Leaving Gili Air - For Real This Time!

Just off the boat with my feet dipped in paradise. I knew I had made the right decision - clearly.

Back on Gili T
I'm very glad I went back to the Gilis. I could have spent the week until Maja and Marisol arrived traveling around Bali; in fact I had already looked up several places I wanted to see on the north side of the island that Lonely Planet and other travelers had recommended to me. But I don't regret my decision to skip all that and go back to the paradise islands - after all, if I had found paradise why not take advantage and enjoy it whilst I still could? Another reason for leaving the Bali tour for another time is that in Indonesia the public transport system isn't great, and the way to travel around is by having a personal driver. It isn't one bit expensive, for USD 40 you can have him for the entire day, but it does get tricky if you want to have one for a whole week and you're traveling alone; that's when it comes in handy having a travel buddy to split the costs which I didn't have.

Mario and his cheeky smile

It was funny arriving back on Gili T and seeing that many of the same people I had met last time were still there. I'm telling you, these islands are hard to leave! Some backpackers who had only intended to stay for two or three nights were now approaching their third or fourth week just on the Gilis, and had no intention of seeing Lombok, Bali or Java like they had originally planned. I was so glad to hear this, I wasn't the only one! The difference of course was that I did actually leave but came back three days later. Like I said, once you've found paradise, it's hard to justify leaving!

It was a party night the day we arrived (so it was either Monday, Wednesday, or Friday but difficult to keep track) and before we had even finished checking into a bungalow the owner was encouraging us to buy some party booster pills off him. "If you want to go like a tsunami tonight, I get you what you want. Anything. You tell me, I get. But maybe first relax and buy weed yeah, I give good price." It was 11am and we hadn't even gotten our backpacks off our backs and into our rooms.

Zipp Bar on Gili Air <3

Chill and Agil, who found it very funny I was back

I wasn't much in the mood for party so Gili T wasn't where I wanted to be. I left Ross and Tom the next day and moved to Gili Air. It was just too funny walking down the street from the harbour towards Nina Cottages where I had stayed last time, past all the beach bars where I had been hanging out only a few days earlier. Everyone recognised me and came up running to say hi (although more people shouted after Jenkins than me), laughing at the fact I was back. "Everybody always want to come back" they said; and its true, no doubt. After Gili Air I see no need to search for a better beach holiday destination. Ross and Tom arrived a couple of days later and although they had had a good time on Gili Trawangan, they agreed Gili Air is what it's all about.

The sad truth about remembering it all - or not remembering it all
In the beginning of my trip whenever I experienced or saw something that in my opinion was remarkable I would always think "I'll soak in this moment and remember it forever." I thought if I just stared at every little detail, soaking in the tastes, smells, and sights I'd be able to recall it later and savor the memories from my incredible trip.

At this stage however, the prevailing thought in my head when I see or experience something I'd love to keep in my mind is "there's another thing I won't remember soon."

It is absolutely impossible to remember all the amazing nights I have seen and been through, and it makes me sad that I won't be able to keep them ALL with me until the day I die. And it's not always about the amazing things, more often than not its the mundane things I'd love to preserve in my head, like the things I see and think and what I feel just walking down the street looking for accommodation, the people I see around me, the streets, the houses, the smells - the constant sweating (in my head when I think back on my trip I'm sure I'll always think of myself as being as fresh as if I had just stepped out of the shower). Or like a random night such as my last one on Gili Air (eh, like the third or fourth time I celebrated my last night on this island that seems impossible to leave), where one of the locals had a birthday party at Paradiso. Such an amazingly fun night. They included Tom and me into their celebration like we had been friends forever; rice wine from Lombok which they had bought earlier was flowing freely, I alternated between rocking the dance floor and whipping the boys asses at ping pong (drenched and dripping of sweat), and laughing and talking with everyone. I'm sure that before long many of the funny and heart-warming details from that night will be lost and forgotten.

I was happy to be back :) smoothies, beach, and snorkeling!

But if I could choose one thing to remember from that night it would be a German girl Tom and I met earlier that day who stayed for the party - if only physically. She was hilarious, but I'm not sure I can accurately portray the entertainment she provided us for the evening. Already by the time Tom and I came back from snorkelling (saw two more turtles, yay!) she was pretty drunk - and this was at about 5 pm. After this she kept knocking back the drinks and smoking funny stuff like it was going out of fashion, looking more and more glass-eyed. Every now and then she would take a power nap and then again we would see her spaced out head pop up here and there. At one point she rocked up with a magic mushroom shake in her hand and we just thought it was a disaster waiting to happen - but there was no talking her out of drinking it. Luckily she only managed half before she forgot she ever had a special cocktail so we asked the waiters to take it away. She had a go at the dance floor a few times but to be honest it looked more like she was just trying to keep her balance and stay upright than dancing, swaying from side to side with her feet following with a slight delay (now this was fun to watch!). Shortly thereafter she went to "bed" on one of the beach loungers and slept there. She offered us great entertainment for the night though, considering she was probably one of the most boring people I've ever spoken to. She had absolutely nothing interesting to say be it sober, drunk, stoned, or on shrooms.

Poor Ross

Tom and Ross - who at this stage still didn't know what nightmare lay ahead...

One more thing. Poor Ross. Now there is someone who is determined to take backpacking the rough way quite literally. In Thailand he lost his wallet with both of his cards in so he was relying on finding Western Unions in each place he went to in order to be able to have money sent to him wherever he was. On the Gilis of course they don't have such advanced banking systems (the only ATM on Gili Air works whenever anyone is bothered to load it with cash which then lasts for about a day) so he was flat out of cash. No problem he thought, just go to the Western Union in Lombok the next day.

That would have worked out just fine except he then realised his flight wasn't on the day after next like he had thought, but actually on the very next day. Ok, change of plans, go to Bali and withdraw cash before heading to the airport. He had to get a flight from Denpasar to Sydney through Melbourne, have four hours in Sydney to get to a bank downtown to withdraw cash from his bank in Oz, back to the airport to catch his flight to Samoa.

It was a solid plan, if only he had caught his boat in the morning..... He was in the harbour on time, but for whatever reason still missed the boat. You never know with Southeast Asia, maybe the boat parked further away, maybe it never came, maybe it left earlier than the ticket said....whatever the reason, he missed it. Which in turn meant that all the Western Unions would be closed by the time he would get to Bali with the afternoon boat. Which in turn meant he'd have no cash until he got to Australia.

Getting cash out in Oz would probably have worked if only he had remembered to apply for an Australian tourist visa since his working visa had run out...! This last minute realisation didn't cheer him up much, and despite his best efforts to get a visa online he was unable to complete the application process because of the unreliable and very sporadic wifi connection everywhere on Gili Air, so he never got to the final page of the application process.

The cool Mario and me

So..... With no money, no leaving the transit area in Australia, and no idea what to expect from the next couple of days Tom and I waived him goodbye and went snorkelling. Wonder if he ever made it to Samoa? Poor Ross....

So many funny memories, so many good times.

This time leaving Gili Air I felt ready. And with butterflies in my stomach, that same old feeling of excitement, I headed back to Bali once more but this time to Seminyak to spend some quality girly girl time with Maja and Marisol! Come think of it, last time I did the girl thing was with Alicia in Vietnam!