J’AIME DECEMBER 2021
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some food to make the scene underwater even<br />
more magical. The artist, Jason deCaires<br />
Taylor, also has sites in the Canary Islands and<br />
Mexico as well as a pop-up exhibition in the<br />
Thames.<br />
A snorkelling guided tour is a great way<br />
to explore the many sites around the Gili<br />
Islands. They are inexpensive and can range in<br />
luxury. We chose a very basic boat but found<br />
the guides to be knowledgeable and caring for<br />
the environment. We booked this on the island,<br />
but they can also be booked in advance if you<br />
would like peace of mind.<br />
We also treated ourselves to massages on Gili<br />
Air. Massages and other spa treatments are<br />
famously cheap in South-East Asia so we took<br />
full advantage. This was a lovely experience<br />
to share with my Mum and we had a giggle<br />
as our limbs were twisted in a few interesting<br />
ways. We may have overlooked the fact that<br />
we were very oily after this massage and found<br />
that after sunbathing we got a little fried!<br />
Beaches are varied on Gili Air and go from<br />
rocky to white sand. Some are closed off and<br />
for guest use only so we did struggle slightly to<br />
find good beaches that we were allowed to be<br />
on, as our villas were inland. Some did allow you to<br />
pay to be on the beach or asked for you to eat lunch<br />
there. We obliged to this in most cases and spent much<br />
of our four days there sunbathing and swimming off<br />
the shore.<br />
Throughout our stay I also made sure to take many<br />
photos on the iconic swings. These are owned by<br />
various hotels along the beaches and are easy to<br />
find. There are some better for sunset and sunrise so I<br />
made sure to get some photos with both.<br />
We found the sunrise we encountered to be serene and<br />
very reflective. With no one else awake on our side of<br />
SNORKELLING IS A HIGHLIGHT<br />
OF ANY TRIP TO THE GILI<br />
ISLANDS<br />
the island we enjoyed watching the sun rise over the<br />
mountains on Lombok and place a cool kiss on the<br />
first fishing boats of the day.<br />
This island may not have a huge variety of things<br />
to do for the adventurous traveller, but it does make<br />
up for this in its charm and serenity. The people are<br />
friendly, and the island is wonderful to cycle around<br />
whilst enjoying the lack of motors. We enjoyed our<br />
time here and found it was a wonderful place to spend<br />
some time as a family after six months apart.<br />
As we bid farewell to the island, we headed to<br />
Lombok to catch a flight back to Singapore via<br />
Jakarta. I wanted to add this in here as our journey<br />
from the port to the<br />
airport was one of the<br />
most memorable moments<br />
of our whole trip. We first<br />
headed to the beach and<br />
waited for our transport<br />
off the island, a boat<br />
named 007 to pick us<br />
up. Sure enough they<br />
did and we roared off to<br />
Lombok in style. We were<br />
transferred to our land<br />
transfer and guide Asier,<br />
who enthusiastically told<br />
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