The Gili Islands

Here is a view from the bushes on Gili Trawangan.  In the distance is the coast of the small island Gili Meno.  I spent two days on this island before moving on.  The beach is beautiful but the sun is so hot there that you have to stay in the shade most of the day.  The mid day heat can really hurt you.  One day on Gili Meno I went snorkelling for an hour and burned my back.  I have a pretty nice tan line where my shorts are.

While on the island I met people from all over the world.  Many people from Europe travel there, especially the Dutch.  The Netherlands claimed the islands in the 16th century looking for spices such as sugar, cloves, nutmeg and the like.  I met people from California, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, the UK and Australia not to mention the rest of Indonesia while I was there. 

There is a strong connection with nature on these islands and everywhere you go there is some sort of wildlife popping up, whether it be the colorful gamefowl that are kept for both food and for fighting or something else.  One morning I woke up to my alarm around 7:30 but decided to lay back down.  Half an hour later I was awakened by the squawking of a gecko in my room.  Indeed it was the largest gecko I've ever seen and it was making a loud noise like a bird. That made me get out of bed.  I saw other large lizards lounging about in the shade around my hotel.  I think they were a kind of monitor.  On the beach there are little pink shell crabs.  If you wait long enough they will run into each other and fight, trying to pull the other out of its shell.

Snorkelling on the islands is a great experience although it can be dangerous.  As I walked the beach there were quite a few people wearing bandages from being cut on the coral.  Before I got the hang of it I made an attempt to fight the tide by grabbing onto a big piece of coral.  I cut my hand there and then later cut my foot trying to get out to the reef during low tide.  At least I didn't really bite it.  Once I got out into the reef there were many beautiful fish and colorful coral.  There are many schools of neon tropical fish .  The tide can be a bit dangerous and there is a steep dropoff into deeper water at one end of the reef.  If you're not careful you can get sucked down the shelf with the undertow, who knows how far.  There are divers that do it on purpose with scuba gear but I'm not interested.  Nearby the islands there is a Japanese shipwreck from WWII.  I was told there are large sea turtles in that area along with other large fish including sharks.  It was my first time snorkelling so I passed on the deeper water.  One guy I met from California was a serious diver. During the day he would go diving with the local school and in the evening he drank at the bar.