Sauna tree hut. Muslim prayers. cats cats cats…the most memorable things to come out of living in Gili: the heat in our oven baked sauna tree hut and the prayers blasted on the island wide intercom in hourly increments during the day.
A DAY IN THE ISLAND LIFE: Our day would begin every morning promptly at 4am with the Mosque blaring their prayers and waking up in a puddle of my own sweat. I’d wake up, annoyed, shower in the downpour of cold water then crawl back on my soaked sheets. In a few short hours you simply can’t handle the heat any more and as your body is literally being cooked you proclaim defeat and get up and out of the oven. then we moseyed off to ‘work’. work as you’d call it entailed us waking up and down the Main Street and the beach looking for anyone that seemed interested in partying on a yacht. All day long. Despite learning that I am a terrible sales persons I developed a fairly nice tan. Then we’d repeat, each day (with the exception of two days when we actually experienced the yacht party).
(the big blue one) the infamous party yacht, 1.3 million dollar, italian architecture, a gorgeous boat
Being on Gili taught me to never go into sales, i am terrible at it. id rather hear the stories of passing travelers and make new friends than sell a ticket to party on a boat. although i did gain a few skills. our friend Fabia who owns a delicious bali/western food restaurant: Wok this Way, gave us a personal cooking class to learn how to make one of Bali’s scrumptious desserts: kelpon.
Fabia also gave us a crash course in ‘how to dine like the locals of Bali’ And how to eat like a Balinesian, which means to no utensils. Which seems pretty easy and lots of fun until you get to soupy rice then you just end up licking your plate and getting juice/food everywhere. besides Fabia’s delicious restaurant and the select other restaurants that served both Balinese and western food, in order to sink your teeth into the culture of Balinese food, you have to experience the night market. every night, a once plain boring patch of dirt turns into a bustling, steamy, mouth watering aroma of food stalls with the freshest food from selective local restaurants.
gili trawangan is a bewildering wonder, with an impressive atmosphere, a destination that can be enjoyed by anyone; whether you come to party, to experience the wonders of the water (one of Indonesian best places to scuba dive), or bask in the sunshine; Gili Trawangan turned out to be more than i expected. my only regret is not having the chance to go scuba diving in the turquoise clear waters with the turtles (but thats another story for another time hehe).
pink pillow chronicles 