Banana Pancakes, Jack Johnson

Lombok Gili 108
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5-1-07 Gili Trawangan Island, Lombok

May Day! No Druid May Pole festivities this year but a little Island hopping works just as well. All through Thailand and Bali I went searching for that idyllic little beach destination that had a laid back beach vibe with the tropical island scenery of my dreams. I hit plenty of nice places but something was always missing. Either the water wasn’t quite blue enough or it was too touristy, or whatever my spoiled pickiness decided to complain about. Well, in the Gili Islands there’s not a complaint to be had. It’s perfect. As for that scenery I mentioned take a look at the pics, perfect white sand, every level of blue in the rainbow seas, and Ireland greens. It was time to just kick back and relax on a beach for a week. The island is small, about an hour bike ride around, with no cars or scooters, just horse drawn carts. No decisions necessary except whether to take a silent strolls on the sand or an afternoon nap in a seaside hammock. Hmm, I think I can get used to this doing nothing thing. Now I know why all the ex-pat Londoners are here working as dive masters for peanuts. Don’t worry, I’ve done the ski bum thing already after college. But yet dive bum is a completely different career, certified and everything, hmmmm.

Lombok Gili Wreck dive 051
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So it is very quiet, which is great, but there’s also enough of a bar/restaurant scene to enjoy yourself at night. Today I’m fighting off the first real hangover of this world tour because I tried to keep up with the twenty-somethings last night. Dumb but at least I didn’t partake in the local’s ever present magicmushroomcrazydream cocktail (no such thing as police on the island). There’s just no need for me to go snorkeling in the scuba class pool at 5am like my 23 year old Norwegian dive buddy did last night. Yeah, I imbibed a few and got a great tan for a Brooklyn Irish white boy but I do get bored eventually just laying there so thank goodness there was something else to do. Can you guess? Diving of course and I finally saw a gosh darn flippin shark. Granted it was only a few big White Tips but I was starting to think the whole Pacific shark population was soup. Saw some big turtles for the first time since Hawaii and some schools of jacks too.

Lombok Gili silhouette
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There were lots of fun dives during the week but the best was a secret little wreck dive that Simon the owner of the Blue Marlin shop found. It’s a Japanese Sub-hunter that was sunk during WWII. Payback for the USS Liberty I dove on Bali! It was the first actual fighting war ship I ever dived that was sunk in combat. You could still see the torpedo hole and bullets. VERY cool. Even cooler is the fact that it was in 45 meters of water. Not since my head-case accident in the Bahamas have I been down that far. To go that deep for a worthwhile time they made us take a quick class and use Nitrox tanks (fyi: Nitrox is a mixture of pure oxygen with the compressed air in the tanks to allow longer dives and lessen the chance of the bends). The stuff works great. I felt calm the whole dive, giddy even. I also didn’t get the littlest hint of panic and went through my air at a decent pace which is a miracle at that depth. I’m guessing every diver will be using the stuff instead of air in the next decade. I’m certain the Nitrox helped but to log another seriously deep dive really boosts the old confidence level. Not that I plan to become a Shadow Diver and go searching for U-boats on the Jersey Shore but it still felt great to play with the big boys.

Lombok Gili me n turtle
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So I spent the last morning hiking to the top of the isle's main hill. Okay it only took ten minutes.  I told ya it was a small island.  Still, got to see a Japanese bunker and some old foxholes from the war so that was cool.  You know me and history.  So then I had a nice relaxing snorkel and lay on the beach until the hotel kid comes to tell me my flight is changed from 5pm to 3pm.  So much for that relaxing day I had planned.  No probs making the flight other than paying 15 for a water taxi instead of 3 for the public ferry.  Such is life.  Anyway I'm back safe in Bali diving Nusa today (not bad but still no sharks) and surfing the next two days.  See ya in the Outback mate.

Lombok Gili 051
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Wake up late - Bill