from Dublin to........Mirissa, Sri Lanka: The Adventures of Gili T.....Lombok, Indonesia

Gili T was a rather rude shock at first after Gili Air. Arriving on the first day of Eid probably wasn't the best timing as the island was booked solid with late arrivals without pre-booked accommodation spending the night on the beach. Stepping off the boat there were people everywhere. Backpacks bobbing up and down in every direction I looked. It was chaos. We knew where we were heading so we got the hell out of there quick smart, avoiding the speeding horse and carts that must claim a few lives each year. Cafes and restaurants lined the busy main street (path), with pedestrians, bicycles and carts all vying for their own piece of turf.

Stayed at Gili Nyepi, a really nice place only a few minutes walk from the main road in a quiet area run by a Dutch woman and her local husband. Service was very good and always willing to help out in any way.

It is quite an easy island to get around on by bike, except for a small section in the north east corner where the path has disappeared due to erosion and the wind has covered another section in sand. Take a back road and avoid the main drag. It is noticeably bigger than Gili Air however most of the development is concentrated in the south east corner.....restaurant after restaurant, cafes, tour agencies, dive schools, beach bars and guesthouses.....and every place seems to sell pizza (to their credit, half had wood-fired pizza ovens).

One of the better stretches of beach in along the east side towards the north. There are quite a few people here (good for accessing beer and cocktails from the bars but no so good for swimming, especially close to low tide). If you head away from the main town you will find plenty of isolated sand with nobody else in sight which was a little surprising given it is by far the busiest of the islands. The snorkeling again is very average off the beach. Mostly dead. Still some fish swimming about and the odd small turtle but nothing to get too excited about. If you do a snorkeling tour you will likely see much larger turtles.

Similar to Gili Air, we spent the vast majority of our time on the beach drinking beers and then migrating to a bar (Tir Na Nog) in the evening. Eating was a little more challenging than I had expected. Although there is no shortage of options available, the majority are all the same....very similar menus and try to cater to everybody by offering every food imaginable under the sun (a big turn-off for me). There were a few standouts that I recommend:

* Taman Thai - Set one street back from the main path, it is a busy hangout for those wanting a change from nasi goreng and ayam goreng. The yellow curry is a winner. Drinks are quite reasonably priced. You can't go wrong. Ate here twice.

* Night Market - Easily the cheapest place in town to eat. Gets very crowded after 7:30pm. Not a huge selection of food but if you want bbq seafood skewers or your standard nasi and curry, you could do worse than eat here.

* Karma Kayak is a quiet place in the north. It is a tapas joint that does them reasonably well, except the garlic prawns....give them a big miss. The fried small fish and meatballs were tasty. Not cheap if you are hungry. A hangover fixes that problem.

* Warung Bu'de - Right next to the tiny fruit and veg market tucked down a back alley. It serves tasty and super cheap local food. The locals eat here so it must be good.....or cheap....or both??? Go for lunch but get in early as it is rather popular.

The drinking scene here is a little difficult to work out. The busiest bar by far was Tir Na Nog. It has very well priced drinks, uses authentic liquor (I believe) and has a good crowd around the actual bar (why is it so difficult to find a bar in a bar!). This place turns into a mini beach club (sand dance floor) around 11pm. Each night there is supposedly a party at a particular bar - getting good intel on this was a challenge but invariably all places close around 2am and a rather dodgy establishment at the south of the main street opens up and kicks on until sunrise. This place I am almost certain serves dodgy drinks. Stick with bottled beverages. The crowd is also rather dodgy with many locals hanging around selling drugs and off their tits. I didn't like it that much but it is an ok place to watch the sunrise if you can hold out that long....I couldn't.

Head to Sunset Bar on the west side for a few sun-downers. Good crowd, some music and cold beers. Worth the walk or take a bicycle.

Very shallow reef surrounded the majority of the island. Quite tricky to navigate to the reef edge to go snorkeling. Average snorkeling at best. Most of the coral has been killed.