Gili Tralala lala la la...
Wednesday 28th April. It was Chloe's birthday and we were off to the party island!! It was BINTANG TIME! The girls as a little birthday treat had upgraded themselves to the most beautiful little villa on Gili Air the night before and we met up with them as they were enjoying a nice breakfast on their beach-front restaurant. Unfortunately the weather had not been kind, as we had grey skies looming above instead of the bright sunshine we had gotten used to. Still, we decided we would keep to the plan and get a glass bottom boat over to the largest of the three islands, Gili Trawangan (aka, Gili Tralala), and do some snorkelling on the way. In the water there were many small reef fish and we even saw a turtle. We took Nilufer's little camera with us as it was waterproof and whilst trying to get some artistic photos, Mark cut his back on some coral. Silly boy! It meant for the rest of our stay in the Gilis he had to stay out of the water.
We arrived at Trawangan and went in search of Villa Joglo where we were booked in for 3 nights. The villa was jaw-droppingly beautiful. We had a huge open-plan lounge area decorated with tons of carved dark wood and our own bar with a fridge which was constantly stocked up with free drinking water, soft drinks and beers. The interconnected bedrooms were lovely too, each with a little walk through closet area and a luxurious outside bathroom. You could have a power shower staring at the stars. And best of all breakfast was served outside in the garden at any time you pleased. OMG! This was pure luxury.
Our first point of call was a lovely Mexican restaurant for a late lunch and a cheeky birthday Margarita. Gili Trawangan is renowned for having a good night life, the sun was falling quickly so we dashed back to the villa for a super quick getting ready session before investigating Gili T after dark. Through our travels we had experienced some unusual foods but none was more strange than Chloe's birthday cake. I had liaised in secret to see if the restaurant could provide some form of cake with a candle. What turned up really amazed all of us. It was a choux bun cake with some chocolate and ice-cream melted over it, and there was even a massive candle on it (so far, so good right?). What made us take a second and a third look was that it also had carrot, cucumber and avocado. It was even decorated with tomato peel and some cactus leaves. Amazing! Chloe was very generous and we all helped her eat the strange combination and thought more carrots should be served with ice-cream. As the night progressed, we enjoyed a few more Bintangs (the local beer) and got ourselves on the dance floor (table tops) at the Irish bar's big party night.
Next day started off with a late breakfast served in our own garden. We felt like royalty poking our nose into reception and saying "we are now ready for our breakfast, thank you". Later we carried on in the same fashion and treated ourselves to a lovely balinese massage on the beach. It was only eight quid, so why not?
I'd been looking forward to diving in the Gilis for a long time, so booked myself in for an early morning dive the next day to Shark Point (a good dive site but rather a short dive, as one of the divers had gobbled up their air in less than 25 minutes!!). In the meantime, I'd got the girls talking to the dive school (Gili Divers) and they were up for a doing a discovery dive together that afternoon. Their session started off in the pool, just getting used to the equipment and the strange feeling of breathing under water. Once they were confident and comfortable underwater, we jumped on the boat and went off to a nice quiet dive site north side of the island. Tina had already a couple of dives under her belt but did not have a license yet. Nilufer and Chloe were complete beginners, but they were all really chilled out under water and except for occasionally floating up to the surface, they had an amazing first dive and all came up grinning ear to ear and talking about the fish, corals and the moray eel we saw (which Tina also sat on!).
Unfortunately our time on the island was coming to an end and it was time to make some decisions about Mount Rinjani. Do we climb or not? Considering the beauty of the islands and the possibility of doing more dives the girls and I opted for extending our stay on Gili T by a couple of days. Mark was as ever obliging, even though he couldn't partake in any of our water-based activities due to the cuts on his back. At any one time, he could be found concentrating hard on his computer screen either in the shade or sitting somewhere near a fan to dry his back.
The girls booked to do the first part of their dive certification on our last day on Trawangan. This consisted of a morning of lessons, then a pool session to perfect their techniques and putting it all into action with an afternoon dive where I could join them. Such a shame Nilufer's camera only went down to 10m, but the girls were so much more graceful underwater and I think they enjoyed this dive immensely. I certainly did and best thing was that unlike many beginners they did not gobble up all their air in 30 minutes, we had a full 58 minute dive, spending all that time just staring at beautiful fish and coral. Just magic!
To celebrate the girls' success and as a goodbye to the Gilis we went to Scallywags (one of the posher restaurants along the beach front) and enjoyed a yummy seafood barbeque. Later we indulged in the local drink Vodka Joss - a new concept for us all. A Vodka Joss is basically a shot of vodka and a small packet of Extra Joss - an energy supplement in a powder form (same ingredients as Redbull minus the liquid). You put half of the orange powder into your shot glass and the other half goes in your mouth. As it fizzes and bubbles you proceed to drink your vodka all in one. Strange concept and even stranger taste, which you can see from the photos of all of us pulling very strange faces. Tina, was by far the best of us in the pulling faces category. I think the joss really made her face elastic :-)
