In which we settle down to life on the Island

And so our first morning on Gili Air dawned.....blue skies and bright sunlight greeted us as we made our way to the beach for breakfast. It was still early, but the heat and humidity were already high, and once again I despaired of ever having smooth hair again........

We sat down at one of the tables , under a tree , then promptly jumped up and moved on, as the ground underneath our feet was crawling with ants.......not the tiny black ones we are used to seeing in the garden at home......oh no......in keeping with the fact that anything creepy, with six or more legs in Bali is enormous.....these were bloody HUGE........our next choice of table appeared ant free and so we sat and waited for the little waiter, little because he wasn’t very tall.......in fact most Balinese men appeared to be small.......and they also looked very young even though many we talked to were in their thirties! I made many a mental note to ask for some of what they were having to keep them so wrinkle free.

Our waiter arrived with menus, two laminated sheets of paper which had been well used and were very frayed around the edges!! ...there wasn’t a vast choice......three types of juice, fruit and eggs which could be fried, scrambled or served as an omelette.We opted for orange juice, fruit and omelettes, crossed our fingers that we would get what that suggested, and soaked up the view while we awaited their arrival..........and when they did we were not disappointed.........

The fruit was fresh and the omelette substantial.......we ate it gazing out over the sea....did a bit more pinching, and discussed how we might spend the rest of the day.

Our choices were

a) sunbathe on the beach

b) sunbathe by the pool

c) start on the beach and then move to the pool

we decided to start with option a and see how it went.......nipped back to our room and changed into sunbathing gear and then sauntered down to the beach....a small section of which was exclusively for the use of guests from our hotel........there were sunbeds, but it was going to be a case of get there early as there were only about 6 and two of those were broken. And so we plastered ourselves with factor 30, laid down and prepared to become “brown and gorgeous”!!! It was really hot and although there was a breeze on the beach, there was no shade at all, and whilst Dear Richard can lie in the sun for ever, I get too hot and fed up.........I had tried to go for a cooling dip in the sea, which incidentally was approaching the temperature of bath water, but the sandy beach quickly changed into coral, which was very sharp and would have lacerated my feet to ribbons and the water was so shallow that I could have almost made it back to Bali without submerging myself completely. So I was very hot........and a bit grumpy......I know, hard to believe, the only thing for it was to go back to the pool and cool off. So I did, leaving Dear Richard cooking under the sun, I wandered back to the hotel pool and slid into the warm, but refreshing water. It was heaven......I had a little swim, nothing too strenuous of course...............then stretched out on a sun bed under a parasol......and I think I might have dropped off..........

After a couple of hours Dear Richard returned and we repaired to the air conditioned cool of our room. Not being used to the heat we were both feeling tired, and my hair was so frizzy I had started to go into a total decline!!! An afternoon nap was the fix for our lethargy, when we woke up it was time to shower and dress for dinner.

A word here about the island after dark..........its still boiling hot, so a nightmare for the hair........and apart from the dim lights from each restaurant.........brilliant for the complexion.......but shit for seeing where you are going or reading a menu!!!....completely lacking in any other source of light. The track, made exclusively of soft sand, except in the places where it had been dampened down, in which case it became mud, followed the beach around the island. The restaurants tended to be clustered together along a section of it, beyond them it was pitch black until one arrived at another cluster. The sand was hard to walk on in anything other than flip flops as it found its way into whatever piece of footwear one had chosen in an effort to look elegant and sophisticated, making walking extremely painful and resulting in multiple stops, a lot of giggling and holding on to Dear Richard, while the offending substance was ejected back onto the track, ready to piss someone else off........I have to say at this point that by day three I had given up all hope of elegance and sophistication and defaulted to shorts and a top, paired with aforementioned flip flops ........basically because no-one else bothered to make an attempt at looking a bit smart for dinner, and also because it was too dark for anyone to clock what one was wearing anyway!!!!

And so, fully sprayed in order to ensure the biting bastards kept their distance, we set off along the dim and dusty track in search of food and drink. We had a choice of venues and themes in the area to the right of our hotel........less so to the left, so off we trudged to the right.........walking through sand has a tendency to make one trudge a bit..............checking out the Italian, Spanish, French and Indian themed eateries, each of which advertised fresh fish, which was displayed outside in a way which suggested food poisoning on a plate would be the memory one would take home after choosing to eat it.

We settled on the Indian theme, partly because we fancied a change and partly because the greeter was marginally less smarmy, were shown to a table within a few feet of the sea, sat down and ordered mohitos

( which were dangerously cheap as we were just inside happy hour...) and attempted to see what was on the menu.......impossible without the use of the torch on my phone!!!

We both decided on chicken curry.......

It was delicious.........

I am ashamed to say we indulged in another couple of mohitos, which made the return trip along the track interesting to say the least!!!, and after making sure the mosquito net was firmly tucked in, I fell asleep still not really able to believe that we are on holiday and still have 6 months to go !!!!