On Sunday morning we took a VERY early flight from Singapore to Bali. From the airport we fought to get a cheap taxi (as opposed to a more expensive airport taxi) and drove to Kuta. We didn't like Kuta at all - it's like a Balinese version of Salou, which says enough, I think. But we went there to book a bus to Padangbai. Luckily we were able to get a bus that same day. In the afternoon we arrived in Padangbai, found a nice hotel, and relaxed on the beach. The next morning, then, we finally took a boat to the Gili Islands.
There are 3 Gili Islands: Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. They are close to North West Lombok. Gili Air is closest to Lombok and is very quiet. Gili Meno is between the other 2 Gilis and is pretty much deserted besides a couple of fishermen and a few couples on their honeymoon. This scared me a little bit, so we decided to go to the island that is the farthest removed from Lombok: Gili Trawangan - the Party Island. I suppose that one could party here if one wanted to, but if you stay on the northern side of the island, you hardly notice this, even though the island is quite small. Most of the bars and extravagant hotels are found on the southern side. It took us a while to find accommodation, but just as it was starting to rain, we were able to get a sweet bungalow in a tropical garden at Warna Homestay, where the water that comes out of the shower is salty (?).
On Monday we took it slow and explored the island a little bit. It turns out that you can purchase magic mushroom shakes here and that there is no police on any of the islands! But with the Indonesian authorities still rewarding foreigners with the death penalty for drug use, we're staying far away. Not that we feel inclined to use some by any means - I have hardly drunk any alcohol at all during this trip, because I just don't feel like it.
On Tuesday we had something very special planned: a snorkelling trip at 4 different reefs around all 3 islands. It was just magical - the sun was shining, the skies were blue and the water was crystal clear. We were on a boat with a glass bottom and no matter how deep the water was, you could still see all the way down to the bottom of the sea - amazing. We visited Good Heart Reef, Turtles Reef, Garden Fish Reef and Bay Rock Reef. We also had lunch at a beach shack on Gili Air. While snorkelling we saw colorful coral, a shipwreck, turtles (!), lots of small sea life and every tropical fish you can imagine, mere inches from our face. This was just what I needed after 2 months of plowing through humid jungles and wet mud.
But, alas, despite the waterproof factor 50 that we lathered on, we still got severely burned. OUCH! It hurts to even sit, so we've been hiding from the sun for a little while, but we hope to get a few more hours of tropical paradise in before we leave for Lombok tomorrow - we come armed with 2 bottles of factor 50 and sarongs to block the sun.
We only have 2 days on Lombok, which we'll probably spent at the beach in Senggigi. On Sunday we leave for our boat excursion to Komodo to go dragon spotting!
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
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