We arrived about 8pm, after a very friendly chat with the taxi driver (the people are lovely here), we pulled into the hotel. Greeted by a glass of orange juice, we checked in, and were taken up to the room by a lovely member of staff called 'Addi'. Loz and I could not stop smiling, as he showed us round. There's a ballroom, a cake shop, our balcony overlooks the pool, and you can see the beach. The hotel has its own nightclub and private beach, and we absolutely could not wait for it to get light so we could see it all in its full glory. We headed to the restaurant for dinner, which was lovely, and we were entertained by a keyboard and singing duo. Perfect. I still could not remove the smile from my face - it was the best thing ever.
Very excited we got up the next day and headed for breakfast. We've not really been eating big breakfasts while we've been away so we were a little out of practice and vowed to do better the next day. Still, we had a day of sunbathing, swimming and beaching ahead of us so we suncreamed up and headed out to the pool. We were the only two people in sight (apart from staff) and had the pool completely to ourselves. We swam around, sunbathed a little and Cat settled down to write some of her postcards.
Having locked our key in the room when she came out earlier, Cat headed off to reception to collect it and we decided to head back as we were feeling a little hot. At this point, we suddenly realised how red we were and began to realise that perhaps an hour and a half in the pool in the baking sun on our first day was maybe not the best plan. ( I will cut in at this point and say, we didn't spend all of that time in the pool, a lot of it was in the shade, and I reapplied sun cream several times. Loz had magic suncream so she didn't need to, or so it said.) Skip to two hours later and this was definitely true as we winced around the room looking like giant lobsters practically crying from the pain. We used all our moisturiser and we still hurt. To make us feel slightly better, we decided to take advantage of the room service and ordered lunch. Very nice but we still felt rubbish. The next day we headed off to breadfast and on the way I nearly fainted. We braved the restaurant, despite my swollen face, our very sore arms and Cat's blistered back. After that, I was sent back to the room and Cat braved the outside world in search of moisturiser, water and snacks so we could hole up in the room for the day and try to recouperate.
I booked a taxi at the front desk, which was supposed to cost 50,000 rupiah to the pharmacy. The guy arrived, and I tried to explain where I wanted to go - in the end I showed him my arms, and gestured rubbing some cream on them... he understood. We had a chat (like I say, the people are lovely), his name was Iwaran, and he offered (in a friendly rather than pushy way) to take us on a tour of the island the following day if we wanted. I told him my friend was ill, so I doubted we'd be going anywhere tomorrow, but thanks... 'boy or girl', 'girl', 'ahhh' he answered knowingly. I resisted the urge to add, 'by the way we're not together'... yes we will be spending the day in minimal clothing applying moisturiser, however, we will also be trying desperately not to flash one another too.
After a long journey - much further than the front desk woman had suggested, we arrived at the pharmacy. The taxi driver took me inside and showed me where to go, bless. I am not sure whether he took me to a pharmacy with a doctor because I said Loz was ill, or because it was further away than the other one we passed, which seemed more like a Boots or something, but given his friendliness and helpfulness I have decided to assume the best of him. I told the lady over the counter I needed something for sunburn. 'ok, consultation fee will be 375,000 rp' - eek, that's a lot, about £25 in fact... 'I don't really need a consultation, I'm fairly sure it's sunburn, can I just go and get some cream?' 'Oh yes, sure' Phew I thought, nearly blew 5 days budget in 1 go to be told that the redness on my arm was sun-related. (I should add at this point that neither the taxi driver, nor the woman at the front desk, nor the woman in the restaurant later that evening seemed to have a clue what sunburn was - they're clearly used to the sun. We, being made in England, should know better than to take our pasty bodies outside in heat like this.) Anyway, I bought their last bottle of suncream and all the water they had (which was 1500 per bottle, as opposed to the 8000 the bottles in the hotel mini bar cost), the taxi driver kindly packed them for me while I paid and he carried them back to the car.
Fearing my unpopularity if I went back without snacks, and also not having been able to get moisturiser in the chemist, I asked the driver if there was a shop we could pop to on the way back. He took me to a supermarket, which typically was at least 50% cheaper than the minibar on everything. I stocked up for the long haul, found some moisturiser and natural yoghurt for cooling purposes, then headed back. At 150,000 rupiah the journey was more expensive than we'd expected, but hey ho. I think it was worth it.
Loz, now feeling a little better after her rehydration sachet, greeted me at the door to marvel at my purchases. She went to give me a hug, but realised quickly that was a bad idea - good job, there would have been screams. Commence moisturisation.
Cut to a day later (we're blocking out the pain of yesterday which was mostly spent covered in moisturiser, anaesthetic aftersun and natural yoghurt - which really does cool you down - you're not getting any pictures of that lot) we are still burnt but feeling a little better, though we're still hiding in the room. Cat is hoping to brave the pool later but I'm not sure if I'll be joining her yet. We'll keep you posted.
So much of me wants to go in the pool, yet I can't have anything touching my back to cover me from the sun. I'm currently laying with a wet bandana on my back (knew they'd come in handy... I also used them to tie cold cans of coke to my burning legs the other day). Perhaps I'll go when it's dark. It is only 23 degrees today as opposed to the 30 something it's been the last couple of days - if I don't make it out today, screw it, I'm definitely going tomorrow. Can't believe we cocked up so badly, and on day 1. Idiots.
Lots of love,
Lobster Cat & Lobster Loz xx
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Lobster Loz! Can't take the Brits anywhere! :-)
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