 25th Feb 2008 - 5th Mar 2008Gili Trawangan
I spent 10 days in Gili Trawangan and I don’t know where the time went. Gili Trawangan is the largest, and most developed of the Gili islands, 3 small Islands on the northwestern coast of Lombok. There are no motorized vehicles, only pony carts, and no police. If you have a problem, you take it to the village chief. It takes about an hour and a half to walk around the entire island. Unlike Nusa Lembongan, where harvesting seaweed is their main source of income, the primary business here is tourism, and it’s pretty obvious as there are loads of guesthouses, dive shops and restaurants. There isn’t a whole lot to do on Gili T besides soaking up the sun, watching dvds on sunbeds, eating lots of good food, and diving. Charles and I did our fair share of diving (10 dives each to be exact, including 2 night dives!). Our first dive there was a bit of a disappointment. The Gili’s are known for their diving, but we found that the reef wasn’t in the best of shape, and visibility was poor (maybe 10 meters at most) compared to Nusa Lembongan, where we had an average of 25 meters, but we gave it a few more chances and ended up having some great dives. The reef and the visibility might not have been as good in the Gilis, but we saw much more interesting sea life. Also, the dive shop had a pool. We saw turtles, reef sharks, blue spotted sting rays, sea snakes, lobsters, crabs, and all sorts of fish. A trigger fish even tried to attack one of our fellow divers as he swam above it. Apparently they can be very aggressive when they are defending their nests. I think the coolest thing was watching cuttlefish and octopi change their colors and patterns in front of our eyes in an attempt to disguise themselves. They are really amazing. Days we spent diving, and evenings we spent at the Irish Pub, Tir Na Nog, enjoying wood fired pizza and some surprisingly delicious chicken chimichangas, and watching dvds on the lounge beds. Gili Trawangan was a hard place to leave, but we knew after 10 days that we had probably each gained 10 pounds, and if we didn’t go then, we never would. Lombok was calling. It was time to start exploring again. | 