Beachcombers' Bungalows Gili Trawangan

... small island) just off the NW coast of Lombok. People come here to dive, maybe surf on the back side and generally just chill. There are a LOT of other Swedes here - the weather being what it is back home, you'll generally find a large accumulation of Swedes on any given warm tropical beach. Go figure.

Anyway, the trip over from Bali was calm, saw a few dolphins, even got fed on the boat. Only
weird thing was that they'd ...

... to my Paradise’ was a Gili T favourite. Everyone knew it, and everyone sang it; and after hearing it a few times it was stuck in our heads and we would be singing to, except we only knew the first few words so when we sang it it would go like “Welcome to my paradise…. Da da da da da …. Da da da da da….” As you do.

Anyway, the next two days and nights were spent eating out, and beaching it up. Food at a nice restaurant would ...

... a try at the motor. It lasted about 2 seconds until the boat caught a wave and the guy quickly grabbed back the handle. After further talking to them we learned that those boats will leave for the islands no matter what the conditions are like on the water. This we will keep in mind for our journey back.

After arriving on the islands (thank goodness) we began our 3 hour mission to find a reasonable place to stay. We decided to ...

... there after the calm and organised KL, it seemed chaotic - a beach town with too many people and way too much traffic - the place should definitely be pedestrianised!
And after 2 weeks in dry-ish Malaysia it was weird seeing drunks again!

So we spent 2 nights in Kuta beach and did what everyone else there does (apart from the surfing - bugger that!!).... pool, beach, shopping (oodles of fab surf shops there!) and BOOZE!

Lombok
After a heavy, late night ...

... br>turns out it wasn't nice – kinda dead/sleepy, had the feel of a
place that was kicking once upon a time but not anymore – and was
more expensive that Ned's for accommodation so we bedded down for a
night and decided to get the boat straight to the Gili Islands the
following morning. Next morning we loaded onto a small boat for the
hour long trip to the Gili's, passing some lovely looking deserted
beached on north Lombok. We got ...

... for a ticket and given the same or another ticket back. You keep double-checking what vehicle or boat you're entering as chaotic organization makes it confusing.
What I was afraid of became true. We arrived on Gili Trawangan after dusk, probably as the last boat for the day and of course all the reasonable accommodation facilities were full. Newcomers including me were walking around and hoping for ...

... time. The birds look a bit worse for wear, some look damaged (some look psychotic). Meno though is definitely worth the visit, don't be put off by people saying it's too quiet, it's not. With a permanent population of just 500, I'd say it's just right. All the islands have a healthy population of stoned workers who constantly forget your order and offer you weed. Trawangan has numerous bars and cafes selling mushrooms but we declined (look mum, I'm being sensible).

... see sharks. I would rather not see them. According to her my depth would make it a sighting very unlikely. We went through the various signals in the pool and practiced the out of air routine. At first, I felt like I couldn't get enough air but by the end of the session I felt good. So, its 10 am and we are off to the ocean! There are about 10 of us on a little boat, each person has their own dive master, even the people ...

... a beer for Willy to fix the chain on my bike, I pedaled home to beat the sun from coming up. Needless to say, the next day was a very slow day. We spent most the day relaxing on the beach. The snorkeling is some of the best in the world...& would probably be even more amazing if it wasn't for the dynamite fishing the locals did years ago. Much of the coral is dead, as evident of the beach. But about 10-20 metres off the shore is amazing snorkeling. Very ...

... was fun to see them eat what we offered them. We spent six nights on Gili Trawanagan all together, but most of our days had very similar itineraries. We would wake up, enjoy our provided breakfasts of a banana jaffle (for Lisa) and a banana pancake (for myself), then grab our mats and head out to the beach. We usually walked north along the east coast and set ourselves up on the northeastern shore where we could take our snorkeling gear out and explore the reef ...