Our last full day on Gili T and it's very hard to write about a lazy day.
My son thinks I'm crazy for writing things down about or holiday. He says that 'dear diaries are for girls'. On the academia scale my kids are poles apart. I know at eleven and nine they should not have a school or a career path. My daughter (the youngest) is the chatterbox, book worm who reads all kinds of stuff. She has her heart set on being a teacher, My son scans a page, misreads info due to a lack of attention to detail and wants to be landscape gardener or builder. Both honourable professions. No matter how much we suggest that literacy plays a big part in a tradies day he still has no interest in picking up a book. It's frustrating trying to get the young fella to read each night at home and not feel like the pushy parent. I remember I started off with Phantom and MAD comics. The problem is that most kids become accustomed to our comic book heroes through feature films or console games. He is more than happy to do anything with numbers like counting his savings that he refuses to spend.
Back to our exhausting sky blue day. It started with the limited but fine buffet breakfast at The Beach House Resort (Aussie Head Chef). I stayed true to my word with an egg free day and stuck to fruit, toast, hash browns and roasted tomatoes.
This was followed by a hi-tide snorkel from the resort north up the beach. Some nice colourful fish were darting about straight from the Nemo blockbuster.
Next we swam in the resort pool and then our villa pool until we ordered two large bowl of fries for a healthy lunch between four totally recommended by the Heart Foundation.
We plucked up the energy to break into two groups after lunch. My wife and daughter cycled around the island and my son and I went for a walk inland to get a taste of village life. Our epic amble took us first into the crisscross of back streets behind the beachfront main drag. These are dotted with cheaper resorts, backpacker bungalows and homestays. I saw one dominated by a large resort pool but sorry I forget the name. It may have had 'lumbung' in the name but don't hold me to that.
We headed towards the large hill and were surprised to find a large concrete path leading half way up. This led to a huge solar panel power farm. I did see this from the sea yesterday and I wondered what it maybe, possibly a well laid out farming area? I take it this, plus the generator sub-station, feed the island. We haven't had a power cut since we have been here and I reckon this island would fair suck the juice. Further in-land was dominated by local houses, chickens, roosters, cats, goats and roaming cows. There are no dogs here. We made it to the local tip and back tracked stumbling upon the Kelapa Luxury Villas which are 900m from the beach. This place had the wow factor and the villas (from the outisde at least and from peeking over the fence) looked very modern and nice. The villa pool areas and grounds looked fantastic. They are set away from everything and guests ride pushbikes on the concerted flat road too and from the coast. A nice lady gave us a brochure. My son and I agree it's a bit too far away from the coast for our liking but if privacy is your thing and you want to kick back for a few days in your own villa this would be a fine choice. We did discuss that if you didn't snorkel and like the beach then a trip here would seem incomplete.
More swimming in our villa pool saw the rest of the afternoon out.
Dinner was had at the Irish Pub next door called Tra Nog. Doesn't sound overly Irish to me, perhaps there should be a 'Mc or a Mac' in their somewhere. Anyway this place promotes it'self in pizzas and burgers. I dined on a BBQ beef burger, my son had a beef cheese burger, my daughter chose a pizza and my wife had a chicken fajita. I was the least impressed and found my meal underwhelming. That and being bombarded by overly loud rock music detracted from the experience even though we had a seaside table. The rest of the family rated their grub and my wife raved about the fajita.
And that as they say was that. A few bevvies, cuddles and nunnights only to be briefly woken by neighbours laughing upon return, fireworks and the roosters, doves and other bird life this morning.
Oh breakfast I suppose, ...... the eggs beckon.