The Gili Islands are small islands off of the cost of Lombok, Indonesia...we stayed at the biggest one of the three - Gili Trawangan known also as Gili T.
So to get there we decided to take a taxi to the airport and fly from Bali to Lombok. When we arrived we boarded a local bus. We were jam packed in with all the locals and lots of baggage. After an hour and a half we reached the end of the line and had to bargain for a taxi to the boat terminal. We bought our tickets for the slow public boat and because we were tourists we had to pay a tax to use the public boat. It really wasn't expensive paying only about £1.15 in total for one ticket. To get on the boat we had to get our feet wet and was quite an experience trying to board a boat with my backpack on! I really didn't want to fall over in the water.
Feeling a bit sea sick we reached the island and walked barefoot to our homestay. It was very basic but close to the main shops, bars and restaurants. Before we knew it we were asleep and had a good nap after all the travelling when we woke it was dark and time to look for some dinner. We found out very soon that we were staying right next to a mosque.
The first day we hired some bikes and spent the day riding around the island. Although it only took maybe at most an hour to do the main loop around the island. We did the loop grabbed an ice cream then found a nice beach to have lunch and chill for the afternoon. We had our photos taken with the famous swings and decided to watch the sunset that evening. It wasn't that spectacular because of the haze and we just managed to make out Bali in the distance too.
The second day we spent out snorkeling. We got to do 3 sites to snorkel, first stop was a turtle point where we spotted 4 turtles and swam with one for a little bit but I didn't like swimming in such a large group. Next site was the statue and the crowds there were even worst. It was like a scene from Where's Wally! Joaquin and I sneaked onto Gili Meno just so we could say we stepped foot on all 3 islands. Our last stop for the day was just at a coral reef to see many beautiful fish and amazingly coloured coral. I had fun swimming along on our own as this place we had all to ourselves. It was time for lunch on Gili Air, then back to Gili T. It was a shame we didn't have more time to explore the other islands too.
For dinner this evening we ate at the night street market, delicious...I couldn't have eaten at all the stalls (except the fish ones!), we tried a Indonesian pancake and desserts too.
Our last day was a travelling one again. It was time to leave Gili and head back to the airport. We had the morning to chill on the beach, grab an early lunch and then it was time to catch the boat. Wet feet again! We made it over to Lombok then it was an hour wait for the bus at a hotel. The owners said 3 more minutes till the bus...then a taxi turned up which we got it. We paid for a bus but got a privert taxi instead. Got to the airport and it was a waiting game especially because our flight was delayed. It wasn't long though until we were boarding and off again into the skies.
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