hello lovelies,

hello from warm tropical bali! forest and i are here, experiencing the humid wheather as it's the hot time of the year here. we're staying in quite the swanky hotel for less then 10 bucks a night, including breakfeast! it's beautiful here in ubud, a lovely mountain town. there is a whole crew from the bay area visiting, we are hoping to meet up with some of the crew today and play.

it's been a wonderful trip so far except earlier this week... driving around the island of lombok in an old rented toyota. oil leak, no shocks, making strange sounds...car accicent...forest misjudged the width of the car and smashed the passanger side door. no one hurt but only $425 bucks later of damages...ow!! the drivers side is on the oposite side driving on the left side of the road. it was like a crazy vidieo game dodging, people walking and sitting on the road, dogs sleeping on the road, cows, geese, chickens, kittens, goats, sheep, bikes, motor bikes, cars, hudge trucks, horse carts and small children...all traveling at different speeds and different directions! i was actually fearing my life!!! really i got scared. all these different variables on a windy one lane road...with pot holes and ditches to the side and small bridges. we had to slam on breaks, swirve an jump off the road several times to just avoid hitting or getting hit! then as we stayed the night in the capital city of mataram there was a peepomg tom trying to check me out as i was drying off from a shower. loser!! had to report him to the hotel, they scared him off.

earlier though we explored lombok with some friends and they took us up on top of a mountain to some beautifull waterfalls. one was a short hike from the bungalows that we were staying at and the other we hiked through the river, over rocks and fallen trees through the jungle. super amazing experience and the pay off was a hudge waterfall in a large gully! we did have a good time in lombok, expecially the gili trawangan island! really friendly people, we felt genuinely welcome there. we stayed with a nice muslin family, they had beautiful well kept bungalows called "'Warna" for less than 6 bucks a night breakfest included. there were wonderful beach resturaunts some with asian huts on the beach and others open two story palapa huts all with low asian tables and cusiuns. we got to splurge on sushi too! the island is small enough that you can walk around it in a couple of hours. there are no cars or motor bikes. only horse carts and bicycles...no traffic. so chill. at night lot's of people make music jams in the streets, we got to share music and song with many of the locals. there is a central area along the beach that has large bars and clubs, so you can get your groove on if you like cluby house music. not our thing, though we mad a nice fire show on the street in front of one of the clubs for valentine's day.

i highly recommend this island and the surrounding two other islands. winter is the chill time, not many tourists time of year with cheap prices! the snorkeling was really amazing, just right outside of our bungalows was the best area on the island. we also charted a privat tour with a friends boat and visited the reefs on the other islands too.

now, were safe in a chill mountain town, absolutely gorgeous here. so much art and craft here....it's truely beautiful...temples and architecture.

love, jemini