Travels in Indonesia: Swimming with Turtles on Gili Air

A very popular activity while vsiting the Gili Islands is to snorkel and swim with turtles. One of the hotel employees, named Zul (and Jessica and I both said, “like from Ghostbusters?”), signed us up for a boat trip. The next day at 9am we got on the boat with the Captain and Ardie, who was to be our guide and GoPro photographer, for our journey. We paid Zul a deposit of about $15 USD, and paid the rest to the tour company ($25 USD), which was only a few doors down from our hotel. For an additional $12 USD, they provided the GoPro, and of course, the snorkel equipment, and we were off.

Our first stop was a bit out in the ocean, to see some bright colored reefs and fish, and we saw a whole bunch. The water is clear and shallow, and even though we hadn’t been snorkeling in a while, it wasn’t too difficult to get back into the swing of it.

Then it was back on the boat, off to the next spot.

Next stop, Turtles! We had heard about swimming with them, and had no idea how it would go. It was so smooth, and the water so shallow, it was actually sometimes hard to avoid hitting them with our foot (and we learned that’s a bad idea as they have a lot of bacteria on their shells). They are so peaceful, just eating green seaweed off the dead coral near shore. We learned they are raised on Gili Meno (where we would visit next) around humans, so they are not scared of us, and we could go right up near them. It was too cool!

We made a stop on Gili Meno for lunch, and after that, were back to the boat. Our last dive was to see more pretty fish and coral. One thing we did learn is smiling is not good with the mask on, as that lets in water, so don’t laugh or smile if you can avoid it, when snorkeling.

Then Ardie and the Captain dropped us back on the beach, but not before we ran out of gas, and had to wait while another, smaller boat, brought it. There are worse places to wait than on the ocean. There were a lot of other boats in every area we swam, so there was a smell of gasoline often when we came up for fresh air, but we really didn’t feel it was overly crowded; as this was May, and the big tourist season doesn’t start until June. We felt it was a great time to be on the islands.

The Gili Islands, like the rest of Indonesia, are Muslim; only Bali is Hindu. That doesn’t effect how most tourists dress on the islands, though there are signs to wear a shirt and shorts, at least, when not on the beach. Not everyone follows that rule, but most do. Some tourists rent a motorbike, and many rent bicycles, but we saw too many fellow tourists walking their bikes on the deep sand which made it seem less fun to us, and the islands are easily walkable.

Anyway, there are Mosques on all the islands, and they have loudspeakers that broadcast the daily prayers (five times a day, with the first usually around 4-5am). We heard them from our room, but since the Mosque (Masjid Nurul Yaqin) is the near the center of the island, and we were on the coast, it sounded like soft chanting, which wasn’t too bad. But nearby, it was quite loud and a common complaint of tourists is that it was too loud. In any case, we visited the Mosque on Gili Air, as it was a really nice building from afar, which we first had seen in the evening.

When we returned, it was bright and sunny.

There were some older men sitting in the shade out front, and we spoke a bit and we asked if we could go inside, and they said “of course,” and we did. It was beautiful inside as well, but really hot, as there were no fans or AC on, as it wasn’t a worship time, so we didn’t linger too long.

We also ate really well on the island, as it is visited by tourists from all over the world (mainly Europeans) so besides good Indonesian food and fresh fish, there is also, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and many others, and it is all pretty tasty. The smoothies are great and such a deal. There is wine too, of which the common variety is an Indonesia/Australian called Two Islands, offering red, white, or rose, and the local beer is Bintang, which is a lager. Booze is not cheap, and mixed drinks usually cost as much, or more, than a meal and aren’t usually very good.

We were treated to some stunning skies, especially at sunset, and that is where I’ll leave our trip to Gili Air. Gili Meno, only a short boat ride away, is next up!