Blogs from Gilli Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia, Asia

Today Issy, Taylah and I have booked a full day snorkelling tour of the Gili Islands, which are off the north-west coast of Lombok, about twenty kilometres north of our resort. We learn that Gili is the Indonesian word for island, so I guess that makes today’s destination the Island Islands. Our guide for the day introduces himself as Rudy, and our transport is a traditional outrigger canoe. Surfs up again, so we have to scramble up onto the canoe from the beach between waves, while Rudy tries very hard to stop it from either running aground or getting sucked out to sea. We get our first view of Mount Rinjani, which is Lombok’s highest peak. This is a serious mountain at 3,676 metres above sea level, which makes it the second highest of Indonesia’s 129 ... read more

It was Stan’s birthday yesterday, February 8th. He is seventy one years young. He has just completed a month long 150 hour intensive yoga course, and is about to do another scuba refresher course to prepare for the somewhat challenging dive excursions we are undertaking next week in Komodo Marine Park in Flores, Indonesia. He is seventy one years young. I am very proud of him. I am fortunate to have been able to share his birthdays with him since he was twenty six years old, and excited to continue our lifelong adventures together. His birthday tributes began on February 7th, one day early. We were still in Kuta, Bali, enjoying a sunset dinner overlooking the beach with his sister Annie, who had just completed a forty hour global trek across the planet, to celebrate the ... read more

Für die Erholung nach dem Wandern hätten wir uns kein schöneres Fleckchen Erde aussuchen können. Die drei Gilis (Inseln) nur 15 Fährminuten vor der Nordwestküste Lomboks sind der neue Hotspot Indonesiens und bieten für jeden das Passende. Gili Meno ist die Honeymoon-Insel, Gili Terawangan die Action- und Partyinsel und Gili Air ist irgendwas dazwischen. Wir haben uns für Terawangan (das erste e ist stumm) entschieden, einfach weil es am meisten Möglichkeiten bietet, etwas zu unternehmen und man der "Party" wohl auch ganz gut aus dem Weg gehen kann, indem man nicht an der Promenade eine Unterkunft bucht, sondern etwas weiter aus dem Ort heraus. Mit gerade mal 800 Einwohnern ist "Gili T." wie die Einheimischen sagen, die größte der drei Inseln und kann dennoch zu Fuß in zwei Stunden locker umrundet werden. Wir wohnen in einem ... read more

Our adventure continues as we leave Bali for the Gili Islands.... read more

Tuesday 8th March 2016 After a quick breakfast we headed to the mini bus with Nicole and after 30 minutes we arrived at a small restaurant by the port and were told to wait for 1 hour as the boat didn't leave until 10am. At 9:55am we were told to get into a horse drawn cart which would take us 100 metres to the port. As we were about to climb in I asked whether we had to pay for this and the driver said 'yes'. My South East Asia conning radar was now switched back on having been turned off in Malaysia. I told Nicole who was climbing into her own cart and 2 other girls getting into their cart. I told them that we should walk, but the sneaky horse men had left our ... read more