"Bedding Down Miniature Style - Day 2 of the Family Road Trip From H___!"

After such a long day of travel (we had, after all, been up at the crack of dawn to start packing for our ten day trip, then had to endure the whole ferry ordeal), the husband and I weren't much in the mood for pushing things further than necessary.  So after only a couple of hours of driving, we found a place listed in our guidebook, and pulled in to secure a room for the night.  


It wasn't like we had a lot of choice, for unbeknownst to me, once off the ferry, instead of heading for the Sengiggi, the main tourist destination in Lombok, the husband had taken the other direction towards the sparsely populated area of the Southwest.  At this stage I was obliviously unaware of his intention to try and circumnavigate the entire island.

Having only passed one other place to stay - which involved sailing out to a nearby island and sleeping there - we fervently hoped there was vacancy.  

And there was!  Hallellujah!  And it looked a rather pleasant place too.  Right on the beach, manicured lawns, courteous staff....it could easily have been a resort by the Lakes in Ontario, Canada.  It felt distinctly 'cottage-like' and seemed a touch out of place in Indonesia.  But in a good way.

We were shown to the only room available.  A tiny white clapboard structure housing a bathroom and two children's sized single beds.  

Exhaustion overtaking common sense we took it.  What else could we do?  And besides, two tiny beds beat kipping in a stinky van.

A lovely pre-dinner swim in the warm placid waters followed, before showers for everyone and dinner in the dining room.  On the positive side, the kitchen was open plan so we could see what was going on and how our food was being prepared.  On the negative side, the kitchen was open plan so we could see what was going on and...

Some merely passable food stuffs were consumed with relish (hey we were really hungry) before I volunteered to escort Dumps back early in order to save the other diners from hurling their forks at our youngest child as he began wailing and whining.

Bad move. For the next forty five minutes I had the task of trying to get the wriggly giggly and uber-naughty Dumps in his jammies, teeth brushed, and settled in for the night.  The husband on the other hand, apparently enjoyed some quiet reading time while Egg quietly did a puzzle at the now peaceful table, and the two enjoyed a most delicious banana split I am told.

But the score was evened that night as I ended up bed partner with Egg and the husband slept with Dumps a foot away on the matching miniature mattress.  There really could not have been any other configuration given the sheer diminutive dimensions involved.

Egg somehow had the sense in the middle of the night to turn upside down, so aside from the rather unpleasant sense of having someone else toes crammed near my open mouth during slumber, we managed to have a decent enough sleep.  The husband on the other hand did not.  Perhaps it was the paranoia that he might get wee'ed on that kept him periodically and randomly shaking Dumpie awake throughout the night for mandatory toilet attempts.   Or maybe it was down to the horrid sloping mattress I had neglected to tell him about, which tilted towards the floor, threatening a spill for whoever was unfortunate enough to sleep on the edge (the husband slept on the edge).  It's hard to say.

The next morning after a quick breakfast we strapped the monsters back into our Pringle-n'-Oreo-laden vehicle, grabbed the map and took off in search of Paradise.  That's why we came here after all.  Lombok is supposed to be like Bali was fifty years ago.

(But I like Bali NOW, I couldn't help thinking.  Why would I want to go back in time to more primitive surroundings when I know for a fact Bali stays just as beautiful fifty years after tourism errupts?)

This question would plague me (as would others) later that day as disaster befell us.