The Island Paradise of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

---

When we were planning this ambitious adventure, we knew that we wanted to take it down to chill mode at the end, and as such, we had to decide upon a beach destination to close with, one on which we could begin to slow down a bit and on which I could celebrate my birthday by swimming with turtles. Our extensive but casual research involved conversing with other travellers about where to go, our preferred new destinations to explore being either the Phillipines, or Indonesia, rather than simply returning to the beaches of Thailand that we had already visited on a prior trip. It was a tough choice, as both came with raving reviews from our fellow travellers. We ultimately decided to visit Indonesia, using Bali as our point of arrival, but then quickly relocating to a small island one hour by boat from Bali. So here we are, on Gili Trawangan, otherwise known as Gili T.

What an excellent choice this has turned out to be. It is, without doubt, the most beautiful, charming, calm, but not boringly isolated, island paradise we have ever visited. Visualize this. No motor vehicles of any kind. The only transport options are pony driven carts, which still manage to delight me every time one jingles past, or bicycles, which can be rented everywhere for about $4 a day.

Then, visualize having to walk about twenty feet into the ocean and you are snorkelling in the reefs, feeding schools of colourful fish. The snorkelling equipment will set you back about $3 a day. If you need more excitement, as we did, rent a kayak for the day, and you can go explore diving sites twenty minutes from shore, where you will surely find turtle buddies to swim with, or you can continue your kayak across the way to very nearby Gili Meno, the second of three Gili Islands located between Bali and Lombok.

Still want more to do? Well, you could take part in a snorkelling cruise. We chose to charter our own boat for a half day to check out a few more dive spots and just enjoy a great boat ride on the ocean. A similar less expensive option is also available, where you jump on a boat with about twenty others and do the same thing for about a quarter of the cost. But nothing here is expensive, by Canadian standards.

Of course, when you rent that bike, you will want to take a tour around the island at least twice a day, each trip taking about forty five minutes. Best to get in a morning ride, before it gets too hot, then an essential ride again later in the day to catch the amazing sunset at one of a number of beach side restaurant bars, all of which are equipped with killer music systems cranking out Marley or Jack Johnson or other similar chill artists. And of course, during the day, you can spend some time wondering around checking out the many shops with beach attire and such, or just hang out sipping on a cool Bintang beer. Then in the evening, after watching the sunset, you will have great difficulty deciding which restaurant you want to eat at, your choices extending from ultimate luxury to budget backpacker. There are literally hundreds to pick from. The same goes for accommodations. This has not helped Stan stick to the diet I had tried unsuccessfully to out him on. His plan had been, you will recall, to join the Delhi Belly Weight Reduction Program, unique to India, but instead I joined for a short time, as if I need to lose weight.

After meeting the difficult challenge of choosing your restaurant, you could always spend some time taking in the local entertainment, which is prolific on the streets, but also available at a few of the restaurant bars.

What an incredibly beautiful island paradise to have discovered, and on which to celebrate my milestone birthday! Even though none of the many friends and family Stan invited two whole days in advance were able to make it here to celebrate with us, I must take a moment here to mention some of the day's highlights. First of all, and most importantly, my wish to swim with the turtles came true, as I swam alongside turtles, took photos, made videos, and eventually even gently touched one of those elegant creatures. Then, of course, I had to buy myself the sweetest little bikini with which to kick in my sixth decade, and follow up the shopping trip with a fabulous seafood feast. Then, to bring this fantastic day to a close, I performed a few songs on stage at the island's renowned Fortuna live music venue, along with a stellar band and an amazing female vocalist who sounded like a cross between Tina Turner and Joss Stone. It will be a challenge to try and top this next year . . . but I am always up for a good challenge.

I had had apprehensions about being able to sit still on a beach. How wrong I was. We came here with the intention of staying three or four days. We have now been here eight days, and reluctantly leave tomorrow to continue investigating the island of Bali, before we pick up our flight home in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, we would certainly consider returning here again next year.

Gili Trawanagan offers a broad range of activity for all budgets, including some of the most outstanding resorts right out of the travel magazines, if that is your thing, with nothing on the island over two stories tall. No high rises and no chains of any sort allowed here. No motor vehicles; only bicycles and those incredibly charming pony driven taxis. Can you even imagine this? And how could I forget to mention the most important thing? This island paradise comes with genuinely friendly people who offer smiles and conversation freely - as freely as did those wonderful people we met way back in Sri Lanka, at the beginning of this trip. What a lovely note on which to begin drawing this adventure to a close. Paradise in all respects.

---

Photos

Yes! This is So Beautiful!
Nothing to add. The body language says it all.

Catching the Sunset
A moment of stopping to smell the coffee, if you will, or catching another beautiful sunset.

Pony Transport on Gili Trawangan
How can you not fall in love with a place that is graced by these, announcing their arrival with the jingling of their harness bells, and a soft air horn that the driver squeezes manually upon approach? Every time one passed by, I was awestruck. Still am.

Flip Flop Nature Art
We spotted this delightful attraction biking one day.

Driftwood Horse
This creation graced an elegant restaurant bar we passed every day on our bike route. Very cool.

Paradise Sunset Beach Restaurant Bar
This was our favorite sunset watching venue, but there were others along the bike trail, all of which came with bonfires, fire dancing, and wicked music. For our last sunset, we were entertained by a live Djembe drumming group at a similar venue nearby. Not hard to take.

Stan Walking the Reef
This was another stop on our way to watching the sunset. Something about stopping and smelling the coffee comes to mind here as well.

Setting Off on Our Turtle Finding Mission
All decked out and ready for the search. Tough job but somebody had to do it.

Feeding the Fishes
The secret is to fill a plastic water bottle with bread, then fishes will follow you around and nibble from your finger tips. It is like being inside that aquarium you had as a kid. It only gets a little wild when the fishes start getting bigger. I had to move on when a bunch of five pounders joined the frenzy of about a hundred fish swarming around me. I didn't trust that they might mistake my fingertips for lunch, so I boggied on. What a whimp.

Snorkel Face Bev
I'm surprised I was able to feed any fishes. You would think they would be just a bit spooked by this face. But I guess they were more interested in what I was handing out that what I looked like.

Stan Snorkling
Looking for the big boy.

The Crab Who Tried to Hitch a Ride on Me
So I feel this scratching on my neck, and pick this baby off, none too gently, I might add. He latches on to this nearby log floating by, then decides he'd rather stick with me and tries to jump on me again. Not happening. He got the turf again, and I booted it in another direction. That was exciting. He was none to little either. A good four inches across.

Swimming with Turtles on My Birthday
I was right behind our guide taking this photo, when he reached out and touched him. Given that swimming with turtles was on the top of my birthday wish list, I was elated by this moment. However, a couple of days later we would find our own turtle while out kayaking, and I would get to touch him myself!

Swimming with my Turtle Buddy
Elegance in motion. So mellow and so awesome. We swam with him for about a half hour, always being very careful to swim beside, not above him, so he would not be prevented from coming up for air.

Connecting With my Turtle Buddy
He wasn't bothered by the gentle touch. I, on the other hand, was ecstatic. He was so co-operative with our being there that he allowed me to take a video of him going up for air, and down again, a couple of times. If I have any luck, I may upload it sometime.

Our Snorkeling Outrigger
We hired this boat, driver, and guide for a half day to explore a few diving spots while on our turtle finding mission. Riding on the front of the boat, with the waves splashing us, dipping in and out of the crests was almost as much fun as the snorkeling.

Dream Village Hotel Gateway Greeters
This is typical Balinese artistry. Difficult to find a garden without its share of carvings such as these. Lovely.

Dream Village, Gili Trawanga, Indonesia
We thought it only appropriate that the Dreamchasers should stay at the Dream Village.

Lomboch View from our Beach Front
Those volcanoes in the backgroung are Lombach. The three tiny Gilli Islands are situated between Lomback, and Bali, the two much larger islands.

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem
This was Scalleywags,our favorite restaurant, but every restaurant we visited - even the very top end resort stops - were sand floors. Sweet. So shoes were optional, as were shirts. Pretty laid back.

Rooster Wake Up Club Member
This cocky guy and all his buddies started their wake up call competition about four a.m. every day, and just kept on going all day long. The idea of catching this baby and strangling him occurred to us more than once or twice, but of course, we were outnumbered, so we sought the next best solution: earplugs.

Performing at Fortuna Music Club on My B-Day
This was the closing highlight of my birthday. I returned for another performance a couple of days later. The experience was excellent.

I Love Gili T!
There it is. That body language shouting out this message again. This is without a doubt the most beautiful and charming tropical island we have ever visited.

Comments

[marsha]

there you are!!! what are you playing/singing????