The ferry ride from Bali to the Gili Islands was beautiful. Along the way, I saw my first blow hole in a rock which was, surprisingly, very cool! I also saw a dolphin fully breach the water. Lastly, I saw a small shark jump about 4 feet out of the water chasing a fish who had also jumped all the way out of the water! Lots of activity here in the Indian Ocean!
The Gili Islands consist of three small islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. On all three, there are no cars or motorbikes, only bicycles and horse drawn carriages. Interestingly, there are no dogs on any of the islands…only cats with stubs for tails. Most of the activity occurs on Trawangan, the largest of the three islands. Meno and Air are more for honeymooners and couples, so I stayed as far away as possible from those two for obvious reasons. It takes only about 3 hours to walk around the whole island. The water here has certainly been photographed for every island article every printed because it is a perfect turquoise blue. Visibility is amazing…up to 30’ crystal clear in a lot of places. Basically, I’ve never been anywhere more calming or more beautiful. The biggest decisions I have to make each day are what sort of fresh juice to order and which beachfront restaurant to order it from! It’s really tough!
On my first day on Gili Trawangan, I rented a bicycle and cycled around the island once and then half way around again. I stopped along the way for a swim, nap, etc. I ate lunch in a bamboo hut that sits over the water with breathtaking views of Bali and Lombok islands. A funny thing happened, I was napping on the beach and an Indonesian guy, about 23, walked up and sat down right next to me. He asked me where I was from, my age, if I was single, etc. Then he told me he liked my body. I can now check “be approached by a male gigolo” off of my to-do list. I haven’t mentioned yet that he wasn’t wearing ANYTHING but a small t-shirt. Very interesting marketing strategy I must admit! I was prepared for it though…I had been forewarned that the men on the Gili’s try to make extra money by hooking up with the foreign girls.
On Saturday, I biked again around the island but this time rented snorkel gear. It was by far the most awesome snorkeling experience I’ve ever had! I followed two turtles for over 30 minutes each. I watched them move coral to find what they wanted to eat, scratch their stomachs and backs on coral, come up to the surface for air and just swim around in the water. They are such peaceful creatures! Floating in the water, watching the turtles and listening to the midday Muslim call to prayer from the island was one of those moments in life where you think that it just couldn’t possibly get any better. It did a few minutes later when one of the turtles came close enough to me that I could rub the algae off of its back! Amazing!
Sunday I did absolutely nothing. I got to the beach by 11 and read, slept and swam until the sun went down. I love days at the beach like that! They have an outdoor theatre on the island, where everyone lays on mats. I watched It’s Complicated and Dr. Parnassus last night…coolest movie theatre I’ve ever been to because I got to lay on the ground outside and because they served Nutella milkshakes…why haven’t I ever thought of making one of those at home?!
Today I took a glass bottom boat snorkeling around the other two islands. We saw five more turtles today, although the currents were too strong to stay and watch them for any length of time. There were a ton of beautiful parrot and angel fish. The coral isn’t nearly as impressive as the Great Barrier Reef, but the visibility was way better.
I leave paradise early tomorrow morning to start a 6 day cruise to the Komodo Islands. I am so excited to see a Komodo dragon! I will be even more excited if I see it kill something, preferably not me or another human. Along the way, we’ll be stopping at some pretty remote dive/snorkel spots, so I hope to see a lot more turtles and hopefully some reef sharks too! I’ll be sleeping on the deck each night…it was $100 cheaper and I figured it would be way cooler to do some star gazing as I’m falling asleep. If you don’t hear from me in about 7-8 days, you should assume that I got eaten by a dragon.
Hygiene Update: there is no fresh water on the Gili’s unless you pay for a really expensive room. Therefore, I have, since Thursday, been covered in a thin layer of salt. Add sunscreen and bug spray on top of that and you have an idea of how badly I want, and just might need, a real shower. But, as I’ll be boarding a ship for the next 6 days, I’ll definitely not be clean for a total of 11 days. You know you are in paradise when you completely give up on being clean….right?!? On a positive note, I don’t think I’ve ever had a better tan!
The Gili Islands consist of three small islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. On all three, there are no cars or motorbikes, only bicycles and horse drawn carriages. Interestingly, there are no dogs on any of the islands…only cats with stubs for tails. Most of the activity occurs on Trawangan, the largest of the three islands. Meno and Air are more for honeymooners and couples, so I stayed as far away as possible from those two for obvious reasons. It takes only about 3 hours to walk around the whole island. The water here has certainly been photographed for every island article every printed because it is a perfect turquoise blue. Visibility is amazing…up to 30’ crystal clear in a lot of places. Basically, I’ve never been anywhere more calming or more beautiful. The biggest decisions I have to make each day are what sort of fresh juice to order and which beachfront restaurant to order it from! It’s really tough!
On my first day on Gili Trawangan, I rented a bicycle and cycled around the island once and then half way around again. I stopped along the way for a swim, nap, etc. I ate lunch in a bamboo hut that sits over the water with breathtaking views of Bali and Lombok islands. A funny thing happened, I was napping on the beach and an Indonesian guy, about 23, walked up and sat down right next to me. He asked me where I was from, my age, if I was single, etc. Then he told me he liked my body. I can now check “be approached by a male gigolo” off of my to-do list. I haven’t mentioned yet that he wasn’t wearing ANYTHING but a small t-shirt. Very interesting marketing strategy I must admit! I was prepared for it though…I had been forewarned that the men on the Gili’s try to make extra money by hooking up with the foreign girls.
On Saturday, I biked again around the island but this time rented snorkel gear. It was by far the most awesome snorkeling experience I’ve ever had! I followed two turtles for over 30 minutes each. I watched them move coral to find what they wanted to eat, scratch their stomachs and backs on coral, come up to the surface for air and just swim around in the water. They are such peaceful creatures! Floating in the water, watching the turtles and listening to the midday Muslim call to prayer from the island was one of those moments in life where you think that it just couldn’t possibly get any better. It did a few minutes later when one of the turtles came close enough to me that I could rub the algae off of its back! Amazing!
Sunday I did absolutely nothing. I got to the beach by 11 and read, slept and swam until the sun went down. I love days at the beach like that! They have an outdoor theatre on the island, where everyone lays on mats. I watched It’s Complicated and Dr. Parnassus last night…coolest movie theatre I’ve ever been to because I got to lay on the ground outside and because they served Nutella milkshakes…why haven’t I ever thought of making one of those at home?!
Today I took a glass bottom boat snorkeling around the other two islands. We saw five more turtles today, although the currents were too strong to stay and watch them for any length of time. There were a ton of beautiful parrot and angel fish. The coral isn’t nearly as impressive as the Great Barrier Reef, but the visibility was way better.
I leave paradise early tomorrow morning to start a 6 day cruise to the Komodo Islands. I am so excited to see a Komodo dragon! I will be even more excited if I see it kill something, preferably not me or another human. Along the way, we’ll be stopping at some pretty remote dive/snorkel spots, so I hope to see a lot more turtles and hopefully some reef sharks too! I’ll be sleeping on the deck each night…it was $100 cheaper and I figured it would be way cooler to do some star gazing as I’m falling asleep. If you don’t hear from me in about 7-8 days, you should assume that I got eaten by a dragon.
Hygiene Update: there is no fresh water on the Gili’s unless you pay for a really expensive room. Therefore, I have, since Thursday, been covered in a thin layer of salt. Add sunscreen and bug spray on top of that and you have an idea of how badly I want, and just might need, a real shower. But, as I’ll be boarding a ship for the next 6 days, I’ll definitely not be clean for a total of 11 days. You know you are in paradise when you completely give up on being clean….right?!? On a positive note, I don’t think I’ve ever had a better tan!
You are RIGHT about the tan, girl! Looking good! Sounds like a great place to relax (except for naked locals, yech)... So did you feel the earthquake from Indonesia? I'm so glad there weren't any tsunamis. That could have been so scary since you're on a cruise. Can't wait to see pictures of the Kimodo lizards.
ReplyDeleteSo my mom and I shared a bottle of wine last Thursday night and we were scrolling through your picasa pictures... one came up (a vegetarian plate of food) that we though was HILARIOUS. And we left a very immature comment : )
Sounds amazing and sooooooo relaxing! Watch out for those dragons and gigolos :-)
ReplyDeleteIt is good to know that you like Gili Trawangan Lombok
ReplyDelete