Gilis and Beyond...

Getting to the Gilis was less of a hassle than initially anticipated. The gillis, I should explain, are three tiny (1 sq km ) islands off the coast of Lombok, the Connecticut sized islamic island neighboring Bali. Generally they are renowned for their isolation, pristine beaches and incredible diving. It was here that we decided to get our Scuba certification and do some beach lounging. After setting out from Ubud to a small port town on the East coast of Bali, we boarded a rickety "fast boat"- basically the standard Indonesian bamboo boat with six outboard engines crammed onto the back, and headed across the channel to toward the intimidating smoldering volcanos of Lombok (10000ft high!) accompanied by numerous severely hungover and/or still drunk Australians and Brits. From Lombok it was a quick boatride to Gilli Trawanagan, where, mercifully, the Aussies left us for "the party Gilli" and we caught another boat, with only a pair of Austrian lesbians, to the quieter Gili Air.

Right off the boat it was a much quieter vibe, and a two hundred foot walk to our charming bungalow and from there a short commute to our dive school (oceans five). We took a sunset stroll around the entire island in about an hour, listening to the chants of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer across the water, through coconut groves and past families working on their wood and bamboo fishing boats. Not a motor on the island, not even a motorbike, just donkey carts humping their way around the sandy paths. Not a big party scene either thankfully, although we did see an Indonesian carrying an enormous bag of ecstasy, apparently Indonesia as an Islamic nation does not drink (although alcohol is everywhere) but does indulge in the use and manufacture of MDMA, and is the worlds biggest exporter of the stuff. We settled into a decent meal at one of the beachfront restaurants where you pick a fish or lobster from the display and they grill it over coconut husks for you. Not a half bad way to start the beach portion of the trip.

Day two we got to work at our dive school, under the expert, if indecipherable tutelage of one Cockney accented South Londoner who I could understand about 75% of what he said. Thankfully, Olivia works in London regularly and could translate. Sample quote- "so we'll just pop downstairs chum-chum, you and the missus are looking like a right well pucker bird and geezer down there..." etc etc.

And the dives were, well, incredible. I won't bore you non-diving types with the details, but it was damn beyond the best diving I've ever done- reefs that extended for miles, green sea turtles nesting in barrel sponges the size of thirty gallon drums, lionfish, angelfish, parrotfish, wrecks, moray eels thicker than my thighs, just truly truly spectacular stuff. Great instruction, great dive shop (although you may not want to go right now- we watched as the whole island came running to put out the fire that -was- their power generator.) and overall a phenomenal experience. And really incredible to head to dives in traditional boats that are made of wood and bamboo, with these crazy outriggers than make them look like giant waterbugs (see photo).