Gili Trawangan

Day 1 – Reggae & Cockroaches

We had to get up early to get our mini-bus to the port, however not quite as early as we did due to the fact that I had set my alarm and hour too early, never mind it gave us longer to pack!!

We were then picked up by the mini-bus around 8.00 and then driven for around an hour to the port where we were due to catch our boat to Gili T.  There was around half an hour until the boat sailed and once we had signed in and both the luggage and ourselves had been affixed with an appropriate sticker to say which island we were going to, we had time for a quick bit of breakfast in a nearby café.

The boat sailed at 9.30 and was quite a decent sized vessel so we felt pretty safe in it, but it was pretty full of people going to one of the three islands that make up the Gili’’s.  Not only was it full of people but also quite a lot of stowaways in the form of cockroaches, which kept Shell entertained and alert for most of the journey.  But halfway across the engines died (We must be cursed, it’s about the 5^th time something has broken down on us during this trip!!), however after around ten minutes they got it going again and a total time of around two hour we were arriving at the island.

It was a bit chaotic getting off the boat as loads of people all trying to get off and there was no Jetty as the boat had just pulled up to the beach, so you had to shifty round the side of the boat then down some small steps at the front of the boat and into the sea, then wait on the beach whilst the luggage was off loaded.

 

The Gili’s  are three islands that are in between Bali & Lombock and are all around 1 – 2 miles around and circled with powder white sand and crystal blue water and had been a place that Shell and I had really been looking forward to.  Once on the island it feels a bit different and more laid back than other places we had been and this was most probably because there are no motor vehicles here only dirt roads and ponies and traps to get around in.  Although Gili T is considered to be the party island and has loads of bars and restaurants to choose from.

 

We had booked into a place called Three Little Birds Homestay (which took us some time to locate) and as suggested by the name it had a strong Reggae feel to the place and the staff running the place were all Rasta’s.  We also met the owner/manager who was a Dutch girl you gave us some information about the Island.

 

Once we had settled in we then headed out to check out the beach which was beautiful and a quick dip.  It was then time for a bit of a late lunch, so we went to one of the many beach bars for a bit of food and a beer. Unfortunately Shell had opted for the grilled chicken which when it turned up was smaller than a pigeon and had a long tail???  (Or was that its neck).  Anyway after not being too impressed with the lunch we returned back to the beach.

 

Later in the afternoon we returned back to our lodgings to relax for a while before going out in the evening.  Sitting round outside our room the Rasta guys who ran the guesthouse had got their guitars out and had settled down for a bit of a jam session for the evening, which was pretty cool.

We then headed out for the evening and after a short walk we found a cool reggae bar with a central bar area on the beach that had a live band playing, so we thought we would stop there and pull some stools up to the bar.  After a beer or two we treated ourselves to a cocktail followed by plenty more beers, which ended up with us going into the main bar/building to do a bit of dancing (possibly you could call it dancing) for a couple of minutes before deciding it was a bad idea and staggering back to our beds for the night.

 

Day 2 – Round the Island Walk – Not!

Waking up in the morning Shell was first outside on our porch and she was offered a cup of coffee and if she wanted a Marijuana side – which she declined!  Instead we just opted for the banana pancakes instead.

We then got talking to the Dutch owner who gave us some good information about getting our visa extensions in Lombok and told us it would not be as hard as we had feared.

As we had been doing a fair bit of snorkelling, today we thought that rather than hire some equipment (the standard had varied to date) that we would invest in some decent gear, so we headed off to the various scuba centres in the strip.  After trying a number of places we found some masks and snorkels that fitted the bill and parted with around £ 100 which is a large sum for us, but these were proper scuba masks and we felt that it was worth having our own decent well fitting equipment for the rest of our trip.

Once we had recovered from spending this much money we headed straight to the beach to trial them out and soon we were back with our friends, namely Parrot Fish, Angel fish and the like, and were very pleased with our new purchases.

 

Half an hour later we got out of the water and went for a short stroll down the beach and found a beach bar to have a drink but stayed there for a couple more as there was a Vodka promotion for local businesses that was setting up and we wanted to see what was going to happen.  A couple of hours past and there was still nothing happening with this promotion so we decided to go for a walk around the circumference of the Island.

 

We headed off back down the beach for a while but the heat was a bit too much for us and so when we saw another beach bar we decided to stop and have a refreshment and take in the view.

 

After a while we decided to knock the walk on the head and go and get something to eat instead, so we walked back through the main drag and found a slightly more upmarket restaurant on the beach front called Scallywags.  The food there was really nice, I had a Beef Rendang whilst Shell had a fish finger sandwich which actually turned out to be a large fillet of fish in a sandwich, we also managed to get a bottle of local cider each, which made a nice change.

When we had finished dinner we went back to accommodation to relax for a bit whilst listening to  the Rasta guys jamming once again.

In the evening we headed out and found a bar to have a few drinks in, whilst we were sat there we got talking to a Canadian  girl who had been travelling forever.  We found out that she had just started doing her PADI diving course, so we spent time imparting the little knowledge and tips we had from doing ours and encouraging her.  A few more beers later and we decided to call it an early night as we were on the move again the next day.