yesterday, in the late afternoon, ashley and i swam out with our masks and snorkels, and for 45 minutes swam with a gigantic hawksbill turtle. we were so close that we could (and did!) touch him a few times, diving alongside him to the coral, and popping up with him when he came back up for air. it was incredible. he had to be four feet long from nose to tail, making him god-only-knows how old, and all the time surrounded by hundreds of tiny irridescent blue and silver fish, making it look like he was being showered with confetti. yet another magical moment.
the gili islands are an island paradise. white sand, turquoise water, great snorkeling (obviously), coconut trees, no cars, no police... its a good place to start a new year. unfortunately we werent the only people to think so, and on arriving discovered that australians and europeans have been booking their rooms here months in advance, while we, as usual, decided to wing it. that turned out to be a miserably bad idea. our boat pulled in at about six in the evening. we then spent three full hours, with backpacks on, trudging through the heat, and then the dark in search of just one available room. after an hour we found one that we thought was overpriced, and passed on it, only to desperately come back later to find it taken. when every conventional option had been exhausted, we toyed with two desperation strategies. the first was to sleep on the beach, where a hotel security guard had promised us a spot on the floor of his hut. i thought it would be fine, but the lack of walls bothered ashley, as did the lack of a bed, so we went with option two: during our search we thought it would be quicker to have ash plant herself in a restaurant and watch our bags while i ran around searching. so at the very moment i had struck an agreement with beach security, ashley had a sympathetic waiter offer up his room for the night. at about ten pm he led us through the backstreets of the island, well off the tourist path, and into his dingy but much appreciated apartment. it certainly wasnt what we had planned, but it beat sleeping on the beach (possibly). next day we set out early, sniffing out early checkouts and found a beautiful bungalow on the water. ever since we've been having the time of our lives.
tonight we'll search out a beach party and stay out late, and then try to be on our way tomorrow. we're a little grey on our next few moves after hearing mixed reviews of lombok, but i think we'll have a look for ourselves before backtracking through bali and then again into java.
till then, happy new year!