The Gili Islands are made up of 3 islands the first is Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. We arrived on Gili Air at around 11am, we managed to track down a bungalow for a cheap price which was unheard of in the peak times. We dumped our bags and headed to the bar. We rewarded ourselves with a large bintang beer. On first sights the island look idealic however the beaches weren't as perfect as we had been expecting, due to the large damage that has occurred to the coral reef. The locals years ago use to use dynamite to fish with and the consequences of this is mounds and mounds of dead coral washed up on the beaches. 

Whilst chilling with our first beer we got chatting to a couple of people at the bar, Jade from Norwich/cornwall and maowy from Australia. We immediately clicked with Jade and we became great friends over the 3 weeks. Maowy was a nice guy but obviously had a story to tell and we were sure we would hear it at some stage. He was nice enough however we never spent much time with him.

We spent most of our nights sat at the bar with Jade, she introduced us to a few of the westeners that lived on the island. Peter and mozzy were also from England, they were great people.... A little crazy at times but people we will keep in touch with. Peter was a dive instructor at Oceans 5 and it turned out that Ed and Peter were in Australia a few years back at the same time and place and were sure they had met previously.

Meeting Peter convinced both Ed and I that we wanted to try diving on Gili Air. Ed went on a dive at shark point and I managed to secure a place on the boat so I could sunbath whilst he was diving. Ed had a good dive however he wasn't as impressed with the dive sights, there was so much damage to the reef that he hadn't seen much. Once Ed had completed his dive it spurred me on to get back in the water,  however it had been a year since I learnt and I was still a nervous novice. 

I spoke to Peter and asked him if he would give me a warm up in the pool and then take me out for a fun dive. He was more than happy to do this and he completely put me at ease. He gave me my confidence back and I know can't wait to go diving again. I saw some really cool things however the damage was unmissable. I saw 3 turtles just chilling and I was within touching distance of them (however I didn't touch them) no matter how many I see they are still so cool and chilled out I'm fascinated by them. So Ed and I managed one dive each whilst on the island, we tried snorkelling however I was stung by a jellyfish a few times and it put us off. (No I didn't wee on the sting ;0) 

We had gone to the Gili islands with full intentions of Ed doing a few dives and for myself I wanted to lean yoga and find my inner hippy. Well I turned up for my first class and was pleased to see that there was only 3 in the class however they were doing a lot of building work next door and the noise was a little off putting. I felt good after my first class and was sure I would return....... However the next day I felt muscles I never knew I had... ha ha I couldn't  move. So in trying to find my inner hippy I nearly killed her it took me 3 days to get over it and by this time we were in full beach party mode due to Ramadan finishing on the island so yoga was soon forgotten about

Our parties normally started in our bar at sunset, we would order food in from the resturant next door and then not have to move. We soon became part of the family. 
It was a great feeling, Ed, Jade and I would take it in turns behind the bar and I was the local dj in the bar. We had a great time and I was soon being educated on real music......The Jam, Fleetwood mac, The Clash, Prince and many many more. I am a changed girl, whilst I type this I'm listening to Jonny cash. 

During one of our parties we met a guy David from England who worked as a designer for wrangler, we all got on well and had many parties together. One night he was talking to Ed about fashion, asking him what he liked and didn't like within minutes he had disappeared and came back with a pair of wrangler shorts for Ed! Not yet in the shops...... Yes Ed is ahead of fashion for once and is now wearing a very nice pair of chino shorts. I will try to get a photo as proof ;0) 

Our 3 weeks was soon coming to an end, we knew that we would have to extend our visas again before September. One of the locals we met had a friend who worked at the immigration office, actually he was head of immigration so we planned a day trip back to Lombok to extend our visas and to make a trip to pizza hut. It was great to get off the island for a day, we got a lift to the city in the back of a truck. It was great fun travelling through the mountains and the views were breath taking. 
We extended our visas with ease and were invited into the back offices whilst they were processed instead of having to queue with the many other tourists. We sat drinking tea and chilling out with the top immigration officer it was a case of not what you know but who you know ;0) our trip to pizza hut was equally successful and we stuffed ourselves with cheese pizza. Our day out was a success all round and we headed back to the island ready for our next beach party

We left Gili Air 3 days later than we had originally planned as we were having so much fun, our next stop was Gili meno for a week of detoxing and no beer!