We were up early again, enjoyed breakfast of omelette & Banana Pancakes outside under the Bruga. Sunrise was told there was no milk for her coffee but she could have a cappuccino, hehe. We could hear the little local kids playing & giggling across from us, Sunrise took photos of some others playing wars in the lane with their sticks, so cute! We hired 2 push bikes for the day for 50,000 each from the neighbour who cooked our breakfast, she also took our laundry to be washed. Bike hire seems to vary a lot here in price 30-100,000 and they are available Everywhere.
We went for a bit of a ride up one end of the island but thought we shouldn't exert ourselves too much. The island is flat and the bikes made for a lazier way to get around. The whole island can be walked in a couple of hours or so. It was the most beautiful, hot & sunny day and the island looked like paradise, well.... to us it WAS. We had brought our own goggles & snorkels with us, they are for hire everywhere but Sunrise didn't like the thought of putting other peoples snorkels in her mouth, we did see them being well washed after hire. The snorkelling was great fun, spotting lots of tropical fish in every size and colour. There are a few dive businesses - you can do a 3 day dive course, or those who are already certified can go on various dive trips. There are glass bottom boats, snorkelling trips and day trips to the other islands. We had coffee & juice at Fortuna, where we met Yari the cook and who proceeded to plait my hair while we talked. What is it with this hair thing!
We wandered around here and there on our bikes, stopping for icecream - freshly made with real fruit, meeting and talking to many locals, including a new friend, Sunset, who was the third fellow to plait Sunrise's hair, and they are SO good at it!! We had some beautiful Aussie steak sandwiches & banana milkshakes at a bakery. Spent the whole afternoon snorkelling and sitting on the beach talking to Sunset and his non English speaking friend from Java. He was from Mataram on Lombok, but was now staying on the island. He makes money by giving massages and dreadlocking hair and had saved up 800,000 to take home to mumma & pappa.
Being creatures of habit, Sunblock & Sunrise were back at Fortuna by 7pm to make sure we got a table & the best pick of fish, as this was a very popular restaurant. Sunblock opted for Mexican so there were no fish in my handbag that night and with a secret handshake with the cook our meals were soon delivered. After dinner we strolled down the main strip saying many hellooo's and no thank you's to transport, watching the oddities and checking out what was at the movies. There are a couple of 'cinemas' 2 times a night showing the latest movies, salt & toy story 4 were ones I can remember, you just need to buy a drink or a meal to watch. You can also watch tv or play video games along the beach in Brugas. It was a very busy night on the mainy :), there are a lot of Aussies and many, many Europeans on Gili T.
We settled down in Sama Sama before it got too busy, we liked the table at the back in the corner, a good spot for watching everything. After a little while we spotted Sunburnt's big smile, he joined us for another laugh and explained that tonight was going to be a bit of a Jammin' session. By the time the band started it had gotten quite crowded and a European couple asked if they could sit with us. It was one of the beauties of being here, everyone spoke to everyone, or at least tried to, in each others language :) whether is was in a bar or sitting at dinner at the next table or on bikes passing by each other, or laughing on the street about the fellow who just let off a volcanic blast as he walked past.
That night a few extras were invited up on stage to play with the band. An aussie girl, a bit nervous at first, sang some awesome songs, the whole place cheered and clapped along with the usual 'aussie, aussie, aussie' calls from the band. An older, grey haired man, (also Australian?) did a really fun, excellent job of 'Don't worry, Be Happy' one of my favourites. Sunburnt joined in on a few songs on his bongo drums which I can't remember the proper name for, while we danced. The place was 'rockin', many of the locals we had met over the past couple of days were there, and almost every available space was taken by people groovin'. Sooo Much Fun!! Were YOU there? :)
The musicians finally called it quits to the seemingly globally known calls of 'one more, one more' of course. Sunset had turned up just a little earlier, so the four of us left Sama Sama together, for Sunrise & Sunset it was the last, for this trip.
The air was warm and the sea was calm as Sunrise, Sunblock, Sunset & Sunburnt sat on the beach talking and laughing like old friends into the early hours of the morning. A great night, a great view, good friends, lots of laughs, couldn't get much better than this :) :)
Day 10 Sunrises sunrise
After retiring the night before at something like 2.30am, Sunrise was to get up early to see the sunrise, hehehe. Sunblock had set the alarm on her mobile phone. It was now going off at like 5.30am. So here was sunblock trying to hold it closer toward the other twin bed without actually moving so as not to wake herself up, Sunrise was of course sleeping soundly. Whispered OMG mumblings of 'wake up, wake up' because speaking loudly would mean an exertion that would wake sunblock up. Sunrise finally stirred and in the same motion stumbled to the door, 'have a good sunrise' was the slurred mumble from Sunblock.
Sunrise walked down the quiet streets, listening to all the roosters crowing in their different voices. It was so nice, so peaceful, so quiet on the beach as she waited for the sunrise that wasn't. DOH! She had been so looking forward to seeing the sun rise across the water behind mount Rinjani, but the morning was dull and mount Rinjani was covered in cloud. But it was nice. Gili Trawangan was so still, so quiet, if for only a small amount of time. A few started to emerge. A man rocking his baby to sleep in a sling, some fellas quietly readying one of the Public Transport Boats for an early trip to Lombok, a girl for an early walk & swim, a group of small children for a play in the boat on the beach before the tourists woke up and the shop keeper behind me sweeping her path.
(That was another thing we had noticed while on our trip. How clean the streets, paths and shops were. We were quite baffled at first by the numerous pairs of thongs we needed to walk over to get into a shop, 'why are they all there?' by the end of our trip it was quite natural to leave our footwear behind as we took a step upward. In Ubud we watched as the shop owners scooped water from the great holes in the footpath to wash the path down, the only litter being the daily offerings scattered every few metres. On Gili T there was not a scrap to found on the smooth dirt roads, even the ponies had little scoops behind them to catch their droppings. And of course there was the swish, swish of the little straw brushes everywhere you went.)
So, Sunrise watched the goings on for a little while, then walked down the beach a little and dove into the water. Beautiful and refreshing and quiet. During the walk back home it started to drizzle. A quick rinse in the shower and she was soon fast asleep again, dreaming.
We finally awoke again and enjoyed our last breakfast under our Bruga, there was no milk for real this time. But that was ok, its funny . . . the things that I felt I just had to have at home, wasn't so important here. It was a happy & sad day for Sunblock & Sunrise. Happy because we were here, sad because it was time to leave the island. It had rained a little that morning while we were asleep, the gods were also sad we were leaving. We packed our small amount of luggage, checked out of Gili Gecko and walked down to the Gili Cat Office where we could leave our bags until our afternoon fast boat boarded. We found Sunburnt's shop and sadly said our goodbyes as he was about to leave for Lombok. We ran into our first friend, Montana, and said goodbye. The rest of the day was spent snorkelling & swimming, talking & laughing on the beach with Sunset. Funny and sweet guys our new friends were. And a bit of sad goodbye to them and Gili T.
Gili Trawangan Pics http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056977&id=1289375294&l=233236e58b