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Published: June 26th 2010
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the medicine man
he is reading what looks like a first edition of Eat, Pray, Love which is signed by E. Gilbert. Greetings from Gili!
I know I keep saying that every stop we make is more beautiful than the last but this has to take the cake. The Gili Islands just to the East of Bali are a small group of three islands which are part of Lombak, Indonesia. When I say it is a slice of heaven that is an understatement. We were intending on staying for only a couple of days and that quickly turned into a 9 day stay, we have adapted quite well to the beach life style.
So our adventure began on a “fast boat” from the shores of Bali. Many of you know I am a duck in water, so I initially asked if I could sit on the top of the 30 person fast boat. The crew laughed and made the sign for big waves, so I took that as a NO and made the adult decision to sit below with Leigh for our 3 hour cruise. We chose the back of the boat so we could capture some photos, get some sun and take in this awesome open water ride….didn’t happen quite like that. “What had happened was” we ended up having
all of our belonging taken away by the crew so they wouldn’t end up over board, so no photos, we were soaking wet, so no sun as we were constantly wiping our eyes of salt water, poor Leigh and her contacts and the swells and waves had to be at least 10ft in some places….not everyone on this lovely ride made it without a little barf goodie bag. Leigh was on the verge but made her dad proud by keeping her eyes on the horizon and her breakfast down.
We finally made it the island of Trawangan aka the party island. We choose this island over Gili Memo which is where Elizabeth Gilbert went on sabbatical for 2 weeks (she didn’t talk to anyone the entire time, we thought but we are holiday but how in God’s name would we order a drink, not the island for us, next!). Gili Air on the other side is a cross between “T” and Meno and we thought we are big NYC gals we can hang with the young and hip on Trawangan. So that is how we came to the island of “T” and we are old and wise and it
Landing in Gili
this has been has been our backyard for a week...bliss. was the best decision.
Our first hotel was of course the most expensive and luxurious on the island (this was because we are flying by the seat of our bikins (yes I’m wearing one) and not making reservation before hands. So we sucked it up and stayed at Villa Ombak for 3 nights. I was stoked about living in a an adult size tree house but Ms. Bokser was not feeling my enthusiasm. We then went on to Scallywags AWESOME on both our accounts. Then to the Beach House…neither of us were really feeling this spot and the fact the that we had to move rooms each night was super annoying, again this because we are flying by our knickers.
So on the one day that we decided to be spontaneous and not be beach bums we chose to go snorkeling. This was my clever way of getting Leigh ready for her fun scuba dive. I quickly realized why she had never done this before. Minos were swimming by and she was grabbing my fins, I should have know pointing out a 6 lbs rainbow fish would nearly get me killed, she hung on for dear life, saying
The Moon
One of best photos Leigh has captured with her new toy. “yes, I see the fish, can we not get so close”. We snorkeled at all three islands, just missed seeing one of the resident turtles. But we did see, Grouper, a Puffer fish (again Leigh freaked OUT with that one, he was huge) a was even taken back on that one, Rainbow fish, Angel Fish and some very pretty coral which sadly in a few a year’s won’t be there anymore because of all of the boats traveling over it and breaking it off. We plan on doing a dive before we leave…more to come on how Leigh does when the fish are ALL up close and personal, I don’t think there are any Trigger Fish here.
Our dinners have been amazing getting Tuna filets for $5 fresh out of the ocean. Ah-Mazing.
We did meet a fellow American traveler from Texas of all places. We spent a few days hanging with our new friend Dave. We have tried and tried to stay awake for the soccer matches but have failed miserably. We will attempt to take a nap today so we can see the Americans in the sweet 16, it’s doubtful we’ll make it but we will
Hotel #1
Villa Ombak, the Tree house. try.
Leigh and I were both over the moon when we found out that (and this could be super top secret) that we were right in the middle of the taping of one of our favorite shows the Amazing Race! We saw the contestants and camera crews running with their backpacks down the main road of the island to Blue Marlin Diving . We guessed that this challenge had something to do with capturing their next clue under water. We tried to asked the crew what country they were filming for and they quickly shot us down saying they couldn’t divulged any information. We think Leigh may have made it on camera as one of the teams asked for directions right in front of her. It was the coolest thing, maybe now we’ll do what we have been taking about for a decade and apply to be on the show.
We jetted off to see the rest of the island which is approximately 3.5 Kilometers around. No cars, no motos just very sad looking small horses to pull the tourist around and bikes. Once we got to the top of the island we discovered were all the adults
who want peace and quiet go. Leigh quickly found us our 4th hotel which is right out of the pages of Conde Nast Traveler…I know I keep mentioning this but some of the places here are just plain SICK…and even though it is not in our budget how can you pass up luxury for $80 freakin dollars a night….. wait until to you see the pics.
So we will leave the Gili’s on Wednesday June 30 and head back to Bali for a couple more weeks of Zen bliss before we head off to Sydney. This has been a slice of heaven so far and I have to say I don’t miss my backpacking days at all and I long for the day went I don’t have to smell my clothes to see if they are clean and dry and sand free. I do however miss my other traveling buddies Jaime and Tim, I wish they were here, Jaime the island is alive with all kinds of vegetarian fair, Da-Lish!
P.S.
I forgot to enclose the photo of me and Ketut the medicine man from Eat, Pray, Love so I’ve put in this blog. Also, one of the
reading on beach....
our desperate race to finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. last things we did before leaving Ubud was to attend a local Balinese traditional dance. We did the Kecak “fire dance”. It was interesting and cultural and odd, but it was something we had to check off the list of things to do in Ubud, maybe not really worth the $7.50. Next time we’ll just stand on the sidewalk and watch for free. Leigh was motivated on our last night to attending the very famous Yoga Barn for an open room session, she said it was amazing and she was quite proud of herself for doing all of the poses. Me I stayed in the room and popped in Julian Michaels and did my own little sweating to the oldies.
Ok that’s it (I think). Oh and we did play 5 Michael Jackson songs on the beach today in memory! R.I.P. MJ!!!
Ciao from Paradise
Nic and Leigh
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Dude....
Did you not stalk the racers and try to find Phil? I would have been running that race with them, you KNOW how I feel about that show. So awesome.....glad you guys are enjoying!! Hi and love to Leigh!