Falling prey to the siren’s song on Gili Trawangan

“You’ll be in Indonesia? You HAVE to go to the Gilis.” Every single traveler we met gushed about these three small islands just a ferry ride away from Bali. It’s pretty fucking impressive when one location garners nothing but enthusiastic raves from everyone – so it was our next stop, of course. The Gili’s are off the northwest coast of Lombok and consist of 3 tiny islands: Gili Trawangan (the “party” island), Gili Meno (chill and good for couples) and Gili Air (smaller and less developed).

Turquoise blue waters and white sand beaches? Check. Coral reefs teeming with aquatic life? Check. Delicious food and solid nightlife scene? Check. Gili Trawangan was exactly what we needed after months spent bouncing from place to place for some serious chill time. What more could we ask for? You can walk around the entire thing in about three hours. The island has no motorized vehicles (only bikes or horse-pulled carts) and the only power comes from it’s lone generator, which often cuts out. Basically, our days consisted of chilling out at our bungalow, hanging out on the beach, snorkeling/scuba diving, eating and drinking with new friends. Gili T has a way of drawing you in and making you slow your pace of life WAY the fuck down.

Since we’ve rarely stayed in one place for more than a few days, it was great to actually get to know other travelers and locals. We hung out with a Spanish couple on their honeymoon, our scuba diving group and some crazy Swedes (who we babysat on their first mushroom experience, at their request). For the first time during our trip, we ran into some friends we knew from San Francisco who were also traveling around the world. The locals gave us the scoop on Gili T – how the government came in and knocked down many houses without proper land titles, how crystal meth is quite popular with the younger populace and how hooking up with western girls is frowned upon in this devoutly Muslim country (but done anyway).

Originally, we had thought about climbing volcanos in Lombok, seeing the Komodo dragons and taking a boat trip to Flores. All that flew out the window once we stepped foot on Gili Trawangan. (Raising a Bintang beer) Here’s to taking it easy….