Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Gili Trawangan: The Island of Diving and Swimming with Turtles. Oh... and We're Coming Home!?

I can’t believe the past two weeks have gone by as fast as they have.

Gili Trawangan is one of the most amazing islands, or even location in general for that matter, that we have been to. There are no motorbikes or cars, the only mode of transportation is by walking, bicycle, or horse and cart. There are no police and everyone is so incredibly friendly. You can find cheap accommodation and the food is reasonable as well.


 
 
Bringing goods to and from the island

Coconuts everywhere!
You can walk the beach and snorkel just about anywhere and come face to face with beautiful turtles while doing so.





There are dive shops left and right while walking the main road [but the only smart choice would be Diversia :)] and they all charge the same price so there is not haggling. PERFECTION.

We stayed at the same homestay the whole time in Gili T and loved it- Gili T & B. The room included air-conditioning, breakfast, and some awesome hosts! We forfeited the hot water in order to stay in a cheaper room but it really wasn't even needed. We paid about $16USD a night and definitely plan to go back and stay there when we return to Gili T in the future!

We were in Gili T for 16 days and within that time I was able to scuba dive 11 times; imagine how HAPPY I AM!! This has been the most amazing experience I believe I have had the entire time we have been traveling. Diving is truly my passion and being able to dive once or twice a day has been like a dream come true.
Happy, Happy, HAPPY!
 It makes me so happy to have the GoPro down there with me so I can resurface and share the pure beauty that is the underwater world.


If you have never dove, I suggest it’s something everyone should try at least once. Being under the water and hearing nothing but the sound of you breathing is a whole different kind of tranquility.
 
Add gorgeous colors and beautiful fish to the mix and it proves to be nothing short of a world you never could have imagined. There are so many types of fish and different marine life down there that every dive is different, even if you are in the same location.

I took so many photos and videos it was hard to pick favorites but here are a few from the many dives in Gili T:
NEMO! :) Clownfish
 
Blue Sea Star
 
Clownfish in Bubble Anemone
 
Cuttlefish
 
Lionfish
 
Lobsters
 
I'm not totally sure what this is but it was beautiful!
 
Scorpionfish
 
White Sea Horse
 
White Tip Reef Shark
From the sharks to the tiny clownfish- you will see something different every time you go down. I love love LOVE it and wish to find somewhere to live where I can dive as much as I have on this island.
We [yes, WE!] have been diving with Diversia on Gili T and if I could personally hug each person that works there a million times I think I would.
 
Tim blowing O-Rings

Gianca & a Clownfish
The experience has so much to do with the people- and these are some of the BEST people from all around the world…I guess it helps that this is an Italian dive shop as well!
Adam did his DSD [Discover Scuba Dive] course and got right in the ocean- it was awesome! He was able to dive three times with Diversia and we had the GoPro to capture his first time diving-so happy! 


 
 
 
 
I dove 10x during the day and was able to do one night dive which was AWESOME. Bringing a flashlight down and diving in the dark is a whole different ball game…especially when you see a 2 meter [about 6.5 ft] giant moray eel slithering along- you back up REAL QUICK!
 
 
 
 
 
 
We have had an amazing time in Indonesia and are quite sad to be leaving. We know we will be back here and it is my personal mission to get my dad here to do some diving!
 
We left today on a fast boat back to Bali and decided to ride on the top. Little did we know we would end up getting soaked- but at least I got to work on my tan! HA This photo was pre-drenching and prior to them handing out plastic bags to put your things in because there was so much water.
 

SO next up on the list… PHILIPPINES! We have decided to bypass Hong Kong [original plan] due to the company who we purchased our tickets with, Mandala Air, ceasing all operations and canceling all flights. We were left to search and purchase a new flight and decided to pick one more stop and spend our last month there.

We knew our flight home [omg, we're coming home...] flew through the Philippines so the decision was made! We changed our flight home to no longer come from Hong Kong which was the first leg, but to only take the second leg which was Manila, Philippines to LAX.

We head to the Philippines on July 5 with nothing planned yet…oops. There’s always tomorrow J But what we DO KNOW is that we have our FLIGHT HOME. It’s bittersweet really. I’m ready to get back to the US but also sad that it means this incredible journey of country-hopping is coming to an end…for now at least. I don’t want to think about it quite yet so we will save those sad thoughts for a later post.

We are COMING HOME!! We land our happy little traveling feet on US soil the morning of July 27th in LA. We are heading right to the east coast because I think I may have a breakdown if we are back in the states and I don't see my parents ASAP! :) But then its off to the west coast to travel around and hopefully find a place to live for a little bit.
But for now- thank you Indonesia for being my diving happy place and here’s to the Philippines!!

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Playing With Wild Monkeys and Crossing Something Off Our "Bucket List"

Since the last travel blog post, we made our way through Singapore [for 2 days] then to Indonesia.
China Town, Singapore
Our original plan was to fly from Thailand to Singapore and spend two full weeks there. When we decided to travel through Malaysia from Thailand via bus en route to Singapore, we knew our time would be limited there. We were OK with this as it is MUCH more expensive in Singapore than it is in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia! We still were able to experience China Town and the beautiful Singapore waterfront.

On to Indonesia. Bali is an incredible place not only for the perfect weather, but the culture as well.

As we were walking along Kuta Beach, we noticed these beautiful temples and structures sitting on the sand. There were tons of people around and they started to burn them to the ground. Little did we know, this was a funeral ceremony we were witnessing. We asked our cab driver about it by showing him these pictures, which is when he told us it must have been someone very wealthy since they were burning the bodies on the beach to cremate them. Eerie and definitely a culture shock. What an interesting ceremony in celebration of someone's life.
Kuta Beach

Kuta Beach Funeral
We have been enjoying massages, exploring temples... 
Adam's Beautiful Flower Foot Treatment LOL

Capturing the offerings for the Hindu Gods inside a Temple.

In exchange for a donation, we were able to borrow sarongs and walk around a beautiful temple

Lotus flower inside the Temple
...exploring Art Galleries, volcanos,  and we even met a guy on the beach who took us fishing which was AWESOME. I just so happened to catch the monster fish of the day- my first fish, too!
At an art gallery where this man was working on this intricate piece

Fishing with Blake!

My monster fishy and the boat we went out on!

Lunch looking out at this awesome volcano
 
Us and Batur volcano...sort of!
We spent almost a week in Kuta and then made our way to Sanur where we currently are staying at another AirBnb location. $20/night with A/C and drinking water provided= perfect. Private bathroom and private entrance to our room. We love the cheap countries!!
Our room!
So.. remember the movie The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman? Jack Nicholson loved his Kopi Luwak until he found out how it actually was made..

Production of Kopi Luwak: The luak, that’s a small catlike animal, gorges after dark on the most ripe, the best of our crop. It digests the fruit and expels the beans, which our farm people collect, wash, and roast, a real delicacy. Something about the natural fermentation that occurs in the luak’s stomach seems to make the difference.

Kopi Luwak is one of the most expensive coffees in the world, selling for between US$100 and $600 per pound in 2010. Some specialty coffee shops sell cups of brewed Kopi Luwak for US$35–$80.

Well, we got to enjoy a cup for less than $5 and boy...was it strong.
A cup of Kopi Luwak

This is what it looks like fresh out of the little guy below.

The money maker.

We also got to taste tons of teas and coffees while we were there...for FREE! :)
Today we decided to go check out Monkey Forest. Exactly how it sounds. There are monkeys EVERYWHERE. And they will literally jump on your back if they want to… which happened to both of us before we left! Yikes. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 

 


We also bought this awesome mask. They use these during the ceremonies and dancing productions- we bought one at a local shop which was 10x better than getting one at a touristy location.

We plan to head to Gili Island on Monday and hopefully get some diving in there. We are LOVING Indonesia! I know a few people have messaged Adam or myself with questions about the places we are visiting and we LOVE THAT. Please contact us if you want to know more about anything or comment right on the blog.
We love hearing from people who are following our journey- it means the world to us!