BootsnAll Travel Network



Gili Trawangan: Happy New Year

Last night was fun. I was at a giant party along a strip of bars on a beach boardwalk on this tiny tropically paradise-y island I’m on. Everywhere decorated in cool light designs and artwork. Everyone wandering around (happily drunk, possibly high and probably smiling) saying Happy New Year to strangers and generally enjoying the best New Year’s party I’ve ever been to.

I never like NYE because it always gets built up so much with expectation. Here, it was no different — but the party was fun. It wasn’t overcrowded, overpriced, over-annoying — like, you didn’t need to worry about finding a taxi, since there are no cars on Gili Trawangan.

That’s right, no cars, trucks or motorbikes on the island. The main forms of transport are (a) horse-drawn cart, known as a sedomo, (b) bicycle or (c) foot. It’s small island, maybe 2km by 3km — I’ve walked around it, and rode a bike around it a couple times, stopping to snorkel at various places along the way.

I go out snorkelling every day and see sea turtles. Lots of them. They just chew the coral and chill out and act pretty much like the sea turtles acted in Finding Nemo. So cool. I’ve also seen a bunch of the actual Nemo fish, a lobster, a sea snake, barracuda and been stung about a hundred times by little sea lice — annoying little jellyfish bitches that you can’t see but hurt briefly.

I’d love to be able to take photos to show you all this, but my camera is fucked up (everything registers wayyyy too bright and pixelated and wrong — it sucks). I think it must be from the humidity, since it’s really hot and humid here — it rains every day for various lengths of time. Most showers last around 15 minutes, a downpour — and the water is hot. The tropics!

Yeah, my camera hasn’t been totally alright in some time, not since I dropped it (briefly!) in water in Vietnam. I’m bummed now because I haven’t been able to find a photo repair shop — shocking, I know, seeing as how I’m on a tiny tropical island with intermittent electricity. But it means my photos from here and Bali are lacking. I’m going to try to get it looked at back in Bali, and failing that, I might have to wait till I get to Australia. Bummersville, yo.

But not really. I mean, I’m on a tiny tropically paradise-y island!
Yeah, it’s fun here*. I mean, $5 rum-and-coke pitchers — are you kidding me? Two-for-one mojitos? Dollar beers? Plus, my friends here are great. Javier from Chile, Guy from England, Danny and Dawn from Canada, Casey and Jordan from Jersey and Minnesota, respectively, the Belgians. And so on. A great party posse — we eat a great meal (usually: tenderloin) at our local restaurant every night, then drink some cheap pitchers and have a laugh at Javi’s uncanny ability to pull girls.

And last night there were fireworks at midnight. Shit, as I post this, you folks back home are only just now coming into ’07. I’ve been here for a full night already, and for most of a hangover! I saw the sunrise over Lombok! It’s been an awesome start to double-oh-seven…

Here’s to hoping it keeps being awesome, for me and for you.

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* Indeed, there are some stories to relate here, but only for select audiences. 🙂



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-1 responses to “Gili Trawangan: Happy New Year”

  1. Jason says:

    Happy New Year Matt. I hope you dont have to pee on yourself to get rid of the jellyfish sting

  2. ert@an says:

    i was at gili trawangan for new years 07..
    i have a few vids.. not very good and a few photos..
    have a look
    http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=winiblues

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