I believe I could never grow tired of Gili T. The way of life seems slow and relaxed, and yet the island is full of life and colour. The people are friendly and charming, and I feel more at home here each day. The next couple of days pass in a wonderful haze of rest and relaxation.
I wake on Saturday morning (day 9) feeling refreshed, having been only briefly disturbed by the storm that hit the island the night before. The rain that leaked in through the roof has dried up, and the skies outside are blue again and seem to be calling me out to explore.
Time to explore
My little pool looks a little the worse for wear after all the rain, but I decide that sorting that out is something that can wait until later. Right now, it is time to head out for a stroll to see what Gili T is all about. The dirt tracks that serve as roads on the island are now even more waterlogged than yesterday, and I find myself picking my steps around the pools and the puddles as I make my way down to the beachfront.
I take a left and head up along the stretch of beach that I didn’t have a chance to see yesterday. Along the way are dotted little bars and stalls, beanbags and swings. This is my first proper sighting of the famous “Bali swings” that seem to be plentiful around Gili T, as well as on the Nusa islands.
Click here to read about my first impressions of Gili T.
I browse at a couple of stalls and have a chat to a local lady, who asks where I am from and whether my country has been affected by the coronavirus. She seems glad to have someone to chat with. The whole island is strangely lacking in tourists, as is Bali island itself.. Granted, it is the rainy season, but I had thought that they would welcome quite a few visitors all year round, especially here on Gili T which has a bit of a reputation as the party island.
Fleeing relaxed and lazy
I have lunch at a beachside bar and stroll back to my villa to find that someone has been in and sorted out the pool for me. I spend the rest of the day just lazing about, in and out of the pool, reading and generally not doing much at all really. Another storm later in the evening cuts short my walk towards the beach to have dinner. Instead, I find myself at a Mexican bar around the corner from the villa, purely because I happen to be walking past when the heavens decide to open.
There is something almost pleasant about the storms here. It is not miserable and cold as it is during a storm at home. It is still warm, and the rain falls straight down so that the canopy over where I am sitting is enough to keep the rain off of me. I sit quite contentedly eating dinner and drinking wine, watching the rain and the lightening and listening to the thunder. A couple of slight breaks in the downpour give me the chance to get back to the villa in stages, taking shelter once or twice along the way.
I’ll be back
The rest of my stay here is spent in a similarly lazy fashion, just enjoying my accommodation and surroundings, as well as the laid back attitude of the locals. Nobody here is aggressively trying to sell me anything. There is no crazy traffic or noise besides the crowing of the roosters outside and the chirping of the gecko hiding away somewhere in my cabin.
Throughout my stay, I tell myself every day that I will venture across to the west side of the island, and each evening I choose not to, eventually deciding that I will avoid navigating the dirt tracks back to the villa in the dark and will instead take advantage of my western facing accommodation at my next stop and see the sunsets there.
Click here to read my Bali diary from the beginning.
Leave a Reply