Gili Air

Our last day in Lombok was a quiet one - soaking up the last of the lovely views from our room, a little swimming, a little snoozing. We ventured out for dinner to a place we tried before and I was sucked in by the promise of very fresh grilled king prawns for dinner.

Yum. For a while. Cue horrible food poisoning about 5 hours later, yeah, like 1am. Stupid prawns. As I was laying on the bathroom floor in the middle if the night I questioned whether I would be up for a car and boat ride to the Gili islands, but was determined to make it. And despite feeling a bit green this morning, we left Lombok for Gili Air.

Gili just means small island and there are many gilis dotted around. When reading about the Gili islands, it usually means three islands just off Lombok - Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. This time we decided to go to Gili Air.

Gili Trawangan is the largest most developed island and the one famous for it's parties and drug culture. Apparently where Legian has signs outside restaurants claiming "Bloody good Tucker mate", Trawangan has "Bloody good 'shrooms". Not really enticing. Actually, we were offered various substances on Lombok. It was just like being in Amsterdam - a guy drives past on his motorbike and says, in a low murmur, "you want some marijuana". I just laughed. I couldn't help it. He was so offended, he turned around and rode up and asked why not. I said, "we're too old for marijuana, come on". He said "what are you seventy years old, come on". And there was a full on conversation about why we're too old to smoke dope in the middle of the street. He rode off totally disgusted with us - it was hilarious...

So we chose Gili Air because it has the most coral reef around it for snorkeling and lots of places to stay, eat etc without being a party island. And after arriving here, I think it was a good choice. We have a little bungalow overlooking the ocean, the people are friendly, you can hire all the snorkeling equipment here and best of all the minibar is stacked with cold canned nescafe and diet coke. And it's not $4.20 a can like our last place. The very definition of heaven!

And to the snorkeling. The best bit first - we swam with a sea turtle!!!! It was awesome. And there are so so so many fish and varieties of fish and beautiful starfish and coral. Amazing. Phil went out early without me (I was sleeping off the last of the food poisoning) and came back having swum with two sea turtles and a squid!!

The not so good bit - turns out I am hopeless with flippers, and when I am in pain, or fear, from sharp coral, or fish that are too close, or water than is too deep, I express that pain/ fear with a little noise. And it plays on Phil's nerves like nothing else!

He forgets that he is better at physical stuff than most people, and I am worse - so there is a fair gap between our abilities. It tends to bring out GOMP - for example, while walking out to the water on the sharp dead coral (yes, slowly) GOMP turns to me and says, can I give you a piggyback, it gets dark at 6 here. At 1pm. Rude! Still, he makes up for it by teaching me how to use the fins and then physically dragging me out to the turtle spotting area and making sure I got to swim with a turtle.

To be fair, I did put several bags (yes the ones with the iPad, iPhone and camera - not the good one - in it) in the boat and they got a bit wet, which awoke the GOMP in the first place**.

We have booked for two nights here so far, but I think we'll stay for at least three. There is a little info packet in our room about our accommodation (Juliantos by the sea) which says that the record for overstaying here was a family who booked for two nights and stayed for three weeks! It's easy to see how you could. It's quiet, peaceful, stunning and there are no cars here so all transport is pushbike or horse and carriage. Such a nice change.

The only thing that is a bit difficult is because of the paucity of fresh water on the island, the shower is salt water. There is both cold and hot salted water, but only a small container of cold freshwater provided so you can wash off a bit of the salt. I suspect in addition to my patchy tan, I will leave here with hair a few shades lighter from the sun and saltiness.

On the way from Lombok to the harbour, we met a guy from New York who is half Indonesian and here with his Indonesian dad to see family. He's never travelled here before and was telling us about the culture shock he's experienced seeing the way his uncles lived - particularly dealing with traditional toilets and showers, which are quite different (of course there are western toilets and showers pretty much anywhere you stay). It made me think about all the cultural shock I still experience here and how much there is to learn about people on a daily basis.

During our trip to the fishing village at Tanjung Luar, our guide (whose name is Awunk) told us that some of the fisherman catch shark in Australian waters and also 'help' people get to Australia (ie. People smuggling). Despite the risk of getting caught and facing pretty serious penalties, they think it's the best option for them. According to him, the Australian jails are ok because you get a salary and food. His friends have come out of a 6 month jail term in Australia and just go back to what they were doing before. They fear the Indonesian jails though. It's so nice to come to Lombok where the tourism is so mild and think that it's better not to overrun a lovely culture with tons of loud, inconsiderate people, but stories like that make you realise why people are so keen for tourism to improve so they have better opportunities for work and for their children.

In the last five years, Awunk had farmed tobacco, painted and tried to sell paintings on the beach, tried to open a small gallery, done construction work, travelled to Bali, Jakarta and Yogyakarta looking for work and been a tour guide when a friend passed on a job to him. He spent the previous seven years teaching himself English so he can find better opportunities. It is incredible how much hard work people are prepared to put in to better their situations...

A NOTE: About the grammar and spelling of this blog.

The blog is set to American spelling, which I don't know how to change. Also I don't proof read this that carefully because I usually have limited wifi access and I can't be bothered. If you're a person I work with or may work with some day, rest assured that I know where commas and apostrophes go. I guess what I'm saying is I cannae be bothered... If you're finding it annoying, well that's what the comments are for people. God knows I'd welcome ANY comments at this stage!!


**GOMP made me write that



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