V2.D.P1= Christmas Plans and Way to the Gilis

Once the Kalimantan Adventure was over, it was time for Lombok and Gilis. However, our trip didn't start as we have planned it.

First the Christmas day:
We have waited.
We waited in a tiny airport for 12 hours, without knowing whether we would get where we would like to or not. It wasn't fun, more so because it was Christmas and most of my travel mates had habitualisations about that date, which until that day were replaced by the dream of swimming on the day and partying at night. Hence, it was a bit more painful for them, than for me -although I was equally bored... In any case, it was a time to appreciate the persons I travelled with... hence a picture of each of us, once we managed to get to yet another airport, before we ended up in yet another (which we were supposed to go to in the first place, but then it was too late to get to where we wanted to...)

I was happy staying in Lombok for a night, despite our plans, as it happens to be the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. I've been there in 2001, and had a dream-like picture of the island. This time, I figured that my memories of Lombok were not so off-the-mark. These first pics are from my earlier visit (when I stayed on the island instead of going to one of the smaller islands close by, which are called St. Gilis):


The next morning we made a small boat trip to the biggest one of these smaller isle: Gili Trawangan, which was merely 6km2, (3kms north-south and 2 kms east-west). We took a boat off the Lombok shore (first pic), have seen the volcano on the one side and other boats on the other throughout our little boat trip, and we ended up in the beach you can see in the last photo...



At the end of our first day in Trawangan (which consisted of taking pictures of Lombok among the clouds at a distance, and that of the beach, some snorkelling and mostly relaxing), we decided to call it the horizontal island because of the limited activities one can busy herself with in an island of that size: namely,
- sleeping (inside or outside),
- snorkelling,
- lying on the beach while reading and drinking coconuts and tropical cocktails,
- (if rainy) going through the menus in the little pergolas specially designed so that you do not have to be less horizontal then in your bed,
- watching movies (yes, again lying down on big cushions)
- which helped me a lot in regards to catching up with the popular hollywood movies of the year, which I cannot bring myself to watch unless there is nothing else to do...
Yet, I will put the pictures in which we are a bit more vertical than our average of the four days...

By the end of the second day, we figured there was more to do (I cannot find the correct words to describe horseriding on a paradise beach with Bali and Lombok at a distance, while the sun is slowly setting and the moon is rising)...
I was hard to describe the amount of sheer peace and pleasure in general... A part this resulted from the lack of the internet, computers (and in our case mobile phones, too). I felt that naturally inclined to be happy and I was constantly obliged to do great things, and none of them required much effort..

But one of the most difficult things would be to describe the colours in trawangan... hence the landscape and underwater pics outnumber all else.

Of course I do have to mention the cat that adopted us for our stay, which we didnt bother to name, but spent quite enxtensive amount of time with...

A few things I should warn you against (if you think of visiting the island) are: - the "usual" way to and back to the Gilis which we only encountered on our way back (trust the lonely planet on this) - the music (that requires a serious revolution all around the island) - the lack of health care (I presume, for I haven't seen any hospitals, and trust me one DOES see most of the island with a little curiousity) - the strong urge to do nothing -literally- - poverty disguised with a community living in and of nature (which did require me to revise a few theories)...

This is the last post of my trip to Indonesia, through which I felt I grew and fell in love with a country I had no obvious ties with. I am sure I will go back.
I will end this marvellous trip with pictures of the beach we watched for four or five days, and a goodbye... thanks for the patience (and special thanks to everyone who made it possible, better, and deeper)