Advertisement
Published: January 19th 2009
Gili Islands, snorkel snorkel
Underwater camera cheap cheap and snorkel snorkel!
We arrive at the airport, or at least we think we do… we got the airport train from the centre of KL and headed straight for the departure terminal, little did we know we were flying from a completely different airport?! So off we go to get a bus link to the other airport, on approaching the airport we are a little sad as it’s tiny in comparison to the one we just came from, meaning the departure lounge will be tiny too, so no cinema or bars for us!? On getting to the mini airport that is just for Air Asia we find Clare in McDonald’s, pretty much all westerners were congregated here! A few hours in the airport and off to Bali for diving, tanning and lazy beach days, yippee!!
The first thing we find in Indonesia is that the locals just aren’t very nice, by far the rudest people I have come across, I think they see the money and nothing else and it’s fair to say they are not fans of westerners in the slightest! A major case of small man syndrome I think! Ah well, lets not let small man syndrome get in the way
Sundown on gili
Sunsets at sunset point of a gorgeous country and some kick ass weather.
We manage, after a bit of hassle to get a cab to a hotel for the night before we head to Lombok and hopefully the Gili Islands. I finally come to a price before we get into the taxi and on paying the guy he tries the old game of “that’s not what we agreed” and then the “oh I haven’t got any change on me” to which I can blatantly see he is loaded with cash in his wallet, I pay the chump in coins and tell him to sling it, it’s been awhile since I have slept and was in no mood for local retards at this point! Ha!
The hotel we find is pretty nice and the three of us get a room to keep the old costs down. Early rise and the journey to the Gili’s begins, in true Indonesian style what we had agreed with the hotel that they would take us to the bus depot they tell us they can’t do that unless we pay me, after a lot of talk and some more Indonesian rudeness we manage to get a guy to
Resturant on the water
Beautiful gili island resturants right on the water drop us off at another travel agents and book through this guy, who all credit to him was really helpful and was a decent guy who sorted out our transport to the Gili’s. In total this will take 2 days to get there, so one night was spent at Senggigi a small beach town on Lombok Island. The area was pretty nice and we managed to find a place pretty cheap for the night.
Pick up and the bus to the long tail boat port to get to Gili Trawangan, with some more general rudeness from Indonesians we finally arrive at Gili Trawangan and it is absolutely stunningly beautiful. Even in comparison to other islands I have seen through South East Asia, I have never seen water so crystal clear before and can’t wait to get my snorkel out and dive in.
Time to kick back and relax in the Gili’s, mini horses pulling cart’s roam the island with the tiniest horses I have ever seen, just as a random side observation!
We manage to find a place to stay for as cheap as possible, the island seems a little bit more pricey than you’d think but still
Indonisian forest
The inland is much like Malaysia we found a place and it included breakfast so at least we can eat!
Me & Helen decide it’s time to hit the beach and check out the sea, about two metres outside of our hotel hut we are on the white sandy beach with the Pacific Ocean rippling in front of us, no testing the water for me and a run, skip and a canon style bomb I’m in the water. Fresh! The waters are amazing and with the snorkel on I’m a few metres below the surface and surrounded by more fish than I saw when I was 20 metres down doing my scuba diving, awesome! We spend most of the day in and out of the water as it’s so beautiful and with the white sandy beaches as stunning views it’s a dam good day of chilling out in style.
The next few days consist of fine dining at some pretty nice resturants, beach days and a little exploration of the island. One of the days me and Helen decided to explore the whole of Gili Trawangan, been a small island we thought why not and it was a wise decision as it just gets
Underwater fun
The water in the sea was so clear we didn't even need the flash! more beautiful the more you get off the beaten track. Small unique huts and hotel villa’s with horse riding schools and exclusive spa resorts are dotted along the beaches. These more out of the way resorts are a little out of our price range so we just grab some water and a can of sprite whilst we get some shade from the mid day rays and play some cards whilst looking out into nothing but ocean. Sweet!
On getting back I decide that I will book diving tomorrow with Clare which from what I can see should be pretty dam awesome as the water and sea life is unreal. We meet up with Clare for dinner at the Irish bar/restaurant, yup they got here as well!
The day of the dive, we dove with a bunch of Swede’s, has anyone else noticed the Swede’s love diving, anyhow, we went out with these guys and got ready for some scuba action with the promise of turtles a plenty and of other exotic underwater mystery creatures! On the dive me and Clare both bought underwater camera’s which totalled to 12 pounds each, bargain! We dive deep and find turtles are
Remote beaches...
..with no one to be seen everywhere, we see at least four and I almost touch one, inches away but they are a little quicker than I was underwater! Got some class pictures with my new underwater bargain camera, 12 pounds! Whoop! We did two 30 minute plus dives and it’s fair to say I would do it again, the guys on the other boat got to see a giant manta ray as well so defiantly will come back and dive again.
Drinks in Indonesia again are a bit more pricey been a Muslim country so we opt not to blow all of our reaming money on beer as we have been told there are no cash machines on the island… doh, what happens when we run out of money, which we will?! Well, luckily for us it appears what the locals tell us is a lie, not a shock really but we should know not to trust them by now and there is a cash machine on the island so we are safe for a few more days and hit some of the bars for drinks and chilling out. We find on the far side of the island near sunset point a gorgeous hotel
beach feet!
Lazy days chillaxing, love it! with a really nice pool for its residents, as any self respecting traveller would we hop in and pretend we are staying there!
On leaving the Gili’s it’s back to the not so friendly Indonesians and there rip of ways, several hours later and we are on a ferry back to Bali and fingers crossed we get dropped at the airport… nope straight past the airport so we need to then argue again to get them to take us back, eventually they do, good job we aren’t in a rush!
Indonesia is a beautiful country but I think it is a shame about the people who seem to have a real love hate relationship with there tourist trade, they obviously love having the income it provides but aren’t to keen to provide much of a service or welcome that I kind of would have expected from a country as naturally beautiful as Indonesia. I had a great time but was ready for a bit of western civility and manners! So the highlight been the turtles and the clearest waters I’ve ever dived, loved every minute of the diving and got some great pictures of the coral and did
Dvd huts on the beach
The only way to watch a movie! I mention I almost touched a turtle!
So that’s it, that’s the end of my South East Asian trip for now and on to the Western adventure for work, exploration of the East Coast of Australia and then onwards to the youngest country in the world, New Zealand before heading for some castaway action on some more islands discovered by Captain Hook, I mean Cook! States bound before home and the family holiday in Turkey, can’t wait!
Round 2 >>>
Good bye for now South East Asia, I’m sure I’ll be back >>>
Advertisement
Tot: 0.257s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0603s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
