Heir to the Throne
Gili Trawangan or 'Gili T' as it's known to the locals is the largest of the 3 Gili islands, that said it has no motorised transport (transport is provided by horse drawn carriages that sound like Reindeer due to the small bells they wear to let you know they are coming), no police, fresh or hot water, ATMs, dogs and only intermittent electricity at best.
However, it more than makes up for those with its fantastic snorkeling, white sandy beaches and crystal blue sea.
Gili T is the reputed 'party' island of the 3, a claim that comes from the fact that you can buy magic mushrooms and are offered them at every turn. They are officially illegal but with no police to enforce the law a relaxed attitude is taken.
Along with magic mushrooms you will also find a great deal of cats, who quite frankly without dogs around seem not to have a care in the world. The only thing that comes close to outnumbering the cats are the mosquitoes, so we both permanently smell like walking advertisements for insect repellent.
The island itself is only about 5km in circumference, so after finding ourselves a nice little homestay we decided that we would walk around the island and check out the best beaches and snorkeling points. What started off as a nice leisurely stroll turned into more of a trek, with Jo setting new world records for slowness in walking. About half way around we realised that we hadn't taken anywhere near enough water with us, thankfully we managed to find a hotel and stopped to rehydrate, not only did we pay for our drinks but we also left them a swimming pool around the table due to the amount we were perspiring. As we already resembled people who had been for a swim fully clothed we decided it was time to show the locals the marvels of our pale English skin and hit the sea to have a dip to cool down.
The time we have spent here has been very relaxing, it's the location of our first homestay and a better one i think we'll struggle to find elsewhere. The banana and honey pancakes for breakfast are to die for.
That said not all has been perfect. Despite Gili T being a small island where you would expect somethings to not work as you would expect, our homestay is the scene of our first flushing toilet. Which is a good job as we are both experiencing a touch of 'Gili Belly', which was due to catch up with us at some point. We have also had our first spider incident, neither of us are experts in the field but what we'll describe as a huge hairy spider ran past our feet one evening while sitting on the porch continuing up the wall and into an ajar window leading into our room. I would like to say what followed was pretty but trying to knock 'Shelob' out of the room with a broom while trying to keep our distance ended badly for the spider, we could have had ourselves a mosquito catcher and a sleepless night! Our pale skin has disappeared to be replaced by a lovely shade of pink with the obligatory 'tan lines' but thankfully nothing painful.
Traveling Observations:
No we would not like any Magic mushrooms
No i am not Zinedine Zidane, especially when you are not comparing football prowess
Bob Marley is Indonesia's version of Che Guevara
Ryan & Jo
