Gili Trawangan

Now armed with our new visa extensions our next destination loomed. We booked fast boat tickets to  Gili T with a local agent who we used before and was very cheap. We got a bluebird taxi to the agency offices, and waited. The agent said we would be picked up at 11.30 but as this time passed we became anxious so started hassling the agent as it was an hour's travel time to the port of Padang Bai and the boat left at 12.30pm. One thing you learn about the local's in Indonesia is that they don't like any hassle or confrontation, so to get anywhere with issues you have to remain calm and polite. As it approached 12pm, still no sign of the driver. By this time me and Kathy had ramped up the pressure on this poor old man in the travel agency to a point we were going up in relays every few minutes asking him what was going on and him telling us to go and sit down all the time. He assured us it was all under control but I could see by his face it was not as he constantly phoned the driver to ask where he was. Anyway, a driver eventually picked us up at 12.30pm and drove us 200m and transferred us to a very agitated driver of a very packed mini bus who tried to lever us in the back. NO  WAY JOSE! A disagreement broke out (seems to be  pattern here with us) with me getting the seat by the driver and Kathy taking one for the team by sitting in the back with the oversized (read as 'fat') russian shot putter for a hair raising squashy white knuckle ride. We had obviously been forgotten about and it looked like the driver had to double back to pick us up and now we were very late for the boat. Seriously I thought we were going to die on this journey ripping through Bali with this madman and when a tropical storm suddenly appeared and the rain was lashing the road and windscreen I crossed myself and told God I would be a lot better person if he let me survive this trip!
  We did both survive  (check shorts before exit minibus for embarrassing leakage) and got a later boat to Gili Trawangan (or Gili T), a beautiful tropical Island with white rimmed sandy beaches bathing in a turquoise blue sea and coral reefs just off the beach teaming with tropical fish and giant turtles.
  It was peak season so the island was busy and accommodation fully booked so we ended up in a prison cell of a room with a flooded bathroom and the usual assortment of mosquitoes to keep us amused.

what's the message here?

  We hired some cycles (no motorized vehicles on the island) and spent our days eating, drinking and watching sunsets on the beach with a cold Bintang (beer). Kath was given a shocking pink kids bike with a matching pink basket on the front, which initially she rejected as being 'silly' but as time went on she became very attached to it and did not want to give it back when we left. We went snorkeling and as soon as we put our heads under the water a giant turtle scooted by so we followed him for 10 minutes enjoying his company until he got bored with us and waved goodbye and swan into the open ocean. There were tropical fish everywhere, some as big a 4ft long, lobsters,eels,parrot fish,angel fish,etc etc that kept us amused for ages.

shark bait

  There is also a big scene here for magic mushrooms as it is a bit of a party island which is strange as Indonesian laws do not tolerate drugs but the mushrooms are not classified as drugs as they are in the UK so are freely available to be consumed via milkshakes on the beach to make those sunsets even more mind blowingly beautiful if you wished to partake.

Kath on her kids pink bicycle.

  Overall we enjoyed Gili T but it's days are limited as it is vastly overpopulated and the rubbish situation inland due to tourism is spoiling it's beauty. The whole island is ringed with resorts and cafes so it is losing it's Indonesian flavour to cater for mass western tourism and is becoming another extension of Bali unfortunately.
  An incident occurred as we were cycling around the island. We stopped for ice-creams and I noticed a rather fetching bike monument on the beach by a cafe and thought it a great idea to get Kathy to take a picture of me on top of it pretending to ride it. So I mounted the trusty steed and just as I swung my leg over the frame, the 'sculpture' decided it could not take my weight and gravity took over sending me crashing to the ground and wrecking the sculpture with a gang of locals watching my fall from grace. Luckily I avoided injury due to my cat like reflexes but the local guys at the cafe were not too pleased and they recovered the sculpture and tried in vain to resurrect it as Kath and I sped off into the distance before any compensation was demanded.

This scene soon came crashing to earth.