Indonesia - Week of March 2, 2025

Hello from Gili T. Apa kabar? How are you? Aku sangat begus! I am very good! I trust your last week was filled with blessings and several moments of magic!🦄

The weather continues to be consistently warm, sunny, and humid. The day/night temperature variation is almost incremental - may dip to 26C (79F) at night with a day time high of 32C (90F). The humidity drives the temperature closer to 38C (100F). All about being near the equator.  Add in the occasional shower for good measure. The forecast always has the threat of rain starting around 11 am to about 5 pm.

Quick note about my Bali airport experience entering Indonesia. The entire process was through electronic gates without talking to a customs officer - just as quick and disarmingly smooth as electronic gates in New Zealand and Australia. I was prepared for a long queue along with producing all sorts of documentation resulting in a large visa embossed in my passport. The only interaction I had at the 'border' was presenting my customs declaration QR code from the declaration form I had been advised to complete online in advance. 

Being in Indonesia has meant a mental adjustment for me. At first, I was judgemental about my new surroundings as opposed to embracing what Indonesia was offering me. Lapse in gratitude. I temporarily forgot how grateful I am for this gift of travel and the blessings I experience every day. Both New Zealand and Australia are so similar to North America it minimized my need to adapt. Well, my friends, that changed radically the moment I entered Indonesia. Once I stepped outside the airport, the rules and expectations need to be fully adjusted, other than the rules governing my personal safety. 

WhatsApp, for example, is a common method of doing business because it is both free and easily accessed - everyone has a phone. You also get quickly used to carrying a wad of local currency, the Indonesian rupiah (IDR). $1 CAD buys about 11,300 IDR; $1 USD buys 16,300 IDR. 100,000 IDR, for Canadians, is about $9.

Ramandan, the Holy month of fasting for Muslims, started on March 2 in Indonesia. I'm familiar with the fasting starting during my high school days as my small town had the first mosque in the province of Alberta. Being that Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, I'll have an opportunity to learn more.

The Gili Islands
 Gili T; Meno and Air (from left to right)

My conversations with a fellow Gili T hotel guest, Fabiana (more details below), intersected with a John O'Donohue book I was reading - Anam Cara. I was lucky enough to find this book during my first visit to Perth. Here's the last stanza from John's poem 'A Morning Offering' that caught my imagination:

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

Quick travel plans update: My longer term travel plans have continued to slowly unfold. I fly from Jakarta to Colombo on March 25th to visit with friends and visit a few places I omitted from my first visit to Sri Lanka a couple years ago. I then fly to Maldives on April 2 to spend a week on Gulhi Island visiting with my fellow traveler Emily who is working in a dive shop. I then fly from Maldives on April 9 to Dimapur, Nagaland (India), returning to Chennai around May 5 to visit with friends prior to leaving India for Taiwan on May 8. My Indian evisa is the only outstanding travel document I need to get in the days ahead along with booking some flights for my post Maldives travel. 

May the universe bring endless blessings and moments of magic 🦄  to you and your loved ones in the week ahead. 🙏

Travel Administration

I'm back to talking about credit cards. My proposed Lion Air flight to Surabaya on Sunday was a non-starter as I was unable to use my two Canadian credit cards. This is the first time my credit cards have been refused in my travels ever. Paypal has also appeared as the financial intermediary for a couple credit transactions over the past week. 

Travel Maps

Tracking this past week's 90 minute journey that it takes to walk completely around the island of Gili Trawangan (Gili T) Island.

Indonesia: February 25 - March 8, 2025


Gili Trawangan (Gili T.)

I've lazed about for the entire week on Gili T. I got up at 6 am, went for my 90 minute walk around the island, had breakfast and chilled on the beach. Beautiful breeze off the water keeps the temperature and humidity at bay. I hit the pool in the late afternoon to do my version of swimming lengths. I had dinner on the beach as I watched the sunset. I've also invested time learning a few Indonesian words daily along with learning how to count. I believe my ability to say a few Indonesian words/phrases made a difference with the hotel staff and the locals I meet during my morning walk. There were a couple hotel staff who have helped introduce new words to help me expand my Indonesian vocabulary. 
I developed a daily morning routine of walking around the island starting at about 6:30 am. The early start was necessary to avoid the heat and humidity that comes later in the day. The walk took about 90 minutes including the occasional break to share greetings/practice my Indonesian with the locals. My vocabulary is slowly expanding. 

A Blessing

The blessing I've enjoyed throughout this trip of meeting extraordinary people continued during my time on Gili T. I had the special gift of meeting a couple new friends - Lulu and Fabiana. I mention more about Lulu in the Sunday night dinner section below. 

Fabiana and her friend Nora were staying at the hotel. Fabiana hails from the small island of Ischia just off the Italian coast near Naples; Pompeii is about 30 minutes outside Naples. Talk about a well traveled, seasoned person at the age of 27 (28 on March 30)! She had just spent time in India at an ashram deepening her yoga teaching abilities. She started traveling when she was 22, same age that I started my traveling. A big difference is that she has traveled far more extensively in her six years of travel than I did by the time I was 28. She mentioned her sales career with trade shows and expos has certainly helped with her travels. For example, when I mentioned I had worked in Wisconsin, she spoke about working at a trade show in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin. She's been to South Africa including Namibia, to the Burning Man Project in the USA (on my radar to attend), Costa Rica and Mexico plus much of Europe. Our conversations touched several key personal passions - simplicity in life, living in the moment, putting work into proper perspective and exploring the world. Kind of cool and inspiring to meet someone who has broad travel experiences, who is exemplifying the path I'm trying to create for myself.  It was somewhat like looking in a mirror. I'm making good progress on my objectives; my ability to live in the moment may need more attention. Old habits like to linger. Fabiana was off to visit the Komodo dragons with her friend Nora. She was uncertain about where she would go after the dragons and her friend Nora returned to Zurich in the next few days. Such an amazing perspective on how to live life. We'll stay in touch. 

Walkabout

The island's east side (sunrise), where the harbour is located, is where you find the main 'commercial' centre. There is a combination of resorts, restaurants, bars, shops of all kinds, beachside bars, plethora of dive shops, kiosks to by your snorkeling/boat tour adventures, French pastries/crepes. The list goes on. 

The west side (sunset), where I parked myself for eight nights, is the island's quieter side. There are a few independent restaurants/bars, the odd shop and ticket kiosk. The west side is also where you'll find a bar that serves a drink with magic mushrooms as an ingredient. 

Amazing beach - be aware of the coral that washes up on the beach with the tide and the reef underfoot as you enter the water. Best to have waterwalkers/reef/ coral shoes to protect your feet. A turtle was spotted in the water a few times this week.
 
I'm sharing the photos below, from my daily walk, in an attempt to recreate the experience for you (ws - westside; es - eastside). Please note these photos omit the streets off of the main road I've showcased in the photos below. 
Rounding the corner to the island's westside

Upper westside

Westside shops

Loads of room on beach early in morning

Cows on vacation - ws

This cow wanted to be on its own -ws

Resort - ws

Approaching yoga studio - ws

For my yoga friends - ws


Want to sign up?

How about this for a yoga studio? See photo for
yoga studio seaview.

Undeveloped land (ws)

WS

Magic mushrooms in paradise (ws)

Undeveloped land - beach side (ws)

Undeveloped land - ws

Resort under construction - ws

ws

Independent bar - ws

Communing with beach gods - ws

Like to invest? -ws

Beachside massage - ws




























































Almost forgot - view from Yoga studio
Pearl Resort - es

Eastside commercial area

Eastside commercial

Sidestreet - es

There is an abundance of these 24 hr medical shops
on the island

Harbour gangway - where I arrived

More harbour stuff

Eastside commercial

Kiosk houses the speedboat company rep
for my return trip to Bali. Fingers crossed!

More medical options - es


Sidestreet - es

Eastside commercial is starting to fade away

Thought this cat looked so comfortable enjoying
the sunrise

Approaching the end of the eastside

Almost there

So darn close now to the turn to westside
- noticing the change?

We've arrived at the end

Construction - the Gili T. way


Island's power station - interior island

The things you see on the walk

Island interior

Apparently this hotel is open - frightening thought
given its current state

Local homes































































Cidomo (horse drawn carriage) - es

Classic 'I love' sign (ws)



Broader view - hard to get a selfie

Local watering hole - ws

More investment property - ws

Local watering hole - ws


Want to set-up a small business - ws?

Roadside shop - ws

I thought this was interesting - work in progress

Parts of tree that had blocked the road

Tsunami evacuation route - ws

This is the only completed structure of this
type on the island - ws

I'm unsure what this is. There was someone on
site every day.

Work in progress - ws

A horse stable on west side

Work in progress

Low tide - notice the need for reef shoes

Low tide photo #2

Lower eastside roadway

Eastside resort

Same eastside resort - different angle

Approaching the east side commercial area






















































Island has two mosques. Unable to
hear the daily call to prayers from
my hotel.







Sunsets

I think the secret about my passion for sunrises and sunsets is now public through my posts. I was blessed to be staying at a beachfront boutique hotel that had a private beach. I had a front row seat to enjoy the several sunsets throughout the week. There were a few days where the cloud cover prevented a full on colourful sunset. I was also able to enjoy eating my dinner while the earth rotated to create this amazing experience. 

The horses from the carriages did double duty as providing beach rides for tourists. The horses and riders would show up around 5 pm, patrolling the beach looking for tourists wanting the beach ride experience. 




































































Sunset horse beach ride

Sunset horse beach ride










Sunday Night Dinner

I was invited, by the cook preparing the meal, to join a weekly Sunday night dinner for the expat locals hosted by the hotel for an all in cost of 175,000 IDR ($15.40 CAD/$10.75 USD) for a complete meal plus a glass of wine. The majority of attendees were mostly involved in the island's diving business. This dinner was the first dinner since November when the rainy season prevented outdoor meals.

I met Lulu, from Brisbane, who had been working on the island for the past year. She was a dive instructor who had branched out to managing villa. She was heading back to Brisbane in the next few weeks where she planned to earn real money as a lifeguard. Her wages on Gili T. were almost negligible. Lulu had an interesting side hustle she wanted to invest more time in once she was back in Brisbane. She designed and made colourful hats with floppy sides for protecting the neck from the sun and brims. The hats were also good for divers as her design included a couple vents to let the bubbles escape. She mentioned she had to be careful with her side hustle while in Indonesia given her work visa restrictions. I was unable to resist the opportunity to challenge her thinking about moving her side hustle forward. Interesting conversation ensued as she shared more detailed plans about the hats and advancing her technical diving skills. Lulu was also looking for a way to combine her diving, travel and hat business so the business would pay for her travel and diving. Like how she thinks!

She is an entrepreneur at heart. She recounted a story about how, when she was working at the family's nursery, she had taken succulent stems in order to grow new plants she could sell. Once she had her crop of plants, she parked herself outside the nursery's entrance to sell her plants. She was convinced her micro business had zero impact on her parent's business. 














My Temporary Home - Gili Teak

I originally booked four nights at the hotel. I enjoyed being stationary so much I extended my stay by four nights. Small boutique hotel with 11 separate rooms, a swimming pool, restaurant, private beach and amazingly attentive staff. The hotel was very laid back, played music throughout the day that I enjoyed. The beach had lots of trees for shade. Imagine a light breeze off the sea keeping you cool all day long. Lots of loungers, chairs, double loungers and a hammock. Staff around to order drinks and food as you pleased. 

Breakfast view


Dinner view

Latte creativity


Hotel bar

Pool























Roommates in my bathroom

Roommates in my bathroom

My roommates are in the water by the shower

His/Her showers

Open air - in teak

Her/His sinks



Sleeping area






















Travel Administration

I'm unsure what my options might have been if I was unable to find another airline to fly to Surabaya. Perhaps showing up at the airport early with cash in hand to book my flight might be an option. Paypal has also appeared in financial transactions over the past week. Paypal used USD to settle transactions so it has been helpful to have a USD denominated credit card for these transactions. Paypal offers a super low CAD/USD exchange rate if you plan to use Canadian funds. 

Next Week

The beach holiday comes to an end on Sunday. I head to Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, on the island of Java for a three night stay. I'll see how my travel plans unfold. The plans involve a 90 minute speedboat ride from Gili T. to Padang Bai Harbour (with a very lowly rated speedboat company), a 90 minute taxi ride from the harbour to Denpasar Airport (domestic terminal) for a one hour flight to Surabaya on CitiLink airline (airline with dismal ratings) to be picked up by the hotel's shuttle service once I land in Surabaya. I'll take a two hour train ride to Malang for a three night stay with the potential of an excursion to Mt. Bromo. I'm unsure where I'll head after Malang at this point. 

Look forward to catching up with you next week!

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