A little piece of Paradise

Gili Trawangan is the location, a short boat ride from Sengigi in Lombok (INR10,000 from Bangsal). We arrived yesterday on a local boat filled with people, produce and sunburnt tourists, with our long boat listing severely to the right. The island itself is only about 1km across, and boasts some of the best diving and snorkeling in Indonesia. In addition to that- there's lots of places to stay, a few to have a few drinks, and apparently a few pretty great restaurants too. All things we are looking for on a little island stop over.

Although I am a few posts behind (they're coming... Thailand and Lombok), the Tender Trio has been reduced to the Dazzling Duo, as the little Ging Cat left us for snowy horizons last week after Thailand. B decided to extend her stay and joined Maj and I in Lombok for a few days of R&R, and then we decided to extend the stay in Indo and come to Gili T, as we've been hearing so much about it. After finding out on Wednesday that there is a Balinese holiday on March 23 (Day of Silence), meaning that many young tourists and Balinese alike will be flocking to the Gili's for some fun. We made sure to book a hotel before we got here...

In pure travel style- no one on this island has ever heard of Coconut Garden Resort. Coconut Dream- for sure they can get you there- but our hotel? No way. With Maj in tow (she was headed back to Singapore at 5) we were carted around by a little old man and his tired old pony on a rickety old cart in the middle of coconut groves to find this place. You would think on an island so small, we could find it? Not a chance. Of course by the time we gave up, Maj had to take the boat back to Sengigi and B and I were left wandering, defeated, looking for a bed to sleep in for the night. I will give the people on the island a lot of credit here- everyone has been extremely helpful, honest and genuinely concerned about these two poor girls wandering for a room. It's a great change from the past 10 days where we have felt taken advantage of and lied to at every turn. We finally found a room- tucked a few blocks back from the harbor- with air con and a clean bathroom. As much as we could ask for.

After a bit of a power nap, we ventured to the beach. Sparkling blue waters lapping onto white sands, shallow reefs just barely offshore. The sky is a perfect blue and Gili Meno is so close you could almost (almost) throw a stone at it. It is a little piece of paradise.

We wandered the main road on the east side of the island looking for a dinner spot and finally settled on Scallywags, organic, seaside, with a fresh array of tuna, lobster and swordfish presented on the street side. The meal seemed promising when we looked at the menu... However it went a little sideways when I was told I couldn't order what I wanted, that I needed to order from the BBQ menu, then the mozza in my caprese had a distinct blue cheese flavor to it (we have since decided it had gone bad), and to cap it off when I asked for cutlery... I was told to go get it myself from the stand across the street. But- the tuna was lovely. So I'll give them that.

We retired to our "hotel" after witnessing the dancing prowess of Henry at Rudy's, one of the islands busier bars. Tomorrow we have lots planned... Yoga...bikes...snorkeling...and Kokomo.

In love with Indo,
Double Trouble