Diving, Drinks, & Dinner in Gili T(rawangan)

This Friday we island hopped over to Gili Trawangan, or Gili T as it's known to the locals and the tourists who can't pronounce it. :) Gili T is one of three, tiny "Gili Islands" off the northwest coast of Lombok. For an idea of just how tiny - you can easily walk around Gili T in an hour and a half (or run in ~45 minutes) ... and Gili T is the biggest of the three Gilis.

For a visual of our island hopping in the past week, see the map below:

(From Bali, we went to Kuta, Lombok, a surf town on the southern coast. From Lombok, we hopped over to Gili T, a tropical paradise). 

Today we headed out for an afternoon dive to Shark Point. Unfortunately, we didn't see any reef shark, but we did see sea turtle, octopus, eel, sting ray, lobster, and loads of brightly colored fish (the needle fish always make me laugh - they are so funny looking) & gorgeous coral.

Pete & me on the dive boat

Our dive boat

After a fantastic dive, we headed to Sunset Bar for sunset (surprise!) Despite the cloudy sunset, it was absolutely stunning and quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been to. To the east, you could see a storm brewing over the dramatic mountains of Lombok. In the distance to the west, you could just see the highest peak of Bali peeking through the clouds. Not surprisingly, we took loads of pictures ...

Random boat on shore with Lombok in the background

Bintang is to Indonesia as Tusker is to Kenya as Kingfisher is to India (the ubiquitous beer)

Life is rough

Even after sunset we couldn't stop snapping pictures

So dinner in Gili T goes as such:

1) Find the restaurant that has the freshest looking fish and the best looking salad bar
2) Pick out the piece of fish that looks best and tell the guy behind the counter
3) Find a table on the beach and order a large, ice cold Bintang (beer)
4) Load up on the freshest salads while your fish is being grilled
5) Magically your fish appears - grilled to perfection and with an amazing garlic-butter sauce
6) Walk off the huge meal you just consumed
7) Make sure you walk long enough to make room for gelato from Gili Gelato

Tough decision ...