in the beach...'this doesn't look  right mummy' piped up Amie from the back.  Yes, I think you right I replied as I peered down the track to see if we could see anything.  round the corner was indeed a shack labelled 'blue water express boat' with a German couple sitting patiently.  Hummm...!  So unloaded and joined the queue.  Below is Amie at the port shop!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boat trip back to Bali was a bit of a trial.  The children desperately wanted to sit 'up top' on the roof with tall the cool folk.  I eventually said yes - when we could see Bali.  What I didn't clock was that two minutes before we climbed the ladder to the roof the crew came down. Within five minutes of joining other travellers up there we were being slammed by massive waves ....! We were soaking within seconds and freezing cold.  I managed to man handle both kids down the ladder and into the cabin where we spent the rest of the trip soaking wet and trying desperately not to be sick!

 

 

I had arranged a ride for when we docked but when we arrived we were an hour late and no - one was there to meet us.  Ho Hum...we eventually found the chap (another Wayan) at the blue water express 'office'.  So we were off, on the way to the south coast.  Above is a salt plant where they manufacture salt from sea water, which we saw on the way.  We had booked a place on the sea but it turned out to be absolutely in the middle of no where so I changed and we spent our last week near Kuta and in Jimbaran. It was great.

 

 

 

There was a bunch of sea food shacks at the end of our road. Above is Amie and Alex choosing seafood for dinner - Alex was fascinated by the lobsters all fighting in the tanks! Below is the tables at the rear of the seafood shacks, where we ate each night.

 

Above and below - Amie and Alex learning to surf - they really got the hang of it. Alex was catching rides and whizzing in on his knees with hands waving high in the air!

 

 

Amie's last post

Selamat Datang!

Rinjani

The first day was pretty tough but we made it half way to our fist camp where we set up camp,  You could see the clouds below us!! It was an amazing view. The next day it was very easy climbing to the crater rim because it was only two hours and the day before was eight hours walking uphill. I loved the chocolate pancakes they made - they were delicious. I made friends with Nip.  She was and she made a crown from leaves and twigs.  We went down into the crater to the lake and the hot springs.  First we went in the hot springs and they were too hot I couldn't stand the heat.  I had the most delicious spaghetti for lunch.

The storm was like hurricane on the tent.    I liked that Katni and the porters Kir the boss, Mr Cook and Little Cook made a swing for me and Alex. It was great fun on the swing and watching them climb the trees like monkey men to make it!

Mummy gave us a very special reward at the stop before the end she let us go on a motorbike each down the mountain.

Surfing

We went to Kuta and Jimbaran beaches to learn how to surf.  I thought it was pretty easy and can make to my knees which was great fun but very bumpy and I kept falling off.

Waterbom

Waterbomb is the third largest water park in the world!! I would love to go to the first. It was amazing lots of slides, tubes rings, everything.


Thank you everyone for reading my blog. We have had a big adventure. A big hi to Auntie Jackie and Grace and my best friends in the whole wide world Celeste and Poppy.  Hello also to my family especially grandma and grandad for finally working out how to email!!, all my other school friends and Uncle Neil and Uncle Tony and Aunty Christine for reading the blog all the time.. Bye till next year then and our next adventure !!!!

PS if anyone finds our memory card please please can we have it back xxxx

The adventures by Alex

the Rinjani Trek 

It was very hard.  I was very tired. I really the dog on the mountain who followed us.  And it was very funny when the monkey was growling at the dog.  I liked making our tent on the first. I liked making the fires.  I liked carving my walking stick a lot. Liked going down to the crater lake and my piggy back with Kir.  Kir was a very nice man.  The hot spring had fish in it. it was so hot I couldn't believe the fish could stay in the hotness.  The swing they made us was very fun.  

The motor bike was very fun going down the hill. It was bumpy and fast, fast fast!

I didn't like the really bad storm - it was very very very stupid annoying.

I liked the chocolate pancakes very much.

The boat back to Bali was very scary - because we went on top of the roof and it was like it was pouring rain but it actually wasnt. It was just the sea splashing us a lot of times and we got very wet and when I tried to get down there was five or six steps I literally just jumped down all of them because the steps were soooo wet! My clothes were really wet. 

We are in a beach place now - we had big prawns on the beach - there were hundreds of tables and people laughing and singing at night. 

A big hi to Leo and Samuel my friends - see you very soon and thank you for reading my blog!

Hi also to my hampster fang I have missed him.

xxx

Rinjani photos courtesy of Mr Jelly

Here are the photos from Mr Jelly, as per the last blog.  I once heard about finding a child's toy through trending on twitter?! It's a very long shot but I thought I might give it a try to see if we can get interest in finding the camera - or at least memory card. The blog has been read by over 800 people many in Indonesia so you never know...if anyone had any ideas how to do this then we would be really grateful! amanda@pownallassociates.co.uk

The entrance to the Country Park - where we started our ascent and also where Amie and Alex got their motor bikes

The gentle start of the ascent through the jungle - not gentle for long

Starting to get steeper up to base camp 1

The jungle - buttress roots and lianas!

breaking out of the jungle and starting to climb through the savannh - where we camped the first night

A porter with his bamboo pole and baskets steadily making his way up through the savannah

A rest point in the savannah

More savannah close to where we camped

The view from the crater rim as Amie and Alex first saw it. You can see the crater lake and the 'summit' the highest point of the rim  - you can also see the active volcano steaming away in the crater.

The view of the lake

The active volcano

The view of the lake going down into the crater on day two.

The climb into the crater!!

 A porter warming their hands - it's freezing!

Porters making dinner

Sunset as we saw it from the crater rim in our tents

where we camped in the crater rim day 2

Post 4: Rinjani

Before Mr Cook and Little Cook came back for the kids, Neep and Amie went on ahead and I was left piggy backing Alex.  We took a moment and stopped to listen to the jungle.  A big black monkey was in the tree canopy above, we could see it's head peaking out through the leaves.  It started to circle us, leaping from branch to branch - Alex was fascinated.

Mr Cook and Little cook shot off and Neep and I followed - after all that piggy backing my legs were complaining.  It turned out Amie walked most of the way - and Alex fell asleep on Katni who had also come back up.

I turned up at base camp one to a really happy scene,  Kir had staying behind and made camp, the tents were up, coffee was made and they had strung up a swing for the children.  Kir had climbed a tree and thrown ropes over it. They then used their big mountain blankets as a seat. The kids were delighted and everyone had a lot of fun pushing each other.  Tea was chicken and chips - I was pleased.  It was hard to keep the kids carbs up and they had lost some wait so watching them tuck in was good.  The camp was in the thick jungle forest, you could hear all sorts of sounds, monkeys, exotic birds, civet cats (yes the wild poo cats), and, of course, the omnipresent dogs.

It was a great camp fire - Alex is now very proficient at fire lighting in the jungle and also learnt to use a mountain knife to shape his walking stick.  We turned in early, again totally and completely filthy, no storm though, which was a bonus.  I don't think I have ever been so dirty, not in the army, not trekking through the Himalayas from Pakistan, the deserts in India or the salt plains of Bolivia, never that dirty!

That night poor Amie had the makings of an ear infection and also had something caught in her eye. I loaded her with painkillers and we kept getting up to wash her eye out,  we told more fairy Mary stories.  The next morning Alex woke up early again, we both sat with Neep and Mr Cook by the fire - they have this amazing ability to keep on log burning all night.  Kir was still asleep - the porters don't make tents in the jungle, they just kip on the tarpaulin.  Alex was amazed how quickly dawn broke.

Breakfast was a happy affair - more pancakes on Amie's request.  She was a little brighter, which was good.  We then packed up after our last night on the mountain.  The children gave each of the porters and Neep a tip - they were really happy, and because Mr Kir was the boss and had taken such great care of Alex, I took off my new windsheeter and Alex gave it too him.  He was really chuffed.

We then made our way down, this time the porters all stayed with us. Katni mentioned mountain motorbikes can Alex lit up like a christmas tree.... Mum can we, can we, can we.. pleeease... can we.

We had seen these guys on the way up. The ride the mud trails up to the country park start on off rode bikes - they are amazing, climbing steep and tricky trails day-in-day-out.  I was pretty confident that they knew what they were doing so said yes. Alex and Amie high fived their way down the rest of the mountain.   We took a break at the country park start while we waited for the bikes.  Amie went to the loo.  It was a few sacks strung up around a slab of stone which people just washed down with a pot....The children now have a loo ranking..ones you can use, ones you can use but touch nothing (not even to wash your hands - because your germs are better for you than those that maybe lurking) ...ones you stand on and ones where you stand on the seat (on old Chinese trick for a dirty western toilet!).

The bikes arrived and Alex and Amie shot off - they were having the time of their lives.  The porters all hung out chilling and Katni and I started down. On the way she taught me about all the local plants and flowers - really interesting, they use a poinsettia to tell the seasons - it turns red when you need to pick the rice.  At the bottom, I sat briefly while she talked to a warang owner and then Kir arrived on a bike to give me a lift.  We raced down the roads to Katni's sister's little warang where the children were waiting - shouting ..mummy you are on a bike !!

It was then I realised I had lost the camera...there are no words... It was either when I sat for those two minutes at the warand (likely), feel out of my bag on the bike (possible?) or I dropped it ((maybe?).  Within five minutes Katni had bikes going up and down the mountain but it was gone. We think someone swiped it in those few minutes.  She feed the kids and they played with her little boy. eventually we had to give up. If it was still on the mountain she would fined it - she knows everyone. If not - then it was gone.

I have been known to leave the odd take out coffee on the car roof - but never lost a trip camera - passports, money, tickets, camera..it's basic.  I wonder if I was just so shattered after those five days.

We headed down to Senggigi and arrived at the Kila Beach Hotel. It was a tad of a culture shock - a bit like butlins with palm trees and full of whities.  It was surrounded by a big fence, we were not sure whether this was to keep the whities in or the locals out - senggigi being a bit of a one horse town.

That night we were all exhausted. Poor Alex lost it in the shower and Amie's ear was bad. I managed to sort them both out and left them clean (ish) and tucked up in bed watching American TV and eating exorbitantly priced mini bar chocolate.  I then whizzed out to get medicine and food. When I say whizzed, it was more a crawl as my legs had totally seized up and were really hurting.  I pushed on and found the only Apotek in town.  After some consultation we agreed on antibiotic drops with painkiller and an eyebath for Amie. I then found a super market and stocked up on treats and snacks.  The kids had a great time troughing on everything they are not allowed to eat at home.

The next day we were all good. We swam, played chess and relaxed.  We also found Mr Jelly, an amazing trekking guide.  He was taking a group of Germans up the mountain the next day, so I returned with a note and beer money for the Germans hoping they would email me some pictures.

Why didn't you say you wanted pictures said Mr Jelly. He went home and got his camera and let us borrow his memory cards.  We went to a cafe and downloaded his pictures.  How great was that ! So the pictures in the next post are courtesy of the kind Mr Jelly. They are everything we did and saw.

post 3: Rinjani

August 14th

As the night wore on the wind started to whip up. It started to accelerate around the crater rim, gathering speed until it whooshed up and whopped the tent, and I mean really whopped the tent. The poles would bend and flatten the canvas dramatically on the windward side. It would then go eerily quiet.  This continued for while getting worse and worse.  Amie was lying next to me and kept saying 'this is windy mummy...I don't like it'.  I began to think I need to check this out..it doesn't feel good at all..I'm stuck on the top of  a crater rim of the second highest volcano in Indonesia with two small children and the tent is shaking like a jelly...so I unzipped the tent and peered out to see five pairs of eyes staring back - with figures clad in blankets.  Katni had got everyone up to watch the tent.  They started lashing the tent down with extra ropes and moved her tent closer to ours to shield it.

At that point the wind whipped up a real hooli you couldn't see for flying dust..it smacked the tent and whopped alex in the face. Poor boy woke up howling with the shock.  I unzipped our bags and made two blankets from the them (top and bottom). Managed to calm him down and snuggle him down stroking his hair - he was so tired he went back to sleep. Katni was great she kept sayinc don't worry Alex we are hear we will not leave you.

In the meantime poor Amie was not happy - to her it felt like the world was moving so I got her up and out of the tent. Once she could see the stars and moon were ok and that the wind seems much worse inside a tent she was ok.  So she went back to sleep cuddling me whilst I took her fairy Mary stories - we have made up stories about a fairy living in our garden since she was a baby and she found this comforting.  In the end I lay awake all night cuddling both kids with my arm and foot pushed up against the windward side of the tent to stop the canvas battering the children.  I could feel the dust sweeping into the tent over us as the wind whipped it across the crater. In the morning we were covered with a fine layer ...nice.

We were all tired in the morning. Amie slept in a little but Alex was up with the porters tending the fire and helping out.  The night before he and Amie had sat in the porters tent and helped cook which was great fun for them.  They peeled beans and ate carrots.

We took our time eating more pancakes (Amie wouldn't consider anything else) and watched the sun come up over Lombok. It was beautiful.  We packed and set off on our descent.  The nigh before, before bed Amie had said mummy there is a dog outside. Don't be daft, I said we are on the crater rim. But sure enough there was a dog. The kids had given it some egg and it became their friend.  Much to their delight it followed us down the mountain.  Alex has just asked to also mention that we saw lots of bats flying around the night before and that he saw a monitor lizard. He was fascinated.

We made up make shift masks from teashirts for the decent through the savannah dust.  Alex hated his so Neep gave him a doctors mask which he definitely approved of.  As we went down it was touch very, very slippery. Everyone feel at least twice sliding down through this orange muddy dust on their bum.  We hit the forest after about two hours.  We came across a group of monkeys. The biggest hated the dog. It went ballistic, absolutely mental, sending a change of monkey chatter down the mountain.

It was much better in the forest, less heat and less dust.  We made it to base camp two in around four hours.  The kids were relieved as they were beginning to struggle.  We made camp and the porters cooked lunch - egg and chips - the children were delighted.  The children then explored the forest, climbed trees and watched the monkeys.  Katni kept a close eye as many of the plants are poisonous.  We came across another trekker who had left his guide and joined another group. His guide spoke no english and they had run out of water - I thanked my lucky stars for Katni and my research.

The children made a tent with Neep and Kanti from sticks and bamboo and the porters went off to find a mountain stream for water. Disaster....there was no water..the stream was dry... There was no choice but to walk down to base camp 1...ahhhhh this was not good at all as I knew the children were very tired.  Ok - I decided let's do it. I will carry the children in turns. Katni asked the porters if they would head down and then come back up for the children.  So off we  went with me carrying each of the children. It wasn't easy as my legs were beginning to stiffen up and you needed to lower yourself down from one tree root to the next, sometimes a drop of three feet.  We cracked on - the kids were in good spirits and laughing and arguing.  After around an hour and a half I called time and we sat and waited for the porters.  They were amazing and came back up to take them.

post 2: Rinjani

August 13th

Before I start I wanted to say how incredibly proud I am of Amie and Alex.  The next four days were extraordinary and they were utterly amazing.   They kept their sense of humour and never gave up, I didn't know that at seven and eight years old that would have managed to achieve what they did.  It's easy to get caught up in day-to-day life in the UK... from home, to school to clubs to home again.  There is inevitably a lot of ....hurry up we are late for school, have you cleaned your teeth, have you done your homework, say thank you, where are your rugby boots etc.   This trip really showed what we could achieve together.

Anyway.. Rinjani is the second highest peak in Indonesian. It rises to 3726m with a crater 6 x 8.5 km wide. It last erupted in 2010.  The night before Katni advised that we begin our ascent from Senaru through the tropical forest, rather than the easterly approach through savanna grassland (very dry and hot).

Mr Dee brought us banana pancakes for breakfast and we finished packing. We had brought torches, woolly hats and gloves, energy tablets and all sorts for the trek but had to carry them. Needless to say, Alex wanted the large trendy trekking rucksack....which he managed to carry for all of ten minutes. I managed to finish packing but disastrously  couldn't find all the extra socks in what became a rush (we ended up bare foot at the end...),

We hitched a lift up to the the Rinjani Country Park entrance, registered, and started walking. Katni had brought along a trainee guide called Neep - she was lovely very young and smiley and became Amie's pal.  The first part of the trek is through wild coffee, caco, cotton, soya and cloves which then leads into tropical forest, Everything you learn about in geography, buttress roots, lianas, high up tree canopies filled with monkeys chattering and bees the size of coachroaches!.

The tree roots were massive and the path weaved its way up, up, up though them. The kids were great, it was a steep and tricky climb and they took a few tumbles  Alex did say ten minutes in..this is a bad idea, I want to go back to Mr Dee's but then got distracted by finding the best hiking stick - an argument that went on with Amie pretty much the whole four days..

After four hours solid climb we stopped for lunch at base camp 2.  Here we met our porters Kir (the boss), and Mr Cook and Little Cook (as named by the kids).  These guys are tough, they carry massive baskets lashed to a bamboo stick up and down the mountain, day in, day out, in flip flops. They were a great bunch and were so fantastic with the children.  Katni had organised the extra porter for us to help (you would normally have two).  We had hot tea, rice and vegetables.    The kids sat down for ten minutes and then were running around the camp like a couple of monkeys. Katni fixed up a bamboo pole with water bottles and they pretended to be porters which made the real porters all cackle a lot.

We set off again up - up - up through the clouds. Amie couldn't believe it, but they are not made of anything Mummy - it's just air?! We set off half an hour before the porters.  They had a coffee, cleared up and passed us in no time.  After another few hours climbing we passed base camp  3 and broke through the forest into grassy savannah above the clouds.  Steep powdery mud and grass with random trees. This was tough going as often you took one step forward and two back.  We finally stopped and made camp after four hours.  We camped on a small plateau, looking down over the clouds and forest. You could see the sea in the far distance and Mount Agung - the highest peak in Bali.

The kids loved the tent. A cosy two man with thick mats, sleeping bags and blow up pillows!  The porters made a tent out of the bamboo poles they carry and a tarpaulin. Inside they had two gas burners and all sorts off food.  The kids were starving - they had chicken, rice and vegetables.  Katni and I had both brought additional food. Katni was great she carried lots off snacks in a little bag outside her rucksack for them (chocolate, crisps etc).  It started to get really cold as the sun went down so we turned in.  I did try and get them clean but with no water for washing there is only so much you can do with a babywipe.  The thick dust was slacked onto our legs and arms mashed in with sweat from the journey through the forest..nice...You couldn't actually tell what colour our trainers and socks were. It was very cosy but I spent all night worrying about Alex who insisted on sleeping with no extra clothes...grrr

Next morning we could hear the porters all chatting and cooking around 6am. Alex bounced out of bed and couldn't wait to get up.  I had to insist on a woolley hat, two jumpers and a windsheeter as it was freezing.  We had thick salty pancakes for breakfast with chocolate sauce (which met Amie's approval) and strong black Lombok coffee (which met my approval!).

Whilst everyone packed up - Alex played 'hit a stone' with little cook and Neep.  Little cook won - five hits out of five. Much to Alex's disgust. The kids also saw wild rabbits and later a red eagle riding the thermals.

We set off again at around 8am. Up through more thick sand - really tough going. Amie took a bad tumble but was ok.  We made it to the crater rim two hours later. The last bit meant climbing up rocks.  The view was incredible. The kids made it up first with Neep and were screaming ..mummy we can see it...we can see the lake...it's enormous.  Mummy you are going the wrong way...up here...mummy why are you so slow...you are always last....ahhhhhh!!!

The children really wanted to go down into the crater to the lake and hot springs.  Katni had discussed it with the porters and they decided that we should camp on the rim and go down and come back that day rather than camp by the lake.  It was a huge ask for the children but little cook would wait with the kit and Kir and Mr Cook come down with us - one porter for each child.  It worked well as Kir and Mr Cook were able to man handle the kids down to the crater lake. You could see why they were needed it was vertical in some parts, climbing down steep rocks.  They were really amazing and the children were still in good spirits after the 3 hour climb down (on top of the earlier two hour climb up to the crater rim...).

The lake was beautiful and deep blue with trees all along it's banks.  Alex was fascinated in how the porters could fish with rods made from sticks.  We swam in the hot springs - very hot - too hot for Amie and had a good wash. We kind of good - how clean can you get in sulphurous water reached by thick grey mud.  There were other trekkers there jumping from the top of the springs - which, Alex of course wanted to try ....er no !

We had spaghetti with sauce and fruit by the lake - the children were great we stopped on the way back round the lake and Katni made them fishing rods which they loved.  There were no complaints. however, on the way back up I took one look at them both and said they needed help, So I took charged, I took the the cooker, Katni the massive water canister, poor Neep a big bag of food (which she carried on her head smiling, always smiling) and the porters each piggy backed a child.  Kir shot up the mountain with Alex laughing away. Mr Cook was slower (but not much !).  They then did a little piggy back and a little walking. It would have been too much all the way, but it gave the children enough of a break to carry on.  I was, of course, way behind, it was a bldy big cooker !

I will always remember hearing Alex yelling ...Hati...Hati everybody...(be careful..everybody) up the mountain and Kir saying 'Teri Makasi' Alec (thank you Alec) and Alex yelling sama sama ! (you are welcome!).

At one point I was yelling up the mountain ..Amie let Mr Cook carry you and I got back ...'don't be a doughnut mummy - you can't carry here it's too steep....!' which echoed its way down the crater rim.

Four hours later we all made it back up to the crater rim.  All very, very tired but in good form.  The kids had more spaghetti for tea and we watched the sun go down over Bali. They were amazed how brilliant red it was. We also had a great camp fire which the porters all huddled round chatting and smoking. We were all very filthy from the scramble up out of the crater.  I did what and gace teh kids the last clean socks. I slept in my dirty ones - I could feel the grit crunching between my toes......

As we were going to sleep Alex said 'so mummy can we climb Everest next.....'  er let me think for a minute ....NO we cannot. 'But why not, you say we can do anything if we put our minds to it?' um because it's massive, freezing cold and you need to be a grown up...' ah ok,,,on my 18th birthday then....'  ok Alex - go to sleep sweetheart it's late...(but the answer is still no).

Rinjani Post 1: We did it! Climbed Rinjani second highest mountain in Indonesia - 3 nights and four days to crater rim....

August 12th

We got a local taxsi to the port, Padang Bai.  Actually not so much of a port as a collection of small shacks and a few buildings on a beach with two jetties. One for the ferry and one for the 'fast' boats.  It's definitely where all the cool folk hang out.  The boats go to the Gilli Islands which are very 'in' with the French and Germans or all the 'whities', as Amie calls tourists. There is a bar with hammocks, big bean bags and shock, horror ...cappuccinos!!! Amie and Alex loved the hammocks and sunned themselves while I  got food.

Boarding our boat was bizarre. Around 30 cases were stacked and toppling on the road with a bunch of whities waiting anxiously outside a travel shop quite a way from the boats. Suddenly a little cart appeared and four men loaded said cases - precariously, piling them high on the cart, stacking and re-stacking all those that fell off the otherside...hilarious.  Then the cart set off... this is a bit odd I said to Amie.   Yes, she replied.. follow that cart !! and off she charged through this crowded mass of tourists with the whities following behind..that's my girl!

We made it onto the boat - with the cases.  It was awful, so rough...the kids were green. I spent the whole trip holding their heads out of the port window - focusing them on the horizon (to stop the sickness).  Anyway, we arrived in Lombok at the port...a wooden jetty and hut....I was slightly nervous (having done everything by internet) that no one would be there. But we were met by ..soon to be known as ...funky boy.

As we unloaded there were lots of kids leaping off juking boats into the sea, shouting 'HELLO' to the children.  Alex loved it and soon there was HELLO ...HELLO ..HELLO backwards and forwards with Amie whispering 'mummy, those boys are naked.....

Off we went in the funk mobile...jazz funk (I think) at full pelt.. Seat belts kids I yelled (like any good Wimbledon mum)...mummy there are no seatbelts...ah..oh well. hold on then......here we go...

Lombok is totally different from Bali.  Bali is Hindu and the Balinese are craftsmen.  There are wooden and/or stone carvings of Hindu gods everywhere.  The houses, shops and streets all have statues with printed fabric skirts in black and whit,golden sashes and sparkling parasols.  The women dress in sarongs with brightly coloured lace tops once a day, everyday, to bring banana leaf parcels filled with fruit and flowers and also burning incense.  There is water everywhere, most houses have ponds and fountains surrounded with bougainvillea,  Lillies and other tropical flowers. It is also comparatively wealthy in the south with fast growing tourism and the associated traffic and chaos.

Lombok is Muslim, with mosques in all towns/villages, women in scarfs etc. It is poorer, much drier and quieter. Anyway - we motored (with the kids bopping away) round Lombok and started climbing up into the mountains.  We saw some hills in the distance and Alex asked if it was Rinjani...no..no..not Rinjani said funk boy. We turned a corner and he said ...'that is Rinjani...'

Alex took one look and screamed ..O...M...G ('oh my goodness' I am told..) we are going to climb THAT !!!

We arrived in Senaru at our guide's cousin's Pondok (hotel).   Mr Dee gave us a little room behind the main building.  It was mattress on the floor for Alex, cold water, no air con - the kids loved it.  The view was incredible.  We looked out onto the vast foothills of Rinjani. Miles of tropical rainforest - in the distance we could see a vast waterfall gushing out of the mountain side.  Much to the kids delight there were rare black monkeys in the trees around us.  These were beautiful creatures, very far removed from mad temple monkeys.

We were met by Katni our guide.

I had done so much research for this trek, weeks and weeks.  I asked many trekking companies about whether it was suitable for a 7 (just turned 7) and 8 year old.  They all came back and said fine no problem we do what ever you want.  Up the summit, no problem, kids no problem.  No, I kept thinking that is not the right answer. You are supposed to know this mountain and advise us on what is best. They also, almost all, came back with inflated prices and things like for extra dollars US you can have better food and a Tshirt. hummmmm.

Anyway, I found one small post on trip advisor about Rinjani women's trekking. It talked about how this lady was the first women guide up the mountain and now she in training other women.  I emailed her and we started a dialogue.  She was honest and sensible.  No she said, kids should not go to the summit that would be ridiculous.  She recommended a four day, three night trek to the crater rim. Over the weeks I deliberated and also looked at a simple jungle camping trip instead.  It was my sister that convinced me, she said 'what an amazing achievement it would be for them'.  I had such confidence in Katni that I decided to go for it. The kids were really excited.

Katni is has 7 brothers and 6 sisters. There was no money for school so she was set for a life in the paddy fields.  However, she saw the men in the village working as trekking guides and decided it was something she could do. She started following them up the mountain at the age of 15.  At first the local community was very against it. Women would spit at her in the market and would have nothing to do with her.  It was considered very bad for a women to be up on the mountain with men and in particular foreigners who were said to drink and party.  But, in time the others saw how respected she had become within the guiding community and that she was able to earn money for her family. She has now over the last 20 year trained 40 guides for local trips on the mountain.

So, we met Katni that night and packed our back packs for our adventure. A 7am start the next morning....

next post to follow..

Hello again my old scallywags!

Diving
It all started at the dive centre. When we got in the boat we zoomed to the island Mejangan and at the first stop we saw sword fish, nemos , electric eels, starfish and dories.  It made me feel happy.

Tree Tops

Kindly, Wayan and Kutut, the people in the car, let me and Alex go to tree tops in the jungle!  We were only allowed to do all of the climbs except red and black because they were too dangerous for us. But it wasnt dangerous for me because I could touch the line and it said if you can touch the line you can do this climb.  Mummy just wouldn't because she was having a heart attack at how fast I was doing everything and at Alex not clamping on at all !!!

Candidasa

We are now in Candidasa and mummy has taught us to play chess. I love it!! We sit on a big sofa by the sea and I beat mummy!

Volcano

Today we are packed to get a boat to the island of Lombok and tomorrow we are going to climb Mount Rinjani a huge volcano the second highest peak in Indonesia. We are camping for three nights !!

We are going to swim in volcanic hot springs - if we make it up the mountain!!

WE ME LUCK ME HEARTIES -  speak soon

and lots of love to Poppy my very best friend who is reading my blog. I miss you and look forward to the next sleep over at home xx 

Bye for now ! Amie

Alex's updated blog for Permuteran and Ubud

We woke up at 7.am and a van picked us up.and when we got there we put out gear on and then we were off on the boat. The boat goes as fast as a car. I saw nemo and swordfish and a big turtle swimming past and a moray eel that mummy found. I saw a multicoloured fish. It was BIG! And Amie found a fish eye ball!!! It was multicoloured too! It was very slimy.

On the tree climbing we had to go up lots of trees and go on zip wires, ladders and tunnels with two carabinas and a zipper. It makes your belly go weird.  We had to walk along the mud road in Permuteran - we always faced the  traffic (mummy said).  Mummy said we had to stand back a lot from the lorries - I didn't believe her until the wind of the lorry made mummies umbrella go inside out!!! We also saw lots of wild dogs having a fight, they were growling so we crossed the road .

see you again soon Alex x

Photos from Ubud and Candidasa

More Photos and also an apology - the first comment prize goes to Jackie - no photos was such the norm we missed it - sorry Mr G. Tony!!

 Tree Tops climbing in jungle, Bedougal (part of botanical gardens) - serious grown up climbing .....!

Temple on the way to Tree Tops, Lake Bratan.  We were supposed to go back to the lakes and do a jungle trek.  It meant crossing Lake Tambligan in a dug out canoe, but the children were so tired in Ubud I cancelled it.  Amie had had grit in her eye for three days and had a sore leg (Alex drag her along paving by a pool....for goodness sake...).  They were exhausted the night before so I just thought a break would be good.

Typically they woke up raring to go and were absolutely furious ....I was the worst mummy ever.....!!! They seem over it now and are very, very excited about our volcano trek.  In two days we take the ferry to Lombok, where we are met by a guide and taken to Senaru. We are spending a night in a local guest house and then four days treking up mount Rinjani (three nights camping).  I found a lady guide. She was the first lady guide on the mountain and has set up her own company. She was the only honest one..  All the rest said - kids would be no problem and we could do it in one night two days. She said no - that would be ridiculous.  Hence the four days - fingers crossed we will all cope....I now have an infected toe......!!
 In Candidasa, we got hold  of local bikes (there were three outside a shop - we think they belonged to the lady's kids and she was up for some cash!). We cycled up to Tenganan (a traditional Balinese Village).  Alex nearly ran over a baby pig,....ahhhh! His chain went on the way down so I ended up pulling him which was a tad scary..!.

 Having tea in Ubud by a rice paddy

 Jungle trek on elephant at rescue place in Taro near Ubud. The kids made friends with their mahout - the mahouts all have one elephant each to take care of and form strong bonds. We found  a taxi driver on the street who took us up there, waited two hours and brought us back..great fun. The elephants have been rescued from Summatra - although it's quite a going business for rides now.

 Doing the washing in Ubud.  We 'walked' a suitcase of washing to a local dhobi - Amie pushed it down all the local roads and through traffic. It was hilarious. We got there and he didn't do washing by the kilo but by item. Amie and I sat on the floor of the washing shop (in the street) counting out ...6 pants (man), 6 socks (lady)....they were such a nice family.  They work 10 hours a day and the kids basically live at the shop.  We went and collected the washing that night (same trip with case but in the dark..!) and gave the kids London postcards.  We also made of point of buying peanuts from this old lady street vendor everytime we passed, she was ill and slept on a bed behind her stall.

 Ubud monkey forest - more mad monkeys.

We are now in Candidasa  the hotel is reached from a quiet lane lined with houses and a few shops/warangs.  We have been hanging out at one warang and the kids have made friends with the family. Putu took them snorkelling yesterday morning and the mum did satay specially for us.  The local beach was teeming last night (sunday) with locals having a great time.

The guides (Wayans) house at Tenangan Village - the wives all weave local cotton - it takes two weeks to make a sarong. 

the children with Wayan at his house in Tenangan

Permuteran

So the pictures should say Permuteran - it was so tricky to load them that I think I lost the will to live and the wrong name followed ...sorry they are so big!  We were beginning to think we were 'molly no mates' with no posts but the stats say 458 views ?! must be my mum trying repeatedly to get it to work!  I'm told you need a google account to post and then it's a pain sorry! most are emailing instead.

The trip from Sanur was long and very windy over the mountains - great views of mount Agung and Mount Batur, rice fields, villages and crater lakes.  We nuked alex with anti sickness pills as maximum security against his best mate 'ralph..' - poor boy slept all the way as a result but best for all!

We loved Permuteran - I was a bit nervous about the hotel . I have learned a lot about internet booking now and it could  have been a disaster - I looked at all the guest houses etc there ...but it was great.  We had a house on stilts made of wood and an outside bathroom, which the kids thought was very cool. We were surrounded by farms and all we could hear were chickens, Iman's from mosques (there are a high percentage of muslims as it is close to Jarva) and dogs, all tinged with a permanent scent of wood smoke.  The hotel was family run and the kids and staff made friends. Amie was Putu (oldest child) and Alex was Kardek (second child).  The hotel had 18 rooms but 50 staff (who supported 250 people between them).  There was a man (or women) for every job.  Alex was missing a sheet on his bed and 5 people came.  A manger to inspect the situation, two men to bring the sheet and another two to resolve the offending missing sheet scenario...

An outside bathroom was not so cool when we had strong winds and everything got coated with black volcanic dust from Java and also meant that nightime wees had to be done in a hurry with the light off (a tad disorientating) to outrun the mosquitoes...and also..on the last day...I was reaching for my toothbrush and saw a massive rat on the counter top by the sink in it's last death throes...ahhhhhh all the tooth brushes went in the bin along with the soap the poor thing had been eating. The kids thought it was hilarious...hummmm.  The Dutch family next door were great, they gave us new toothbrushes and paste. I suppose I could have boiled ours and re-used them  but couldn't quite make that leap.  We have met Russians, French, Italians and Germans (always Germans - they are everywhere ..no sun bed stealing here though...).  But no English ....!  The kids are getting quite a multicultural approach to life and are also whizzes with rupiah and ringit now.

The hotel had a little map with a turtle rescue centre on it so we went to check it out - the kids have posted about this. It is just few pools and handfull of staff but saves around 1000 turtles a year. It was set up by an Austrialian 20 years ago. He pays the locals more for the eggs than they get at market, hatches and releases them. He has also convinced the local fisherman not to destroy the coral and set up a system which uses electrical currents to stimulate coral growth. Inspirational person and great lifstyle! The children loved the turtle place and we spent a lot of time hanging out there on the beach. They made friends with the dog - which they named 'splashy' as he went shell and crab hunting witA them digging for eels. The kids made friends with some Australian children and crabbed all afternoon one day - we all then went for dinner which was lovely.

We also went snorkelling to Merangan island which was fantastic - the kids were amazing - it's not an easy thing to do in open sea.  Using your pipe to  breath, keeping your face down (if you lift it the pipe fills with water), holding your breath, diving down and coming up, blowing hard to get eject the water - all this with flippers and photographing. They loved it - they now want to do a junior paddy course so they can scupa dive.  I did mine in the philippines - will need a refresher if they are serious! We saw all kinds of fish including 'dory, nemo and the one with the scar, sword fish, water snakes, crabs and the kids saw a turtle.  Alex was thrilled as we had a super fast boat and shot back to Permuteran really fast with them at the stern of the boat wind ripping past - I was just glad they didn't fall in..

We were going to go to Java but I ditched it as too much for them - instead we hung out. We went to the Pulaki temple (mad monkeys again), caught local bemos, ate in warangs and made friends with the locals. We walked through a lot of little farming plots - the kids now really understand how much of the world's population live.  We also came across a little craft shop in the middle of no where - and saw the ladies all making the jewelry and the men bringing in the fish... I'm not sure they realise the significance of all this. I am hoping it will settling in their minds when we reach home. We are making scrap books of all the tickets, postcards etc and we will stick the blog in.

We are now in Ubud - stopping at the tree tops jungle climbing centre on the way. I was freaking out a bit as it is proper climbing with two carabinas (spelling) and one slide (to zoom down cables) each to clip, unclip and reclip. If you unclip all three at once and fall .....ahhh They were both brilliant - Amie is a total monkey and wanted to do the black and red routes ..but I pulled rank..my heart couldn't cope because there was one point where Alex had all three unclipped and I was quietly saying clip the red one on Alex..Alex sweetheart just clip the red one...Alex the red one.............he wasn't up high at that point but still...?!#

Mummy the medic

We are lucky we brought a medical kit...!  Alex had a rash  we had some cream ..phew ..my skin did not like the all day snorkelling and the heat in general but I had sneaked a course of prednisalone (spelling?) away which is working a treat.  Amie came flying up the hut stair and skidded into the door trapping her foot - we have treated the cuts and bandaged it. I'm pretty sure the toe is not broken and am hoping it will sort before the camping and trekking.. Alex got an infected leg from jumping off a statue (seriously..) into a pool but antibiotic cream has sorted. He also had a fever but calpol sorted that.. Lastly Amie had the makings of an infection so I used google (what would u do without it..) to  research the right antibiotic and paediatric dose and translated it into Indonesian so I could have an informed chat with the pharmacy.  Luckily I got it before we made the trip to Permuteran as there was nothing there and that could have turned into a bit of a drama!!

Photos from cycling and Perambutan (July 2015)

Photos in no particular order because it's really tricky and takes ages!!

1) Cycling in paddy fields, Amie grinding coffee at cooperative farm  and also at the local school
2) Diving at Meranjan Isalnd off the north coast of Bali near Java - you can see the Volcanoes in some photos I think. Everything is covered in fine dust here from the current eruption
3) The turtle in the wheelbarrow on the beach and at the rescue shack -
4) Fisherman bringing in their catch on Permuteran beach early in the morning
5) horse riding on the beach and then riding bare back into the seas and swimming with the horses (Alex fell off a lot)
6) dancers and band from next village performing - very special only second time they have done this - it's  a trial run for future for tourists
7) Visit to Pulaki Temple with mad monkeys - all temple offerings in cages and monkey boys with sticks employed to beat off monkeys and protect temple and getting a local 'bemo' back into town ...'the door is open - the door is open',,,,,,alex kept saying ...as lots of locals were hanging on and out of the window......!!