Diving and drinking piscolas in Gili

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From Ubud, I had planned to go to Lombok (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombok), an island just to the east of Bali and so I booked a shuttle bus and boat to get there, for 250.000 IDR (I booked it with Ketut, the woman who ran the hostel I was staying in). It took about 1 hour to get to the small harbour in Sanur, get the ticket and then 1 hour ride on the fast boat (a ferry takes about 5 hours, but it's cheaper). The boat stopped in all 3 Gili Islands (Trawangan, Meno and Air) and then stopped in Lombok (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gili_Islands).



In Lombok, I was the only person disembarking and then had to negotiate a taxi to get to Senggigi, a popular beach in Lombok and where I thought I had the best chance to book other tours and get information. I finally negotiated the ride for 100.000 IDR and it must've taken about 20 minutes to get to Senggigi. There are beautiful beaches along the way, but nowhere to stay (in those beaches).



The driver took me to a local dive shop in Senggigi, but I wasn't convinced about diving with them. They also offered accommodation, but I decided to look around for other options.



I ended up in a dive shop (DSM Dive) co-owned by William, a French guy (http://www.dsmlombok.com/). He offered a discount for being an instructor and he also told me he had a Chilean instructor working for him in Gili Trawangan (Eduardo). He also recommended a place to stay which was about half the price of the other places I had stayed in (Sonya Homestay, 80000 IDR). I decided to dive with the guys at DSM the next day and stay a few days in Gili Trawangan (Gili T.).



That afternoon I walked along the road that makes up Senggigi (nothing special really) and in the evening I went to see the sunset at Sengiggi beach, which was stunning. The beach itself, although it could have the potential for being a great beach, is very poluted, which is a shame. Senggigi in general is a very quiet place and there isn't much to do after dark, so I just had dinner and went to sleep.



In the morning I had breakfast at the hostel and then went to the dive shop with all of my stuff. From there, William drove me a a few other customers to the boat that was going to take us to the dive shop in Gili T. and from where we were going to do the dives. A short boat ride and we were in the dive shop in Gili T.



Gili T. is a very touristy island and it has from budget hostels to high end luxury resorts, all scattered along the beach. There’s also a lot of accommodation once one gets into the inner streets. There’s no lack of bars and restaurants and also cheap places with local food (as cheap as 1 USD meals). Beer is served everywhere (Bintang, the local brand, which is quite good). People mainly come here for the diving and snorkeling; there aren’t many other things to do on the island. Either that, or spend the day at the beach and party at night; Gili T. has a reputation for being a party place.

There are no motor vehicles at all on the island and the means of transportation are bicycles and carts pulled by horses.

There’s also no police in Gili T., so if someone commits an offense such as getting into fights, illegal spearfishing, stealing, consuming drugs, etc., there’s a group of locals that act as guards and kick the people out of the island. I was told that a few days before writing this, a young kid was banned from the island for spearfishing illegally. He was walked to the harbor surrounded by about 6 locals and he had a cardboard stating the offense he had commited hanging from his neck.



When I got to the DSM dive shop, I met Eduardo, a Chilean who had been living in the island for over a year. That day, there was a group of 4 other Chileans (by coincidence I had one friend in common with them) who were diving with DSM as well (Stefano, Coni, Gino and Paulina). There was another Chilean girl, Marcela who was there that day.

For the first dive of the day We went diving to a spot called "Manta Point". The divemaster was Andy, an Indonesian and in the group there were Stefano, Coni and another Indonesian.

Between the first and the second dive, I got some food in a local restaurant and had plenty of ime to chill out.

I did the afternoon dive again with Andy, the other Indonesian and Laura, a French instructor who was on holidays. The dive site was Meno slope. Between the two dives we saw a lot of turtles, a white tip reef shark, eels, plenty of scorpion fish and a black ghost pipefish, which I had never seen before.



After I got back from the second dive, Eduardo offered to take me to a few places he knew where I could get cheap accommodation (hopefully around 100.000 IDR). We tried everywhere, but most places in the island were booked out. It turned out that the Balinese celebrate their new year during March 12th (Nyepi) and it’s not allowed for anyone to be out in the streets in Bali during that day, or people risk going to jail. So a lot of people just go out of Bali for a few days to the Gili Islands or Lombok.



After maybe 3 hours of searching, I ended up in a place where they charged me 150.000 IDR. For what I got, I knew I was paying more than what I should have (most places don’t have fixed prices, so everything has to be bargained), but given the circumstances I didn’t have much choice anyway.

Eduardo had told me to ask in two other dive shops about doing dives the next day, because they usually went to different places than DSM Dive (Big Bubble Dive and Buddha Dive). I opted to go with Big Bubble after speaking with a Spanish instructor, Victor.



I went back to the DSM dive shop to do a night dive that day. The instructor I went with was Lili, a French girl. Stefano had also signed up for the dive. For this dive, we put our dive gears in one of the carts pulled by a horse and walked from the dive shop along the coast. We did a shore dive and just drifted back to the dive shop in about 40 minutes.

This is a dive a really enjoyed. I hadn’t done a night dive in about a year and the best thing about it is that it’s just different from a normal dive. There was a lot of bioluminescence in the water, which is the main attraction. We did see a lot of shrimps, crabs, small lionfish, nudibranchs, etc.



After the dive, I went back to my room for a shower and then decided to check out the “Night Market”, which I was told, was a good place to eat - and it certainly was: good and cheap food. You go to a stand and tell the person in charge what you want to eat; from beef and chicken skewers to shrimp and calamari to whole fish like snappers, barracudas, sweetlips, etc. It takes about 10 – 20 minutes for them to barbecue it and then you choose the sides. Once you get your tray of food and of course, a large Bintang, you find a spot to sit in the market. I had dinner the 3 nights I was there and absolutely loved it.



After eating I went to the place where the 4 Chileans I had met that day were staying at and we had some “piscolas”, a very typical Chilean drink that’s pisco (a sort of brandy made from grapes) and Coke. I hadn’t had this in almost a year and certainly wasn’t expecting to have this drink in Indonesia.



We then went to “Sama Sama”, a reggae bar where we met up with Marcela and her friend Karoliina, a Swedish girl. After Sama Sama we went to the Blue Marlin Bar and stayed up in the beach until 4am.

Gili T. has 3 “party nights”; Monday (Blue Marlin), Wednesday (Irish Bar) and Friday (Sama Sama).



The next morning I was in the Big Bubble dive shop at 09:30, ready to go diving. The Divemaster was Steve, an English guy that worked mainly as photographer on the island. In the group there were two Danish women, very friendly and good conversationalists.

The morning dive that we did was in a site called Mirko. The marine life in Indonesia is very similar to the things I was seeing in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I liked all the dives I did and all the divers I went with were experienced, but can’t say the dive sites were spectacular.

The visibility wasn’t really good, maybe 15 meters or so. Don’t get me wrong, diving in the Gilis is good, but there was nothing mind-blowing about them. Or maybe it was just that time of year.



After getting back from the dive, I went to get something to eat in a local shop (the same people I always bought food from in the Night Market) and went back to Big Bubble Dive. There, I killed time talking with the Danish Women.



We did the afternoon dive with the same group, plus a Swedish and an Italian; both experienced divers as well. The site was called Han’s. In this one, there was a big pinnacle at the beginning of the dive which had a lot of life and was the best part of the dive. Combining both the morning and afternoon dive we saw rays, turtles, scorpion fish, a few nudibranchs, eels, etc.



In the evening, I met up with the Chileans and we all went to the market. Stefano and I bought and shared a barracuda, which was phenomenal. After getting our fair share of food, we went back to their place and had some drinks before everyone called it a night at about midnight.



The third day I decided to not do much. I didn’t know what to do the next days and had the possibility of going a few days to Gili Air or do a boat trip to Komodo. Gili Air, which I didn’t end up going, is a much more relaxed island, with not so many tourists and not so many bars and nightlife.

I used that day to get online, update the blog and check e-mails. I also made up my mind and booked a 4 day trip to Komodo Island on a boat, for only about 160 USD. I didn't really know what to expect or what I was getting into.



At around 6pm I went to walk around the island and catch the sunset and take a few photos. Pretty much the whole island coast is covered with bars and hotels. The only problem is that there’s a lot of garbage on the side of the paths.

On the way back, past Big Bubble, I ran into Victor and Steve and other people at the bar having drinks and joined them for a few hours.

Afterwards I went back to the market, got some take away food and then I was off to meet up with the Chileans for a few drinks; the usual 4 and Eduardo this time.

At about 11pm, Eduardo and I headed out to the Irish bar. There we met with friends of his and I ran into Marcela and Karoliina again; it was a great night.



I had a few hours of sleep before getting up, packing the backpack and going to the harbor to get on on the boat to start the trip to Komodo at 8am.

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