From a small island to an even smaller one

For my second full day in the Gilis, I venture off of the "main island" (Gili Trawangan) to the littlest of the three, sandwiched in the middle, Gili Meno. This place is tiny - the island measures 1km wide by 2km tall, and walking around takes about an hour, give or take. I jump on the island hopping boat and am there in 20 minutes.

Immediately, this place is so much quieter than Gili Trawangan. I am in the middle of main street, and I hardly see anyone. I begin my walkabout, heading south on the eastern side of the island.

The first thing I encounter is a handful of abandoned and dilapidated resorts. Wow - huge structures with villas, and swimming pools, all just left to be reclaimed by the jungle. And the jungle does quick work, as some of the buildings are already halfway down.

I continue down that path...

...spy the ocean to my left.....

...and soon find myself at the edge of an interior lake.

This lake was pretty neat - completely still, very bog-like around the edges. I wasn't able to tell if it was fresh- or salt-water.

Time for a break! I sit down and eat a bag of mangosteens, one-by-one, savoring each segment. Ah, what a lovely fruit (and poem-inspiring, see next post).

As the walk continues, I encounter some small wildlife, a beautiful butterfly that I was only able to capture in profile and a single large flower.

Near the end, I find a planted forest of palm trees. Hard to tell from the photo, but they were arranged in a very tidy grid pattern and, I assume, provide plenty of coconuts and oil to the island for use.

Two thirds of the way round I pause for lunch at Balenta (described in food of the Gilis). After a quick, ok lunch, it's time to snorkel! I head to the northwest corner of the island and drift snorkel for 30 minutes. Wow. The first 30 meters into the water are awful, just dead coral bits and other rocks. But then it opens up into about 10 meters deep of abundant life. I see fish and schools of fish of all type: trigger, parrot, and others. I see big coral of both hard and soft varieties. It is a great snorkel. The only miss is that I didn't see any turtles and this area is renowned for the easy turtle-spotting. Next time, I guess!

I make my way back to the harbor, ready for my return trip to Gili Trawangan. Snapped some pics of neighboring Gili Air (size-wize, in between the two) and of mainland Lombok from the harbor. Look how little Gili Air is!