Scuba diving, beach bars & a tropical paradise
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2010
1
8
Trip End
Aug 26, 2010
Gili Islands, Indonesia
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
after Ubud, we took a very hot 4 hour ferry to Lombok, the island just east of Bali. we stayed in sengiggi for a few nights at a wonderful hotel (yes we splurged again, tho i wheeled & dealed for a better price). our first room was actually a little spidery (we think it may have been their emergency room) and i got bedbugs again! :( :( :( so the next morning i showed the front desk my new bites and they upgraded us to a much better room for the same price (where i still got bed bugs. ce la vie). we had a beautiful pool that we took full advantage of. and the best part was, when you stepped over the 2 foot wall behind the pool, you were on the beach! there were so few tourists in our area that it was as if we had our own private black sand beach. it was divine.
the frenchies met up with us in sengiggi, and we had fun catching up, swimming, strolling around the beach and playing pool at night. (i really need to improve my pool skills). the next day we jumped another ferry for the Gili islands...
we stayed in the Gili islands for 6 glorious days and loved every minute of it. Trawangan, the largest of the 3 Gili islands, is a beautiful island full of palm trees and surrounded by coral reefs and warm, crystal clear, turquoise water. it doesn't get much closer to paradise. it's a small island that you can walk around within a few hours, with dirt roads, excellent restaurants on the beach, snorkling, scuba diving, bars, live music & plenty of accomodations. there are no cars or motorbikes to dodge here and the only modes of transportation are by foot, bicycles, or horse-drawn carriages (yes, carriages!). the seafood is fresh, tasty & inexpensive, and we've been enjoying it every night. our biggest decision of the day is whether we want eggs or banana pancakes for breakfast. one day i got greedy and had both, which was a bad idea and it made my tummy hurt. Trawangan is full of happy, relaxed, sunbathing travellers and laid back, friendly locals. the only thing you can get slightly impatient with is the slow service at the restaurants. we waited almost an hour for our food one time, and then decided it didn't really matter b/c we had nowhere to go and our only plans that day were laying on the beach and eating seafood & gelato at night.
we rented bicycles one day and biked almost all the way around the island. we stopped at a patch of beach we found with barely any people and lazed the day away, swinging in the hammocks, wading in the water, looking for seashells and taking pix at sunset. we ordered a couple of freshly caught fish for dinner and finished the night listening to a live reggae band at night. all the other days are kinda jumbled together, but here's a general list of what we did. went snorkling and saw amazing coral and colorful fishies. we went scuba diving (my first time) which was uber cool! we saw lots of fish and sea turtles (one was 4 feet long) but no sharks :( still a great experience and i think next time i travel i may just get my PADI certification so i can dive anywhere. it wasn't as complicated as i thought it would be. mainly you just have to equalize every meter or so, and come back up a little if you're having trouble. one day after the frenchies left to go to Ubud, nips and i really lazed out and spent about 5 hours in a cafe in the biggest, most comfortable chairs you can imagine. what can you do for 5 hours in one chair you ask? well, drink bloody marys, listen to ipods, write in journals, and lets just say i know nips' & i know each other's complete romantic history (ask me anything!) also, we ended up having dinner there as well. fresh fish for me, calamari for nips. yum.
at night time we hit up the beach bars. met lotsa people from different countries (mainly from france - there are a lot of frenchies in indonesia), downed some shots, jammed to good ol' American pop music, and chatted with new friends with our toes in the sand. one night we watched a movie in an open air restaurant, which is quite popular to do here. basically there's a big open room with a movie screen and tons of oversized pillows on the ground. they show 2 movies a night for free, and you just come and order food or drink. what a great idea. on our last night we decided to hit up Rudy's bar, a loud, crowded spot with flourescent lighting that we had been passing up our whole time there. we gave it a shot and realized there was good reason that place was always crowded. not just the catchy music or cheap drinks, but the incredibly fun, light-hearted, happy-go-lucky bartenders! you will never see more entertaining bartenders i guarentee it. there were about 6 of them, all male, that looked like they absolutely loved their jobs. they were bouncing around, dancing, smiling, joking with customers, and best of all, wearing these awesomely dorky eyeglasses they fashioned out of straws. also, they all had mics sticking out of their hats, also made of straws. they saw how envious we were, so they made us our own set which we wore all night and are bringing back to cali with us.
it was hard to leave the Gilis (literally hard also because our ferry got stuck on the sand and about 20 guys had to push it off over the course of 2 hours), but hard emotionally too b/c everyone was just so darn happy there. not just the tourists. the locals there don't have a lot of money or posessions. most of them sleep outside, in the restaurants, on top of the bar, anywhere there's room. but they don't seem poor at all because you always see them laughing and smiling, making new friends, playing guitar and singing, or just sitting around watching people pass by. they seem like some of the happiest people i've encountered in a while.
we're back in Bali now, and have spent the last 5 days in Legian, just north of Kuta. we met up with the frenchies again and have now said our goodbyes :( they were a delight to travel with. i was pretty sick for about 4 days with intense fever, sore throat, muscle ache & fatigue (i think i may have had dengue fever from mosquitos) but now im almost all better and enjoying my last breakfast with the best travel buddy in the world. it's been a blast indonesia! i love you!!!
