Well after 8 days of civilisation it was time for us to hop on yet another boat to the tropical paradise of Gili Trawangen.

The Gili Islands are on the east coast of Bali and are made up of 3 islands, Gili Trawangen, Gili Meno and Gili Air, Trawangen is the largest and Air is, well just tiny. There is no such thing as cars or scooters, just horse and cart or bycicle Which was so peacefull for a change. As we pulled up to the shore to get of the boat we were hit with the instant love of the island and the most perfect tropical, crystal clear water we have ever seen. Its literally paradise.

After trawling around after some guy showing us hotels (I forgot to mention in the last blog, after a few too many cocktails I fell and have an extremely painfully sprained ankle which James has very nicely bandaged up for me, however can barely walk) we were shown to Edy homestay. After our prison sell of a room back in Kuta we opted for the nicer room. It was like a funny dome shape and was gorgeous. Hot shower and a balconay but the best part was the open air bathroom, it sounds odd but was gorgeous all tiled with a big sink made from rock. (We both agreed this is what we want our bathroom like when we get a house but with the roof of course). The guys that ran it were incredible but more about them later.

We were straight to the beach an in the sea with snorkles round our heads before you could say boo. After my excitement in the waves in Kuta I can now officailly say I am no longer afraid of gettin in the sea. James's face is always a picture when im the first one diving in after months of me standing with my big toe in (reminds me of dan when we were little and dad calling him the big toe dipper for never going in) anyway. The sea was so clear and the visability for snorkeling was great. We spent ages bobbing up and down with the fish there were so many. At one point a school of honestly millions of fish (not very big but there were literally 1000's) circled us for ages it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. That night we went out for a meal and I cant quite remeber what else we did.

The following day again was spent on the beach snorkelling. We bumped into Harry and Amy and their freind Sean so spent some time with them. That night we all went out but the following day we were going diving so couldnt go wild but still a good night.

The Dive

We booked it with a company called Manta Divers, it was the first time we had bothed dived together after my little freak out in Koh Toa and the first time we had done it as qualified divers so we were both really excited. I desperatly wanted to see a shark and it was very likely that we would. The best part of the diver was gettin in, rather than jump off the boat we did it were you sit on the edge and go backwards, like what "real" divers do =) The diver was average nothing as impressive as Koh Tao as there wasnt much coral and quite honestly not as much marine life as we had expected. James looks so natural at water sports no matter what it is (well except surfing) but me, oh my goodness Im so clumbsy. Trying to decend my legs were floating above my head and I was rolling about all over the place instead of been all nicely streamlined and controlled. Im either floating up or bashing into the coral at one point james dragged me up as I was kicking some eal in the head with my fins. At one point in the dive the guy pointed to what looked like a sting ray and him James and the other guy in our group swam off really quickly, totally missing the huge turtle on the floor I just hovered and watched it trying to scream down my regulator at the others as they were missing the 3 turtles I had found. Well, when we came up from our dive the dive master explained that it had been an eagle ray, something incredibly rare in those waters and if they were lucky they maybe saw one a year. Turtles I later found out you see snorkeling everywhere all the time so thats why it was no biggy. I loved it anyway.

The next day was another day at the beach and a trip to the night market for food, which was so good and so cheap. James found these pancakes that were honestly the size of a birthday cake and as think as a victoria spong delicious but my goodness sickly.

Because we have so much time in Bali we decided to stay an extra night on Gili T so we booked a snorkelling trip for the next day. There were 3 stops to snorkle and some sunbathing time on Gili Air.

We have to say the snorkelling was fan bloody tastic. We were the first ones off the boat everytime. It was so clear with som many tropical fish to see, but we were in search of turtles. The second spot off we went and success we found a turtle so got to swim along side it for ages. This was perfect untill we surfaced and saw HOW FAR we had gone with the current. We were at least 200mtrs from the boat in a sea full of sharks. I still had a bad foot so swimming was so hard untill I saw 2 huge trigger fish (if you swim over them they attack you) I flipped my flippers like a crazy woman, well untill I got ahead of James, turned to the side and saw a sea snake.....one of the most poisonous things in the sea if they bite you. Scared to death I was sraight out of the sea. The final point was on the reef just off the shore of Gili Air, we both spotted a turtle and were off the boat to follow it. Here we saw a few but each time its just as incredible, its like being in finding nemo.

Again that night it was a trip to the market and a few drinks but what an amazing few days we have had here.

Oh and just about Edy homestay... every morning they would bring us breakfast to our balcony, I always had a banana pancake and each day he would make the bananas in to different shapes, one day I got a moon and sun, another a flower it was so cute. Everytime we got back they would be like 'welcome home' and not that it will sound too funny to read but, they had a cat called Adele, as in Adele the singer they love her. He would sit and sing Adele songs to this little cat all day everyday. sometimes he even called th cat by the song names like, come here 'someone like you'. I guess you kind of had to be there, this is just a reminder for us to look back and laugh at.