Gili T.

2-3 days ago we made our way to the Gili Islands. Meanwhile we are on the ferry ⛴️ to Bali, which gives me some time to write this post.

In contrast to the drive from Senggigi to Kuta, the trip back to Bangsal was stressful (to say the least). The driver seemed to be on a mission (in an imaginary race with all the other drivers on the street).
More than once Paulas, Klaras and my eyes 👀 met after a risky and aggressive overtake maneuver. The good news: all participants survived the race and we arrived - still a bit shocked 😮 by the reckless driving - at lunchtime in Bangsal.
From there, we took the public boat connecting Bangsal and Gili Trawangan- the biggest and liveliest of the Gili Islands. What you notice immediately there is how calm everything is. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the Gilis. You can only rent a bike 🚴 or make a short trip by horse carriage 🐴 or you go by foot. 🦶
Everything is very westernized on the Gilis. We could have also been somewhere on the French 🇫🇷, Spanish 🇪🇸 or Portuguese 🇵🇹 coast to the Mediterranean Sea - theoretically you could only tell the difference because of the white sandy beaches and the crystal clear turquoise water. You can buy your favourite bathing shorts 🩳 for European prices in one of the globally know outdoor brand shops. In almost every restaurant they serve western style food with excellent quality. Expectantly, prices were much higher than in the rest of Indonesia 🇮🇩 and we knew that we would burn our cash fast in this place 😅

On our second day on Gili T. (short for Gili Trawangan) we went snorkelling 🤿 with a guide as well as approximately 100 other tourists. On our first stop, an instalment of a few underwater statues, it was really crowded and I probably have more human legs on my GoPro videos than fish 🐠 😂
However, the second stop was my highlight for the day since I managed to capture a majestically floating turtle 🐢 on camera without any other humans in the background (go check out the video). The third stop offered some more views on coral 🪸 and fish 🐟 and on our last stop we visited a turtle sanctuary with many tiny turtle babies on Gili Meno (another Gili Island). On the boat we met Rico from the Netherlands 🇳🇱. He is a cool and funny guy. So, it was easy to befriend him. After the snorkelling trip was over we arranged for meeting us later in a beach restaurant and bar that was close by.
We spent the night with having some beers 🍻, playing billiards 🎱 and darts 🎯 and went to bed much later than anticipated. Therefore, it was a bit more difficult than usual to get up early this morning. 😅Read more