Alex, the lone Englishman traveler we had met, was heading off to the Gili islands off the coast of Bali for a few days so having no immediate plans and needing a few days relaxing we tagged along. The bus picked us up at our homestay that took us the 2 hours to the coast to board the boat that was to take us to Gili Trawagan, the last of the Gili islands, with Gili Air, and Gili Meno before it. We showed up at the port to mass chaos, and a man told me he’d take care of my bag. After my experience in the Bali airport I wasn’t about to get conned again and I must have given him a look that said so because he quickly showed me his shirt that went with our boat company and tagged my bad and told me to put it in the cart with the rest of bags that people were also reluctantly giving up. After a few people led by example, we all started to follow suit but for the next 45min before boarding we all tried to keep an eye on our bag within the cart. A quick breakfast of sprite as my stomach was already starting to get a bit weird, we got ready to board our ‘fast boat’ to Gili. It looked like a speed boat with 5 outboard motors lined up and attached to the back of it. Interesting. They were all topped off with fuel and we started off across the waves bobbing around just like a speed boat. The 60 odd passangers quickly dispersed to the sun decks to get some air as the closed cabin didn’t allow for much and Matt, Alex and I headed up to the top to get a good view and the best fresh air for the 2 hour journey. When we hit full speed, I decided to sit on the decking and quickly regretted it as my stomach started to lurch. With some controlled breathing and concentration on the tunes playing in my earphones I managed to calm it down and eventually laid down and took a bit of a nap on the upper deck.
We had a quick stop at Lombok to drop off a few passengers and some supplies and then we were landing on Trawagan. We had to jump into the surf off the boat and wait for our bags to be brought ashore before we trudged up to the nearest café away from the hawkers trying to get you to stay at their ‘cheap rooms’ for rent. It was low season so everyone to trying to get the little business that was coming to the islands. The islands are non-motorized, everything and everyone is carried by pony carts or tuk-tuk carts, and bicycles. The whole island was only about 1 x 1.5 km so there was really only one main village, and was predominantly Muslim, though its practice seemed to be a very relaxed for on this island at least. All of Indonesia is predominantly Muslim besides Bali which is Hindu. Reggae music was playing everywhere which made it feel a little surreal and like the Caribbean, and all the locals were definitely trying to be Jamaican. We grabbed some lunch and then decided to leave someone with the bags while the other two went and looked for a suitable room to rent. Alex and I headed off and started the negotiations and after about an hour of asking around we ended up at some bungalows about a 25min walk from the main village, called Coral Beach.
There was indeed a lot of coral washed up on the beach but there were little huts on stilts to eat in when you ordered food from the restaurant and it was only a 20sec walk from our door to the ocean for a swim. The people who ran the hotel seemed a bit like Bob Marley wannabes and Alex kept getting asked if he wanted a Bob Marley cigarette. In a country where possession of drugs is punishable by the death penalty, we were all quicker than usual to deline the offers. We’re pretty sure the guys were stoned most of the time and definitely treated me different than the boys. If we all came out to order a meal or a drink they were right there with menu’s and the question of what to order. If I was alone though, I usually had to go ask for the menu, then walk up and put my order in instead of having it taken by a conscientious waiter.
The idea was to relax as we’d spent most of our time so far on the move and being actively seeing and doing things. So we went for swims, and chilled out reading our books, or just had life discussions over a few beers. Mostly convincing Matt that going back to his old job was not an option. I think he finally gets it. On the boat over we met up with Simon and his wife Rosie, who we’d met on the cycling tour. By the second day, we also found out that Mike and Maya were also there so we all made plans to meet up for dinner. Simon and Rosie brought along another couple they’d met and we had a great fresh fish dinner and some beers before moving on to the Sama Sama club where some reggae music was playing.
As soon as we got to Gili my guts started rebelling and my appetite went from good to poor and my tolerance smelling cigarette smoke went from poor to nil. I never threw up but I wanted to I had to take a break from the club and the halo of chain smokers, mostly locals, for a walk on the beach just to keep my stomach from lurching. After a drunk local almost peed on me I thought I’d better take my chances in the bar. They say the traveler trots come on you suddenly and man I’d say that was true, and as we hadn’t been really adhering to all the water rules (no fresh juices, ice, fresh ice cream) I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Although in my head I was calculating the time since our river wading adventure to figure out if maybe I had typhus or cholera, I was likely over thinking it as we medical people tend to do. After a few days of misery, a lot of naps, and the boys having to finish every meal I tried to eat, I finally gave in a took some antibiotics which worked like a charm. Better living through pharmacology my friends.
One night, after a day of feeling like poo, I was finally feeling up to going into town to meet our friends and Matt had just arrived back at the hotel. So we decided to get a pony ride in and asked our reception people, who looked at us like we had asked for a moon rock at first, if there was a way to call one of the guys with a cart. After our words sunk in one of them said just to wait here one would come by, in the mean time he called his buddy and he said he’d be here in 15min. As 15min lapsed, the guy called again to say he was still coming, when another cart showed up and our reception people started waving us into the cart and saying ok, ok , ok. Not really know what was happening except that we were finally getting a ride into town we took the cart. Half way into town, the must be original pony cart guy that had been called started yelling at us and telling us we were supposed to wait, started cursing and chased us with his pony’s head INSIDE our cart while splashing through all the puddles from the recent rains. Then when that wasn’t working he ran along side our cart yelling and only stopped when some girls flagged him down for a ride. Thank goodness. Don’t piss off the pony cart guys, I tell ya!
Meanwhile Alex was having his own adventure while trying to find us a new place to live. We were getting tired of the lazy stoners that ran our place so he started asking around for some cheap places in the village. He found a place for to cheap to be true, and the way he described it, it was a room off of one of the locals houses with salt water showers, and the lady/man that he was talking to had taken quite a liking to him. He walked back to take a look at the room and was surrounded by the whole family in the circle, and instantly had a bad vibe. We decided if we got desperate we’d go there but Alex announced that I was going to be his girlfriend and Matt was my brother who was married. Ha!
Our last day on Gili we decided to do some snorkeling with Mike and Maya and we were blessed by seeing a sea turtle IN the sea where we were snorkeling!! There’s just something about seeing wildlife IN the wild and especially an endangered species like the leatherback sea turtle. They run a conservation program on the island for sea turtles, where they find the nests and after they hatch they raise the hatchlings in large tanks for 1 year then release them back into the ocean. The tanks were right along the beach so you could watch the baby sea turtles from 1 week old to 8 months old swimming around the tanks. We saw schools of all sorts of colorful fish, lots of Dori’s and Nemo’s and Scar’s, their real names escape me thanks to Disney, but it was a great day out on the reef anway.
Matt and I were also trying to figure out transport to Komodo to see the Komodo dragons while we had a few days to think and because of the season, monsoons and all, the only way to get there was a 5 day cruise that was going to cost $400US or flying to Flores island and getting ferry to Komodo, then flying back to Bali, which also would have cost $400US. That wasn’t quite in our budget and neither was going over to Borneo to see the orangutans. Borneo was technically safe enough but because of illegal forestry that’s happeneing there, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time looking for orangutans in the wild, things might not go well for you, plus again it was going to be very expensive. We decided to cut our losses and come back to Komodo when we have more time and more money, there was a Komodo dragon in the Bali zoo so we decided to settle for that.
We said our goodbye’s to Mike and Maya, and Alex as he was staying on Gili to do a diving course and we had to get back to Bali to get our flight out to Thailand. We were also over the gangster feel of the island locals and the expensive prices for food and lodging and planned on heading back to Ubud to chill out and plan our next leg of the trip.
The fast boat back to Bali was another lesson in concentration to avoid getting sea sick and this time there was no sundeck for air, we were all just crammed into seats waiting for the occasional sea breeze through the cracked windows. There was another chaotic transferring of passengers to a bus area where we were all piled into buses going to our respective destinations. Our bus was overbooked so we crammed an extra girl in our row while the prissy French girls in front lounged with their legs on the seats and complained of the stale air. My legs and arm, and Matt’s back were numb by the time we arrived and we decided to just get out and walk from the first stop off to find accommodation for the next few days. We found a very budget room with great people running it with free breakfast and instantly felt much better being back in Bali.
It was now February 4th and my birthday and we decided to book a taxi for the day and go to the zoo to find this Komodo dragon at last. He suggested a few more touristy stops that sounded cool so we went a long with it. We started out at the Barong dance a few villages away from Ubud, which turned out to be similar to the dance we had already seen, and then stopped at a stone carving place that just wanted us to buy a statue, and a silver smithing place that just wanted us to buy some really expensive jewelry. It was beautiful and intricate carving and metalwork but I wasn’t the typical tourist here to get jewelry or ship a 400lb statue back to my garden. Finally at the zoo, we watched the lions and tigers and sun bears out in their own climate, tropical birds, monkeys, and a crocodile, then found the illusive Komodo dragon! After all the hype and expectation we put on the silly beast, it was just a large lizard lying very still in the grass of his domain. As cool as it was to see him we took our pictures and moved on. It just made us even more disappointed that we hadn’t gone to Komodo to see them in the wild.
The zoo restaurant was touting an animal show to start so we settled on a drink and I ordered some food thinking maybe my stomach would hold up to some food as my appetite still hadn’t returned, but 4 bites in I couldn’t eat anymore. The show started and they brought out a python and a serpent hawk for people to hold and touch. After the 15th person had their picture taken holding the snake we decided we were over it and headed back to our taxi. He was going to take us to see some traditional painting but we knew it was just going to be another commission sale so we just headed back to the honmestay for a rest as my food wasn’t settling. After I gave in to a nap and Matt went exploring, we headed out for dinner since it was my birthday and managed to keep down some juice and an entire meal! Matt told me I was going to have to start ordering off the kids menu!
Feeling much better the day after I decided to skip breakfast and lunch and instead had some tea, read my book for most of the morning and finally went out in the afternoon to treat myself to a full body massage for $4 and a chocolate ice cream bar from the shop. Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!
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