October 12, 2010
Bali is the epitome of tropical splendor, and then some. Palm trees? Check. Coconuts? Check. Mangos, papaya, banana, tamarind, vanilla, clove, coffee, and every other tropical fruit or spice you can imagine, growing on trees all around you and perfuming the air with flower, fruit and spice? Check. A vibrant Hindu culture with music, incense, offerings, garlands, traditional dress, and elaborate temples, happening all around you all the time? Check.
We spent our first 2 nights in Kuta, an over-grown surfer town with lots of night clubs, traffic and touts (our least favorite part of Bali, but it happens to be near the airport.). Still, amidst the faux-hawk, mopeds, and D&G knock-off stores, here's what we saw the first night on the beach....
...a procession of several hundred Hindus marching from the water and through the city, singing and chanting, burning incense, carrying statues.
October 14, 2010
We head to the Gili Islands, in Lombok, (east of Bali), for some beach time.
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| View from the boat as we approach Gili Tarawangan |
The Gilis are a string of three islands, surrounded by coral reefs. There are no cars or motorbikes, so the transportation options consist of walking, cycling, or horse-cart.....
We first stayed in Gili Tarawangan, the most populous of the three. Our guesthouse was run by an awesome family who kind of took us in as their long-lost, yellow-haired relatives.
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| This is Din, the dad. He enjoyed 'man-talk' with Joe. |
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| Sunset on Gili T |
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| Later, still... |
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| One of our many self-portraits, taken during sunset on Gili T. |
One of our favorite things about travel in this part of the world is the preponderance of baby animals. In true SE Asian fashion, some adorable kittens appeared at our guest house one morning...
During our time on Gili T, we discovered, through arduous research, one of the most delicious sunset cocktails we've ever had. We strongly recommend that, at your earliest convenience, you obtain some gin, mint leaves, lemongrass, ginger, sugar, lime juice and ginger ale, and mix yourself up a Soho:
We enjoyed them while admiring this view, but believe they will still taste good without it:
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| View of sunset during happy hour |
October 17 (or thereabouts): Gili Air
After several sun-filled days on Gili T, we decided to head over to Gili Air, a smaller and less developed island in this three-island chain.
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| View from boat ride to Gili Air |
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| Boys on boat to Gili Air |
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| Boat dock on Gili Meno, en route to Gili Air |
The perimeter of the island consists of fishing villages and very laid-back guest houses...
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| Water taxis on the beach at Gili Air |
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| Boats made by hand - Gil Air, Indonesia |
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| Sign in front of our guest house, Gili Air |
The interior of the island, connected by winding foot paths, is inhabited solely by locals. Life doesn't appear to have changed much here over the last 100 years or so. No cars or motorbikes, few televisions, the occasional lightbulb. Walking through the villages at night, there's nothing mechanized to interrupt the sounds of families cooking by the fire, children playing, roosters crowing....
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| 'Main Road' around island |
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| Grazing on Gili Air |
The days were relaxing, spent in hammocks or snorkeling. The island has beautiful reefs just offshore that are thriving, with bright-blue and purple corals, huge blue starfish, giant clams and very friendly sea turtles. We stayed in a very comfortable 2-story bungalow, and slept well. Fortunately, we remained blissfully ignorant of the giant (bread plate-sized!) island-dwelling spiders until the morning that we left the island.
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| Giant spider on Gili Air (normal-sized spider upper-left of giant spider, shown for scale.) |
Next stop....back to the island of Bali!
