Gili Trawangan

From our hotel near Denpasar International Airport we took an hour mini bus ride to Padang Bai to catch the fast boat to the miniature island of Gili Trawagan. The ferry station was busy and we waited a while for our fast boat to arrive. The boat ride was about an hour and pretty bumpy and hot. When we first arrived on the beach along the strip of bars and restaurants we weren't entirely sure what we had gotten ourselves into. Our first impression was that it was a party destination; which is somewhat true, but never judge a book by its cover.

We absolutely LOVE these islands and frequently feel like we're in a fairy tale. Gili Trawagan is only six square miles and you can bike around the entire thing in about thirty minutes. We run almost everyday and we can get around the whole thing in 4.36 miles according to our Nike Run app. They don't have cars, only bikes and horse drawn carriages (which we don't ride because we feel bad for the horses), baby goats, butterflies, kittens, chickens and their chicks, calves, delicious vegetarian food, and yoga galore. Since we've been here we've taken classes at Gili Yoga and The Yoga Place. Our favorite is The Yoga Place, they have a great hatha yoga class and The Garden Café restaurant is delicious. Fresh salads, smoothies, sandwiches, veggie burger, chia cups, its basically a vegetarians dream.

A great yoga class, followed by mouth watering food, a $7 massage, and swimming n turquoise water...life is good on Gili Trawangan.

The locals are truly lovely people. Seeing their smiling faces everyday is uplifting. Each morning when we watch the sunrise there are the same amount of locals watching the sunrise as tourists. To live somewhere and still appreciate a sunrise everyday is pretty special. In our everyday lives we tend to forget to stop and notice these natural beautiful wonders and miracles of our home, so to see that was refreshing and a great reminder to stop and smell the flowers.

Vegitarian delights

A lot of our foodie friends were shocked and appalled when we told them we were going to do our best to maintain our vegetarian diet throughout our gap year. However, Vietnam in particular is 70% Buddhist so even though we have seen every type of meat under the sun cooking here. We have actually been able to truly enjoy the foods of Vietnam. Some of our favorite items: mango sticky rice, White Rose (rice flour raviolis), Mi Quang noodles (rice noodles), Spring rolls, eggplant, morning glory greens and all the dragonfruit and passionfruit we want. We even took a cooking class and they were kind enough to modify some items with tofu so we could join the rest of the class.

We frequently search for "Mon Chay" on the menu which means vegetarian. There is even whole restaurants that are Mon Chay. Our favorite is Thien Nghia Quan, a little old lady runs this small café that feels more like dining in her home. After we placed an order with her the children running around the restaurant took turns coming up to us with little pads of paper pretending to take our order again. They were in fits of giggles each time we told them we already ordered. During our meals here we noticed how many locals constantly stop off at this little spot and get food to go or get off their motorbikes and enjoy a relaxed meal. We love going where the locals eat, no one is speaking English, the food is amazing and you feel as though you are getting a bite of real Vietnam. If you have the good future of coming to this spot make sure you try her stir fried Mi Quang noodles, served piping hot and loaded with vegetables this savory dish will only set you back around $1.50 US and will fill you up with noodly goodness.