Gili is a famous island for its beaches, diving and parties and it is about 2h away by boat from Bali. Well, even before getting out of the boat I was already in love... the water was so clear & the weather so nice.
In Gili there are no cars or scooters... the only available transportation is the horse taxi or the bicycles that you can rent everywhere. This could look like a good option to reduce the pollution but in the meantime the island was so small (1h cycling to do its tour) that there was any need of this kind of transportation.
As soon we arrived we went for a lunch on the beach, then we rented bicycles and hit for the hotel where we spent the afternoon lying next to the swimming pool... Relaxing time :)
The night, we went out for a dinner, for a shisha and a drink in a nice restaurant. This was reminding me so much our school years together with Louail... :) As Gili is a Muslim island, there were no parties on Thursday night because of the big prayers on Friday...
Small personal reaction: Something which really surprises me in those paradises on Earth is how local people need to adapt themselves to tourists "desires" more than letting the tourists adapt to them. I am not saying that I don't like having a drink or two during the night but I could also totally survive without alcohol some days :)
The Friday morning (31st of July), we woke up early and went for diving... I was sooo excited! Indeed, I was dreaming about it since the last time I have been diving (more than 8 months ago in Vietnam). The previous day, we met one French diving master who gave us an advice to go diving in the "Turtle point" and this is what we did.
The dive was really nice: the visibility was amazing and the water warm even at 25m deep. I can't say, however, that the dive was as good as the ones I had in the Philippines or Malaysia regarding corals for example but it was the first time I used my camera (Chinese version of the Go pro) to make underwater videos... To be honest, I was not feeling confident for several reasons:
After this amazing experience, we spent the afternoon on the beach and in the night, we went to this famous "Full Moon Party" everybody was talking about. Well, I was expecting something more there... It was happening in a bar on the beach which is a nice idea but it was also full of horny Indonesians looking for some "drunk and fresh foreign blood" and who could be quite aggressive (because of the alcohol or drugs I guess)...
Well for me having a beer, sitting on the beach while enjoying the music with good friends was really a good option :)
In Gili there are no cars or scooters... the only available transportation is the horse taxi or the bicycles that you can rent everywhere. This could look like a good option to reduce the pollution but in the meantime the island was so small (1h cycling to do its tour) that there was any need of this kind of transportation.
As soon we arrived we went for a lunch on the beach, then we rented bicycles and hit for the hotel where we spent the afternoon lying next to the swimming pool... Relaxing time :)
The night, we went out for a dinner, for a shisha and a drink in a nice restaurant. This was reminding me so much our school years together with Louail... :) As Gili is a Muslim island, there were no parties on Thursday night because of the big prayers on Friday...
Small personal reaction: Something which really surprises me in those paradises on Earth is how local people need to adapt themselves to tourists "desires" more than letting the tourists adapt to them. I am not saying that I don't like having a drink or two during the night but I could also totally survive without alcohol some days :)
The Friday morning (31st of July), we woke up early and went for diving... I was sooo excited! Indeed, I was dreaming about it since the last time I have been diving (more than 8 months ago in Vietnam). The previous day, we met one French diving master who gave us an advice to go diving in the "Turtle point" and this is what we did.
The dive was really nice: the visibility was amazing and the water warm even at 25m deep. I can't say, however, that the dive was as good as the ones I had in the Philippines or Malaysia regarding corals for example but it was the first time I used my camera (Chinese version of the Go pro) to make underwater videos... To be honest, I was not feeling confident for several reasons:
- I don't trust unknown Chinese brands
- In the notice, it was written no to go under 10m deep... so during all the dive session I was expecting my camera to explode at any moment under water... :D
After this amazing experience, we spent the afternoon on the beach and in the night, we went to this famous "Full Moon Party" everybody was talking about. Well, I was expecting something more there... It was happening in a bar on the beach which is a nice idea but it was also full of horny Indonesians looking for some "drunk and fresh foreign blood" and who could be quite aggressive (because of the alcohol or drugs I guess)...
Well for me having a beer, sitting on the beach while enjoying the music with good friends was really a good option :)
And here is my first amateur video about diving in Gili. It was the first time I have seen 4 turtles in one dive... As the people used to say there, Gili is the turtle paradise... I can't more agree with this statement.
Select HD in the settings for better images :)
Select HD in the settings for better images :)
On Saturday morning we left Gili to reach Kuta (in Bali), famous for its surfing spots & parties. More about Kuta: here.