11. Gilli T

Today we made our onwards plans over breakfast and have news that we are returning home on 16th August . We are returning to Thailand for 2.1/2 weeks enroute home as to be honest, Bali is great but we really are missing the quietness and chilled way of Thailand and it's extremely busy here. We weren't able to see everything we wanted to in Thailand and we both thought its pointless staying in Bali if we would rather be somewhere else, we are finding it far to commercial and seems like everything is set up for social media pictures which is definitely result of all the influencers who live on the island. We would come back to Bali but only if we got really good at surfing, the island simply cannot cope with the influx of tourists.
After breakfast we walked around the island to the town to hire 2 bicycles for 24 hours. The island has no vehicles on so you either have to travel by horse cart or bike, it's so nice being somewhere with no vehicles polluting with emissions and noise. Today we were going to explore the whole island and stop at the snorkeling spots along the way. We made it to turtle cove and stopped here, the beach despite being busy was absolutely stunning with the clearest blue water and white sand. It was so cool seeing completely different fish despite seeing less than in Thailand (we saw 2 Puffer fish mum, I know you love these!). The current here was so strong pushing you a few feet every second. We had to keep our wits about us. After a tiring couple of hours fighting the current we headed back to shore, as I was about to get out of the water I saw a gorgeous sea turtle in the shallows eating the sea grass. We followed him around for a while and got some cool shots on the go pro. After chilling on the beach for an hour we carried on our tour. There were Magic Mushroom shops everywhere which we found strange as Indonesia has severe penalties even for soft drugs (including being shot) so this confused us abit. We biked the whole island and found many Tsunami evacuation routes which was slightly daunting, especially reading they predict a mega earthquake in the next 10 years with a Tsunami wave of upto 50 mtrs, as the islands are 2 mtrs above sea level this is slightly worrying!
We got back to our cabin about 5 o'clock and had beers watching the sunset, we met some really cool Indonesians here and I quizzed them on the legality of Mushrooms and we were told that the islands are all run by Mafia so mainland rules don't apply here. 1 guy even disappeared to show us his mushrooms which looked absolutely horrid 🤣🍄🍄🍄.
Tonight was an all night beach party with live drummers (from our hotel) they were so cool and really got everyone into it. 'Welcome to Exile, where good vibes fly and fun is had' .The night flew by and we treated ourselves from the skimping to many beers around the fire sat on Bean bags, it really did feel like a big family and we had a great evening. We went on a drunken bike ride to the shops which was fun and then called it a night, the music stopped shortly after and we both slept amazing. We are off to Island 2 tomorrow, Gilli Meno which is known for feeling like a deserted island a big change from Gilli T which is at full capacity.Baca selengkapnya