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Good morning uk and good afternoon from ko samui as I write this. It's a case of re-tracing steps again but I don't mind so much for this one as it's Bali and it almost writes itself.
We had already stayed 2 nights on Bali before taking a bus ride and 2 hour speed boat ride over to the Gili Islands and it was well worth it. Actually I would describe it in 4 words; brilliant, monsoon rain, brilliant.
I had high expectations of Bali as a whole but was slightly disappointed with kuta on the main island to be honest. I had been pre-warned by mr Chris Marais of this so it softened the blow when it was not that idyllic paradise that you envisage. We had already decided to use it as a jumping point to gili islands and a good decision it was.
Not the best start having to get a cramped mini-bus to the port to catch our speed boat known as 'ocean star'. Immediately you are greeted by people selling fruit, drinks, clothing, rubbish sun glasses etc.. But I have to mention this one old guy due to the strangeness. He looked about 80 but was probably 20 just the Bali sun had got the best of him, he had a little moustache and was wearing jeans and a bomber jacket in heat of 30+. He
popped his little hairy wrinkly face in to the boat window where we were sitting and offered us "old coins? Old coins?". Brilliant, they looked like rocks and he didnt strike me as a coin collector so you had to decline but I did think if he had actually said "old rubbish I found on the beach?" then I think I would have bought them just to see a little smile hiding from beneath the bushy tash. I'd love to say the boat journey was enjoyable but I can't recall that it was. It is difficult to enjoy the scenery when people have the window open meaning all waves generated from the speed boat are crashing into your face, so I decided to sit outside and watch the tiny Gili Islands fast approach.
The Gili Islands just off the northwest coast of Lombok has 3 small islands close together named Gili Trawangan (party island), Gili Air (a mix of party and quiet life) and the smallest Gili Meno (known as honeymoon island but don't get any ideas both sets of parents). We decided to stop for the first few days at Gili Trawangan before jumping across to Gili Meno.
Gili trawangan is furthest from the mainland and we read that there are no police on any if the islands but it's the role of the headman (kepala kampung on gili trawangan and kepala desa on the other 2 islands) to deal with any problems. There are no cars on the islands and transport if needed involves horse and cart which made for a nice change from the busy city streets. We choose not to pre-book accommodation (well I say we choose but it was more my lack of effort and organisation that lead us to that point) so it was a case of arriving on shore and panic. We tried to move as quickly as possible with our backpacks but eventually got collared by a hostel close by the pier. The place was fine and had the random thing of having a toilet outside in a garden attached onto our bedroom. You really get that at 'one with nature' feel when you are cleaning your teeth or going to the toilet ina garden when you hear voices all around you and insects underneath your feet.
We would stay in the hostel/hotel for one night but we would move further up the muddy path to a brilliant place 'the beach house'. The move was mainly down to the fact that ants and various other creatures were finding their way under the door so Tina advised it was time to move on. To be honest I was not disappointed to leave and the beauty with the gili islands is that everything is walking distance.
Checking into the beach house you just knew we picked well. You pass the welcoming swimming pool at the entrance, greeted by a friendly old Australian owner and to my pleasure they had a choice of DVDs that you borrow for free. The rooms, were actually tree house bungalows on stilts with your own balcony seating area all surrounded by a tropical jungle type scenery. With the beach only across the road we believed our choice was a good one and knew that we would enjoy yourselves.
After our afternoon walk around the island and afternoon swim in both the sea and swimming pool (I prefer the sea and Tina the swimming pool so doing both is a compromise), we decided it was time for a few drinks and a top night out. I love the Caribbean vibe or feel to the gili islands an just the laid back way that staff just seem to sit about playing games, generally having a laugh or seemingly stoned but in turn you just become laid back yourself. You would see many a bar advertising magic mushrooms often to 'send you to heaven' (although I don't think the church actually endorse this), various cocktails, happy hours, fresh seafood and most offering cushions to just sit by the sea to pass time. After a few drinks in various places we settled in 'Sama Sama'. Our timing was impeccable as a local reggae band were setting up. My expectations were low but to my surprise they were absolute quality. We entered the bar with only a few people there but by the time we left it was rammed and had passed midnight. We later found out that the stretch of bars takes turns to have late night parties and around midnight they all close to allow the bar to continue it's escapades and it's takings. Anyway, a brilliant night was had and I have to say the song of the night that even got my negative dancing feet going was their cover of 'You Can Call Me Al' by Paul Simon, genius! I also have to say hats off to their cover of 'down under' by men at work as i still love the line "i just smiled and bought him a vegemite sandwich".
On our way back from the bar we stopped off a bar close to our pad for a milkshake. I say milkshake but they are widely sold magic mushroom milkshakes which I thought had to be tried given there popularity here. I quickly slurped down my banana milkshake which looked more like a mudshake and then it was a waiting game to see if anything would actually happen. To be honest I could make
something up for comedy sake but the affects were not massive. I would say however it kicked in a bit when I was unfortunately on the toilet and I thought the jungle esque surroundings were bright colours whirling around
me. Tina also asked me how i was doing when I got into bed and I had described riding a rollercoster but the amusement ride was a large snake, odd I know but that was as far as it went.
The following day we had decided to visit the secluded Gili Meno to try and get the taste of a quiet tropical island. Given that you can see Gili Meno clearly from Gili Trawangan with only a distance of 1km of water separating the two, you would expect transport to be easy. Unfortunately this is island life and all common sense is out the window as only 1 boat on the island goes there and that was difficult enough to get. It is ridiculous given that I reckon I could swim it but we had no choice and duly made our way across islands.
The rain had already started in Bali and continued on the Gili Islands but this had been mainly in the morning or during the night. When I say rain it was not the drizzle of England but more like the opening of the elements experienced in Hue Vietnam and certainly something to experience. This continued on Gili Meno which was unfortunate given that we were supposed to be on a secluded tropical paradise. We found a bungalow just off the beach to lay our stuff and to be honest it was a case of just getting some shelter from the pounding non-stop rains that were now coming down. The place was probably good about 5 years ago but the pool and swings/playground looked like they had not been used for sometime and reminded me to domesday sequence from terminator 2.
The island could be walked around easily in a day which we duly did but got soaked in the process. The small population of tourists on the island had stationed themselves in the small
Bamboo huts or the local bar just to say out of the rain. We literally had no choice but to do this and spent the afternoon and evening reading our respective books and just watching the rains and floods come down. There is something quite therapeutic watching and listening to the rain pour down until you realise when you are walking around on the now flooded path it is literally full of s***. When i say full of crap I mean crap left by the horses joining with the the rainwater leaving quite a nasty stench on your flip-flops, so much so that I had to throw a pair away for this very reason.
I spent the evening chatting to one of the locals at a bar where I sampled the local rum. An interesting guy who grew up on Gili Meno and his family were all still living there. He was honest in his appraisal of tourism and basically had no time for it as he said his grandmother and later generation were actually scared of the 'White folk'. Luckily of course he had no fear of myself being of black carribbean origin (I do not think this really sunk in) but we turned our backs on Tina, the 'White tourist'! In all fairness by now fear had gripped Tina regarding going back to the hotel due to the amount of insects and creatures getting into the bedroom. When I eventually stumbled back to the bungalow with Tina in tow it was a case of using towels to block the gaps between the doors, sealing off all areas as red ants and other flying creatures had found their way in. Let's just say it was a sleepless night that one and not quite the tropical relaxed paradise we had hoped. The whole day it had poured down and we were greeted the following day with more of the same. We would make our way back across to Gili Trawangan but the seas had become more rough. So much so that we heard a dive boat had sunk the following day and had to rescued between the same path we were about to take. We made it across though with a few rocky moments but with the rain still lashing down and showing no sign off let up.
We checked back into the hostel called beach house and conveniently back into the same bungalow. There we met two English couples who we would spend our remaining time with. First was Alex ell (I write his full name for the purposes of having a cool surname) and his girlfriend Catherine and newlyweds on their honeymoon jo and hannah websper. I again write their surname as it is quality. We enjoyed and enjoyable chat by the pool and actually enjoyed a period when there was not any rain which would be short lived.
We decided to all meet for dinner that evening which was actually an odd experience given that Tina and I have pretty much dined as a couple for 3
months solid. It was nice experience to have the banter around the table and the food was also enjoyable. I enjoyed a seafood BBQ picking out shrimps/prawns the size of my hand and duly tucking into the salad buffet that accompanied it. Unfortunately the rain was not far around the corner and the heavens opened.
The last few days of Gili Islands were spent in the company of our new friends but often having to find shelter from the continuing rain. Luckily our bungalow was equipped with a DVD player and the reception provided various DVDs. We did journey our during in the afternoon just to see how crazy the weather had become and the cobbled street had become like a water-park flume slide. This was not helped by the fact my mother had text me that morning about a tsunami warning in Asia. We knew nothing of this even after the warning had passed but the weather did not seem that short of something from a disaster movie. We managed to get out in the last penultimate evening to the 'Dark Moon Party' on the beach at the tip of the island. Basically consisting of drinking, a massive fire and fireworks and tunes. Although the rain did halt this somewhat we still managed to enjoy ourselves. Hats off to the honeymoon couple Hannah and Jo for surviving until 7am, obviously Tina and I are just pretenders when it comes to the webspers partying antics.
I have to say there is a lot more to say in the Gili Islands but I am massively behind on my blogs so I will just ha be to post this. I again apologise for grammatical errors but I'm trying to write this with the sun shining in my face and I can barely see the screen.
I have also updated some pictures for singapore, ko Tao, ko samui, Bali and Gili islands although I still have many more to put on at some juncture.
Robbie C out.
- comments
Heather yet again i'm super jealous of all the amazing experiences you guys are having. although only you bro could go to bali in order to find the caribbean!