Good bye, Thailand. Oh but Hello, Indonesia!

I had breakfast here one day on Gili Trawangan.
Bali in the background. 

Leaving Krabi
I don't know why I do it to myself, go out for a few too many the night before I have to travel. The whole travel day was disastrous from the get go, and it didn't help that I was feeling like a hundred monkeys were playing drums in my head.

I overslept, of course, so when I got up I panic-packed shoving all my possessions into my two backpacks. There was no time to run through checklists to make sure I had it all (consequently left my shoes behind), nor was there enough time to shower so I couldn't even wash the hangover off me. Why, Terhi? Just.....lets try to remember this next time, ok?

Another guest, Ken, was leaving on the same flight as me to Singapore, but whilst I was continuing to Bali he stayed in the city of lions. He was fun to travel with, I'm glad I had some company to take my mind off the drumming monkeys.

At the airport I suddenly remembered I had not booked a flight out of Indonesia - and without proof of exit they won't let you into the country (or so they make you believe but really no one checks, but I didn't know this)! I then remembered trying to book it the night before in my drunken state but gave up because I was seeing double and just thought I'd do it in the morning - which clearly didn't happen. Well done, yet again. The monkeys in my head turned the drumming up a notch after this realisation, and due to my last minute packing there was no way to locate my medicine bag with the good pills. Oh, and I had of course forgotten to start my malaria tablets. Duh. So instead of checking my bags all the way to Bali I only checked in for the first leg of the journey, just in case I'd never make it to my end destination.... I think it's safe to say I won't be nominated for the Ms Organised of the year award....

After check-in I found an AirAsia ticket counter- hooray! This meant I could book my exit flight, which in turn meant I was going to be allowed into the country, all good news! With my new flight ticket in my hand and a smile on my face Ken and I went to sit in the waiting lounge, waiting for the boarding to start for our flight. I'm not quite sure what happened at this point or how it happened but I suppose we were just so immersed in conversation we were paying minimal attention to what was happening on the boarding front. We saw people boarding and when the line was short enough we joined in. When we got to the front the lady looked at my ticket and said "Miss, this is a flight boarding to Bangkok, the one to Singapore has already closed for boarding."

WTF

WTF

WTF

nononononononononononono

"Maybe if you run you can still make it." And we ran. We ran in the direction they had pointed to, got to the escalator to go down to ground level except as I started walking down the escalator I realised it was pushing me up instead! Ken was laughing so hard he was bent over looking at me trying to balance and figure out what to do next - there was no other way down, so I just kept walking down with wobbly legs not going anywhere. Finally someone came and took us down with the elevator we hadn't realised existed. We ran to the plane - across the whole airport, between planes and runways, and just as they were closing the doors we made it! The monkeys in my head were also cheering!

In Singapore I parted ways with Ken, but not before we had had a few good laughs about our journey together.

It annoyed me I had to go through immigration, pick up my bag, go to departures, check in, go through security all over again but hey-ho, at least I had made it, I was on time, feeling a bit better and half way there. Minor panic incident when I realised Singapore was one hour ahead of Thailand so had to hurry to the gate (so wasn't THAT on time after all) but nothing compared to the near-miss of the previous flight.

I didn't think there'd be more drama but sadly I was wrong. 20 minutes after take-off the captain announced that regrettably we had been asked to turn around back to Singapore. I thought at first it was a joke because he had such a jolly voice but when the plane tilted sharply to the right to make a U-turn I was starting to think that he was either taking this joke to a whole other dimension, or that we were actually going back.

Legian Beach, Bali

And back we went, only to be told, after 30 minutes of random airport workers running in and out of the cockpit, that it was all a miscommunication and that there had been no reason to come back at all! Awesome! I'm so glad this all happened on the. Longest. Day. On. Earth.

When I finally got to Bali 3 hours late I didn't even stop to admire the beautiful hotel I was staying in, but went straight to bed and crashed.

The Island Hotel Bali

The Island Hotel, Bali

The next morning I had a good look around. The only word you need to describe The Island Hotel is Beautiful. It's every backpackers dream place, hot hot hot showers, over the top clean dorms, pool, lounge, great people, and good location. The price tag makes you cringe though, because at $20 a night it's more than most budget travellers want to pay. For me it was perfect for the two nights I stayed in Legian Beach, and after THAT journey from Krabi I needed someplace nice to relax.

The Island Hotel, Bali. The view from my dorm room.

I got to Bali with absolutely no plan whatsoever. I had done NO research, I knew nothing about what to do and where to go, so when I woke up I was on a mission to find a place with decent coffee and a good wifi connection so I could plan my stay in Indonesia.

I was not prepared for the level of hustlers. No-one had warned me about how aggressive taxi drivers and street vendors were in Bali! I though Khao San road in Bangkok was bad but this was a completely different level. The taxi drivers would drive next to me honking and shouting "Where you go! Where you go!", the street vendors blocked my way and grabbed my arm trying to persuade me to step into their shop, and the restaurant owners would shove menus in my face. The street in this part of Bali (perhaps elsewhere also but I don't know) are extremely narrow too, so there is nowhere to hide. It aggravated me so much I just wanted to scream and swear at them, to make them understand I wasn't interested in buying anything, and that this wasn't the way to entice a tourist to browse in their shop. I quickly found a restaurant on the beach and escaped the harassing hustlers.

I had originally planned to hike mount Rinjani
on Lombok but due to it being rainy season the
tour operators were not taking people there as
it was too dangerous

The Plan
It took me a good couple of hours to come up with a plan, and it wasn't even very elaborate. The plan was to leave Bali the next day to Gili Trawangan and then take it from there. Yes, that took two hours. My problem was that there are over 17,000 islands in Indonesia and I have a total of 23 days before my flight to Kuala Lumpur, so after I spent a fair amount of time researching a handful of them I decided the Gilis were the ultimate must. Gili actually just means literally 'small island' and there are lots of Gilis dotted everywhere in Indonesia, but by saying 'The Gilis' I'm referring to Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air. These three little paradise islands are located just off the northwest coast of Lombok and they're famous for the turquoise waters, diving, beaches, and party.

Gili Trawangan

With no police around, people smoke weed like cigarettes,
magic mushrooms are sold on every corner, and if you fancy
a party drug for some "extra energy", all you need to do is ask. Anyone. 

Is the biggest of them, and has the biiiiiiggest parties (as I found out shortly after arriving), with Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays being the biggedy-biggest party nights. I stayed on Gili Trawangan for five or so days (that's right, who keeps count?) and the reason I left was not because I wasn't enjoying myself but rather the opposite....I was having too much fun, too often! At Gili Hostel it's impossible not to. Seven dorms with seven beds in each room, all getting together every day at the rooftop bar that shows movies all day long and serves drinks all night long. And on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays there's additionally a party that all partygoers attend, each day in a designated location. And because of my crippling Fear of Missing Out Syndrome, every time there was a party, I was there.

I did manage to wake up one day at 7am to go for a walk around the island before it got too hot to do it. I think it was the most beautiful walk of my life. At that time of the morning the party island is still very much asleep so I had the island all to myself. Imagine long white desert beaches, strong warm tropical wind, and the sound of the breaking waves - and no one else around.

One of the beaches on Gili Trawangan

Diving

With no motorized traffic, horse and carriage is
your only option to get around on the Gilis.
That, or  putting one foot in front of the other. 

Ever since my failed diving attempt in the Philippines I had been dying to do it. Being in the Gilis was my chance, as it's renown for the coral reefs and colourful fish life. I had dived only once before and it was years ago in the Balearics, so my recollection of how it all worked was rather vague. I therefore signed up for the one day comprehensive experience including a practice round in the pool.

Anyone who has dived known the mesmerizing feeling of doing it the first few times. That pretty much sums the experience up for me! The pool bit went fantastically well and off we went out into the big blue. The underwater world around these islands is straight out of a National Geographic programme, and to couple that with the amazing sensation of weightlessness and freedom when you're floating several metres below the surface - well.... Mesmerizing  Oh, and you can all relax now, I found Nemo!

With all the partying, walking, diving, snorkeling  and more partying I barely had time to relax so one day I woke up and I decided it was time to move to Gili Air which I had heard was a lot quieter.

Farewell, Trawangan! Although to be honest I wasn't really that sad to board the 'Hopping Island'. I was excited for Gili Air because if half the stories Anne told me about it were true, then it would be the most magical place on this planet.....

Went on a snorkeling trip around Gili Meno and Gili Air, and got trapped on Gili Air for a few hours when this beauty of a storm hit us out of the blue. Lombok, which can be seen in the background here, disappeared completely about 5 minutes after I took this picture. 

Bali, as viewed from Gili Trawangan