Gorgeous Gili

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The Gili Islands are like something out of a movie. Tranquil and relaxing and so beautiful that each picture you take seems like it should be on a postcard. A place where rolling blackouts are still the norm and motorized transport is banned. A place where you can step off the beach and snorkel with giant sea turtles, or hike up to a WWll Era Japanese military bunker and watch a perfect sunset. A place that is hard to reach but even harder to leave.

We arrived on Gili Trawangan (The largest of the three Gili's) on a picture perfect day. Finding a hostel was somewhat difficult as all the tourists had come to Gili to avoid being in Bali during Nyepi, a Balinese religious holiday. We eventually found one a few hundred metres from the beach, left our stuff in the room, and headed straight to the coast.

The beach is a great place to relax and swim in bathtub warm waters. You can also go as little as 15 feet offshore and find amazing snorkelling. We all rented snorkel equipment for 30,000 rupiah ($3) for the day and saw some amazing creatures. The highlight for me was definitely the aforementioned sea turtle. We watched as it swam from near the surface to the ocean floor some 35 feet further down. Turtles are surprisingly fast swimmers, and what was also amazing was the guy we saw freedive to the bottom and chill with the turtle for almost a minute. This confirmed for me that freediving is definitely the most manly form of scuba diving. For those unfamiliar with freediving, I suggest you Wikipedia it and get acquainted with this most macho of underwater sports.

The next day we decided to attempt to circumnavigate the island, which sounds intense until I reveal to you that it is only a 7 Km hike. The walk was incredible as it took us to deserted beaches and fields of grazing horses on the less developed side of the island. The hike was also largely unshaded and left Duncan with quite a sunburn. Later in the day we hiked up to the summit of the island (Once again less manly than it may sound) which allowed us to take some great pictures of all three Gili Islands. We ended our day of hiking with a trek through the jungle to a Japanese bunker originally contrcuted during World War Two. The idea that this peaceful island could have military signifigance was surprising to all of us and made the bunker even more interesting.

The remainder of our days in Gili were spent in relaxing island mode. Our biggest concerns were finding chairs by the beach and deciding where to eat our meals. The nights were surprisingly pretty fun considering the size and remoteness of the island. As someone who is proud of his Irish heritage, I am sad to report that we were to hungover to really show St Patricks Day the respect it so richly deserves. Apparently in Gili, March 16th (Balinese New Year) is more of a party than March 17th (St Patricks Day). Despite our hangovers we tried to get pumped up for the Irish holiday by heading to the only Irish bar on the island. On a sidenote I can now confirm that the two universal components of the, "Human Experience" are Irish bars and Chinese restaurants. When we got to the bar and found a playlist dominated by Madonna with no Guinness in sight, we quickly realized the futility of our efforts. We did our best but were all in bed by midnight.

One other interesting part of our time on Gili was that Duncan found a 49 year old, gay, Swiss boyfriend. On the boat ride from Bali I sat with Curtis, and Duncan sat with George, which would be the beginning of a beautiful (platonic???) relationship. Gili is small enough that you run into the same people several times a day and it seemed like we ran into George at least this many times. He was very into scuba diving and he would always do long and awkward impression of the fish he had seen that day. We would nervously laugh at these impressions and secretly pray for him to stop. On the last night we had dinner with him and over the course of the night he attempted to hold each one of our hands. After dinner he told Duncan to embrace freedom and then he and Duncan screamed, "I'm Free" on the main street of Gili Trawangan. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the trip thus far for both Curtis and me.

After Gili we will be heading back to Bali to meet our friend Brendan for one night, and then heading towards Komodo. It appears that we will get to see the Komodo dragons on this trip.

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Photos

Freediving
Curtis is currently the best freediver of the three of us. This situation will be changing soon if my traning pays off.

Relaxing in Gili
This is a great way to eat lunch. You can order your meal and then lie down until the food comes. You are also sitting beside a beautiful beachfront. In a word, paradise.

Undeveloped Beach
A beautiful beach minus the hundreds of tourists.

Stud
This was a sign for a horseriding company. I thought that my pose under this sign could not be beat. I was unfortunately mistaken.

Duncan at the Stud sign.
I lose.

Gunshow in Gili
Who need tickets???

Deserted Beach
Literally nobody in sight.

The Three of Us
Our last dinner in Gili. Not pictured: George.

Arriving in Gili
You know you're on a small island when.

GEORGE
Him and Duncan must have been fighting. Normally they would be hand in hand.

Low Tide
The tide goes out and reveals hundreds of metres of dead coral. This is what happens when you fish with dynamite.

Cats at the Table
When you order fish you can be surrounded by cats. By the end of our last dinner there were almost 10 cats around our table.

Comments

[Dad]

Scott did you have names for any of the cats? (ie Sebastien)