Honeymoon Part 2 - Scuba diving in Gili Trewangan

We took one of the fast boats from Bali to Gili Trewangan. Made had done the booking for us, but there was a bit of a miscommunication about the time that the minibus was leaving to take us to the port at Padang Bai. We very nearly missed it and the minibus driver was eager to make up the time he'd lost waiting for us! The ferry port was pretty crazy but we managed to get on the correct boat. The crossing was quite rough and not particularly pleasant - the water between Bali and Lombok is some of the deepest in South East Asia, and as such there is often a lot of swell. But with the help of some travel sickness tablets we made it to Gili Trewangan with our breakfasts still in our bellies!


When you get off the boat at Gili T there is no jetty, so you just take off your shoes, climb down the little ladder and wade onto the beach. At this point we were very thankful for only having backpacks and felt a bit sorry for people who were trying to drag their suitcases across the sand! As soon as we arrived the first thing we noticed is that the water is completely clear. You could instantly tell that this area was going to be perfect for scuba diving.

We were staying on Gili T for five days and six nights in total; three days for scuba diving and two for relaxing. On our first afternoon we spent some time on the beach and went to register for the diving trips we'd be doing. I was going to be doing my open water qualification and Dan was doing a refresher course and some fun dives. We went with a company called Manta Dive who are one of the biggest and longest established dive schools on the island, so we felt nice and safe with them.

We were also staying in the one of the Bungalows that are on site at the dive school. They were like little huts (although you could easily stand up in them) so it felt a bit like glamping. The only downside was the proximity to the mosque, so we often got woken up in the early hours of the morning by the call to prayer. However this issue is experienced by almost all of the accommodation on the island, and eventually you just stop noticing it.

During our three days of diving we saw some amazing sea life - lots of turtles, reef sharks, puffer fish, cuttlefish, angel fish, bat fish, lion fish, frog fish... the list goes on! Each time we went diving we'd get taken out on a boat to the dive site and then do a 'back roll entry' which is where you sit on the edge of the boat (like I am in the picture below) and tip yourself off backwards into the water.

Our boat nearly ready to take us out on the water:

After three days of diving I became qualified!

Our first three days were quite busy because we were diving all day, but we did manage to get out and about in between dives and in the evenings. On our last day of diving we went out for a few celebratory beers with some of the instructors and my course mates.

Gili Trewangan is a bit of a party island, with quite a lot of young travellers escaping to this 'tropical paradise'. It apparently used to be very quiet and almost unheard of as a destination about ten years ago, but thanks to Lonely Planet the island is now relatively busy. In particular the main strip of road along the east cost of the island can get very crowded; there are no cars at all, but that doesn't stop there being an occasional traffic jam of horse and carts...

The bungalows at the dive school are right in the middle of the busy part of the island, so after three nights we moved to Belukar villas which are in a much quieter location. The villas were very clean and almost brand new, with a nice pool, but something about them felt a bit sterile and they lacked a bit of personality. Belukar was also the most expensive place we stayed on this trip, and it didn't feel like the extra money bought you much in terms of charm and character. Perhaps we'd just been spoilt by Made's wonderful villa in Ubud!

We did much prefer the location of Belukar, though, as it is set amongst fields of coconut trees that were often occupied with lots of cows!

Belukar is on the north west side of the island, which meant that our days of lying by the pool and relaxing tended to finish with a walk to one of the nearby beaches to view the incredible sunset with a cold beer.

After sunset drinks we'd then go and find somewhere to try for dinner, and we did have some nice food whilst on Gili T. The local food is more like it is on Lombok - that is, more 'Indonesian' in style, whereas Bali seem to have carved out a lot of their own specialities. Indonesian food is unsurprisingly the cheapest food to get on the Gili Islands, and is also some of the best, so we ate quite a lot of it! But there are also some good western options as restaurants have become so used to catering for tourists. In particular we had some really good pizza which was a welcome change from all the rice!

We were going to be leaving Gili T and travelling to Lombok on Dan's 27th birthday, so to celebrate on our last night we went to one of the best (and most expensive!) restaurants on the island, Wilson's. The food was amazing but unfortunately it was the end of Ramadan and the first evening of Eid, so the restaurant were pretty short staffed and the service was slow. Nevertheless we had a lovely evening having dinner on the beach, topped off with a visit from a friendly local goat. He was very inquisitive and was obviously after the flowers on our table!
 

Overall we had a lovely time on Gili T but by the end of our stay we were looking forward to the challenge of Gunung Rinjani...