Indonesia,Day 7 Gili Trawangan

Friday May 27^th

Woke up early again this morning and went and wandered on the beach for a bit before breakfast and then packing up and waiting for the shuttle. It came at 8:30, and after picking up another five people, we drove for forty minutes to the harbour. Lombok is what I thought Bali would be like: less traffic, beautiful coast line road with hills and lots of lookouts to gorgeous mostly deserted beaches. Lovely island.

I had purchased a ticket for the ride to the harbour and the boat to Trawangan Island, the largest of the three Gili Islands, and the return trip. The other two are smaller and flatter and called Gili Manu and Gili Air. Got there, they gave me a ticket for the boat and told me where to wait. Finally, after twenty minutes the boat started to load and I found out they had given me a ticket for a boat to the smallest of the three! That would have been fine except I had already booked and paid for a hotel on the other island. So, I had to quickly sort that out, with much confusion, and then wait another fifteen minutes for the shuttle boat to Trawangan. We were on a boat loaded with lots of supplies for the island. The ride across took about forty minutes and was quite pleasant.

This island is small and there are no cars or motorcycles allowed on it (no dogs either). So they use horsecarts. I knew my hotel was close to the harbour, so I walked. Lovely, new little hotel recommended by the hotel on Lombok. Checked in, got my room and then went immediately the beach. It is very hot and sunny and I needed to cool off. The water is lovely and warm and aquamarine. Swam for a bit and then went for a long walk on the beach around part of the island. Stopped at a restaurant and had a clubhouse sandwich and had a good conversation with a Frenchman about travelling alone. Then I walked back again, he took off on his bicycle. Walked, swam, people watched, and more of the same, for the rest of the afternoon.

After the sun went off the beach, I went back to my room for a swim in their pool and then a shower. When it got dark I followed the road back to the village area, which from what I can see if a bunch of restaurants and bars. It was a beautiful evening, warm with a perfect tropical breeze blowing. I chose a nice restaurant for my final meal on the islands of Indonesia. I had a shrimp cocktail, a tuna steak and a fried banana with chocolate sauce, once again alone by the beach listening to the waves. Walked around a bit more and then headed back to the room to blog and get some well deserved sleep.