Gili Trawangan – 
“You did not have a decent holiday unless you have upset your stomach” – Jep, it didn’t get better today… and I got my refresher course around 12. Soooo… breakfast, swallowing diarrhea tablets, and hoping my body behaves. I’m on time at 11:30 at the Trawangan Dive divebase. The good impression I had yesterday gets confirmed: Fiona is quite calm and easygoing – just like most people on the island. Tammy – who like Fiona is from Australia – is going to do the refresher course as well. After some standard scuba questions which are still quite easy to answer, we get to the pool for some exercises. Unfortunately, Tammy gets a little panicked when it comes to blowing her mask out (claustophobia-conditioned) and cancels the course. Very positive: She won’t get charged for the refresher at all. Great obligingness here.
A little later we go to the dive spot “Halik” (or “Turtle Heaven”) with some other scuba divers. You can usually do only one dive per boat trip, because these typically narrow insulan boats have no place for further tanks. A great spot for someone who has not dived for some time: This spot deserves the nickname “Turtle Heaven”. You can see lots of Anthias, Butterflyfish, Triggerfish and some Parrotfish. But also many Turtles which are half asleep on the reef looking for food and do not feel disturbed by the divers at all. Since I have booked a dive at the Meno Wall tomorrow I can simply pay everything in one go. “This is an island, so you won’t run away anyways…” . Elke left me a note in the bungalow that she will be at “La Moomba” right in the north of the island. Even though the island is not really big (you can round Gili T. in about 2 hours on foot), I’m just too lazy to walk there so I take a horse-drawn carriage taxi. The driver seems so be some funny guy (did he just take some shrooms?) and we have a chat on the way to La Moomba. He’s just happy that August is over, since during high season hell breaks loose making him having to be tripple cautious not to run over some drunk guys.
La Moomba is right at the beach. Just now it is low tide and you can see some coral parts protruding from the water. For all the seagulls this is certainly great for dinner. Not much is going on here, the spot is quite calm having bamboo tents with mattresses to lie down. We get to talk to Han who is working there: He is also glad that there are hardly any visitors. He gets the same wage even with little clientele, but with a working time from 10 to 22 this is still extremely exhausting.
After a few drinks we walk along the northern end of the island the west side to watch the sunset. We pass a few luxury bungalows, none of which seem to be occupied. This is probably different in August. We have dinner at Trawangan Dive and take part in a pub quiz. The food is quite okay but I think we’ll try something different next day. Nevertheless, we can be very proud of ourselves: We arrived 2 rounds late for the quiz and still made third place.
Our evening ends while we are sitting on some beanbags on the beach in front of the Sama-Sama with cocktails next to us.
Back at the bungalow: A blocked toilet. Crap. We didn’t throw any paper in it at all though. Luckily, the guys from the reception already know this problem and get a long water hose to solve the blockage with a bit of water pressure. Behind a closed bathroom door, the sounds and voices we can hear remind me of some slapstick comedy: “Oooop, oooop, ooop, ooop, oop, oop, op, op, op, opopOPOPOP!!!” *SPLASH* – *a swearing in Indonesian*. A little later they all come on the bath, grinning, showing a “Victory”-sign . Before going to bed, I get a sixpack Bintang from the supermarket on the other side of the road and have a chat with the guys – well deserved
