Gili Trawangan

After our brief time in Kuta, Bali, we moved on to the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok. The Gili Islands are a small chain of three islands, Air, Meno and Trawangan. Trawangan is the largest of the three and is known as the party island. This is where we headed. Even though Gili Trawangan is the largest island, it’s still pretty damn small. It is only accessible by boat, has a population of approximately 800 people and there are no cars or motorbikes on the island. Once on the island the only means of transportation is either bicycle or horse and carriage. A generator powers the entire island, and most of the places have no fresh water, only salt water for showers and washing (except some of the fancy resorts which have their own filtration system). The population on the island is a mix of Hindu and Muslim. Three times a day the Island’s mosque blasts the prayers on a loud speaker than can be heard across the entire village. This, combined with the roosters around the island, makes for an interesting wake up call at sunrise.

The locals on the other hand have continued to be absolutely amazing. The people are so nice and they have an uncanny knack for remembering names. As soon as you introduce yourself it’s printed in their brain. Every day, Ahmed, Oaky Doaky (we think his name is Oaky, but he tells everyone Oaky Doaky) and the other guy (we’re not nearly as good at remembering names) stop us and say hello. They love to make small chat and hear about our day. It’s really nice to feel that people on the island know your name and want to learn about you. 

The island is pretty packed with tourists from everywhere in the world, we’re no longer only surrounded by Australians. The Euro Cup has helped us quickly figure out where people are from. Ireland hasn’t done so well; the English on the other hand have found reason to celebrate (get drunk), not that they were really looking for an excuse. We got a nice 5am wake up from our neighbours when England beat Sweden (the first game starts at midnight, the second game at 2:45am). What’s been really surprising is the number Quebecers we’ve met. We have come across at least 10. Many of the locals also speak French, having picked it up from different Quebecers or other French people they have come in contact with over the years. As soon as you let them know you’re from Canada, they ask if we’re from Montreal and then begin speaking to us in French. It’s really very cool. On a personal note, Anne-Julie met her Grandmother’s cousin’s son here on the island; he is training to be a dive instructor… small world!

Our accommodations have been pretty reasonable. Our first night we stayed at a place owned by a couple from Quebec. We were welcomed with a big Quebec flag outside (no red square); for breakfast they had eggs and toast, but the toast had maple syrup on it. Pretty nice touch! But, it was $27 a night for a double room with AC, so we only stayed one night and ended up moving next door for a comparable room at $15 a night. The place was a little dirtier, the bathroom was a complete mess, but it was ok with us as we had AC and didn’t really plan on spending much time in the room.

As for what we did on the island, well, we didn’t do that much partying. On our second day on the island, we decided to become PADI Open Water Scuba Diving certified. The classes were great, albeit a little draining. Up at seven every day for scuba diving practice in the pool at 9am and then the real stuff in the ocean in the afternoon, followed by watching theory videos in the evening (mind you watching them in a little open aired hut facing the ocean was pretty damn nice. We saw tons of fish, including clown fish, puffer fish and tuna, as well several sea turtles, which were absolutely amazing to see as they effortlessly coasted through the water. Definitely a highlight!

Another day we rented bikes for the entire day, 3$ each. We did a tour of the island hanging out on different beaches and snorkelling around. The beach isn’t that nice, there is washed up coral everywhere, but the positive side, is if you go in the water, you can start snorkelling just a couple of feet off shore and see some amazing fish. It took us about two and half hours to bike around the island, including the snorkelling stops and lunch. There is also a hill on the middle of the island that you can climb to see the sunset, we went up one day and got a nice view of the sunset over Lombok (which is the closest large island where most of the food, water and beer are boated in from each day).  

There are lots of bars on the island where you can eat and drink. There is fish being cooked up on barbeques everywhere, but for the most part, we use the bars for drinking. Every night a food court opens up in the middle of town where all the food stalls setup and you can buy great food on the cheap. Our favourite has been Anna’s and her Cashew Chicken, a huge plate with steamed rice for 3$, and of course, a large Bintang for another 3$. Anna is pretty famous on the island; all the dive schools and party boats order their food from her. When she mentioned this to us, we told her she was also in a book we have, to which she responded, “I know, Lonely Planet, I am more famous than Lady Gaga!”

Here is a little video we put together of some of the stuff we experienced on the island!

À la demande de plusieurs, spécialement Véro pour ne pas la nommer, voici le premier blog en français.

Après 1h30 de route entre Kuta, Bali et Pandangbai et 1h15 de speedboat, nous sommes finalement arrivés aux îles Gili, plus précisément Gili Trawangan. Sable blanc, eau turquoise nous acceuillait. Beaucoup de coraux rendent l'entrée à l'eau difficile. Par contre, ces coraux rendent le snorkling très agréable un peu partout sur la plage qui entoure l'île. Nous avons finalement décidé de faire nos cartes de plongée certifiée PADI. Trois jours de cours du matin au soir avec des devoirs. Trois jours plutard... c'est réussi ! Belle expérience, beaucoup de poissons et quelques tortues. Les coraux profonds n'offre pas beaucoup de couleur. Aprés un certain ouragan, il y a longtemps les coraux sont généralement "mort, mais beaucoup de poissons. Nous avons eu la chance de rencontrer le fameux Némo, qui se cachait dans son anémone ! En plus, des scorpion fish, trigger fish, rock fish, box fish, puffer fish, thon, Napoleon fish, concombre de mer, étoiles de mer bleue, et plus encore. 

Mis à part les cours de plongée et le snorkling, peu à faire que demeurer relax, se contenté d'une Bintang (bière locale) et d'entendre la Mosqué trois fois par jour. Comme à Kuta, Bali, les gens sont extrêmement gentil et aidant. Ils ont en plus une mémoire phénoménale pour se souvenir des noms. Finalement, tu finis par connaitre plusieurs personnes sur l'île et tu les rencontres à chaque jour et chacun s'informe de comment leur journée s'est passée. Gili Trawangan est très touristique, mais si familier en même temps et on se sent proche des gens qui y habitent. 

La majorité des aliments proviennent de Lombok. L'importation semble se faire quotidiennement et les aliments sont frais. Un petit food court est installé au centre de la rue principale. Il y a plusieurs poissons cuit sur le grill, des satays et des plats typiquement indonésiens. Nous avons goûté à tout. Merci à Anna pour son excellent service et joie de vivre du haut de son 4 pieds 11 pouces. 

Sur l'île, on y retrouve beaucoup de chats. Petite particularité, plusieurs d'entre eux n'ont pas de queue ou une très courte. Selon la légende, ce serait génétique.

Après avoir planifié que quatre jours, nous quittons après 7 jours ! 

Direction Sengigi, Lombok. 

Kuta, Bali

After 30 hours of travelling we kicked off our journey in Kuta, Bali. Kuta is a bustling beachfront surfer/party town. Given that it’s only two hours from Perth and six hours from Melbourne, saying that the place is overrun with Australians would be an understatement. They are everywhere! So much so that all the local hawkers welcome you with a fake Australian “G’day Mate!” as they try to charm you into buying some of their junk. We let a few of them know we were Canadian, until one of them responded “Oh yeah, Justin Beiber!” and that was the end of that.


The Balinese people are all extremely friendly. Hindu is the main religion on the island. Everyday they make three offerings to the gods. Small handmade baskets are left everywhere with what ever they can offer and a stick of incense. Its really special to see. The smell of incense is everywhere on the island. We don't know if its the religion, but there is no doubt that the people as nice as anywhere we've ever seen or been.   

Kuta beach is nice and it has great waves for surfing; the water is packed with surfers and the beach is lined with surf schools. We didn’t try any surfing, but it was fun to watch. Behind the beach are all the beautiful resorts. We quickly figured out that you don’t need to be a resident at the resort in order to benefit from the facilities; all you need to do is buy a drink. Once we figured this out we ended up spending a couple of afternoons in some beautiful resorts with giant endless pools and picturesque scenery.

The back of the beach is lined with chairs and mini-fridges with locals selling ice cold Bintang, the local Indonesian beer for 2$ a bottle. As soon as you would sit down the sales people would be all over you offering necklaces, woodcarvings, sandals, sunglasses, manicures and massages. It was pretty easy to turn them all down, but the fun part was that after we made it clear we wouldn’t buy anything they would pull up a chair and hang around and chat with us. We got to know their names, and if we went back the same beer vendor the next day, they would all remember us and chat away again! Of course, we also got to enjoy a couple of beers with some of the many Aussi’s in Bali, they definitely made for good company when having beers on the beach.

We went out a little, but not too much, we were only in Kuta for four days, and one of them was a wash due to the jetlag. Our most adventurous night was when we went into an Australian bar we received a flyer for; they said theyt had live shows every night. Not exactly what I expected, but AJ did get to meet Katie Perry (have a look at the picture - it’s a dude). We’re now headed to the Gili Islands.   

Getting to Aisa

About 25 hours into our travels and we are now sitting in the Thai Airlines First Class lounge in Bangkok, talk about roughing it! We left Montreal and flew with Air Canada to Paris. This leg of our flight was in economy, and while we were fortunate enough to get an emergency exit row (extra leg room!) we were also in the crying baby section.


After this 6.5 hour flight, we had a five hour layover in Paris. Fortunately for us, our next two flights would be with Thai Airlines in First Class and Business Class respectively; thank you Aeroplan! We enjoyed our five hour layover waiting in the Star Alliance First Class lounge, with unlimited drink, snacks and comfortable chairs. We then went off to catch our first class 11 hour flight to Bangkok. 


WOW! Never did we imagine what a first class flight could be like. I think the Air Host summed it up when we asked for a glass of water and he said with a big smile that he would bring it as soon as possible, and then immediately said, "That means right away!". Dinner menu, wine list, champaign, caviar, pyjamas  and a bunch of other fancy stuff that was really too much. Oh, and did we mention that our seat had a guest seat, and that between the two of us, our space on the plane was bigger than our bathroom at home? Made no sense at all, but we're not complaining!


We're now waiting in the Thai lounge in Bangkok for our next flight to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. This lounge takes up a whole wing in the airport, we have a full menu, and everyone bows when we walk by. We both know our trip will be nothing like this, but its a pretty damn good start!