Gili Island Bliss

A week ago we arrived to a place that we always dreamed of but had no idea really existed. Imagine 3 little droplets of white sand beach islands set in the most turquoise blue water you've ever seen... that is the Gili Islands. All 3 totally unique from one another, no motor vehicles at all, only pony drawn carts, unlike Bali they are Muslim so they also have Mosques, and literally THE nicest people we've come across so far. Everyone smiles at you as you walk down the sand paths that make up the "roads" of the islands, asking how your trip is, or wishing you farewell. The islands are so small we easily walked around the entire island in less than 2 hours and without straying from the beach at all.

After a 5 hour slow boat ride we arrived at the largest of the 3 islands, Gili T. It's the most crowded so we had a harder time finding a room at night, plus we had our backpacks so people knew we were desparate, or we' be sleeping on the beach ( which now we know we could have done!). We ended up staying at a dive resort in what ended up being our nicest and by far most expensive room. We were so happy though to see that it had a DVD player and TV with a ton of pirated movies to choose from. We didn't realize that on a trip this long, you actually start to miss, or should we say crave, some of the modern conviniences of home.

The next morning we jumped on the backpacking island hopper boat to head over to Gili Air. There are no docks here so you literally wade into the water and get onto the boat from there... you should have seen the people with roller suitcases, it was halarious, we think they will be bringing backpacks next time. When we arrived at Gili Air we couldn't believe how quiet and beautiful it was. Had we known how much we would like it, we would have made reservations for 2 weeks, but as there are no ATM's on the islands and only cash is accepted, you can't change your plans very easily if you haven't already enough cash. We spent our days diving and lazing around on the white powder beaches. The vibe here was so cool as it was mostly young backbacking couples, we met really nice people from around the world.

After our wonderful days on Gili Air we again jumped on the island hopper and made our way to Gili Meno, the smallest and most quiet island of the 3. It would have been fine, except it was SO quiet is was a little creepy. Not to mention, we stayed at this really strange eco friendly place that was more like glorified camping, which, again, would not have been that bad except it was misquito infested and smelled really bad! We would have left after the first night but this American hippy girl named Jill worked there and we spent the night before chatting for hours. She showed up there to hang out 2 months ago and never left, now she lives there with all the guys who work there and makes signs for the place, oh and natural soap because that's all you're allowed to use while you're there because they reuse the bath water for the plants! It was definitely an experience we'll never forget!

Our last stop before heading back to Bali was again at Gili T. We got there early in the morning but it still wasn't early enough to score a cheap room so we decided to head back to Bali a couple days early. We ended up taking the fast boat back to Bali instead. It was like a giant ski boat with 5 big engines and carries 40 people. We dropped a few people off on Lombok and made our way back through quite trecherous surf. The waves were so big they were crashing over the boat and leaking in, Heather was sure we'd be swimming sooner or later, but luckily we arrived back to Padangbai safe and sound. We found a little homestay for $15 and stayed there.

As we write this we're now up further on the eastern coast in a little fishing village area known as Amed. We found a cute little place and are hoping to do a little more diving, budget allowing. That's the one thing about backpackers, if you overspend one place, you have to cut back in another! Maybe we'll sleep on the beach for a few nights! :)

Okay, we're off to explore our new village! We're a little more than half way through our trip already...