Christmas on the Gili's
 
We thankfully left Kuta on the 23rd for the Gili Islands. Sadly however we would need to return due to the overcomplicated and ever changing process of getting a Visa extension in Indonesia, so with passports left with an Agent in Kuta we took the ferry (oversized speed boat) to Gili air. The Gili Islands consist of 3 small but very different islands;

Gili Trawangan - the party island
Gili Meno - almost deserted but good for relaxing
Gili Air - a mix of both

None of the islands allow cars or motorbikes; the only transport available is either by horse & cart or by bicycle, althought they are so small you can usually walk everywhere; that along with plenty of white sandy beaches and coral reefs makes them picturesque and idilic. On arrival at Soul Villas (a 4 star villa and treat for Christmas) we were told there was a surprise waiting for us in our room. On entering, the owners had set up a display of wine, beer and flowers accompanied by a lovely Christmas note from Sophie's Mum and Dad, who had purchased some drinks to help us celebrate Christmas away from home. We immediately cracked open a large Bintang beer each and admired our luxury home for the next few days.

After a dip in the pool we spent the next couple of days stocking up on Christmas style snacks consisting of Pringles, Toblerone, pistachio nuts and numerous packs of biscuits, and watching a pirated copy of Elf on DVD while wearing Santa hats (trying to save money Trevor had purchased a childs' size hat by accident which he had to perch precariously on his head to avoid headaches).

Waking up on Christmas day was a very strange experience; minus the usual Christmas wakeup call at 5am from Trevors' brothers instead we enjoyed a cooked breakfast and headed out for a traditional Balinese massage on a balcony overlooking the beach (I suppose we weren't too hard done by, if not a tiny bit painful on the sun burn). After Sophies' continuous updates about what would be happening at certain times back home, we headed to an internet cafe so Sophie could open the e-cards her Mum and Dad had sent and then purchased yet another Toblerone from a crazy lady who made Trevor almost wrestle for it after haggling a fair price. Back at the Villa we enjoyed a glass of wine and some nuts, and headed out to Scallywags (one of the nicer restaurants on the island) for a 'traditional' Christmas dinner. The dinner consisted of some form of roasted chicken and potatoes, a strange version of stuffing, bitter cranberry sauce, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese and a shot of eggnog. To be fair it was a good effort as we were on the other side of the world in a Muslim country! After dinner, with both of us still hungry and lacking the usual christmas style food coma we skyped our families back home who were enjoying proper home-cooked traditional dinners. Feeling a bit depressed about missing out we tucked ourselves up in bed and wolfed down cakes and more Toblerone, enjoying the home comforts of TV.

On Boxing day, instead of the usual gorging on leftovers we headed out to snorkel off the east coast of the island, but on this occasion had no luck in spotting wild turtles which the island was renowned for. We followed this with a disappointing Boxing day meal of curry and yet more Toblerone. The following day we tried our luck at snorkeling again, this time spotting 3 large turtles feasting on coral, lots of fish and even a sea snake. We were able to get really close to the docile turtles without them seeming bothered; a great experience for the both of us.
 
After being sad to leave our nice accommodation, we spent the next couple of days on Gili Meno, the most quiet of the islands, and then caught the boat over to Gili Trawangan ready for New Year. Being the party island it was getting pretty busy and the only cheap accommodation we could find after hours of walking around with our bags was the 'Jessica Homestay'; an extremely basic 12 bed dorm where the air conditioning barely worked. We had originally wanted to stay at the lively 'Gili Hostel', however after arriving and seeing a rabble of chavs wasted in the pool at 5pm, more reminiscent of a resort in Faliraki, we decided it was a good thing that the hostel was fully booked! Our hostel room was filled mainly with rich public school girl types on their 'gap yarrrs' funded by their fathers' trust fund. We did however meet Rev, a Brazilian national now living in New Zealand who we hung out with on our first night. We managed to find dinner of roast chicken which almost tasted as good as home-cooked, and spent the evening questioning Rev in detail about South America as that would be our final destination on our travels. He recommended not going to a cash machine after dark and to consider carrying a gun...We think he was exaggerating.

On New Years eve, after a very hot and sticky night kept up by the gap year girls drunken gossiping, we decided to show them that we could still party with the best of them without having to rely on 'daddies' money. The afternoon was spent sampling the local Bintang beer from the cheapest shop we could find and pretty much continued on until about 8pm until we headed out with a few other people in the dorm. The night consisted of 'joss shots', a nasty combination of powered energy drink washed down with a shot of vodka (our first and last of the night as they were disgusting). It ended in quite a blur after 4 of us took over a bar and played beer pong for a couple of hours, Sophie discovering a hidden talent for the game and possible career when she returns to England, and both of also cracking out some questionable dance moves tying to put off the opposition, too drunk to really realise how bad we looked. We can't put all the events of that night into a strict chronological order but somewhere in between drinking, we tried BBQ'd corn on the cob, the best Indonesian food yet from the night market, and chicken satay.

There wasn't a strict countdown for the New Year but everyone seemed to head down to the beach front around midnight to watch hundreds of random fireworks being set off from boats off the beach, as well as handheld fireworks launched mainly by very drunk tourists and often fired directly into the crowded beach - on several occasions we all had to duck! It was all pretty random but with locals and tourists wishing each other a happy New Year it was a nice end to the night and way to see in 2015. On returning to the hostel at around 2am we wished our families happy new year and Trevor's little sister Maddie a happy 3rd birthday (the hangover the next day wasn't as enjoyable)!

After a day to recover we booked in some scuba diving; Trevor to learn some skills and Sophie to take a Padi refresher course, followed by a 12 metre fun-dive. Trevor offered Sophie the back-handed complement that scuba diving was one of the first activities in their relationship that Sophie was actually more qualified and experienced at than him....it wasn't really taken as a complement! Unfortunately the dive around a sunken pier wreck lasted only 12 minutes after the Australian guy in our group panicked and wasn't able to breath properly under the water. We were however offered a free dive the next morning at the turbo dive sight, this time lasting 44 minutes; diving along a steep ridge of coral by a drop off and spotting around 6 turtles, clown fish, parrot fish and a highly poisonous lion fish.

That afternoon we caught a rather rickety boat over choppy seas to start our long 'boats and buses' combination journey to the Komodo islands.