Gili Trawangan

Serene Gili Trawangan
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Well the trip to and from this island was diasterous!! We get collected at 5.30am to get a bus to the ferry at 9am. We learned that the port is only about 40 mins away but in true Asian style we had to go on a detour about 40 km away to drop some people off. Then the ferry took 5 hours (we didn't have any seats). Amy and Rob were also with us and poor Amy got sick! We then got another bus for about 1.5 hours to get another boat. The boat was quite small especially when packd with aout 15 peopl and their luggage. Once on board, a storm hit- complete with wind, torrential rain and thunder and lightening!! So 1.5 hours later we arrived severely shaken and soaken!!!At that stage we decided to fly when returning to Bali!! The isalnd is fabulous. Its almost like time forgot it! There are no cars. The main transport is by horse an buggy but you can walk around the island in 1.5 hrs!! The electricity is quite unreliable an the running water is saltwater! The phones and internet connections are a joke!! But it is very charming and alot of the people there are so friendly. The beach wasn't as beautiful as we imagined as storms and El Nino broke alot of coral whic is washed up on the beach. The snorkelling was amazing though. We just did that about 5 metres from shore and the amount we saw was fantastic! We also went diving twice in the turquoise waters and saw sharks, turtles, sea snakes and even a little Nemo as well as plenty of his friends. It was breath taking. We really enjoyed it. The four of us also hired bikes and cycled around the island- well have cycled and half pushed our bikes through the sand as only half is paved!!! Myself and Amy enjoyed the extremely cheap cocktails by night and the lads had their Bintangs! It isn't the party island that Lonely Planet makes it out to be but that didn't matter we had a wonderful time. W just had a orrible time on the way back!! Our flight was cancelled and our bags were lost for a while. It was quite frustrating. Anyone thinking of flying make sure to check with the airport. Our flight was cancelled as it wasn't full!!!