Filed under: Indonesia, Travel diary, Uncategorized | Tags: Gili Island, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, Lombok
That’s the title of an Indonesian song. That will be the song of the holidays.
Just came back from Gili Trawangan, a little paradise for party people, lost in the north of Lombok. The coral barrier is one of the most beautiful in the world and divers from all over the world come to see the fishes and the submarine flowers. Internet is almost inexistant and all you can do is relax, dive, snorkle, chill on the beach and drink banana juices in little berudas. No. Really, look at this:
We were meant to stay 3 days and stayed 5! We went out every night, met some nice French, Canadian and Dutch guys, ate lovely food for nothing from a little warung owned by a beautiful old lady who was opening her pans proudly to show us what she had cook for the day, danced, smoked, read, went snorkeling and had to force ourselves to get out of bed at 7:00am yesterday to go back on the main island… I think I’m getting into this trip 
We are now back in Bali Kuta where we will take a bus tonight to go to Java. We want to climb the Bromo volcano to see the sunrise from the top. Then we will head to Yogyakarta where we want to hire a scooter and visit the surroundings. Java is the cultural nest of the Indonesian culture, sounds promising… Any advices and tips are welcome 
Filed under: Travel Tips, Travel diary, Uncategorized | Tags: Connaisseurs du Voyage, Flights, STA Travel
The crucial question.
There was an article in Guardian Travel last week saying that given the actual economic climate, the earlier you book your flight the better it is. I’ve got to say that flights have been a bit of a concern for me, several reasons for that:
- The first one was that I had to tell my boss first about my travel projects. If I was leaving my company this wouldn’t have been an issue but negotiating a sabbatical has other implications. I would have waited a little bit longer to get a pay rise and maybe a promotion but I can’t afford waiting until the last minute and use up half of my travel budget for the flights so I had to make a choice.
- Then there was the fact that I needed to stick to Laure and Kawtar’s plans. They booked their RTW trip through Les Connaisseurs du voyage, a French Travel Agent specialised in RTW trips. The thing is that not all the travel agents serve the same destinations. Fortunately for me the plans are simple: Bali and Bangkok are two popular destinations and also my only flights. The rest of the transports will be by bus, train or car and we will manage this when there.
- The last (but not the least) challenge was finding the cheapest flights. I have been crawling the web trying to find the best deals. I went to different travel agents websites in France and England, checked the flight directly on several airlines’ websites, waited for the sales, I’ve been on all the forums and subscribed to pretty much all the travel eNewsletters to find the best deals.
You know what? I’m bored of filling up the search cases again and again. I have decided to book with STA Travel and indulge a little bit of luxury. I’ve booked an appointment in their Covent Garden branch next Wednesday and I will let them do the work for me. They have pretty cheap flights for under 26 years old (595£ for the two flights London-Bali/Bangkok-London) and they can sort out all the visas, advise me on the transport options in between the cities we will visit, book the first accommodations, the travel insurance and tell me which jabs I need before I go. So I am now free to think about where I want to go rather than how I want to get there. And I like that!
