My second day in Gili consisted of going on a snorkeling trip through all three islands, Trawangan, Meno, and Air. The snorkeling waters were exquisitely clear, but the marine life wasn't anything different than what I'd seen in Australia. We stopped off for lunch on Gili Meno and dealt with all the vendors coming up and trying to sell us stuff while we waited for our food. The amount of locals that won't leave you alone and try to sell you stuff is incredible. You have to admire their persistence, even if it is a little annoying. Most people wouldn't work so hard for so little or face so much rejection and keep smiling.
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| Giant underwater wrenches |
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| Fish Frenzy |
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| Lunchtime view from Gili Meno |
We spent the next few days hiking the island with our newest roomate, French Daphne, because it can be circled in 2 hours. We were able to catch a few sunsets and a sunrise and even found a crazy path up to the island's peek, which had some absurd views. There were also some celebrations to be had for Peppe and Bastiaan's last night, where we got to experience some of Indonesia's finest cocktails including the TVR: Tequila, Vodka, Redbull. Whew...
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Wilson?
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| Horse carriages and bicycles are the only forms of transport other than your feet |
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| This island has a million cats...and 2 baby goats |
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| Some trees have leaves |
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| Others have shoes |
In order to detox, I also spent a day attempting to restore my iPhone, which had crashed as a result of doing an iOS upgrade. Travel lesson learned; Never update your phone in a foreign country. A Canadian girl let me borrow her computer for the restore attempt, since it requires having iTunes and my computer isn't compatible. She even let me keep using it after she switched hostels due to a fear of bed bugs. How nice is that? Trusting your computer to a complete stranger. Canadians, they're the most amazingly kind people I've ever met. I got to 850/892 MBs on the download before it had an error and failed. 5 hours wasted, the universe once again toying with my emotions. Thus I continued to live without a smart phone... It's funny. 20 years ago, backpackers had no internet, smart phones, kindles, etc. and they still made it just fine. Meanwhile I pout over a broken phone, when I still have a computer with me. I'm too pampered! I should be grateful to be able to backpack in such amazing technological times.
Leo had left with Bastiaan to check out Lombok, but returned the next day with a flier for a 4 day boat trip to Flores that left the following morning. It was pretty damn spontaneous, but we decided to do it, having no clue how we would get back. We ended up booking the trip through one of the local guys that worked in the bar of the place we were staying at, Gili Hostel. Buying stuff is insanely shady out here as everyone gets charged different prices and you don't always get a receipt for your purchase, so you have to trust that people are actually booking things for you. Having said trust, we turned over our money and prepared to say goodbye to Gili T, with it's amazing sunrises and sunsets.
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| Most amazing sunrise I've ever seen |
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| Gili Sunset |
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| Sunset from the top of Gili T |
After paying for our tickets, we set out to get some medicine to protect us from Malaria. When we went to the doctor, we discovered it was roughly $30 for 20 pills, which seemed too expensive. Upon saying it was too much, he immediately asked us how much we were willing to pay and started haggling down the price...I mean seriously, even doctors haggle on prices here, how messed up is that?!?! Chances are he wasn't even a doctor and he was just repackaging tic tacs into pill sleeves. We decided to not get the medicine and went for a good nights sleep instead, which basically means I didn't drink and was in bed by 2.
We took the public boat over to Lombok at 7:30 in the morning, which was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. You are on a boat with all the locals transporting their goods across islands and the boat is absolutely packed to capacity. Every time you hit a wave, you hold your breath and wait for the boat to tip over. It's one of the many unexpected experiences you get to enjoy whilst traveling.
We left Bangsal Harbour in Lombok on our appointed vessel, an old wooden ship that was constructed roughly thirty years before the birth of Christ. The main activity on a boat trip like this is to swim/snorkel, so our activity for the first day was to swim ashore a black sand beach. It was about this time, I realized I had the aquatic aptitude of a house cat, and was likely going to drown before we reached Flores. This pill wasn't made easier to swallow by the fact that the Europeans could swim circles around me effortlessly. My humility grows as my pride diminishes. We did at least get to catch a beautiful sunset off the boat, which resurrected my cheer.
That night our crew guide, Sonny busted out his guitar and started singing us some tunes. My fellow American, David, also started playing Eukelele and singing, and I slowly thought to myself...What a bastard. I need to learn a new skill like this to impress women, as my ability to recite the dialogue from every episode of Power Rangers hasn't born much fruit. Our place of rest was a really fancy dorm style room that was accessible by two ladders. When you climbed up, there was a platform about 6 meters deep by 3 meters wide and had roughly 1 meter between floor and ceiling... It contained 20 bed rolls. Surely I was going to be surrounded by women? Nope, I had Leo to my right, A Norwegian named David to my north, and an old French guy to my south, whose bedroll conveniently overlapped mine, locking me into an unforgiving game of footsie, which could only be escaped by curling into the fetal position and crying myself to sleep. On a boat that was 50% women, I was boxed in by dudes... I can't win.
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| Sweet dorm setup on the boat...20ish people getting cozy |
The next day we woke up at 6:30 for a banana pancake and swam over to Moyo Island to check out a waterfall. The trek was pretty extreme, as you basically scale the hill next to the waterfall by grabbing onto rocks and trees along the way. After an hour or so, we traversed back to the boat and traveled to Satonda Island, which contains a giant salt water lake that you can swim in. A few of us opted to take a hike instead so we could get 360 views of the lake and surrounding ocean. We ended up driving the boat overnight to get to our next destination.
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| View from island with a giant salt lake |
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| No clue what was going on with this shadow in the clouds, pretty cool |
The third day was possibly the best of the trip. We snorkeled in some amazingly clear waters in Gili Laba after our habitual 6:30 wake up call and then started making our way to Komodo Island. Along the way we paused at Manta Point, where we saw 15-20 Manta Rays swimming through the water. They were massive, measuring about 2 meters each (6.6 feet). Everyone ran to get some snorkel gear and jumped off the side of the boat to see them up close and personal. The Mantas might be the coolest thing I've snorkeled with, they flutter through the water like butterfies through the sky. They also aren't shy, swimming directly below and around you.
After the Mantas, we arrived in Komodo with high hopes only to leave disappointed. It's totally a tourist trap, with your chances of seeing a Komodo in the wild at 1%. We only saw the domesticated ones lounging around the main entrance. Still, there were pretty good views on the trek and we saw quite a few deer, so it wasn't as if it was completely terrible. That night a few people hopped in the water for a late night swim and were amazed to see that their bodies glowing in the water. The reason being that plankton glows when it's touched at night, and the ocean is teeming with plankton
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| Mirrored deer |
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| Adding a little flower power to my blog |
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| Komodo Island |
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| Tis the season! |
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| My tongue is more venomous than a Komodo's... |
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| The eye of the Dragon |
Our final day started with a trip to Rinca Island where we saw even more Komodo Dragons and went on a two hour hike. Once again we failed to see any of them in the wild, but it's all gravy. We finished up the trip with one last snorkel at Kelor Island and then made our way to Labuan Bajo in Flores, our final destination. After getting off the boat, four of us started looking for a hostel together. Leo, myself, Norwegian David, and Australien Alex. We found a place that was $10/night for 2 people. Those are nearly Bolivian hostel prices!
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| Komodo Park on Rinca |
That night we met with Sonny for dinner at a bar called Paradise which overlooked the Harbour, but you had to walk through the city in the dark to get there, always a fun experience :). I got a burger, but I'm not sure what meat was actually in it...it didn't have the taste, texture, or color of any beef I've ever had the pleasure of consuming, but I just rolled with it and accepted that I might have diarrhea in a few hours. Sonny also made us partake in drinking Sophie, which is a local drink unique to Indonesia. I have no idea what percentage of alcohol it was, but it burned with each shot. A few people also ordered shishas to smoke, which are extremely popular here. I was pretty tired, so Alex and I elected to leave early, as did a pair of French Canadian girls who had some diving planned early the next morning. Thus we escorted them back to their hostel. Who said chivalry is dead?
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| Flores Sunset... I accidentally took it with weird settings, but it looks amazing, like a painting |
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| Seriously...I'm going to enlarge this and sell it as a painting |
I spent a few days being whiny and pouty in Flores before eventually making my way back to Lombok, but that my friends is a story for another blog...
