2 weeks on the beautiful Gili T Island

Gili T a beautiful, tiny island in Indonesia has to be our favourite place so far. Apart from looking like absolute paradise it also has good nightlife, lots of activities, amazing street food/ restaurants and really nice accommodation. We were only supposed to spend a week there but we have the best friends ever who managed to combine 2 months of planning, subtle digging for information and very well kept secrets to fly over from Australia to surprise us so we ended up staying for 2!

Activities

Considering the size of the island there is actually so much to do during the days and I was lucky enough to spend my birthday on the island. You can walk around the whole thing at a leisurely pace in about an hour and a half. There's various bars and photo opportunities to stop at along the way including a cute swing in the water, a romantic table and hammocks.

There's no cars on the island but you can take a horse and cart around instead. It costs next to nothing to get dropped to the sunset point where everyone sits and had a drink whilst the sun goes down. Alternatively, you can hire bikes for around £2 a day and cycle around the island, some parts are too sandy so you have to push them which is harder work than the actual cycling.

3 of our days were taken up by our PADI diving course. It was defiantly well worth doing as we had such an amazing time. We learnt with Diversia but all of the dive shops charge the same price. It was supposed to be around £225 with a 7% charge for card payments but it ended up being more like £260, we still don't really understand why but overall was definitely worth the money.

We did the standard theory and lessons in the pool and then had our 4 dives at Manta point, Shark point, Gili Meno wall and Halik. Gili Meno slope is amazing for seeing turtles, we saw about 16 as well as bright fish, manta rays, jellyfish and shark point was our favourite because as the name suggests we got to see sharks! We were all scared before hand but it's so calm down there we can't wait to dive again and see more. I'd definitely recommend taking a Go Pro travelling, we really regret not buying one. Luckily our instructor was nice enough to let us borrow his for our last dive so we managed to take some pretty cool pictures.

One activity that is a must do in Gili T is the Sweet and Spicy cooking school. 8 of us did this on one of our last days and had such a good time. It lasted a good few hours, you make a big variety of Indonesian dishes and the staff make the experience about more than just the cooking with their sense of humour, music and getting everyone properly involved. Plus of course you get to eat it all after! Dishes include fish steamed in banana leafs, tofu in a peanut sauce and Gado Gado, it was all delicious.

One of the days we were persuaded to go to a boat party on a posh looking boat. We went on a weekend (because we were offered it for free) and it wasn't very busy but people who went on a Wednesday said it was the best boat party they've ever been on so it's worth doing mid- week.

Nightlife

The nightlife on Gili T is really good. The bigger bars take it in turns to host a party throughout the week so every night is completely different to the others. We loved all of them as they're all so different. Monday the party is at Blue Marlin, Thursday is one of our favourites "Sama Sama", they got me up on the stage on my birthday and it seems like the whole island saw as I had people coming up to me all week wishing me a happy birthday. Wednesday is one of the best nights to go out with Tir Na Nog (an Irish bar) hosting the nightly party, Fridays at Rudy's feel like you're at a mini festival, Horizontal is a really cool bar to have cocktails on the beach and on Sunday Rudy's has a ladies night with cheap cocktails.

We started all of our nights off at Jiggy Jugs, a small really busy loft bar which does the cheapest drinks on the island. You can get vodka red bull for 75p and they do cheap buckets of vodka with cranberry juice. 

Accommodation

For anyone looking for somewhere really pretty to stay for a couple of nights, definitely stay at Coconut dream, it's beautiful! We stayed there for my birthday and absolutely loved it. We had a huge room, air con, a nice outside area, wifi, delicious breakfast and on my birthday the staff sang to me and played the guitar, it was so cute! It's also really close to the port and the strip of bars/ restaurants. We watched the above video whilst still in England.... 3 months later that song is still in our head... well the first two lines are, we still haven't learnt the lyrics.

Coconut dream was amazing but after a few days we knew we had to move somewhere a little bit cheaper. We were supposed to stay at Harmony home stay but once we got there we really didn't like it, maybe flash packing raised out standards too high but the room didn't look clean and was full of Mosquitoes so we made Beach Wind our home for 11 nights. Again we had a little 2 story house, air con, really nice breakfast (try the banana juice and a jaffle) and a TV with DVDs. The bathroom has no roof which is a bit strange but on the plus side you can Sunbath in the shower.

Our friends who came to visit us stayed at Banana Leaf which was also lush and has a really fun owner, Norman. He let them have a daytime house party!

Most importantly.... Food

Where to start on the food on Gili T? It was all amazing and there's something for everyone. Our best find was a man who sells soup outside Beach Wind. It costs around a pound and is a spicy soup with noodles, bean sprouts, chicken and egg, it's delicious! We ate it 5 days in a row and nearly cried saying goodbye to the man... Very emotional. I know the picture does it absolutely no justice but anyone going to Gili T HAS to try it! 

When we weren't stalking our favourite soup chef (by the way he is there from 3pm until around 7pm) we definitely weren't spoilt for choice. There's a little street food market in the centre of the strip. One stall (pictured below) has a huge queue every night and it's definitely worth the wait, don't go too late though as you'll miss out on some of the best bits.

Restaurant wise Scalleywags is really good. You pick what you want from the BBQ menu and then you help yourself to a salad bar, the squid and fish kebabs are a good choice!

Overall Gili T is one of the pricier places we have visited, both accommodation and alcohol is more expensive than in other parts of Asia but its definitely worth the money and we are hoping to go back again at the end of our trip.

Jakarta and Kuta: Tricks and Tips

Jakarta and Bali were our first two stops in Indonesia. Unfortunately we weren't able to spend much time in either of these places so I don't have a nice diary type story to write about them. We did however discover some gems to recommend and some things to avoid to make your travels to these places a little easier.

Firstly upon arriving in Indonesia we discovered that our visa was $35, not $25 as stated online. If you know where you're headed after the airport, try and take a bus rather than a taxi because a) taxis in Indonesia are useless, I think anyone can wake up one day, jump in their car and charge people to take them to the wrong destination, and b) make you pay toll fees/ car park charges etc on top of your fare. 

We were staying at Six degrees hotel, it cost us about £1.50 on a bus to Gamba and then a short (painful) taxi ride from there. The hostel itself is definitely one of the best we have stayed in so far. We stayed in dorms which came with air con, a really nice breakfast (chocolate spread!), a small gym, kitchen, films, a cool rooftop and nice staff. The restaurant opposite looks a bit run down but actually does such nice food! It's a bit of a roulette with the menu though but everything we chose came out delicious and around 50p!

Location wise for us the hostel was fine as we didn't plan on going out but if you're looking for good nightlife, the closest bars were absolutely deserted mid-week, you'd be better off taking advantage of the cheap beers on the rooftop or staying more central.

We spent one of our days at Water Bom, it's not as big as the Bali one but it's a fraction of the price ( about £7.50 gets you entry, a meal and 2 drinks, whereas in Bali it's £20 for entry). The water park itself was pretty empty which was perfect for us and luckily the lady from our hostel warned us to cover up and ditch our bikinis for swimming costumes and shorts.

Taxis to and from the waterpark were not expensive but the traffic at 5pm is really bad and be prepared to watch the meter go up as the taxi driver stops multiple times for directions (can you tell the taxi drivers have really bothered me!?).

On the 29th of August we boarded our next flight bound for Bali. Here's where our least favourite hidden charge crept up on us..... Departure tax/ terminal fee/ whatever else you want to call it. At first we thought they were having us on but no you have to pay to pass through the airport and it seems pretty standard out here so plan ahead so that you have currency left over. This one wasn't bad (40,000 Rp) which is around £2 but some are around £10. On the plus side our extra luggage charge was a right bargain at only 94p!

We were told before that Kuta is basically the Australian version of Malia so we knew that we would love it. It's definitely one of the best places we have been for nightlife. For cheap drinks start at Alleycats it's 15,000 Rp (about 75p) for a double double (vodka red bull), I'm pretty sure it's pure poison but it's a really cool bar and for that price you can't complain! One of our favourite bars was definitely Eikon, we went there every night and always ended up in Sky garden (100,000 Rp entry but includes a decent drink). Sky garden is good fun it's massive so be prepared to get lost in there, me and Aimee ended up in a cupboard whilst looking for the exit....but maybe that's just us.

Sky garden is also one of our favourite places to go for food, it's only £2.50 for an amazing buffet (the type of food differs each day) and unlimited beer between 5pm and 6pm, bargain! 

Our accommodation, Maya village was lovely, probably the best place we have stayed. We had our own 2 floor mini house which came with 2 bathrooms, filtered water, air con and the best thing..... The amazing breakfast! On our last day we had sausage bread! I can't even begin to describe how amazing it was so you'll just have to take my word for it!

One of our days in Bali we booked a car to take us to the monkey forest in Ubud. It's about 2 hours drive away and only 30,000 Rp to get in. The monkeys are literally everywhere, one jumped on Jen and was swinging off of her bag whilst people shouted at her to drop her water. Once we knew the monkey didn't want to eat her we were safe to wet ourselves at her expense as it was pretty hilarious!

You don't need more than an hour in the forest but I hear the food in Ubud is some of the best in Bali and really healthy.

Lastly Kuta is amazing for shopping. You can haggle people down and get some massive bargains. Before coming away lots of people told me not to bother shopping in England and to buy everything out here, I don't totally agree as I love English brands and the clothes I brought, but for basic casual clothes I'd definitely say get them out here. Playsuits and tops are a few pounds, New Balance trainers are under £15, sarongs, sunglasses etc are all really cheap. There's normal shops too like Topshop but when you see a dress priced at 1,000,000 Rp it suddenly looks really unnapealing. If you are going to the Gilis buy everything in Kuta first as everything is more expensive there and there isn't much choice.

Everywhere seems to sell the boats to the Gili Islands but shop around for the best price, I think we paid 250,000 Rp for a one way journey.

First stop....Bangkok!

Last week amongst the introductions I described our group as massive clipboards. Admittedly however, we didn't consider the weather when we booked our flights to Bangkok. After Jasmine's dad told us that it was going to be monsoon season in Thailand, we decided to change our route to include a month in Indonesia after 5 initial days in Bangkok.

Everyone says that you don't need more than a few days in Bangkok, I agree but we did have such a good time there... even though we barely left Khao San road. Our hostel, Charoendee was really basic but fine for the price. The location is really good (slightly hard to find as it's down a little walkway off of Khao San road), you get breakfast and Wifi included, we did get eaten alive by mosquitoes though!

We had a few nights out in Bangkok drinking cheap buckets (between 200 and 400 baht) in bars playing old electro/ happy hardcore. We found one club where you pay a couple of pounds to get in which we loved, drinking Bacardi Breezers and dancing on the stage like we were 17 again.

The first time we ventured off of the strip was to go to the ping pong show. There's nothing sexy about it but obviously we wasn't expecting there to be! One of the tuc tuc drivers on Khao San road drove us there for next to nothing and the entrance was 500 baht including one drink. We sat ourselves down on the front row (the back of the room looked a little creepy) and watched what was a half sex show, half confusing/ baffling vagina activities; cigarette, banana, fairy lights...I'll leave these all to your imagination. It was definitely entertaining and one of those things you kind of have to do in Bangkok, not more than once though! If you're a guy who sits in the front row you'll be asked to participate but be prepared to be hassled for a tip after.

The next day we took a trip to the floating market organised through our hostel. If i remember correctly it was around 300 baht which included the car and a boat to the actual market. When you get there you need to pay again for another boat to take you around the stalls, I can't remember how much this was but it wasn't a lot.

We didn't actually buy much whilst we were there, one woman definitely saw Aimee coming and managed to charge her about 4 times more than what her tiger balm was worth. I'd recommend going for the experience but doing any proper shopping back on Khao San road where everything is really cheap, definitely try the grilled bananas with caramel dip though!

The food back on Khao San road is also amazing, we've basically ignored all food safety rules we were given before coming away, I've definitely eaten sweetcorn that rubbed up against raw chicken, the corn on the cob is too delicious though and around 50p! The Pad Thai is also really good, stay away from the grasshoppers though, Jen swears that's the reason she was sick in a bin....

The next night we went to the sky bar where The Hangover was filmed, just our luck that we save it for our last night and there's a massive storm. Even though we weren't allowed outside it was still worth a visit. Drinks are expensive if you're on a travellers' budget, especially as you can get a couple of buckets for the price of one drink so we stuck to beer and non alcoholic cocktails. We did make the most of the free bowls of nuts though, 4 bowls in we checked with Google that they were actually free... and they are, perfect food girls love free food!

After the Sky bar we got an early night ready for our flight to Indonesia!

A quick introduction to my new blog!

Hey I'm Hannah and welcome to my very first post on my brand new blog! I'm going to take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you about this blog I am creating.

I am currently travelling around Southeast Asia but before this I spent 5 summers working in Greece before starting a job in social media/ marketing. As much as I loved my job working for a wonderful company, I felt the need to travel and I knew this was the time to do it. So, after saving hard for a year, on the 21st of August I left my home and job in London to come away with three of my best friends Aimee, Jasmine and Jen.

We're 4 girls between the ages of 21 and 25. We love having a good time, trying new things and... as the name of the blog would suggest we're massive food girls! We can happily spend a 5 hour coach journey talking about food/ eating our body weight in snacks, it's okay though because Elite Daily told me that calories don't count when you're on an airplane and that basically goes for all methods of transport. This does mean that this blog will contain multiple food recommendations and you can trust that they're coming from a good source.

Our plan is to see as much of Southeast Asia as possible within 8 months before heading to Australia for as long as they will have us! 

At the point of writing this we have been away for 8 weeks and I have decided to start this blog both to document our experiences, keep me in the social media game and to provide anyone thinking of visiting the same places as us with a bit of up to date information, advice and recommendations. 

We've made some mistakes, experienced confusion, done some amazing things and stumbled upon some gems, all of which I am going to share in this blog.
We've found that many websites are out of date or inaccurate e.g. prices and times and that many people will answer your questions with a yes when actually a) they don't have a clue what you are asking them and b) the answer is actually no.... hence our confusing situations.

I've wanted to go on Trip Advisor and leave reviews for all the great places we have stayed at, eaten at etc but having only an Iphone and limited WiFi means that I just don't have the time, so I plan on including these here as we make our way along our route pictured below.

We've been called flash packers by some, we're definitely not but luckily we are a group of clipboards so we research well and find really nice accommodation for not much at all... but I will admit that we are girly girls. Although we can happily go a week or so with no make up, when we go out we do like to make an effort (fake eyelashes included!), there's no crime in that!

So welcome to my blog, I promise to publish my posts as often as possible. If you have any questions or comments about my posts, please feel free to let me know! :)