Sun, sand, and sea!

Welcome to paradise.
I think Lee needed to get that out of her system. Public transport in Indonesia is NOT easy. It's not that the trains/buses/ferries are bad (although they are hardly great), or even expensive (it's probably about a C$1.50/hour average), it's just that it takes sooo long to get anywhere.

We were well and truly tired when we arrived at Gili Air. Luckily it wasn't too late in the evening and was still daylight, so we felt confident that we could find a decent space to throw down our backpacks. The island itself is very small; circumnavigating it on foot takes about an hour, and it was very quiet when we got there. As we made our rounds of the resorts, a lady who wanted us to see her place called out to us. We kind of had another place in mind, but she told that the price of the room was only 35,000 Rupiahs/night (about C$5), and this included breakfast (which turned out to be a big banana pancake with a fruit salad and coffee!). Needless to say that sounded too good to be true, but we decided to take a look. Good thing we did as the hut was very nice, indeed. It was a self-contained hut in a hibiscus garden close to the beach, with a nice big bed and a big, clean bath room. Awesome. Still, we thought we should check out our original option, which, unfortunately, was at the farthest point on the island. And, of course, it turned out to be no good, so we trudged right back, double checked the price, and settled in. The next six days (it was only supposed to be three) were spent doing some serious relaxation, eating some good food and, of course, doing some diving.

We went on three great dives, and saw sharks, turtles (eight in one dive!) and leafy scorpionfish. The highlight would have to be the purple Pygmy seahorses our guide found in a large fan coral. They were so tiny, only about 5mm, and they blended in perfectly with the purple coral itself. I don't know how they spotted them! I would look at certain spots of the coral, not really knowing if I was actually looking at a seahorse or not, until I would see an eye blink or a gill move. Amazing stuff! Lee and I have seen a lot of stuff underwater and can be a bit hard to impress, but these little critters are certainly at the top of the list.

We also met a couple from Quebec (we seem to be meeting only people from Canada; it makes one wonder ... ) that we got talking to. Marie-Helene and Numa had also spent a lot of time on the road, and were, like us, recharging in Gili Air. We spent many a night on the beach, eating food and chatting, which funnily enough was mainly about food, especially French-Canadian specialities such as poutine (for those not in the know, it's french fries with brown gravy and melted cheese curds -- heart attack in a paper box, but oh so tasty ... ). We had to leave eventually, but this time we decided to fly ... no more slow boats for us! We got ourselves a plane ticket to Kupang, West Timor, the most easterly island in Indonesia.

For more photos, see our Indonesia photo album.