Gili Air

I stayed on Gili Air for two days and fell in love with snorkeling.  I was looking for surf, but found snorkeling.  I was on the south shore of the island.  There is a shelf so the water is two or three feet deep for about a half mile out.  Then it suddenly drops to twenty or thirty feet deep.  That's where the surf breaks.  I swam out there snorkeling and it was just so beautiful.  This was my third day of snorkeling, the first two being at Hidden Beach in Padang Bai, and I was by now relaxed and comfortable, and I could have stayed out there swimming forever.

Snorkeling is also a great companion to surfing.  The shape of the bottom determines the shape of the wave.

Surf in Indonesia is always on the south side of the islands because the swell is coming from the Indian Ocean.  The wind generally blows from west to east during the rainy season, November to April, and the opposite direction during the dry season, May to October.  Surfers like an offshore breeze, so they surf the southeast side of Bali during the rainy season, and the southwest side during the dry season.

The only business on Gili Air is the tourist bungalos around the perimeter of the island.  All food and supplies have to be brought over by boat.  And there are few choices of where to eat, so little price competition.  I found everything expensive, at least double what you would pay on the mainland.

I managed to find rooms within my budget, but only by forgoing quality.  My first room, the door lock did not work.  So I moved to a second room and while taking a shower the shower nozzel broke off in my hand.  These things could not be fixed right away because someone would have to take a boat to the mainland to get parts.

I had a plasic bag of peanuts in my pants pocket.  During the night a rat ate through the pants and the bag and ate all the peanuts.  The pants were laying on my bed.  I don't know if this happened during the night while I was asleep on the bed, or during the daytime while I was out.  At least I was not wearing the pants at the time.

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