Gili Trawangan! (2)

So as I said, we've now landed on Gili Trawangan, a small island off the northwest coast of Lombok. We came here for the diving (all four of us are certified) and the laid-back beach life. The journey here almost didn't make it worth it--two-and-a-half hours on the choppiest seas I've ever been on. I was extraordinarily thankful I had taken a Dramamine beforehand just in case...even so, I had to concentrate on the horizon line for basically the entire ride. Some of our fellow travelers weren't so lucky...and everyone was really greatful when we arrived.

Gili Trawangan is very small--you could probably walk all the way around it in an hour. It's also run entirely by tribal elders, who make and enforce the laws (no police). One of the laws is there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island, so if you need transport and don't feel like walking, you can grab a horse & buggy cab. Because of the lack of police, a party culture has emerged here, with places that sell psychedelic mushroom shakes to hippy-types who come to visit. It makes the scene pretty crazy at night. Luckily our guest house is away from the main party street.

However, mainly it's a diving destination, and the four of us have been doing just that the last couple of days. Truthfully I thought the diving would be more colorful, but it's still been really good. We've seen sea turtles (which are the coolest!), sharks, cuttlefish (which look like pointy rocks until they get scared, then suddenly transform into a squid-looking thing), tons of aquarium fish (angel fish, clown fish, etc.), and an undersea wreck. The wreck was really neat--the coral formations on it were beautiful and there were great schools of fish all around.

Unfortunately I forgot one of my basics during our wreck dive, and didn't equalize the pressure in my mask right away. I ended up with a condition called "mask squeeze," which basically gave me black and red spots all around my eyes and leaked blood into the white part of my eyes. Yuck. It's harmless but will take a couple of weeks to heal completely. Until then I look like I lost a fight, and I can't dive for a while. Bummer.

One other thing of note about the island is they have great seafood restaurants lining the beach. I had the best piece of fish I've ever had in my life last night...

Tomorrow we're heading back to Bali to a town called Ubud. The travelers we've met have been raving about it so we're looking forward to it. At least there's no diving there for me to miss...