gili trawangan and gili air.

After Ubud, it was time to begin making our journey to Lombok, as we were to fly out of the new airport there. On the way over to Lombok, we decided to take a few days at the Gili Islands. There are three very small islands that make up the Gili Islands. We were able to see two of them. I was a bit sad leaving Ubud, but we had only heard great things about the islands so we were excited to see them for ourselves. Getting to Gili Trawangan (the biggest of the three) was a bit of a pain. We planned on taking the slow boat because it was much MUCH cheaper. Once we arrived at the port to hop on the boat, it looked as if Stephan and I were the only ones with this plan. Everyone was heading to the water to hop on the fast boat. Two men kept trying to convince us to take the fast boat, but we refused because we figured they only wanted our money. We left Ubud at 8 am and figured we would be at the island before lunch. These men informed us that we probably would not get to Gili T until 10 pm that night! That scared me! I did not want to be on a really slow boat for that long, plus we had to go way out of the way just to get to the islands. The fast boat got you there in an hour. SO after lots of bargaining and then trying to convince Stephan that we could save a lot of time if we just took the fast boat, we were standing on the pier waiting for the speed boat. Bumpiest ride of my life. I thought we were going to capsize out at sea, but shortly after an hour had passed I saw land and we were pulling up to Gili Trawangan. Let me tell you, this island was unbelievable. I know in every post I talk about how beautiful the water is and how white the sand is, but that is an understatement for these islands. The water was SO blue. When we hopped off the boat we were greeted by lots of locals and horse drawn carriages. There are no motorized vehicles on any three of the islands, which really gave it a secluded, exotic feel. Gili T is the most developed. It is lined with resorts and restaurants, but there was still so much beauty in the island. We went snorkeling and saw the most amazing colored fish and coral. I went snorkeling in Fiji and thought that was neat, but man this was amazing. I loved that you could just step foot in the water and the fish and coral were right there aka I didn't have to go into the depths of the ocean where I would have to face my greatest fear:sharks. I could just stay right on shore and check out the fish. We also rented bikes to get around the island and that was SO much fun. The first night we rode the bikes to the other side of the island to catch the sunset. We found an area where there was absolutely nobody and parked our bikes and sat on the beach and watched the sun sink down. It was really neat because on this side of the island you could see Bali and the sun set behind Bali, so it made for some really neat pictures! The food was a bit disappointing on the island, but the beach and the fun activities made up for the lack of good food. 

Next we went to Gili Air for the afternoon before we headed over to Lombok. Gili Air was much less developed. We found a nice spot to chill out until we hopped on the public boat to Lombok. I really liked Gili Air. There was less coral near the island so it was easier to just swim around. We also were able to walk around the entire island in an hour. It was really neat seeing all sides of the island. That afternoon we hopped on the public boat, where Stephan and I were the only tourists. It was a bit intimidating at first, but then we realized it was the first time the whole trip that we were the only tourists around. The boat took forever to start, and as soon as they got the boat started, the engine FELL OFF into the ocean. AH I was freaking out a bit, and so were the people driving the boat and the locals. We were just floating around the sea, waiting for help. Luckily there were a few people that spoke English on the boat, so we kind of knew what was going on. They eventually sent out a new boat with a working engine and we all had to hop over to the other boat. And then we were calmly on our way to Lombok. Dun dun dun.