Belated Thanksgiving dinner

We celebrated our last evening here with our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Funny that while we were working in the kitchen this morning, Sunday night football was on TV. Seemed appropriate!

Our meal turned out great...turkey with orange/cranberry relish, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole and also pecan & pumpkin pies. YUM.

Jaime & Eric invited their house staff and driver to join us for the feast. It made for a memorable evening!

Winding down

We're back in Jakarta...vacation laundry is done, and we are cooking our Thanksgiving feast today.   Turkey, green bean casserole, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, pumpking and pecan pies!

 Russ and Eric played tennis, Jaime and I worked out and then I swam awhile.  Very enjoyable last day together.  Tomorrow they will go back to work, and we will spend the morning here, have massages and then head to the airport.   We leave about 8:30pm Jakarta time (7:30am Tuesday Iowa time).  We are to arrive back in Des Moines at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon.

Just a reminder

In case you forgot...sign in bathroom stall at Lombok airport.

Can you hear me NOW?

Cellphones were everywhere on Gili!

Monkey Forest

Hitting the road

Last day on Gili T and back to Jakarta

Today was quite a study in transportation! Russ and I took a long walk on the beach and through town. Then we loaded our luggage onto horse carts, and headed to the boat that was to take us to Lombok. Once at Lombok, we took another horse cart to meet our van, which took us across the island to the airport, by way of Monkey Forest. Midafternoon, we boarded our flight, and are now back in Jakarta. What a day!

More morning walk photos

Apparently a commuter boat, taking workers to the neighboring island.

Sweeping the street and beach in the morning.

Garbage wagon. Rough living on this island.

Our hotel on Gili was a little...shall we say...disappointing. Eric located another just down the beach, and we moved after one night. This one is just great. Perfect beach, nice staff, clean open air restaurant, and nice rooms--and even better bathrooms. YAY!

The snorkeling right off the beach is the best Russ and I have ever seen. Interesting coral formations and huge variety of fish. Have seen sea turtles each time we have snorkeled, too.

Russ and I took a morning walk...a few pix here. The sky was clearer, so we could see the mountains on Lombok. We will take a boat there tomorrow, go to Monkey Forest and then fly back to Jakarta.

Happy birthday to Nick!

Happy Thanksgiving

Our time here is 14 hours ahead. (The post time on the blog is way off, and I can't seem to get it right.) So we are just about ready for bed on Thanksgiving, as you are putting in the turkey. It is also Jaime and Eric's 4th wedding anniversary. We traveled to the island today, snorkeled, poked around, and ended up having wood fired pizza on the beach.

We have much to be thankful for.

This morning, we left Bali for the Gili Islands. We are on the largest and most developed of the three Gilis. It was about a 3 hour boat ride. There are NO motorized vehicles on the island! The horse carts serve as taxis. Charming. Does make for some messy streets, though.

More sights

Colorful boats with outriggers dot the beach. They are used for fishing, diving and I suppose sight-seeing. The beach here is so gradual, and the tide so dramatic, that dozens of boats are beached at low tide.











Offering on the beach.