A Bee Line to Gili T
Indonesia. It was dream for so long, then the plane landed. Real life in Indonesia. It's hard to express my excitement in words. Pristine beaches, untouched coral reefs, dense jungles, countless volcanos, peaceful people, delicious dishes, the list goes on. I had arrived in Indonesia and I couldn't stop smiling.
I had about 48 hours to kill before my life became a billion times better (as if I'm not the luckiest girl on Earth already). I chilled on the beach, took long walks through the bustling tourist area of Kuta and Seminyak, and napped under the palm trees, waiting until it was time to go to the airport and receive Dana Grant.
I've known Dana for twenty years. When I was seven, my family moved from Montana to Wisconsin and we conveniently situated ourselves just around the block from a beautiful family who has become my own. The Grants have three daughters, similar in age to me and my two brothers and we all grew up together. We'd ride bikes after school, play on the same sports teams, go camping, even take long road trips as families. I consider Mr. and Mrs. Grant my second mom and dad and the girls, Casey, Carly, and Dana are as close as I have to sisters. That adds up to four loving parents and five amazing siblings. Told you I'm the luckiest girl on Earth!
Needless to say, I was thrilled to see Dana walking through the arrival hall at Ngurah Rai International Airport in the south of Bali. We hugged, caught up over dinner and a handful of gin and tonics, slept hard, and woke up the next morning to journey directly to Gili Trawangan.
Let's start off with a short video Dana and I made.
Here's a more detailed description of the first part of our Indonesian adventure.
We hopped in a van from Kuta with a bunch of other backpackers, drove over to Padang Bai, a port town on Bali's east coast, and caught a boat over to Gili Trawangan, the largest of the three "Gili Islands" just off the north west coast of Lombok. The entire trip took about four hours, a third of it involving sitting on the roof of a boat with a beer in hand watching volcano Agung get smaller and volcano Rinjani get bigger.
Upon arrival, we first found a hostel, dropped our bags, and grabbed a bite to eat. Afterwards, we circumnavigated the island on foot, searching for a place to call home for the following ten days.
No motorized vehicles are allowed on the island, which was great. The horses with the jingle bells are a not-so-nice touch, but I'll deal with it to avoid mopeds crowding the narrow roads.
We ended up finding a place in town for only 100,000 Rupiah per night including breakfast and coffee or tea for each of us. Not a fancy place, not real clean, and only a little bit stinky, but it came out to less than $4 per person per night. Awesome. Except that the men who owned/cleaned/smokedweedallday at our guesthouse simply called Dana and I "Obama" for our entire stay.
One of the very first things any local asks when chatting with you is, naturally, "where are you from?" That's standard all over the world. Indonesians, however, were different in one way: their response to our answer. Upon hearing that we were from the US, literally 100% of the time they would exclaim one of the following phrases:
"Oooooohhhh, OBAMA!!!!"
"Do you know Obama?"
"Oh I have brother there, his name, Barack Obama."
"Maybe you know my uncle? Obama?? Hahaha!"
"Obama."
Apparently our president spent a few years of his early childhood living in Jakarta and many Indonesians are very proud of that. They love him.
We spent the next week and half doing whatever we felt like and it was amazing. We swam every day, found pool bars for happy hour most afternoons, and chilled on the beach in our down time. We took a day for surfing (no pictures because that day, my phone fell to the bottom of the Indian Ocean for all eternity) and I took a day for diving. I also did a two day free-diving course which was exceptional. I was able to dive down to 20 meters, about 65 feet deep, on one breath. Exhilarating!
Enjoy the photos, in no particular order.
WWII Japanese ship wreck. Also, my first dive using NITROX.
There is some ammunition laying near the ship.
Banded pipe horse.
Safety stop.
The fishermen used to use dynamite to kill and collect the fish near the coast, which obviously and unfortunately ruined the reef surrounding the island as well as the texture of the beach. That was outlawed about fifteen years ago and "bio reefs" have been established around the island to promote regrowth.
Nudibranchs!
Every other establishment on the main road is either a bar or a dive shop. If you're looking for a party, you won't have to walk far. There is no shortage of travelers out to have a good time on Gili Trawangan.
And there is certainly no shortage of Bintang.
