Day 12: Beaches, Bracelets and Lost in Translation

Our day began at 5:00am, courtesy of...NO not the children, which may come as a suprise to some, but actually this mornings (and every morning while we are here) wake up call was courtesy of the mosque next door. The morning call to prayer echoed through the loudspeaker loud and clear, making sure nobody accidentally enjoyed a sleep-in!

After breakfast at the villa, our driver picked us up at 9:00am for a day of sightseeing around southern Lombok.

We'd booked an English-speaking guide... or so we thought.

His English turned out to be fairly limited.

The first clue came when I asked why pork is considered forbidden in the Muslim faith. He smiled, nodded enthusiastically and replied, "Yeah, yeah, yeah... I take you to the beach."

It set the tone for the day, and we couldn't help but laugh.

Our first stop was a traditional village, where we visited the mosque, wandered through the village and climbed one of the towers for a beautiful view over the surrounding countryside. We also met a lovely local family who asked to have photos with us, which the kids thought was pretty special.

From there we visited one stunning beach after another. The water was the most incredible shade of blue, although sadly there was so much rubbish washed up along the shoreline as well as floating in the water.

Millie was convinced the heat was trying to defeat her and spent the first part of our beach stop hiding under a towel while Grayson happily built sandcastles. The rest of us cooled off with a swim, and eventually Millie admitted that getting in the water was a much better plan than slowly roasting under a towel!

We sampled fresh local fruit from a beach vendor before heading up to a spectacular lookout. We'd originally thought we'd be watching sunset there later that evening, but our guide had other plans! We were greeted by cheeky monkeys, breathtaking views and, of course, plenty of friendly locals trying to sell us bracelets. By this stage we'd seen enough bracelets to open our own souvenir shop.

Lunch was at a little local warung, where the kids were fascinated by the brightest orange baby chicks we'd ever seen. They spent more time watching and chasing the chicks than they did eating.

The afternoon was spent beach hopping. Jai fell asleep in the car and was expertly transferred into the pram without waking—a parenting achievement worth celebrating. The boys swam, Jai happily played in the sand once he woke, and we all enjoyed one last beach before deciding we'd had just about enough sunshine for one day.

On the way home we stopped at a local fruit market, where pineapples cost the equivalent of about $1 each. We also picked up some wonderfully strange-looking tropical fruits to try tomorrow.

After rinsing off the sand, we wandered down the road for dinner before heading back to the villa. To finish the day, we all snuggled up to watch the third movie in a series we'd started together last year—a perfect way to wind down after another adventure-filled day.

The evenings have their own soundtrack too, with the prayers drifting across the villagefrom their loud speakers. While they're undoubtedly beautiful and an important part of daily life here, some of the singing has been... let's just say... enthusiastically out of tune. It has become our nightly lullaby, and we've had more than a few giggles listening to the wonderfully unique performances before drifting off to sleep.

Trip Statistics

- Beaches visited: 3
- Bracelet sales attempted: Approximately 4,732
- Questions accidentally answered with "I'll take you to the beach": 1
- Pineapples purchased: Several
- Parenting "sleep transfer" successes: 1
- Orange chicks admired: Lots
- Sunburns narrowly avoided: Hopefully all of us
- Earplugs being used tonight: multiple pairs
- Family memories made: CountlessRead more