Leaving The Gili Islands

So we have been hanging out on Gili Trawangan for the last 5 days or so. To say the least it has been really awesome!! Our Indonesia leg of the trip began in Bali, in the party town of Kuta, where I learned to surf and Jessie caught sunshine all day. Kuta was great fun, but very busy. Not nearly as busy as Bangkok though. The beach looked like it went on forever, and the food was good. We splurged for 3 days on a hotel, which had its own pool and served a light breakfast every morning. After 3 days in Kuta we decided to split and head for the Gilis. The Gilis are a set of 3 tiny islands off the northwest of another island called Lombok.

The Gilis are super cool and you can walk around Gili "T", the largest one, in about 1 1/2 hours. We know that because we did it! The water off the beach ranges from beautiful turquoise to emerald green and is perfect for swimming in all day. The snorkeling here has also been fantastic. I don't know where else you can do this, but we got to see sea turtles in the water just doing their thing!! Really, really epic. I should also mention that the coral gardens and various tropical fish are abundant and breathtakingly beautiful but the turtle are by far the coolest thing. The food and accommodations here are relatively cheap and the people are great. We noticed that for the first part of our trip things have been getting more and more relaxed. For example, we flew into Bangkok and hung out there for about 5 days. Bangkok is a crazy city with crazy drivers and lots and lots of people everywhere all the time. Then we got to Kuta in Bali and things slowed down a lot. Still lots of people, but not on the scale that there was in Bangkok. Instead of navigating a giant city we walked to the beach every single day, and drank Bintangs (the beer in Indonesia) at night. But after dealing with the party town of Kuta we decided to head out and go to the Gili Islands.

Gili T was our destination and we got here by boat. The ride from Pandang Bai was 3.5 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. We got to watch the sun disappear into the horizon right next to a giant mountain on Bali! It was spectacular!! Then right around dusk we arrived at Gili T. The motto here on Gili T is, "No cars, no bikes, no dogs, no worries" and that is really the truth!! Gili T has been awesome and we are sad to have to leave. But the time has come for us to move on. Tomorrow in the early morning we will catch a boat to Lombok where more adventures await.

Til next time,
L & J