Joris leaps

Traveling ain't traveling without taking feet shots everywhere you go. I found a foot-photo buddy in Joris. Kindred spirits, truly. He he.

Wun, one of the local pretty boys. Terrible but persistant guitar player.

Gili Air from Gili Meno, taken during an island-hopping snorkelling trip.

Indonesians are so playful!

My wonderful hosts on Gili Air, Amadea and Ari

Today I find myself back in Ubud, Bali, after 8 days in the glorious Gili Islands of Lombok.

Finally! A place I felt completely at home in, and - for the first time in this summer adventure, I felt totally and utterly relaxed. Gili Air has no cars or motorbikes - only tinkling cidomos (ponies and carts) and bicycles. I saw 2 TV's but didn't watch them. 1 internet place on the north of the island with "pedestrian" speed (putting it politely) and really quite (thankfully) useless.

It's a tiny, flat, rural, fishing island overlooking Lombok on one side and Gili Meno and Gili Trewangan on the other, with a resident population of about 800 (the Lonely Planet says 1800 but it's made a mistake) which gets boosted during August (and the European summer) with about 300 tourists. The rest of the the time there are probably less than 100 or so guests on the island. Most of them go there for the good diving and snorkelling, and its sublimely laid-back vibe and lack of hassle.

I arrived there after a hellish ride across from Bali on a small boat that got tossed and turned in the strait where two oceans meet and, on the beach after the dinghy dropped us off, I met a young fella named Idi who took me to a place called Mawar, which was to become my home for 8 days. And I really do mean home.

Mawar is run by an ever-smiling - nay - ever-giggling, stocky, long-haired and tattooed Sumatran man named Ari and his thoughtful, Viennese (!) girlfriend, Amadea (daughter of a famous orchestra conductor). They just took over Mawar in January this year, giving a complete style overhaul and the place looks great. The best thing for me were the nightly delicious family dinners for the guests who chose to eat in. Very nice for us solo travellers. I got to eat with people every night - and all of them very cool, fun, interesting.

Actually, to be honest, I didn't eat there for the first few nights because I had made friends with 2 lovely Dutch brothers - Joris and Joroen, on my first day and we spent all our time together - eating, beaching, snorkelling, boating, walking around the island and, best of all, drinking. We really clicked, as people, and we will definitely be meeting up again - either in Amsterdam or some other far-flung destination. Anyway, I took the boys to Mawar for dinner one night. They fell in love with the place too and we ate there again most nights after that, enjoying after-dinner beach bonfires and arak and new-found friends - mostly from Europe.

The night the boys left for Malaysia, the island had one of its bigger parties - a "moon-rising" beach party and bonfire, complete with DJ's and chill huts and a vast assortment of "party aids" (shhhh) available from the young party-boys of nearby Trawangan Island (famous as a party island). It was a great night - the moon almost full and a big crowd - half locals, half tourists mingled around the fire and DJ hut. Seemed I got offered pills or mushrooms by every third person - but, now in my dotage, I declined all offers other than beer or arak and spent the night dancing and talking with Amadea, Ari, some of their other guests and a bunch of the locals I had befriended during the week. I hear the party went till dawn but I didn't last the distance, retiring a few hours before the stayers and looking considerably more chirpy than the rest of the island the next morning.

The brief times I spent on Lombok - where the Gili Islands are, impressed me so much that I will be going back there to check it out thoroughly - it's just beautiful! So now I'm back in Ubud, Bali, and I find myself feeling a different person from the one who stayed here a week before. India left me feeling really hard and prickly - like everyone was out to rip me off, and no-one could be trusted.... I certainly wasn't laughing much. My time on Gili Air was such a breath of fresh air. I'm relaxed, far more friendly and certainly able to laugh at the hassles again.

I'm here till the 31st (and making the most of the spa's here) when I fly direct to Bangkok and then overnight to Tokyo - getting back on Saturday morning. I really don't want to leave lovely Indonesia and can't believe it's taken me so long to get here considering its proximity to Australia! But I'll be back. It's beautiful, diverse and affordable.

My Flickr sets are here (the Ubud one will probably be added to again before I leave so check it again in a few days...):
South Bali
Ubud
The Gili islands and Lombok

frangipani wrote this on August 29, 2007 1:19 PM