Gili T

Horse and Buggy

We landed on the shores of another small beach paradise island called Gili Trawangan. Its only 8km around which meant daily runs through the sandy dirt roads.  The place is famous for diving, a turtle hatchery, Bob Marley cover bands, and no motorized transportation.  You may think this means the roads are less chaotic but you find yourself constantly looking over your shoulder to dodge an approaching horse and buggy.

Kentucky fried chicken is a favorite among Indonesians.  Although the island doesn't have fast food restaurants, the street food carts advertise Kentucky fried chicken (spelled in every way imaginable). When checking into our hostel, the guy working the desk asked where we from and when we said California, he responded with, "Ohhhh, like the chicken!  Yum!".   He was so excited about it, we just smiled and gave a nod.

The crabs call this coconut home

The people of the Gili islands are predominantly muslim and we happened to be there for the final days of Ramadan.  The mosque is in the middle of town and has a speaker facing every direction so the day's prayers can be heard from all over the island.  Our hostel was right next door and sounded like the prayers were held in the bathroom.  All of the tourists walk around in bikinis, shorts, and flip flops with a beer in one hand and mushroom shake in the other basically in front of the island mosque that has been singing/chanting religious literatrure for 24 hours.  Most locals work in the tourism industry but come Friday evening, a lot of places shut down and you may see the guy who took you diving earlier that day in traditional dress on his way to prayers.  Meanwhile the tourists on holiday are gearing up for the Friday night party.  It seems so polar, the two worlds that coexist on the island. The younger generation seems to embrace the relaxed, rasta island culture but it makes you wonder how the older generations who saw the transformation of the island into a tourist paradise feel about it. The juxtaposition of it all makes it a bit difficult to understand and you realize how tourism can change a place.

Island Mosque

Andy has had his mind set on diving with sharks since we got certified and Gili T was the place to do it.  You can dive to 30 meters at the dive site called Shark Point and inevitably see white tip and black tip sharks. The ones we encountered measured 1-2 meters.  They are not aggressive sharks and they mostly avoid divers but it still sends a chill down my back seeing one swim past.  Although sharks were the main attraction, the amount of life there is incredible.  The turtles turned out to be the coolest part of the dive.  Lots of turtles ranging in size from an apple pie to a VW Beatle.  Ok maybe not as big as the latter but Andy's description of it gets bigger and bigger every time he talks about it.  I missed the Cessna sized turtle that Andy saw at his 5 meter safety stop because I stayed underwater longer.  As Andy describes it, the turtle blended in so well with the surroundings he almost mistook it for a rock but then it came into focus like going cross-eyed to see a magic eye picture.

The rest of the time we snorkeled off shore.  Our hostel resided on the main road across the street from the beach and a turtle hatchery.  About 10 meters from shore, the reef begins and quickly drops off about 20 meters resulting in a who's who of tropical fishes.  The color of water abruptly changes from turquoise to dark blue.  This is the home of two turtles that were released from the hatchery. They stay close to the boats anchored in front of the hatchery where they are fed until they are big enough to swim to open water and reach blimp-sized proportions.  To make it to the spot where the turtles are, you swim through schools of glass fish, unicorn fish, a few trigger fish, and curtains of a thousand other brightly colored creatures.  If you're lucky you will find the two turtles that gracefully swim to the surface for breath every 15 minutes. They slowly peek their noses above water before retreating to the bottom again to camouflage themselves with the rocks. 

Turtle Hatchery

Gili T is a beach paradise, a diving mecca, and a cultural experience.  We are giving our bathing suits a rest and heading to Java. 
 

Sunset over mangrove roots