Not so much of a tourist after all!!

(Written in Alice Springs, Australia)
This poem is written by Babs who was so kind to lend it to her fellow traveller, who is too lazy to do it herself (or just thinks she cannot do it better herself). This story tells you more about our new experiences in Indonesia. Pretty soon you'll finally see or read some exciting adventures in beautiful Australia. Take care everybody! Marlies x


After two days on Gili, lying in the sun,
Exploration-urge arose. Us girls we had to run.
With rupia nor dollar the distance was far,
Our Lord heard our lament and sent us an angel in a car.
It was a professor, naughty, nutty and witty,
Straight from Valencia city.
He had been meditating in the sun for too long,
Because obviously something was wrong.
During examinations he sat on the beach while eating pizza.
In the summer he took his students on a drug trip through Ibiza.
But now he had to go and save the corals.
Even though he was crazy, he was full of morals.

We proceeded quickly, Lizzy and me,
We were heading for the place to be.
Ubud is the Mecca of culture and art.
Though the local vendors don't seem very smart.
It had so much to offer we stayed a day or seven.
For those who love shopping and silver, it's heaven.
We walked through rice fields at which we could keep on looking.
And we took a class on Balinese cooking.
We learned which herbs keep the demons away,
and that you loose weight by eating a pepper at break of day.
A traditional local dance was very impressive,
and the crowd at the exceptional cremation was massive.
The Dali from Bali loved painting and nudes,
Luckily Belgian Christians are not known as prudes.

We rented a motorcycle for a day,
which would bring us chicks a long way.
That leather Lizzy couldn't drive , I didn't know.
We fell after the first bend: quite a show.
Apart from a bruise and a fright we were fine,
And the seat behind the steering wheel was mine.

The weather was brilliant until we upset the gods.
They spotted our blasphemed behaviour, what were the odds?
Marlies stepped into several offerings on the road,
and by entering a temple during our period we broke a social code.
All this made the demons frown,
and they made the skies come down.
It rained cats and dogs day after day,
that is until we left Ubud and went away.

We set sail to Nusa Lembongan,
fearing it would be like Kuta or Gilli Trawangan.
But to our pleasant surprise,
it turned out to be paradise.
It was as if time had stood still.
The serenity and views gave me a thrill.
Abandoned by tourists and no internet,
with its houses of hay an idyllic film set.
We cycled, walked and rested well,
it was brilliant apart from the seaweed smell.

Then we wrestled ourselves into wet suites and jumped in the sea,
I never knew how fascinating the underwater world could be.
We swam into Nemo and shook his fin.
We loved this world we invaded in.
With the swordfish we got into a fight,
And the sea star dazzled us with its blue light.
The lionfish was beautiful but frightened us to death,
the trompetfish played lovely songs 'till it was out of breath.
We got our certificate, I even scored 100% on the test, (Babs did, I only scored 96%)
I know: I'm a geek, but also the BEST

After a week we had to depart.
But I'll always carry that place in my heart.
The last few days we partied with people we had met before,
we answered our emails and wrote some more.

We all know how you sweat in the sun,
and how time flies when you're having fun.
I couldn't believe I had to leave Asia behind.
Why is life not a tape? Then I could press rewind.