Hi everyone!
Last night we went to the local street market for dinner. I had a delicious mix of vegetarian options and three skewers (chicken, beef and prawn). The market had a really vibrant atmosphere with vendors calling out trying to sell their products, and lots of smells wafting around the place. Apparently it just pops up at night then disappears later on.
We went out for a few drinks after that at a place called Jiggy's. They had good music so we had a bit of a dance and then headed back. As I mentioned yesterday, this part of Indonesia is mostly Muslim. However, it's very leniently Muslim compared to middle eastern countries, as alcohol is served everywhere, there are people every few metres trying to sell drugs, and people walk around in bikinis all the time. But at 5.07am when I was woken up by the wailings of the call to prayer, Gili felt very Muslim to me! It must have been loud because I even heard it through my earplugs. Annoying but just one of those things I guess! Luckily I managed to go back to sleep.
I had eggs benedict for breakfast and we met our boat trip at 10am. Ryan told us on the trip that the reason there is so much rubbish and rubble here is because last November they decided they didn't want shops and bars right near the water anymore so they demolished them all. They clearly didn't think this through very well though because none of the debris were cleaned up and now there are random ruins of bricks, tiles etc scattered about. Apparently 2/3 of the bars here were lost.
The boat trip was great. Once again we were treated to some ripper weather when it was meant to be miserable. We went snorkelling three times. The first time we saw lots of fish and a ship wreck which was pretty cool!! Being Australian and having been to the Great Barrier Reef though, no other snorkelling experience ever really compares. But it was good all the same and as I was about to find out, we were in for a treat at the next stop...
I had heard people mention there are many turtles around the Gilis, but obviously like anything else there is no guarantee you'll see any. Our guide set off snorkelling and we followed him. First we could see four of them very faintly on the ocean floor but very far away. Then we saw another one which I followed for a while, but again it was in the distance. All of a sudden I could see a group of tourists clustered together with their faces down, so we swam over there and it was totally worth it. There was a turtle just a couple of metres below us eating the greenery between the coral. It was so active!! I hung around for ages and then it even came up to take a breath. I was honestly 30cm away from it which was amazing. I then realised though that I didn't know any of the people around me, and I was glad of this too because they all started surrounding the turtle, one girl touched it and it swam away. Idiots! I looked up and could see the group shouting and waving from our boat and it turned out they were waiting for me - oops!! But I was really glad I had stayed.
We went for lunch on Gili Air, the third of the Gili Islands (the other two being Gili T and Gili Meno). It was much more chilled out and quiet than Gili T. Claire and I went for a bit of a walk and we could see mountainous Lombok in the distance. Then it was back on the boat for one last snorkel. The sky started to go quite dark and we headed back to Gili T.
Now I'm about to have a shower and read my book before we head out for dinner and some drinks later on. Tonight is the last night of our tour. While most people are staying on here, myself and my guide Ryan will be on the 11am boat back to Padangbai tomorrow. I'll then be taking a bus to Kuta for my final two nights there. I've had a really great time with the group enjoying lots of different activities, but I am really excited for the waterpark on Tuesday as well and a bit of chilled out solo time before I head home :)
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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