We were in Gili Trawangan, one of the famous three Gili islands near Lombok. This was one of the more developed islands, with many restaurants to choose from and hotels. We found a charming place on the beach, with bamboo bungalows, and stayed in the most simple one, with an attached semi-outdoor bathroom. It was a quite unique experience, and we really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay there for one night, and moved to a home stay in a village 5 minutes away. The place was brand new and cozy. The first day we tried snorkeling, and found a turtle area right outside of our hotel. I have never been able to snorkel without taking a boat, so it was very refreshing to just step outside and start snorkeling. I was a bit afraid at first to go deep, and dealing with corals and strong current. But the following day, I rented a life jacket and was able to go quite far and actually saw 5 turtles, and lots of colorful fish. We also rented bikes and biked around the island, which was very nice. There are no cars or scooters allowed on the island, so the traffic consisted of bikes and horse carriages. For the most developed island, it's still quite calm and peaceful. On our last day we took a boat to Gili Air, the second biggest island. We found it to be very relaxed and snorkeled again for a few hours. After we returned back, we climbed up a hill to watch the sunset, but were a bit late, still got a nice view from there. Afterwards we watched a fire performance on a beach, and had an amazing dinner at a five star restaurant - Kikomo. The seafood is everywhere here, fresh fish, lobsters and prawns. We tried red snapper, tuna, king prawns, and beluga - all excellent. Gili
Islands are definitely must-see.