Day 63 - Bali - Gili Trawangan

Well we're up at the crack of dawn, get all of our stuff together and go downstairs to reception to check out and wait to be picked up and took to Padang Bai for the fast boat to Gili Trawangan.

Still half asleep and Budi picks us up in his little van and we're in there with an australian family also off to the Gili's. The drive to Padang Bai is about 1 hour and 30 mins and despite how tired we were we daren't fall asleep. The way they drive over here is mental! You look up and can see scooters and other cars on the wrong side of the road heading straight for you and apparently if they beep it means get out of my way i'm not moving! We could see soooo many accidents waiting to happen but despite driving on the wrong side of the road, sometimes just in the middle of 2 lanes and pulling out into oncoming traffic we survived and made it to Padang Bai in 1 piece.

Just as we were pulling up to the office for the fast boat the heavens opened and it lashed it down! It had only been raining a couple of minutes but when we stepped out of the van there were streams running down the street (flip flops were not a good idea it would seem). We waited in a little cafe for about 5 minutes while the rain died off and sorted our tickets out. Despite writing my name on the booking slip myself when I gave it to the guy to get the tickets for the boat my name then got changed to 'Rohana' and I didn't have the heart to correct him as hearing 'Rohana' shouted across the room was quite funny. After we'd got our tickets we were then taken to the Sea Marlin fast boat and were soon on our way to Gili Trawangan :)

The sea got quite rough so if you were slightly sea sick then you probably would have had your head over the side for most of the journey ... us on the other hand loved it! Just under 2 hours later and we were pulling up to the harbour at Gili Trawangan. The boat (for some reason) could not pull right up to the harbour, so another boat came up to ours and we all had to climb onto a much smaller boat which then pulled up to the beach and we had to jump off into the shallow sea, wait for our bags and can feel instantly that this is well hotter than Bali!

We walk off of the beach and get a Cimodo (horse and cart) to take us to our hostel Pondok Lita where we'll be spending the next 5 nights. It only takes about 5 minutes from the main strip and when we arrived I got off with the bags and just as Si was trying to get off the horse decided to try and run away HAHAHAHA you should have seen his face it was pure panic! He jumped off the moving cart and left the guy to chase after his horse ... I told him he should have just grabbed the reins and not been such a chicken :)

We check into our room and are told that the best setting for the fan is 2 ... we then discover that the fan actually goes up to 6 but if you turn it past 2 then it shakes quite alot and looks like it might fall off the ceiling so 2 it is!

After dumping our stuff and topping up on sun cream we go for a wander around the island to see whats what and to get some breakfast/dinner as we're both starving! As we're sat eating dinner Si starts to attack my chair, I turn around to ask him what he's doing and notice a spider crawling up my chair! Everytime he knocked it off it crawled back up its spidey web. Finally Si knocked it on the floor and it began to not crawl but jump in another direction. I dont like spiders at the best of times but jumping ones are just wrong! Si says he knows he's used to being in Indonesia now as he looked at the menu and saw that the large bottles of beer he'd been drinking back in Bali were about 50p more expensive (making it about £1.50) and thought it was a rip off :)

With our bellies nice and full we scoped out the strip to see where things were and what places had the best offers on so we know where to go for drinks and tea later. Whilst walking we see a place called Tir Na Nog which is an irish bar and apparently this is the smallest island in the world to have an irish bar.

When we return to the Guesthouse we sit outside our room in the communal garden with a beer and meet our neighbours which are 2 irish girls. They've been on the island a couple of days and recommend some of the stuff for us to do while we're here. We head inside to have our first experience of a cold salt water shower but the water wasn't running ... after a couple of hours we hear the water come back on and get showered as quickly as possible incase the water decided to go off again half way through. Showering in salt water isn't that bad you just have to try and remember not to get any in your mouth and having no hot water isn't an issue because of how warm it is here even at night so it actually feels nice and refreshing having a cold shower ... I would say we both definately feel like we're proper back packing now though :)

All the restaurants are on the beach front so we just picked one at random and went and had us some tea. There are alot of cats on the island and you see then wandering around while people are eating begging for food. We must have got the slightly thick cat because it came over to us when we'd finished our food and the plates had been taken away. When it realised we didn't have any food it started attacking the table cloth ... bless.

After tea we walked up to one of the bars with an offer on local spirits, Si had rum and coke which was ridiculously strong and I had vodka which tasted suspiciously like brandy but it only cost about 70p so you cant complain!

We called it a night and headed back to the room for some shut eye.