Exploring the rest of the Gili Islands

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It was time to say good bye to Jennifer as she was catching the Gili Cat fast boat back to Bali a day early because her flight leaves at 2 pm on the 13th. Jerri had lined up Montana (the waiter from the Beach Cafe) for us to charter a private boat for the two of us today to go explore the other two islands.

It was a traditional Balinese boat that had the outriggers on it. There was a nylon hammock between the boat and the outriggers on both sides so Jerri and I each got to ride on the hammock and sail out to Gili Meno on the hammock watching the blue water glide by beneath us. It was good to be us!

We did a little snorkeling off of Gili Meno but it was basically the same spot we had been the day before when they went diving and I went snorkeling so we requested to go to where the clam beds were. We motored over off of Gili Air (the smallest of the Gili Islands) and jumped into the water. The water was actually cool enough to give us goose bumps at first...it was refreshing. Our driver, DearMan (where do they come up with these names?) snorkeled with us to make sure that we got to see where the giant clams were. Now these were very large clams and with beautiful coloring. He dove down close enough to it so that it would close up for us. We also snorkeled through a group that was out there and they were hand feeding the fish. I was in amongst a huge school of angel fish. Simply wonderful! Once again just looking at all of the different kinds and types of coral was amazing and was watching the fish interact with it and one another. About that time Jerri spotted a lobster walking around on the bottom so that was pretty exciting. Too bad she ate his cousin the night before!

After climbing back on board we headed to shore where Luceo (the owner of our hotel the Luce D'Alma) had called ahead to a friend that has an italian restaurant on the beach in Gili Air called Biba Beach (they also have villas there as well...email: [e-mail]) We sat in a thatched roof little platform next to the beach and escaped the heat while eating great Italian food. Really fun atmosphere except for the flies. I don't remember having a problem with the flies in Gili T or Bali for that matter but we certainly did there.

Once we got back on board the boat we felt to full to possibly snorkel again so we set off to circle Gili Meno. It started to rain lightly which was fine but once the raindrops got the size of marbles it was time to take cover. It was definitely worth it to spend $60 between the two of us and get to explore on our own.

It was still raining a warm rain when we got back to Gili T so we headed for a place to grab a drink. We finally settled on a little hut that had an upstairs to it. There was already a table of 4 upstairs and so we started chatting with them. 2 of the girls were from Vancouver and the other couple was from Tennesee. The couple from Tennessee had been traveling for 3 weeks but were on a 3 month jaunt around Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. They had run into the other 2 girls in Kuta, Bali and were now hanging out together. The girls were budgeting $30 USD between the two of them for accommodations and food a day! Its actually not that hard to do that if you're staying in modest accommodations because food and drinks are really cheap. Of course they asked where we were staying and when we told them we had fresh water showers and good a/c to sleep in they were slightly jealous but c'mon, they're young and they might as well experience this kind of travel at their age.

So once again it was time to pedal back to the ranch and clean up before going out for the night. The moon isn't coming up until after 8:30 so it makes for a dark, kind of scary ride back into town for dinner. We went to the Horizontal Lounge for dinner and drinks. Service was TERRIBLE. We threatened to leave but finally got our pizza and quesadillas after about an hour. We did meet a really nice couple from Hong Kong that are originally from Colorado. They had some great stories to tell. They were on the island for 10 days celebrating their 28th anniversary....now that's a long time to be married! But good for them.

Hop back on the bikes for the return trip in the dark to our hotel. It was wonderful to walk into our air conditioned rooms and take a cool shower before turning in for the night. Now if they could just get the roosters to NOT crow so early in the morning it'd be great. On the other hand it could be worse, they could be peacocks!

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