Lovely Indonesia.

25.02.2019

Time flies in paradise. We have visited so many beautiful places in the last few days, met incredible people, and had a great time. There is only one day left of my four weeks in Indonesia. Hard to believe! Then it's bye bye lovely Indonesia - and also bye to Lisa :( - and off to Kuching, Borneo in Malaysia. No more beach and party life for now, but hiking and excursions in national parks with hopefully lots of tropical animals and other adventures. I hope to meet like-minded people there with whom I can share my experiences. But first, a quick look back.

Next Stop: Gili Air - for those who don't know. The Gilis are a chain of three sand islands located northwest of Lombok. There is Gili Air, which is closest to Lombok and known for its peaceful atmosphere. Then there is Gili Trawangan, the westernmost and largest of the three islands - often simply called Gili T - where wild parties are celebrated, unfortunately often with excessive drug use. And in between is Gili Meno ... honestly, I have no idea what the island has to offer. But I'm sure it's also stunningly beautiful. All three islands are so small that you can walk around them in maximum 2 hours. There are no traditional vehicles there. People either walk or use bicycles for transportation, or they use horse carriages as taxis. Some locals also have electric scooters. The lack of traffic slows everything down. And that's the first feeling that overwhelms me when we set foot on the island - tranquility!

For the first time, we arrive at a place and we are not immediately overrun by thousands of people asking if we want a taxi or anything else. It's quite calm here in general. As we walk the entire island with our backpacks to get to our hostel, we also feel the aftershocks of the earthquake on Lombok. Some buildings are empty, others are pretty damaged, there are bamboo sticks scattered around. But apart from that, the island is simply magical. When walking around the island, you walk barefoot through fine white sand, with crystal clear turquoise shimmering water in front of you. Depending on your location, you can see the other two Gili islands or even Lombok in the distance. It feels so close that you imagine it would be easy to swim over. But appearances can be deceiving. It takes about 30 minutes by boat to get from one island to the next.

Many small beach bars and warungs invite you to linger - with good food and delicious drinks. We quickly realize that there isn't much else to do here. That's why we book our first snorkeling trip for the next morning, to escape the "doing nothing" for at least a few hours. We go out on a boat with a group of about 15 people. The goal is to visit four spots between Gili Air and Gili Meno. Once we arrive, we are simply equipped with a pair of fins, a diving mask, and a snorkel and sent into the water without much guidance. Can't be that hard, right?

And it really isn't. As soon as you put your face underwater, you enter a sea of colors and movement. Small and large fish are swimming around coral reefs, which unfortunately are mostly dead. When we ask the locals why that is the case, they don't have a satisfying answer for us. For us, it's clear that the main cause is ourselves - tourists, who ride around in boats and damage the corals with their fins while snorkeling to catch a glimpse of as many turtles as possible. We do see some turtles and it's simply incredible. But when I realize how the group is surrounding the turtles, trying to get the best view, and obviously disturbing their natural environment, I can't really enjoy the moment. Lisa and I step back and even skip one snorkeling spot that is too crowded with other snorkeling groups, causing us to lose interest. As beautiful and overwhelming as the sight is, the whole experience is quite frustrating. Especially considering that it's currently low season and there is relatively little tourism. I can't even imagine how it must be during peak season.

To overcome that, we definitely need a few drinks. We have a date for the evening to watch the sunset, which has become part of our daily routine, like brushing our teeth. Mariette is now also on Gili Air. We already bumped into Toby in the afternoon while walking around the island. There is only one good café on the sunset side of the island, so we happen to run into Isabell there too. I signed up for a cooking class with Toby after the sunset. Thanks to low season, we are the only participants and enjoy the full attention of our cooking teacher Bima, who is surprisingly quick-witted. We prepare a menu of three dishes. We start with dessert so that we can taste it both warm and fresh, and cooled down. We are going to make Klepon - small green glutinous rice balls filled with warm and liquid coconut sugar and coated with shredded coconut. Bima shows us what to do and we obediently follow her instructions. The result is not bad at all. Next, we prepare the peanut sauce to serve with the fried tempeh. Tempeh is a traditional fermented soybean product from Indonesia, made by inoculating cooked soybeans with specific molds. We can decide how much chili we want to put in the sauce and both of us underestimate the spiciness of the chilies used. Nevertheless, it is delicious. I love satay sauce. Unfortunately, it is usually only served with chicken skewers here. Lastly, we prepare the main course - Mie Goreng - which has become our main food in the last few weeks, as you can find it everywhere, it's super cheap, and it always tastes good. Essentially, it's just classic fried noodles with some vegetables, as we know it from Asian restaurants in Germany. It's also quite easy to prepare. However, at the end of the cooking session, we are exhausted. The already warm air becomes unbearable at the stove. We sweat gallons and try to compensate with enough Bintang - the local beer.

We realize that there's not much else to do on the island and decide that it's time to move on after two nights. For us, that means a short boat trip to Gili T. Marietta accompanies us. Upon arriving at our hostel, we are surprised - Benji and the two boys Finn and Maarten from the Netherlands, whom we met at our hostel in Canggu, are here again. Hugh from England is also with them, who loves chugging every other beer. He even has a special method for it. He puts a straw in the beer bottle and leaves it to the side while he chugs the content. This allows the air to escape and prevents the beer from foaming.

We make a great group for the evening to go out. There is lots of dancing, drinking, and the night ends late with spring rolls and Hugh - he keeps spitting them out because they're too hot and he's too drunk to handle them - and a pool party at our hostel.

Surprisingly, the hangover the next day is not dramatic at all considering how much we drank. However, we still can't imagine staying another night, even though we booked two nights at the hostel. We enjoyed the party night and had a lot of fun, but somehow the island couldn't captivate us enough to make us want to stay. So, we decide, spontaneously and without much thought, to go back to Bali. We miss the Hindu culture, the offering bowls, the smells there, the relaxed people. Our destination is Uluwatu.

So, we book a speedboat and the bus transfer on Bali, pack our stuff, and off we go. We are filled with excitement. The decision feels right. Our means of transportation - the Golden Queen. We first stop at the other islands to pick up more passengers. Toby joins us on Gili Air, as he stayed one night longer and is now going to Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan. I also really want to go there, so I spontaneously agree to join him for a short trip after 2 days on Bali.

But for now, it's "Welcome back to Bali." When we arrive, we are greeted by a horde of Balinese people at the harbor trying to sell us transportation. "Super cheap, best price" of course. We are overwhelmed by the situation and seek refuge in a nearby restaurant, deciding to skip our transfer to Uluwatu. Instead, we arrange for a driver to take us back home - to Mojo Surf Camp in Canggu. We are homesick!

We have a great time with many old friends, but also meet many new ones who leave a lasting impression on our stay here. It feels like a little home in the tropical distance. Our days mainly consist of good food, cooling off in the pool, happy hour, sunsets, chilling at the beach, and dancing the nights away.

When we arrive at the hostel, Benji is already here again. He left Gili T slightly earlier than us. The complete Mojo Crew is also here - Benny from the USA, always up for fun and always motivating everyone to do something silly - lovely Nye from England, who is totally in love with Germany (I've never heard that before!) and therefore sometimes says random things in German. Surferboy Tim from Holland, who has all the young girls here falling for him. And Kev from Canada, chilling in a bean bag the whole time.

We also meet Angi and the two Finnish girls from our first week in Canggu again. And Toby joins us after our time together on Nusa Lembongan - more on that in a separate post - to spend his last two nights in Asia in Canggu.

New to the group are many new acquaintances, who will probably remain just that, but also people who we immediately take to our hearts and hope to see again soon.

There's Phil (29) from Wales, who seems to sleep all day and only comes out of his room to get a drink. But in the evenings, he always gets wild and you can have really good conversations with him.

Jackson, oh Jackson. Lisa has a crush on him from California, USA. He's just crazy. Whatever he does, he always makes everyone laugh and you never know what he'll do next.

Oli from Dresden and Alina from NRW, who are always there - to our regret. We find both of them quite annoying. He's a bit of a know-it-all due to his profession (teacher) and he stares at you too often. Unqualified and inappropriate comments are his specialty. You can tell her lack of intelligence just by looking at her. She's always dressed in a bikini and laughs way too loudly at everything, and her English is a catastrophe despite her previous one-year stay in Australia - and I'm saying that!! Especially her pronunciation immediately reveals that she's German. Terrible! We secretly hate her.

We meet Patrick (21) from Norway, who will join Lisa's group at the surf camp in Java. And Oliver (21) from Sweden, with whom I spend my last days here. He's super intelligent and talks about all the trips he's already taken, so it's unbelievable when he tells me his age. With him, I've had the best and most intense conversations about everything.

Then there are the two Dutch boys with whom you can party really well. And Morten (19) from Sweden, who couldn't look more Swedish with his deep blue eyes, blond tousled hair, and an incredibly good-looking body, but doesn't speak much.

We fall madly in love with the sweet Matilda from Sweden, who is only 19 but carries herself with such confidence that you can't tell her age at all. We spend a lot of time with her and Lisa is thrilled when she spontaneously decides to accompany her to the surf camp.

On Lisa's last evening, two more people join us - Camille from Argentina and Kyle (28) from Michigan, USA. The two of them have been traveling together for a while. Camille is super sweet, but I have a hard time understanding her with her accent. Kyle honestly looks like the actor who plays Christian Grey in 50 Shades of Grey. But he's much friendlier than the character and he's my partner for bad jokes and mischief for the evening.

The last night before Lisa's departure was simply legendary. We were a great group, everyone was in high spirits, we drank a lot, danced like crazy at Old Man's and on the beach. I will really miss many of the people here. I will miss the place. The feeling I get when we walk down the street on our way to Old Man's or to the beach. I will miss the feeling of "coming home" when we enter Mojo Surf and are always warmly greeted. The evenings at the pool playing card games. The sunsets with a beer on the beach. It was an amazing time that I will never forget. Thank you Canggu, thank you Bali. See you again :) terima kasih ♥

P.S.: Pictures will follow soon once I have better WiFi.