First blog in a long time! We're now back in Bali after spending 8 days on the Gili Islands. We stayed on Gili Trawangan, a small island that you can get round in about 2 hours.

We arrived in Gili via fast boat from Bali, this took about an hour and a half. When the island came into view we thought, wow this is paradise! We pulled up to a tiny little harbour, jumped off the boat and waded through the water, bags in hand, to be met by horse and carts and so many people shouting 'you need room'! There are no cars on the Islands, just horse and carts and push bikes. Seemed like such a joy in the beginning but by the end we missed the hustle and bustle of cars and scooters!

We followed one guy who said his accommodation was on the beach, he led us up a little alley which definitely wasn't on the beach so we turned back. The next person was pretty much on the beach, just up a little path into a homestay. Homestay's are pretty much rooms/bungalows where the owner lives. Really basic backpackers accommodation!

Our first room didn't look anything special and was roasting! Only had a fan that did absolutely nothing! We told the guy we'd take it for one night. That way we could look for something else without having our heavy backpacks on in the roasting hot heat! Our neighbours seemed nice, Nick and Amy from London. It's a shame the shower wasn't so nice, as soon as you put the water on (salt water that is) loads of ants came out of no where! The whole island had salt water. The water was from the sea but was filtered. Not as rough as sea water but still didn't do your skin or hair any good! Tasted awful too!

We managed two nights in our homestay, with no air con, but had to move to be able to sleep! Moved to Bungalows, just off the beach, really nice with air con and a hammock on the balcony. Stayed here for the rest of our stay.

Our first night turned out to be a party night. The island has three party nights - Mon Blue Marlin, Wed Irish Bar, Fri Rudys. We had a few drinks on our balcony with our new neighbours then partied til about 2 at the Blue Marlin. This was after being up at half 5 that morning. The tiredness must have got to Dean cause he was a tad boozy!

Our next few days were spent chilling out on the beach etc. We even watched a dvd on the beach! They have little wooden shacks/huts that you can watch a dvd/play playstation in. Pretty cool little things when your tired and want out of the sun. We hired a few bikes and cycled round the island, it was pretty cool seeing exactly how the locals live. Dean attempted to do wake boarding but the boat wouldn't start! He was all strapped in, bobbing about in the sea for about 45 mins! I was sitting in the boat whilst the guys tried to get it started - this was a scary time!! Fuel spilling everywhere, hitting the engine with a hammer, causing sparks right next to the fuel tank! I seriously thought the boat and me where going to get blown up! We got a boat over to Gili Meno, this takes about 20 mins. Was cool to see another island but was pretty much a waste of time. Could have nipped over for about an hour and that would have been enough. We had no option but 6 hours as this is when the boat was coming back for us. Apart from where the boat moors up there is nothing on the island at all. We walked pretty much all the way around the island and saw nothing! Eventually we came across a few guys with horse and carts so decided to jump in one to take us the rest of the way. Bad idea! I absolutely hated it, felt so sorry for the poor horse. All of the horses on Trawangan and Meno looked to me like the needed some rest, food and water. We came to a really sandy bit so we jumped out to help the horse out. I said to Dean it looked as though the poor horse needed water so we persuaded the guy to feed the horse our bottled water! Honestly he looked at us like we were nuts! That made me feel a little better so we jumped in again. Again we came to a really sandy bit where the poor horse struggled, I was hating every second! We (Dean) told the driver (if thats what you call him!?) we would walk the rest of the day and handed him 50,000 rupiahs - about 3 pound 50. He did not bad out of it considering we told him he'd get 70,000 for the whole trip! We walked on further and eventually came to the 'nice' bit of beach. It was tiny. I did lie and read my book on it for a while and actually felt like I was on the set of Lost, nobody going about at all! Was pretty relaxing!

Our last few days consisted of partying on Friday with Nick and Amy, this time we lasted til about 5! Very sore heads in the morning. Saturday was another day hiding from the sun in the dvd shack! We went snorkeling and saw some amazing fish, also huge turtles! It was an amazing experience. One we'll definitely never forget. After this we had something to eat on the beach and came across a little monkey sitting in a tree. He was harnessed on and connected to a extending dog lead! His owner came and gave him lunch which was some sort of spaghetti with a kids plastic bowl! Monkey draped his noodles/spaghetti over a branch and launched the bowl! Too funny!

Monday night (our last night) we said goodbye to our new buddies with a few beers on their balcony.

Must say by the time Tuesday morning came we were ready to leave and get back to some sort of normality. We were really sick of the food, pretty much every meal wasn't up to much and were sick of doing to same walk up and down the one and only 'street'. Oh we were also sick of having dirty feet as soon as we stepped outside our bungalow!

Bye bye Gili Islands!

Love

Chelle & Dean xxx