Ahhh chilled out Ubud Bali. Center of culture, music…..and an insane amount of expats trying to live out their own version of “Eat, Pray, Love”. But that’s not this blog post!
Some of our closest friends, Jade, Yana and a bunch of our Burning Man Campmates from Ashram Galactica flew out to meet us and so our adventure to these two remote islands of Gili Tarawangan and Gili Meno began. These are two small islands out of a 3 island group called…you guessed it…the Gilis. In order to get there you’ve got to take a ferry and so we all crammed into a tiny mini bus and bounced along the winding, no traffic law rules of Bali to make it to the ferry in time. Little did we know we’d star in our own personal adventure film-“Escape from Pringle Island”!
All posted departure and tour times here in Bali seem to be extremely hand-wavey suggestions, but the ferry was next level hand waveyness. The “fast boat” ferry is basically a longer, wider version of a long boat with a roof which they use to stow luggage under a big tarp. We were told the boat departure time was 12:30- that ferry while it was on the pier, did not leave till 2:30- ample time for the local entrepreneurs to descend on all the tourists, exposed and undefended on the pier.
Baskets filled to the brim with Doritos knockoffs (“Happy-To’s”), Bin Tang beer and a near endless supply of Pringle’s. Pringles flavors I’ve never even dreamed were possible like “beef rendang” and “satay” flavor. So as the fake delays piled up, I became more and more convinced that the delays were actually sponsored by Pringle’s so we all would buy more Pringle’s. This non stop gauntlet of Pringle’s sellers continued to the last possible second when the boat was leaving the dock and sellers were still grabbing people by the arm to buy more Pringle’s. Finally the boat kicked into gear and we were able to escape Pringle island.
When we finally made it to Gili Tarawangan, we dropped our bags in the sand and looked for a taxi. To preserve the picturesque air in the Gilis, cars are banned and the taxis are colorfully decorated horse drawn carriages with little bells that sounded like sleigh bells (appropriate since it was Christmas!)
Gili Tarawangan is the largest of the three islands in the Gills and has a party-forward reputation. Beachside restaurants turn out tasty seafood dishes while the soft sounds of “Despacito” play on the sound system. Everyone was super nice and laid back. A couple of the restaurants have multiple side businesses like “Scallywags” which was a restaurant, hotel, dive shop and adventure outfitter. We ended up choosing them for our scuba dives and they were great!
Tiffany’s Gili T Take:
We stayed at an amazing hotel “Villa Ombak Hotel” with a super awesome pool area. We spent Christmas morning relaxing and listening to DJ “Crazy Jungle”’s set by the pool while sipping on iced coffee with Baileys. This is truly a chilax time but to top it off one must really try the spa. Yana and I decided to treat ourselves for Christmas at Ombak Spa. We had the royal ritual treatment aka Lulur. Lulur is a well known and very popular beauty secret in Indonesia. Formerly the Lulur treatment was only offer to the royal family or offer to brides on the day of the wedding. When in Bali treat yourself like royalty and enjoy the Lulur treatment. Yana and I enjoyed a 60 minute Balinese massage followed by coconut body scrub then our entire body was painted in a Balinese body paste. We ended the treatment with a relaxing hot milk bath. I highly recommend trying this at least once when you are in Bali. You will have tons of memories and stories to tell with good friends.
Tim continues this meandering post:
The waters surrounding the Gilis is filled with colorful fish, all kinds of coral, sting rays, tons of sea turtles and sharks! I’ve never seen so many sea turtles in my life! The dive company was super legit and each dive we saw amazing things. I even made progress towards my advanced open water certification with a deep dive. If you like any of the above things when diving, check out the Gilis! We also saw a MASSIVE sea cucumber- the thing looked as big as a cat and was just on the ocean floor…doing what sea cucumbers do (I guess).
At night, Gili T definitely came alive with drunk aussies in their early 20s partying hard. Every time we hit a club the place would (almost) have as many shirtless guys as you’d expect at a party in the Castro district of SF!
Tiffany’s take:
Also you can get Thai Red Bulls at any Circle K in Gili T. Who needs sleep when you can party all night and get Jiggy with Jade 🙂 Caution– drink at your own risk (Red Bulls original formula was not FDA approved) so please don’t blame me the next morning. We had a silly fun night with our crew and have stories to tell for years to come.
Tim:
After 2 days on Gili T, we went to the much chiller Gili Meno. Fortunately for us it took just 10 minutes on a quick boat. Our hotel the Mahamaya was super nice and also, one of the few places on the island to eat. These islands are really, really small- like 5 KM in circumference so it doesn’t take much to see the whole place. Gili M is known more as the honeymooners island since it is so, so chill. It was a nice change of pace from Gili T and we were able to get some solid beach “do nothing” time in. Unfortunately, both me and Tiff got a case of “Bali Belly” and spent more time in our room than we would have liked.
Tiffany:
The hotel staff was super nice and gave us an endless supply of plain rice and ginger tea. I found a new appreciation for tasty food and endless energy.
Tim:
Ya, between the Bali belly and my diving related ear infections (more on that next post), we’ve definitely seen our share of travel related ailments. It’s all part of the adventure of travel! :p
That being said, spending the days chilling with friends and watching some of the most amazing sunsets i’ve ever seen felt pretty damn amazing. It was a surreal spectacle -the sun set with the tower Volcanoes of Bali in the distance, all while the call to prayer from Gili T’s mosque filtered across the water. It was a perfect moment that we will never forget.
After 2 days of this it was time to brave the phalanx of Pringle sellers of Pringle island again and return to Ubud. The Gilis were gorgeous, not too developed and were worth the experience- especially if you love diving and relaxing on the beach. As always, if you need any more suggestions or tips on our travels, please let us know!
