Base 28 - Gili Air

We had a bungalow and it was modern and nice.

The interesting thing happened when I lost the key. It was past midnight and we couldn't find the housekeeper or the owner, so after running around for an hour (covering half the island) trying to find the keys, Diana had the idea for us to steal borrow some yoga mats from the yoga place in order to sleep in the balcony. Which is what we did.

This bungalow had a bed

While we were taking the mats and cushions on our way out, I was surprised and loved how nonchalantly Diana went to another room and looked for some blankets with me standing around in the middle of the light with goods in my arms that were illegally taken. We brought everything back the next night without anyone noticing.

and a decent view.

Sleeping in the balcony was hard, but romantic, but even harder when the sermon started at four in the morning with a duration of two hours. The day after, the housekeeper told us that we had the only key. We went to look for them for another round, then went back, then the owner eventually woke up, climbed through the open-air bathroom ("I am Spider-Man") and opened the door from the inside. Then he changed the lock.

I bought a necklace made out of coconut shell from him.

Gili Air

The Gili islands which belong to Lombok and not Bali are lauded as some the most beautiful places you can visit. Gili Trawangan is the biggest one although they don't have much of a difference. It is the one attacting the most party people. Gili Meno is the smallest and most quiet. Gili Air is the middle one and the one we went to because it was supposed to have a decent yoga place. It also promised serenity due in part to the island not having any motorized vehicles. It was all donkeys, bicycles and some electric bikes.

No serenity for me!

Serenity on our first day.

It was all nice enough. We had some great walks, went to some nice bars and restaurants, ate some really tasty food. Sounds like everything you might want but my expectations were too high. I wasn't able to swim anywhere because the sea was very shallow and very full of corals and stones that were downright dangerous if you didn't take care. There were too many bars making lots of noise and most of the time they didn't have enough space between them to find some quiet spot. I don't understand why the need for loud house music or a band whose members count for as many people as the customers in your restaurant. And then you have some very loud bands in two restaurants adjacent to each other. Who the hell thinks this is OK?

No cars.

If all this wasn't enough, we soon found out that while Bali is an island whose style is mostly defined by Hinduism, the rest of Indonesia is ruled by Islam. This meant that every day at 4 o'clock in the morning, we would be woken up by an islamic sermon telling us through bad speakers how to live our life in a language we didn't understand. People who hate islamic countries should be forced to live in one for a couple of days and their hate will turn into compassion for their fellow human beings who have to endure this kind of shit every day for their whole life.

"Make a photo of the Devil" - Diana

Ahem! I sound mostly negative but our experience with Gili Air was mostly positive. The yoga school that Diana originally wanted to visit (H2O) proved itself dissapointing after the first visit. Luckily she found another one (Mandala Blue) that was very good. I wouldn't know. Apparently Fly Yoga is fun.

I'll try it next time we are there.