GILI TRAWANGAN

Finally, I'm getting to the Gili Trawangan part. What a great place. I totally loved this place.

But first a little note about my yesterday mission. NOT. That did not work out. Turns out you can not pay your Income Tax in CASH - need to use your bank account. Tomorrow we head back. This time with the bank book in hand. @#*!

....and turns out, just as well anyways. Today the other Me brought 12 more of the darn things to pay. We are now on the monthly installment plan for 2009. Believe it or not 950Rp per month. That's like 9 cents. .......... and I have to stand in line for that. @#*!

So about Gili Trawangan. First off you have to get there. Which is not exactly an easy feat. The trip starts with a plane ride into Mataram (Lombok) and then hire a car to go over-land, through the Monkey Forest (Yes, it's really called that - and yes, there's a ton of monkeys there too.) to Bangsal Harbor where you get to use your bargaining skills to negotiate a price ($6) for a regular public boat.

Trawangan is one of the 3 Gilis (Islands) Gili Air, Gili Meno and Trawangan. In between the islands of Lombok and Bali. It is the cleanest, greenest place. Beautiful in fact. There are no motorized anythings in the place. The only transport is by horse cart, bike or by foot. Tiny little hotels or Home Stays some with hot water, but mostly not, and direct from the sea in fact (salty). And not a whole lot of these places come equipped with AC. A BIG beer in Trawangan costs all of 30,000Rp ($2.75 USD), there's snorkeling and scuba and some great seafood too, but best of all - Trawangan is just a really, really great place to don your bikini and go and relax.

An interesting side note about Trawangan: By tradition, only one establishment per night can play music and host a dance party until 4 a.m. And 7 days a week, they take turns doing just that.

TODAY: Up early and on the go. Have an interesting ANZAC thing to do up on the Ridge this morning. And tomorrow I'll tell you all about that.

Enjoy yours. Good to Go!