My feelings about Gili Trawangan and about everything in general had changed 180 degrees over night; when yesterday I felt like I wanted to just go home and I was sulking around and nothing excited me (I was starting to suspect a weird case of home sickness I’ve never had / bad case of hangover sadness) today I was loving life, enjoying myself and smiling at the world :)
I had read about the islands (Gili Trawangan, -Air and –Meno) from this Finnish blog that seizes to exist anymore and I had high expectations to be fulfilled. The pictures this person had taken were breathtaking and I was waiting to be astonished myself. But yesterday, since my overall mood was shit, I didn’t see the reason why this island was so special. But, like I said, the next morning everything was different:
I’m loving the islands’s atmosphere; when yesterday I was just plain bored, today chilaxing and not doing anything seemed ike a perfect combo. Plus, now we have the island full of friends, thanks to yesterday, and it no longer feels like I was (or we were) alone. Also the rhythm of the island was cool – the sunset was the only thing to set the pace. I was truly enjoying the island’s way of simple life :)
Although I had felt pretty miserable yesterday, we managed to turn the evening around and have a good night. After arriving on the island in the morning and bumping into a Finnish couple (Lotta&Ilkka) we learnt that there was a bonfire every night on the beach overlooking the sunset. So naturally we went there.
Long and Agus, two Gilians with ridiculous afros walked/biked us there and after arriving at the beach we met this Norwegian guy (with the bluest eyes in the world) and this German guy. They failed to amuse us and because we just didn’t click, we kinda bailed on them accidentally.
We decided to buy a beer and I’m glad we did, because at the bar this girl complimented my dress I had purchased at a flee market. We started taking with Kelly (USA) and Chris (England), this couple that were doing long distance. They both were teaching English with the difference of Chris teaching in Korea and Kelly teaching in Japan. We relly hit it off when they asked us how old we were ”well, actually... 21 today.” ”IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY? OMG! WE HAVE TO BUY YOU A DRINK”. And that’s how we met our first mates :) We also started talking with this other bunch of people from England, Jenn, Ian and Rich.
The Market
We all decided to meet up at the Irish pub (after hotel runs and dinners), since on Wednesdays they have a massive party. We figured we’d go buy a beer from the store with Jasmine since it was super expensive at the bar. Typical island pricing. We were looking at the beers at a shop near the market when we noticed they also had vodka! We decided to buy a small bottle (only 19,5% whattt) and just then this Indonesian lady who was eating there asked us to sit down an we kindly did. We got some cups and started mixing the juice and the vodka. I felt kind of awkward drinking vodka infront of the Indonesian lady so I explained it was my birthday. ”IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY?” And then the lady, Sri, got up and ran to the other side of the store/kitchen. She came back with another small bottle and insisted upon it being my birthday present. I was so taken ! She was adorable :) She said she couldn’t drink (religious reasons, I assume) but she had a cup of juice with us before we headed back to the Irish pub :)
When we got back the English were playing cards and we met Aishah, this beautiful Jamaican/Spannish girl who had lived in London but now lived in Australia. She was g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s and when I had seen her pass me during the day time, I had thought she looked like a malibu/hawaji Barbie with her dark skin, sarong wrapped as a long skirt and her flower in her hair :) The game quickly swopped into flip cup and soon we had gathered a whole audience among some randoms playing it with us. Nothing however beats the flip cup at Fraser Island!
Getting some Warung
I was getting drunk because everyone was sharing their drinks in flip cup and I was getting some free drinks from people and the bars for my birthday :D We went and took over the dance floor. It was so good dancing on the sand with your barefeet :) Many hours later I was getting knackered regardless of the vodka redbulls and extra josh (this vitamin extract that you put over your drink and it wakes you up with its ”energy drinkliness”) I had had so I headed home to sleep at 4 am. Jasmine stayed behind with some Aussies (which there are not enough at all on this island, Raksu!!! All the hotties must of stayed behind at Kuta!) but she came back home at 5. It was lovely when at six a fucking baby started crying somewhere on the otherside of the wall <3<3<3<3<3<33<3 loving it. That’s just what I love to do when I am drunk/hangover at 6 am – listen to babies cry... But. All in all, Really good birthday and incredibly nice people :) I was so happy we had finally gathered a really good group of people!
Today we've just been chilaxing at the surf spot beach (no-ho waves at all), eaten good food, and bumped into Aishah. She told us to meet her and everybody else including her fiancee Nick (Aus) at the shisha place. Later on we went to eat together with Chris and Kelly at the market. Ate some preeeetty delicious fish!
But seriously, like I said in the beginning, I fell in love with Gili Trawangan.
I love the slow pace of the island and its simple life. I love the fac that there are no cars and no motor bikes on this island (although it means that I have to be constantly dodging horse carriages and holding my breath). The Gilians are another reason why this island is so wonderful; they are sooo nice! Also the food is the best I have had. I LOVE their food culture here. Skip all the restaurants and eat where the locals eat – cheap and delicious. We fell in love wtih ”Warung” – A KIND OF buffet, but not really.
You pick from the counter what you want on your plate and then pay sme 15 000-25 000 rps for a massive feast of a meal. We always got the ”take away” version, because it was such an awesome WAY of eating: It was this rough brown paper wrapped as a cone and then stapled so the food wouldn’t fall out when you carry it to the spot in which you want to eat it at (we always went to the surf spot’s beach shack).
Also the market was amazing: every night at six the locals would build a market and you could buy warung or delicious fresh fish that they would grill for you. And it would be dirt cheap local price. We ate some amazing red snapper and some other fish on our trip. So good. Also the scenery and the view and the SUNSETS can’t be complained about. I also loved strolling barefoot (although I'm like the only person to do so..). But the most important feature would be the people: people are the ones to make the place. The five days that we were to spend on the island wouldn’t have been anything without the people we spent them with. : ) Gili T <3
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