Christmas on Gili T

It's Christmas Eve and I have a feeling it isn’t gonna be very traditional this year. The boys and I wake up, pack and check out. We have arranged for a bus to pick us up and take us to Sanur Harbour where we’ll catch a boat to Gili Trawangan. Gili T is the furthest west of three small isles off the north west coast of Lombok, the next main island east of Bali. I get lucky and sit in the front of the bus, which quickly fills up as we make more stops; a space wasted on me because, as always, I sleep for pretty much the entire journey. Once at the harbour we check in for our boat and have enough time to grab a quick lunch. The journey itself was horrible, the boat did not have the AC advertised and was incredibly hot, nonetheless I chose to stay inside not wanting to sit out. Although the breeze made it cool I knew I would burn up like a crisp. Once we landed on Gili T, which is only 15 square kilometres, we realise the only modes of transport are bikes, not happening with all our luggage, or horse pulled carts and we feel rather bad for the horses, so decide to walk it. Unfortunately our hostel is the other side of the island so we have a 40 minute walk in the sun with our bags – not fun. Once we are checked in and have had a shower to wash off and cool down, we are straight to the hostel bar enjoying a few games of beer pong. I order dinner at the hostel getting a local dish, Mie Goreng (Indonesian Fired Noodles). It is pretty good but by the time I have finished it I need another shower now the sun has gone down. Just a couple of hours of beer pong and food and I have sweated enough to warrant another shower; typical Christmas Eve. Once showered we play a little more beer pong before renting some bikes and cycling into the main centre on the other side of the island. We end up following a bar crawl around as all the bars seem pretty dead when the crawl isn’t in them! It’s a fun night that ends with a cycle back to the hostel at 3am. I end my day lying in bed sending drunken Merry Christmas messages to friends and family before passing out ready for Christmas.

Catching the boat from Sanur Harbour

Boxing day sunset

I wake up on Christmas Day earlier than the others although that is no surprise. Last night they told me not to let them sleep for the whole day but not to wake them before noon so I head out to spend some time sunbathing and cooling off in what I discover is a salt water pool. After I have had enough of the sun I head to the showers to rinse off the salt and get changed into your classic Christmas outfit: a T-shirt and swimming trunks. I wake the boys and head on back out to the bar/pool area to write a blog and enjoy the beach views while the boys sleep in some more. I may have treated myself to a Christmas cocktail or two at this point. Once the boys are finally up we spend our time making friends and joining in a beer pong contest. Jon and I are knocked out first round. We then head into town on our bikes again. I have to admit the beer pong, joss shots and cocktails have gotten to me a little and I do fall off my bike a couple of times during this trip. It is another fun night out although the memories are a little hazy. What I do remember is Scott leaving early and then Jon and I discovering our bikes have been nabbed. It is apparently common for the local bike shops to run a little scheme where they go round collecting their bikes back and then trying to charge people for the lost bikes. Anyway I end up getting separated from Jon and I take the long route home, walking round the island rather than cutting across. Although a little bit of a pain it is a lovely walk, very picturesque and quiet, with a beautiful moon in the sky. I quiet enjoy the peacefulness of it all. Finally I am back at the hostel and clamber into bed, maybe this Christmas isn’t that untraditional after all.

The Christmas tradition of playing board games

Beer Pong

Bike Hire

I wake up a little the worse for wear on Boxing Day. Not ready to face the heat, I spend most of my day hiding from the sun in our air conditioned room. I do pop out for a little bit to hang by the pool, play a little beer pong (with coke instead of beer) and have a Beef Rendang, another local dish that was delicious, a beef curry packed with flavour with a mixture of pickled sides, rice and a flavoursome dal. However, after a little socialising and some food I am back in the room hiding from the heat and watching movies and shows on my iPad. It was actually a rather nice day. I try to have an early night, as the boys head out for another night on the town, but for some reason, probably because of my awful body clock, I am unable to sleep and find myself still awake when they come back from their night out, after which I finally drift off.

Christmas Foam Snow
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The next day is our last day on Gili T and I am struggling with the heat so, once again while the sun is up, I spend most of my time in our room on my iPad. However, once the sun has started to set the boys and me are back out by the bar making friends. Yesterday seemed to be a big day for people leaving and coming to the hostel so there is a new crowd about today. We play some party games and after a joss shot or two I am in the mood to hit the town again. Today is a full moon so there is a full moon party on the island but there seems to be some confusion as to where it is exactly. The boys and I rent some more bikes, putting them in Scott’s name this time, to make sure they don’t realise we are the people that have already rented, and head into town. Annoyingly I put my T-shirt into the basket to avoid it getting dirty during the ride but by the time we get to town it is covered in dirt. I think the sandy, dirty roads kick up so much dirt while cycling it is almost impossible to turn up clean. We run into another Rachel, a local tour guide that Jon made friends with the other night. She is working a shift but lets us know where the moon party is; not in town it turns out. The night is a bit of a weird one with the island facing multiple power cuts causing all the music and lights to cut out randomly. After a while we run into out hostel friends and Scott and I end up following them to the full moon party. It is essentially an area full of beach front bars that have set up a DJ set on the beach. It is a lot of fun and the night ends with Scott and I cycling back with our new friends stopping off to pick up some Ramen, Japanese noodles served in a broth, which we sit and eat on the steps of the hostel having one of many drunken conversations I have during this trip before heading to bed, once again, a little the worse for wear. Oh well, we leave for Canggu tomorrow, so it should be a relatively chilled day.

Salt water pool

Christmas cocktail treat

Fun night out...

...followed by a solitary and sobering walk home

A beautiful boxing day view from my room

New moon fireworks...
(click on the top right hand icon)

...and then new moon clubbing
(click on the top right hand icon)