I wrote the previous blog entry before arriving on the beautiful, magical, wonderful and clean Gili Trowangan Island. A fast boat could have gotten us here in one hour but we chose the much cheaper slow boat option. The slow boat was, as promised, was painstakingly slow and after a 6am start, we arrived to our destination thirteen hours later. As I mentioned previously, there was a two hour shuttle ride at 6am which was packed but we still managed to sleep through. Then they dropped us off at their friend's restaurant for just over an hour before we walked a kilometer to the ferry boat that we rode for nearly seven hours. This is the time I wrote the previous blog, on a stinky, dirty, wobbly boat full of locals spitting, puking, smoking and yelling. The drivers dropped us off at yet another restaurant for another hour and it quickly became clear to us that our transporters had cut deals with these restaurants and purposely stalled the trip to make a couple bucks off the tourists purchasing food. Our suspicions were confirmed when horses and buggies offered to take us to the next boat but somehow they were not included in the rate we had paid. We would have taken the horses too if it weren't for Tyson confirming that they were not included. So the tour company gave us the run around all day to try and make some extra money for their partners. In fact one English guy was pestered the whole day to buy a return ticket from the same company. He was even threatened to do so, but he refused and ended up being alright as I heard. The second and last boat ride was a quick thirty minutes away and once we saw the island all was forgiven.
The Gili Islands are three very small pieces of land in the Indian Ocean. Gili Trawangan which we have settled on is the largest of the three and the most developed with hotels, restaurants and other neccesities for tourists. The middle island is called Gili Meno and the smallest one is Gili Air. When we arrived on the island several local boys ran up to us offering rooms which was to be expected. We wandered and haggled for about an hour before getting an awesome deal at a very cute and comfortable place near the beach. The manager is a young guy who has been very nice and helpful which was a welcome change at that point. He did not even ask for any rent money until we had already been here for three days. We immediately planned on spending our remaining Indonesian time here.
Four days have passed and I cannot complain about the weather, it has been dry and hot with a nice breeze throughout the day. The water is an unexplainable turquoise and changes colour the further you look until it's a clear medium blue. The sand is silky and white and free of litter (mostly). The sunsets are unlike anything Tyson or I or any of the other tourists have ever seen. The colors that appear in the sky during this process range from oranges to pinks to fusias to reds and in contrast with the white puffy clouds, blue sky and sparkly ocean it's nothing short of a miracle. We watched it one night while laying in a hammock and it was un unforgetable moment. The water is warm yet refreshing and if you look down there are rainbows of flouresent fish swimming below. With only a couple of necklace-selling locals the beaches are free of pestering money hungry Balinese. Despite a few little white creatures that bit me in the water (Tyson thought I imagined it until I showed him one of them), it is clean and nice. It really is a tropical paradise all day and then we return home after sunbathing and swimming to our king sized bed in a clean, private and comfortable hotel room.
There are only two rooms in the place we are staying and the other room is occupied by two young nurses from Calgary who are planning to move to Vancouver. They are, however, paying significantly more than us for their room. Haggling works in this way that everyone pays a different rate for the same thing, and I am proud to say that I have yet to meet anyone who has paid less than I have for anything (knock on wood). Although we have been getting ripped off regularly here as well. For example, yesterday, we chose to go snorkelling and settled on a pricier rental place in hopes of getting a decent set of gear. With masks and fins on, we swam for a bit observing the routines of the fish and other sea creatures going about their business as if we weren't there. After coming to terms with the fact that I could now breath under water, I still couldn't get over the extent of what is going on underneath the ocean that is invisible to us normally. It is amazing and beautiful and such a joy to see.
Unfortunately this joy came to a violent and abrupt end. Tyson's goggles were not working very well and he took them back to the rental guy to swap them. I waited by the water and as the story has been explained to me, the other goggles did not work either. So tyson asked for a refund, as any Canadian might do. Well things escalated from there to the point where fists were thrown, people were poked and threats of stabbings and murders were made. Apparently these are "Island rules here man!". I noticed that Tyson was taking longer than usual so I walked back to the snorkelling stand and noticed smoke coming out of Tysons ears and profanity out of his mouth. As anyone who knows Tyson at all can atest, this is not his normal behaivior. Apparently the guy was not returning the money nor the equipment and we were out most of the 35,000 rupiah. So I seperated the two boys and spoke with the young man. After enduring threats of being beaten with a bat among other things, that thankfully did not communicate clearly due to his broken English, I managed to get back a bit more of our money but he still kept what he wanted to. I had to play the dumb girl role, but it worked and he agreed not to kill us. He then politely excused himself because he had to go pray in the mosque and mentioned that he thought him and I could become friends through all of this. I held back my gag reflex and waved him off.
We had exchanged a certain amount of AUS dollars in Kuta and had grossly underestimated the price of food here on the island. The cost of hotels is the same as on the mainland island, but food is up to five times more. The rate of exchanging money here on Gili is also significantly lower than that of Bali so we were trying to budget our cash to last until we could get back to Kuta. Additionaly we have decided to stay here longer than what we had though previously. So thankfully our hotel room has a water filter with hot and cold water. We have used this to make noodles for most lunches and dinners. We have also been going out every night for delicious chocolate and sweet milk pancakes that we can obviously not resist.
We finally hand washed every article of clothing we had because it was all dirty and sweaty from over a week of being on the road and re-wearing dirty things. We have come to hate hand washing but it's all a part of the backpacker role I suppose.
Every morning at around six am a rooster who lives in a small cage begins to make the call that it is time to wake up. The first night, in frustration, I tried yelling at it which did not work. So the next nights we rolled up toilet paper and plugged our ears but eventually around 9:30am we give up and begin our day. I suspect that this sound will continue to haunt me for all eternity.
Animals here are treated poorly by my standards and it is a sad thing to see. Horses pull people and supplies which is ok except that the weight seems very heavy for a small horse that looks to be starving. There are kittens everywhere that appear emaciated and they cry. The worst of it all (from what I have seen) is the chickens who are squished into small cages, thrown around, beaten and killed in the most inhumane ways. We passed by dogs dead in the street as well as countless other animals. Although they ask for donations to save the turtles, I am not sure I buy that the money is being used wisely.
After being ripped off and threatened and witnessing the behaivior of local after local trying to cheat us, then watching the way animals are treated and the garbage all over their land I was slowly beginning to feel a strong dislike for this country as well as its people. Then I thought about it and had a sudden but clear change of heart. This is a third world country, most people are poor and could never imagine to travel, eat and live the way they see foreigners doing so. They have been brought up serving tourists and relying on them for their income. They have never been to any restaurants like the ones they work at, nor do they ever intend to. Most are not educated and have never even left the island let alone travel the world. The things we do regularly and nonchalantly are so unreachable that they are not even dreams for the locals. So how can we judge the way we get treated when we cannot even understand how they live. They may misjudge, mistreat and cheat us and of course this naturally makes us angry but if we stop to analyse why, we may understand a little bit more. To live a life of always serving, selling to and begging from the tourist and watching us spend carelessly while they struggle with a dollar. I think I understand a bit more about why they might think we can afford to get ripped off and it would be ok. Hopefully one day when the economy, education, supplies and spirituality of the world get spread out more evenly, we can expect things to change.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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