Christmas Trip, Parts the Second and Third

In which our heroes R-- and J-- go on a cross-island epic journey to the edge of Bali and beyond, all the way to the wilds of Lombok and a virtually unexplored piece of land just floating off the northwest shore of Lombok called Gili Air. Once there, they indulge in much fruit and fish, and while away the hours of the day wandering, playing with kittens, reading, and generally doing nothing much of anything.

(They also try to scuba-dive, but the visibility is bad. J-- also gets caught in a slow-moving upward current, and gets separated from her buddies in water so cloudy yet brightly lit by sunlight that she can't see anything, and despite her best efforts, she surfaces too early, without so much as a safety stop, and she's still trying to forget that slightly bad, sufficiently disorienting, somewhat frightening experience. Needless to say, there are no photographs of the incident, but it makes for a kind of interesting, though lengthy parenthetical comment. And it allows J-- to mention the fact that the scuba-dive instructor remembered her from her visit 2 1/2 years ago when he taught her how to dive!)

After countless days of wrestling with the desire to never return home, our brave heroes acknowledge that they cannot avoid duty forever. They muster their energy and start the long trek back to more civilized (ie., urban) parts of the world. But wait! Fate steps in, in the guise of a slimy, underhanded domestic airline, and our heroes are stranded in paradise for a little while longer. Somehow, they manage to survive this horrible ordeal, though undoubtedly many sacrifices were made along the way (and many sleeping cats were also stepped over, incidentally).

Our heroes eventually reach the urban landscape of Taipei, and prove once again that, despite failing health and temperatures less than tropical, they can sightsee with the best of them.

And so, for now, our heroes continue to live happily ever after. Well, till the next set of adventures whisks them away, that is.*


You can view the entire Bali / Gili Air / Taipei saga here. If you view them in the set, they're all in order and then you can see my witty (read: overly informational and undoubtedly pedantic) commentary.


* We're going to South Korea in 1 1/2 weeks!!!**

** We're going to Hokkaido in 3 weeks!!!