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Published: March 6th 2009
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Gili clear water!
Here we are...paradise! The morning of February 28th, we headed over on a speed boat to Gili Trawagan. Gili Trawangan is the largest of Lombok's Gili Islands and is the only one to rise significantly above sea level. The ride over was beautiful and took about two hours. There are no motorized vehicles on the island, which was a nice break from Vietnam! The main means of transportation are bicycles and cidomo (a small horse/donkey drawn carriage).
When we arrived, we checked into our beach bungalow…quite romantic! 😉 ha. It was too cute and the best part was the outdoor bathroom…toilet, shower and sink. We stayed three nights here and had an amazing time. The island is very small, but has lots of character. There are fantastic restraunts (fresh seafood!), bars and even little movie huts on the beach. We had several nice meals/drinks out and rented the movie ‘The Reader’ one night in one of those movie huts, and ‘Superbad’ another evening. If you spend $2 on food/drink - the movie is FREE! However, it was sad - one night this very young boy (maybe 5?) came up to our movie hut and with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen and
Love shack, baby love shack...
If you see a faded sign by the side of the road that says
15 miles to the... Love Shack! Love Shack yeah says to me, “Hungry, hungry.” I gave him a little bowl of cole slaw and he took it, ducked under the hut and slurped it down so fast and gave me back the bowl and fork. And said it again, “Hungry, hungry.” I gave him a few french fries then. Diane was not having it - she said if I kept feeding him he would just never learn. Well, she had a thing for feeding all the stray cats and we were always surrounded by them…so we were even!
We also spent a lot of time floating in the crystal blue waters, laying on the beach and sipping cocktails. Diane did a lot of diving and saw all kinds of underwater creatures - sharks (NO THANKS for me!), turtles, cuddle fish, etc. One day I went out on the boat with her dive team and on our way back in, we spotted a Manta. They all dove back in with a mask and fins and chased after it like crazy people. It was pretty cool…watching from the boat! Seeing the Manta really made Diane’s day.
One day, when Diane was diving I rented a bicycle and rode/walked it
around the island. That was quite the adventure, as at first - I was TRICKED into thinking the road around the island was paved (which in hindsight was dumb on my part -why would it be paved when the main transportation is a donkey cart?!) This would have been ok if they had rented me a DIRT bike with actual tire tread and not one with really thin tires and NO tread. What I found out as I got on my way was that most of the island only has a SAND (not dirt but sand) road. Anyway, I got through it and ended up walking the bike part of the way as I had too many wipe-outs in the sand. I stopped a few times when I got hot and jumped in the water, which was nice. Also, seeing the otherside of the island was cool. I saw a horse stud farm and some really remote resorts and houses, lots of cute bungalows on the beach, etc. I only passed like 3 other people and one donkey cart the whole time.
All in all, we had a terrific time on the island and were sad to leave it
Local naked boy, chillin
no - I am not a pedifile, I couldn't resist! on the afternoon of March 3rd. We packed up our gear and headed back to the fast boat back to Bali. On the way to the boat, the funniest thing EVER happened…I am walking ahead of D with my bags and all of a sudden I hear a big THUD. I turn around and D is on the ground, covered in dirt, bags on top of her and a donkey about to run her over! I know…that’t not nice of me, but in a twisted way…it really was funny. She was fine, minus a few scratches…and we had a good laugh. (I would have laughed harder if the donkey stepped on her. Ok that’s mean.)
We checked into Hotel Santai in Sanur, Bali then headed straight across the street to the beach. It was much warmer in Bali and the first chance we took, we were in the ocean and then back to our pool with some lovely drinks. We walked around in the evening until we found a romantic (ugh!) Italian restaurant with our own private DJ. Good times, minus all this romance!
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auntie
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beautiful bali
Love your pics of bali....always pictured myself in one of those love shacks over the water. Great descriptions of your adventures...Are you auditioning for a job with Conde Nast Traveler??? Felt like I was there. Sorry you have to come home.