The fast ferry to the Gili Islands was a tad bumpy and hot but it was great to get to Gili Air the smallest of the three Gili Islands which just lie off the coast of Lombok.

Gili Air (water) was a pretty laid back island with loads of diving and as we found out, not so great snorkelling. Most of the locals are from Lombok so the religion is predominantly Muslim. That felt quite weird as it felt like being back in the middle east with the call to prayers five times a day from the Mosque.

We had our first taste of being at a hostel after roughing it (not) at guest houses. I definitely felt my age and the Islands are full of fit brown 20 somethings strutting around. Ah well. The beaches were pretty nice and the water warm with quite a few fish but all the coral appears to be dead sadly. The Islands were full of cats and no dogs due to the religion we found out. Josh jokingly thought it was due to dog being on the menu.

We hung out on Gili Air for a few days before going to Gili Tranwangan for another few days. Emma was keen on going to this island as it was meant to be the party island but turned out to be more people but not a late night scene to be had. We had some fantastic food at the Night Market but the restaurants did not live up to Bali's quality. We all agreed that we preferred the first island and didn't get to Meno as it is a honeymooners place. Due to time constraints because Emma is meeting up with a friend in Bali we couldn't make it to Lombok as planned or Komodo Island but at least we didn't have to start our malaria tablets.

In Gili T. we stayed at an awesome little place where we ended up befriending the two guys that ran it. They were so lovely and went out of their way for us we had a few good late night chats. We were all quite keen to head back to Bali after checking out the Islands.

The trip back was smoother on the Wahana to Padang Bai but we ended up waiting for an hour before it left and an hour before it docked. Island time.