Gili Trawangan, Lombok: Island hopping.

Delighted to escape our grotty, bug-ridden room in Senggigi, we made the extremely choppy longboat hop over to the remote Gili Islands. Of the three islands, we settled on Gili Trawangan as our base and spent about double what we usually spend on a really plush room set back from the beach. Part of the reason for this was that the islands were suffering daily power shortages, so we picked a place with its own generator. However, we were soon cursing our luck when the generator broke. The embarrassed manager promptly gave us 50 percent off until power was back to normal. As it turned out, we ended up getting three nights half price.

Trawangan has a reputation as the party island, but as it was low season that just meant that there were a decent sprinkling of people having drinks in most bars, whereas Gili Meno and Gili Air are largely deserted this time of year. The lack of motorised transport (and dogs) on all three islands makes for a peaceful experience. Some of the horses and ponies pulling tourists and locals around in carts looked a little overworked though. Not much meat on most of them.

We met up with a few English lads, a Swiss guy and a giant beanpole Dutch guy who delighted in telling people that his nationality was 'Hollish'. The majority of them had come for the surf, which they found to be decent but dicey as the waves would tend to send them crashing into dead corals as they fell off.

Turtles are becoming plentiful around the Gilis thanks to a conservation programme where baby turtles are reared on the beach until old enough to fend for themselves. Only two percent survive in the wild otherwise. We saw three large turtles on a snorkelling trip, which was made extra memorable by a small jellyfish that has left a v-shaped (thankfully not painful) rash on my arm.

We also spent a day exploring Meno and Air, staying the night in a rickety thatched cottage on Gili Air complete with hammock (damp), large double bed (damp) and mouse/rat/some kind of rummaging vermin (noisily fond of our still-wrapped Oreo biscuits at 3am). The islands are perfect for those seeking isolation - the only thing likely to disturb the peace being falling coconuts (and even coconut tree branches, which seem as prone as the fruit to falling to the ground with a loud thud).

We've now flown to Yogyakarta in Java, where the second leg of our flight was delayed by an enormous storm that blew over the big trolleys used to shuttle luggage across to the planes. First impressions are really good. Tourism is less widespread here - we're noticeably getting looks as we walk down the street. It's interesting to be seen as a curiosity. There's still plenty of English spoken though. Indonesians are up there with the Dutch when it comes to an aptitude for languages. We're off to see the Borobudur temple in a couple of hours.