GILI TRAWANGAN, LOMBOK, INDONESIA
After just one day on Gili Trawangan, Chris jokingly suggested abandoning the rest of our trip and just staying here for a year or two--and right now that seems like a reasonable suggestion to me! It really is an idyllic place, with white sand beaches, crystal-clear blue waters, lots of coral and fishes just offshore, and an amazing view of the mountains of Lombok in the distance.
All the activity on the island happens along its one main road, a sandy brick street running the length of its eastern shore that's lined with several dozen restaurants, bars, dive shops, and bungalows, all offering cheap food and cheap alcohol (and magic mushrooms, which is pretty funny). There are no motorized vehicles on the island; just bicycles and cidomos, colorful horse-drawn carts. But you can walk pretty much everywhere in a few minutes if you need to.
Of the three Gilis, Gili Trawangan is known as the "party" island, although for Gili Meno and Gili Air to be any more laid-back than this, they'd have to be deserted! I'm sure part of this is due to the recent drop in tourism, but it's also the off season (things pick up in July and August, and at Christmas). Anyway, there are just the right number of tourists here to be fun without it being annoyingly crowded. Out of necessity, "party night" switches off between several of the bars, so basically the same people drink at a different place each night. We've mostly hung out with the Canadians, and that guy Patrick we met on the ferry, who eventually decided to spend some time here rather than tackle Lombok's volcano just yet.
During the day, there's not much to do except swim, snorkel, or scuba, so that's what we've done! In the channel between Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno (the two are almost close enough to swim between), there's a fairly strong current, but it's also a great place to snorkel. Chris rented an underwater digital camera for a couple of days, so we've taken some pictures of sea turtles and fish and such. We also scuba dived today at Halik Reef, on the north side of the island, with an outfit called Trawangan Dive, run by a nice South African guy named Rob. I got to see a cuttlefish for the first time (outside of an aquarium or fish market), which was very cool, and a ton of other critters as well.
After just one day on Gili Trawangan, Chris jokingly suggested abandoning the rest of our trip and just staying here for a year or two--and right now that seems like a reasonable suggestion to me! It really is an idyllic place, with white sand beaches, crystal-clear blue waters, lots of coral and fishes just offshore, and an amazing view of the mountains of Lombok in the distance.
All the activity on the island happens along its one main road, a sandy brick street running the length of its eastern shore that's lined with several dozen restaurants, bars, dive shops, and bungalows, all offering cheap food and cheap alcohol (and magic mushrooms, which is pretty funny). There are no motorized vehicles on the island; just bicycles and cidomos, colorful horse-drawn carts. But you can walk pretty much everywhere in a few minutes if you need to.
Of the three Gilis, Gili Trawangan is known as the "party" island, although for Gili Meno and Gili Air to be any more laid-back than this, they'd have to be deserted! I'm sure part of this is due to the recent drop in tourism, but it's also the off season (things pick up in July and August, and at Christmas). Anyway, there are just the right number of tourists here to be fun without it being annoyingly crowded. Out of necessity, "party night" switches off between several of the bars, so basically the same people drink at a different place each night. We've mostly hung out with the Canadians, and that guy Patrick we met on the ferry, who eventually decided to spend some time here rather than tackle Lombok's volcano just yet.
During the day, there's not much to do except swim, snorkel, or scuba, so that's what we've done! In the channel between Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno (the two are almost close enough to swim between), there's a fairly strong current, but it's also a great place to snorkel. Chris rented an underwater digital camera for a couple of days, so we've taken some pictures of sea turtles and fish and such. We also scuba dived today at Halik Reef, on the north side of the island, with an outfit called Trawangan Dive, run by a nice South African guy named Rob. I got to see a cuttlefish for the first time (outside of an aquarium or fish market), which was very cool, and a ton of other critters as well.
posted by John Kuge at 10:02 PM
1 Comments:
Let me add to your good mood John - Bush's approval rating is at 31%.
And more people want Democrats in charge!
Don't give up on the US yet!
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