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Published: December 17th 2011
It's the 17th December and it couldn't feel any less like Christmas. We've been on Gili Air for the past few days but I'll tell you about that shortly. Before Air we had spent five days on Gili Trawangan. Gili T is the largest of the three islands situated 10km off the north coast of Lombok but is still only a few kilometres long. We moved after our first night to a new place that served a great breakfast and had a good bed with nice clean white sheets (a bit of a luxury out here it seems). The breakfast really was great and well worth crawling out of bed for. Delicious, ripe mango, pineapple, banana and water melon followed by a nice omelette and coffee. A great way to start our days there.
Most of our days were spent just relaxing on our terrace or down at the beach but we did do a surprising amount of walking on the island going from one place to the other. Our guesthouse was about 200m inland and away from the main strip of restaurants and cafes so everytime we needed to eat or drink we had a bit of a journey. It doesn't sound far but when the mercury is soaring to the mid 30s any kind of walking is tiring. The best walk is the 10 metres from the beach into the sea to cool down in the refreshing water.
On our third evening we walked to the end of the island to watch the sun set at one of the beach bars. There were quite a few clouds but it was still nice to sit down with a cold drink and watch the sun disappear behind Bali in the distance. I bought Anna a bracelet with a turquoise stone and pearls from one of the guys there who was selling jewelery. All this walking around in the sun gives you quite an appetite so we headed back to the restaurants for some food.
The seafood on the island is great but a little expensive so we were happy to discover some street stalls serving up delicious fish at much cheaper prices than most of the restaurants. One evening we had a nice big Red Snapper with rice and vegetables. Another evening we returned to the street stalls with our neighbours Simon (German) and Karen (English). We had another big fish, grilled to perfection and served with a nice salad and rice. you can find some really good food on the cheap if you look for it. The cheaper Warungs (restaurants) were set a few streets back from the main strip but their menus were usually about 1/3 cheaper than the others by the beach and the portions bigger!
The highlight of our time on Gili T would have to be the snorkelling. Simon and Karen had been and told us we must go snorkelling to see the turtles. So, we extended our stay on the island so that we could go and find them. We hired some snorkelling equipment and walked to the end of the island to where the turtles were meant to be, jumped in the water and had only been snorkelling for about 10 minutes before we saw our first turtle. It was just munching away on the coral and didn't mind us being there at all. I was able to dive down to the bottom to be on the same level as it and it just carried on as if we weren't there. We were in the water for almost two hours looking at the coral and the tropical fish, letting the current take us down the beach. We managed to spot another two turtles (one over a metre) before we got out and headed back to our terrace to dry off. They run a conservation project on the island where they take the turtle eggs from the nests and raise the young turtles until they are one year old and big enough to avoid predation. Then they release them back into the wild. They have them on display in big tanks close to where we were snorkelling. There funny little animals, they look just like little wind up toys.
We left Gili T on the 14th and took the short boat ride over to Gili Air. We quickly found a place to stay close to the beach. We just spent the day relaxing on our terrace before heading off in search of some books. Another lazy day passed and time to eat again. That night we ate some nice kebabs with fries and salad. I choose a big fresh tuna kebab and Anna had chicken. Again they were cooked to perfection!
The first night here was horrible. There was a huge thunder storm, thunder, lightening, heavy rain! Water started dripping onto my head from the leaking ceiling so a sleepless night ensued. The following morning the electric was off on the entire island. We ate our breakfast and decided to find a different place to stay. Our neighbour, Barbara from Germany, showed Anna a place along the beach which we decided to move to. However, on the way a guy showed us a picture of a place called Utopia, so we decided to have a look. The place is great, it's a two storey house with kitchen, bathroom , huge terrace out front. We have the place to ourselves all for 100,000Rp. Our hosts are a friendly and kind Indonesian family who live in their own house at the end of the plot of land. So we have been able to do our laundry here and cook ourselves some nice pasta and just relax on our terrace and read a bit. The only problem is in the evenings when we have to turn on the lights. This attracts a lot of insects. Our first night brought flying ants and last night we had dozens of beatles. Hopefully tonight the insects will stay away. It's starting to get dark now and soon we will be off to find our next meal. We are here for another full day and then we are taking the ferry back to Bali via Lombok. This time next week we will be in Thailand. Indonesia has had its ups and downs so we are looking forward to getting to Thailand and enjoying Christmas and New Year there.
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Dante Harker
non-member comment
Where is Utopia
Hi, Just read your blog, great stuff. I live on Gili Air and I was wondering where Utopia is, it sounds great and I'd like to go and have a look. I run Karang Divers at Villa Karang. Cheers, Dante