Gili Air 🏝🐠🐢🐡🚲⛴

We were collected from our guesthouse in Nusa Lembongan by a open back Tuk-Tuk, it was completely rammed and we all wondered how the hell us and our bags were going to fit! I can confirm it was a tight squeeze but we did!

Seeing as we were so tightly packed (like sardines) we quickly were all cracking jokes and making the time pass. We arrived at the office for the boat and checked in, we waited roughly an hour before the people were split into two groups to board little boats, which would then take us further out to sea to climb onto a bigger boat. The boat was actually quite luxury, it was huge to! Leather seats, open top roof, TVs & films, food & drink and good A/C. The trip should have only taken 2.5 hours but ended up totally to around 6!

We arrived and it was still the middle of the day, so we checked into our guesthouse chucked our bags down and went to explore! The island only use bicycles, horse and cart & electric motorbikes, so it isn’t to hectic. Whilst exploring and finding our feet we were looking out for bikes to rent and boat trips and to see what deals we could find. We managed to find a boat trip for 100 IDR and bikes for 30 IDR absolute bargain if you ask me!

Tripadvisor has for sure become our best friend on this trip, it’s very rarely wrong! I searched for cheap eats and a restaurant called Ruby’s was very highly rated and has reasonable prices so for sure we had to check it out.

OMG heaven to my mouth 🤤😋 I have never ever tasted anything so amazing in my life! This is hands down the best meal I have had the whole entire trip, I enjoyed it so much I came back about 5 times.. Oops! 😅 The Beef Rendang was so delicious, it literally fell apart in your mouth the meat was so succulent. This was also served with steamed rice, peanuts, mixed pickles, mixed vegetables and a fried fritter.

We also had power cuts all evening as after all we are on an island!

To mine and Kye’s surprise we were woken up at 4am the following morning by the prayers chants coming from the local mosque, I found this utterly hilarious, Kye on the other hand was so angry! It was so loud earplugs didn’t even do anything 😂 luckily after 20 minutes it had stopped so straight back to sleep for us.

The more time we spent on this island the more we realised how chilled it really was. It had a strong reggae, relaxed vibe to it. Everybody was happy, smiling and always saying hello. You would also often get approached and asked if you want mushrooms to 🍄 of course we declined. Lots of people also had dreadlocks and everywhere played Bob Marley! On our second day we hired bikes from our guesthouse and headed around the island, it takes roughly 2 hours to cycle around the whole island (possibly even less). Although some of the roads are just sand so it can sometimes be nearly impossible to cycle. We of course stopped many times to get some snaps on the sea swings, to appreciate the views and to eat/drink. We stopped at one beach bar called Mirage, it had a lovely location right on the beach, great fruit & muesli, pool table & a cinema room. Me and Kye both ate here before taking an unexpected nap! It was so chilled the sound of the water around us, the peace and quiet and of course no mosque meant we had a lovely little nap. 😴 We decided to cycle back to the centre and treat ourselves to a massage. Kye went for the full body but I went for a foot massage. Very relaxing and just what we needed! After this we had a super chilled evening and an early night ready to be awake again at 4am with the mosque.🕌

Our third day was spent on a snorkelling trip. We had a decent sized boat but we had so many people on it, it was rammed! The trip was 9am-3pm. We visited all 3 islands Gili Air, Gili T & Gili Meno, I can’t say that the snorkel spots were very good, we didn’t see much sealife and the coral was pretty dead. We did see a turtle but a man from our trip kept chasing it and getting so close to it, it looked petrified!

We stopped off at Gili Meno for our lunch break, the sun felt so hot here! This island is the quietest of them all, with not much to do but chill and enjoy island life! We were lucky enough to meet some lovely people whilst on this snorkelling trip which made the day a lot better and such a laugh!

After our snorkelling trip we decided we wanted to stay on Gili Air for New Years.

1. It was lovely, great vibes and cheap!

2. Gili T’s accommodation was super expensive as we had left it so late

3. Gili T is apparently a crazy party island whereas we wanted to the option to party if we wanted to.

So we decided to extend our stay here at Gili Air but upgrade our accommodation somewhere far away from the mosque and with a swimming pool.

That evening we ate at Warung Bamboo a cheap travellers eat. I ordered chicken curry & rice and the portion was huge! So filling and it cost me a grand total of £1.50 it was super tasty and great for travellers but if you’re looking for something fancy I wouldn’t recommend here. But for a cheap eat perfect for backpackers this is the place to be!

I had found us a great place to stay just North East of the island called Colour Cottages. Little huts without outdoor bathrooms, balcony, free breakfast & a pool! Yay! 😁 before moving here we spent our morning applying for our Myanmar visas. We decided to hit Myanmar as our last spot as a few of our friends mentioned it was a fabulous stop, untouched and not touristy and also super cheap! As the Philippines weather wasn’t great we decided we will go back another time as a holiday and enjoy Myanmar 🇲🇲 instead.

After applying for our visa’s we stopped off for lunch I ordered a fruit salad, and oh my I have never seen such a huge fruit salad in my entire life! I couldn’t complain for £2! We had finally arrived at Colour Cottages it felt like heaven! Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great so we spent our afternoon chilling before enjoying a beach BBQ at Camilla Beach. Kye had some fresh fish of the day and I had a vegetable skewer, very delicious! Before heading home we had a quick (very quick) game of pool where Kye plotted most my balls and the black within 5 minutes.

Colour Cottages was only an 8 minute walk away but the heavens decided to open and I can confirm we got drenched, I also broke the guesthouse’s umbrella the wind was way too strong! ☂️ Oops! After getting home and stripping off it was so nice to finally have a hot shower even if if was salty!

Before we knew it, it was New Years Eve! 2017 was nearly over, where has that year even gone! 😱 we started our morning off the right way with a yoga class. Neither me or Kye are the best with being flexible or our balance but we try! This class was actually pretty cool, I felt very in my zone until Kye kept pushing me over when trying to balance on one leg 😂 after the class we both had some delicious smoothie bowls. I’m such a sucker for a smoothie bowl they are definitely one of my favourite breakfasts 😍 We spent the rest of our morning chilling in the pool, mucking around playing games to see who was buying the beers! 🍻🍺 after a couple of Bintangs we ate a local Warung. Sunnys Warung, where we tried Beef Rendang burritos and some cool sweet potato and sweet corn fritters. The food was pretty decent and cheap, this set us up perfectly for a nap to ensure we could stay awake until 12 to see in the New Year! ✨🎉😂 before we could go to sleep though the locals insisted we had a rice wine shot with them, it was actually so nice but super strong! Cheers Lads! 👍🏻

We set out for the night to find somewhere cool to see in the New Year, we managed to find a restaurant with some great live music! The food really wasn’t all that but the music made up for it! We had a couple join our table as the restaurant was packed, funnily enough they were staying at Colour Cottages with us but we hadn’t seen them yet. After chatting for a while and swapping names we decided to move to another bar for some more live music and drinks. Mia, Jonas, Kye and me stopped at BelAir restaurant where we saw in the New Year, watching some crazy local rock band. It was a very odd experience but Kye loved it! 🤘🏼😎 the ex guitarist even came on stage and starting playing the shit out of the guitar, he was pretty damn cool! Before we knew it, it was 12am and officially 2018! ✨🎉 we watched lots of fireworks being set off from boats in the sea and I FaceTimed my parents & sister as we were currently 8 hours in front of the UK. We ended our night by ordered pizza and stumbling home to sleep! Happy New Year everyone! 2018! ✨🎉🥂

1st January 2018!!

I had set my alarm for 7:50am 10 minutes before the New Year at home. I spent the build up on the phone to my sister & dogs then once 12 hit my mum was quickly Facetiming shouting down the phone over the loud music bless her 😂 along with my dad waving 👋🏼 back to FaceTime my sister again to wish her a Happy New Year and then try get some more sleep! 😴

As cliche as it sounds I woke up feeling super positive and ready for the new year and what I want to achieve. I set myself some resolutions and hit the gym, starting the year off right and all that! 😅💪🏼 we then had another morning chilling in the pool and enjoying the beautiful weather ☀️ not a cloud in sight! We spent our afternoon trying to make plans for the next couple of days which ended up us extending to stay 2 more days!

Not only did we love Gili Air but neither of us realised when we applied for our Myanmar visa that the office was shut for New Year. Luckily once the office opened on the 2nd we had our visas confirmed within hours, thankfully as we only had 2 more days left on our Indonesian visas! 😅

This whole New Year thing was really working for me, I woke up again hit the gym and had a little swim 💪🏼🏊🏼‍♀️ I spent this day as a chill day, chilled by the pool, chatting to Mia & Jonas who are super lovely, interesting and a very intelligent couple! I also used my spare time to catch up with blogging and trying to sort through my savings for this year when I return home 💷💰(which is one of my New Years resolutions)

We all decided to grab some lunch together at my favourite restaurant.. Rubys 😍😋 I tried the yellow chicken curry, i can confirm this dish was also delicious, huge and a great serving of meat to! Our Myanmar visa confirmation email came through so we went on a hunt for a printer, easier said the done on an island!

To no surprise we ate at Ruby’s again for dinner, I don’t think I could ever get sick of eating this food, it’s so delicious I spoke about the bloody place so much and recommended it to so many people I should have just worked there 😂 our lovely friends we met at Nusa Lembongan, Alex & Hayley had arrived at the island so we invited them to dinner. Alex was super ill 🤢😷 but thankfully Hayley could join us!

Even though we hadn’t seen Hayley & Alex in a few days it felt so good to catch up! Hayley & Alex fell in love with a dog at Nusa Lembongan and named her Mango. She was a stray that lingered around were they were staying. Many nights she slept at the end of their bed, ate with them and followed them around the island. So when it came to leaving her, they were both super upset! Trying to rehome dogs in Indonesia is some what impossible, but the lovely Hayley & Alex are doing the best they can to get Mango to the UK and give her the forever loving home I’m sure she has always wanted. They have made some great progress so far and Mango has had her jabs/microchip sorted and are currently waiting for all tests results to come back clear before Mangos great trip to the UK can begin! 🇬🇧Sadly on the island of Nusa Lembongan every 6 months the authorities search the island and kill any strays dogs by poison dart, so most dogs don’t live much after 2! So to get Mango to the UK before this happens is a lot of pressure and for sure a decent amount of money! So if you would like to help Mango get to the UK before its to late check out the justgiving page which has been set up below;

gofundme.com/bring-mango-home All money raised will go towards getting Mango home and helping all other strays in Indonesia 🇮🇩 🐶 For sure this was mine and Hayley’s main topic of the night along with lots of food! I mean lots of food I went all out and ordered jalapeños poppers to start, beef rendang (my favourite 😍) and chocolate salami tofinish!Kye nearly had to roll me home I was so full! The day had come to say goodbye to Jonas and Mia, they were off to explore some more of Indonesia, so we spent the morning with them before hitting the gym and pool up again! 🏊🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♀️ this day was again pretty chilled we booked our boat/travel to Lombok Airport, packed our bags and reflected on what a great time we have had travelling! I also enjoyed my last smoothie bowl 😍🍉🍓🍏🍍🍒🍌 Sadly also my last meal at Ruby’s to! 😢 thankfully Alex was feeling alot better after visiting a medical centre so he managed to join us for dinner to say our goodbyes, it’s weird to think we now won’t see Hayley or Alex until we are all back in the UK!

The day had finally come to leave, Indonesia 🇮🇩 and set off for our next adventure! We grabbed our bags and walked to the harbour to catch or boat to Lombok which roughly took 15-20 minutes. We then caught a minibus to Lombok Airport where we had to wait 7 hours for our flight, this most boring time ever! 😴 I decided to take a little nap on the airport floor leaning against my bag, I had woken up dying for a pee so I stood up looked down to put my flip flops on and seen a group of nuns staring at me with the filthiest look.. I didn’t know where to look what had I even done to upset them so badly?! 😐😂

We had finally arrived in KL and with 4 hours until we had to be up again for our next flight we thought it was definitely time to catch some flies 😴

Indonesia has been an amazing stop, one we weren’t even planning! I’m so glad we fit this place in we’ve had so many great experiences and loved it so much we nearly overstayed our visas! I would recommend anyone to visit, me & Kye could have stayed for longer and will 100% be returning to visit places we haven’t seen! This place really is a gem! 🇮🇩🌍

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2018 brings you lots of happiness, health and of course new travel opportunities 🎉✨🌍✈️

Paige xx