Party on in Gili T?

Whilst gilis mean any small island in bahasa, the Gili Islands are a well known conglomeration of three islands off the coast of Lombok. The three islands have got a vastly different reputation; Gili Trawangan (or T) is known as the party island. Gili Air has got a more chilled out vibe and the smallest, Gili Meno is aimed for honeymooners due to its size and high standard of accommodation and restaurants.

As a family of three I'm going to surprise the reader in revealing that we stayed in Gili T and absolutely loved it. Whilst magic mushrooms and exotic cocktails are widely available, there was no real party scene that bothered us - I say bothered because the party element seems to have a negative connotation to some. I'm sure if you came here seeking for a party, you'd find one but certainly as our schedule was dictated by a three-year-old, the disco ball was glistening just for us when our toddler wanted a quick dance before bedtime. We rarely stayed out beyond 10 pm so no rough crowds spoiled our nights out. I am sure there is a second wave of party-goers that are more partial to the cocktail promotions.

I'm sure all this depends on where on the island you stay, too. If you take a public ferry from either Lombok or Bali, you'll be greeted by a general pollution of noise and smells at the central peer. This definitely isn't the best side Gili T has to offer. Mixed with the scent of horse poo and the food court, I don't blame the tourist who decides to step right back on a long boat to continue on to the smaller islands. But that really is a shame as the biggest of these islands has got a lot more to offer than initially meets the eye. Look beyond the central market and you'll see the bluest and clearest of the oceans, most beautiful sunset scenery and an exciting restaurant scene.

We stayed on the south tip of the island, in Gili Trawangan resort. It's a walking distance from the main strip but far enough to step into calm from the hustle and bustle of bars. The resort's main building has got few rooms, and there are private apartments and villas behind it. Whilst only the rooms from the main building overlook the ocean, clearly the best attribute of the island, the villas are beautifully appointed with Indonesian furniture, and a private pool helps to forget the lack of views! 

Resort's private beach is perfect for chilling in the sun with cocktails in hand and cooling off in the coral blue sea. Check the tides, though, unless you want to go rock pooling. And bring sea shoes, the coral is really sharp! That's where the breakfast is enjoyed, too, with toes buried in the white sand. The hotel breakfast is amazing; great quality food enjoyed in a beautiful setting. They offered the best eggs benedict I've ever had (and I've had quite a few!) with a local twist of pak choi. Don't be fooled, the service still takes time, this is Asia after all, but the real Illy coffee enjoyed listening to the gentle crushing of the waves makes up for the wait. 

For us, Gili T turned out to be the perfect mixture of chilling, shopping and snorkelling. The variety, and especially the quality of eating establishments really pleasantly surprised us. Although keep away from the warungs; we did initially try a few places for fried rice or noodles but they were revolting. I don't know if today's backpacker can be fooled with pot noodles and yesterday's fish but for one exception away from the main strip, all the Indonesian food we tried was awful. And I don't understand how those dishes even can be ruined as Indonesian is my favourite of all Asian cuisines! So we ended up spending a bit more money than we had thought but ate like kings. But then again, a goat's cheese salad is a real treat for someone who comes from Brunei! 

Touring Lombok

I got itchy feet by the pool and wanted to do a day-tour so I could say I've seen some of the island - no matter how gorgeous its eastern beaches are. A part from the beaches, Lombok offers quite a bit of interesting nature with its rainforests ample with monkey sightings and waterfalls, coffee and tobacco plantations, a variety of small islands around the main island known as gilis, and of course Mount Rinjani, island's active volcano raising to 3,700 m over sea level.

Chilling in Chandi

We chose to spend some time in Lombok's traditional tourist area, Senggigi beaches. Since the new airport was built to boost the south coast's economy, it's about 90 minutes from the airport but then again much closer to the Gili Islands, where we were heading next.

Lombok arrivals

Arriving into the soft and black Indonesian night was a delight at first, even a bit of a chilly experience: How refreshing getting out of the Bornean humidity. But I say at first since the chaos was inevitable and imminent.

Petronas Towers

Visiting this Kuala Lumpur's landmark, The Petronas Twin Towers, is an integral part of the city experience. At the time of our visit, the online booking system was down so we had to revert to the old fashioned queuing but luckily we managed to secure a space for the same afternoon. (They are now, however, available to be purchased in advance.) The towers are depicted as symbol of the whole country, with its outline drawing the letter 'M' for Malaysia onto the Kuala Lumpur skyline. At 452m it remains the world's tallest twin towers and an iconic sight in the KL skyline.

Long weekend in Kuala Lumpur - few toddler activities

Few weeks back we wanted to take advantage of the bank holiday Monday, and travelled to Kuala Lumpur for 4 days. We decided to fly with the Royal Brunei Airlines as they had a sale on, and for once it was quite nice to have everything included: 30kgs of luggage each, and meals and drinks. And their flight schedule is much better from Brunei than their counterpart Air Asia. Especially coming back you can still enjoy a full day in the city.

Gaya Island Resort - a small luxury hotel on Borneo

Our recent Gaya Island getaway made me want to be young and in love again. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed travelling with my toddler and in laws but the set up of the resort was made for couples with its secret nooks and crannies, secluded beaches, packaway picnics and secret beach dinners.

The ultimate prep

This time I had to get some extra prep via hospital to make it to our next holiday: I picked up a nasty stomach bug from somewhere (luckily just me) and by day 3 I was actually asking to go to the hospital. I had nothing left and our departure was looming! Day 2 of IV made me feel slightly better...

Cultural Heritage of George Town

Our last stop on our latest holiday was George Town on Penang. I hadn't really heard of the island, nor the town before moving to South East Asia but it rose as a potential holiday destination from a suggestion from our friends. Especially the old British colonial influence and the Chinese culture and architecture started really interesting me as there is very little of culture around in Brunei. I fancied a bit of that alongside our regular beach holiday destinations - and the fact that Penang is known as the food capital of Malaysia didn't bother me either!

Langkawi - sailing the Andaman sea

As part of our recent holidays we visited Langkawi, the Pearl of Kedah. We fancied a bit of beach time in between city and culture (Singapore and Georgetown). And there aren't many places as famous for its beaches as this island.

Time for another holiday

It's been too many months since our last holiday! This one was long time in planning as it involved my parents flying over from Finland. We planned a three-week roundtrip in Singapore and Malaysia to show them around, starting from Singapore as there is a great direct flight to there from Helsinki. As I've posted about Singapore before, I won't go into too many details but I must say that the whole city is a breath of fresh air straight from landing. And actually we were lucky to have a bit of cooler weather, which made exploring a bit more bearable (as we are not early risers!).

Happy International Women's Day

Being a woman means such different things around the globe. I was just reading some women's magazine where a known personality lamented how feminism has gone so far that "women even look like men". Or conversely, we can discuss the "women's pound", and agree that, after all, men and women aren't equal at least not in the work place. Even though Finland ranks as 2nd of all countries in the world closest to closing its gender gap, there is still a lot of work to do. (UK doesn't make the top 10.)

What year is it?

We live in a wonderfully multicultural society: The largest group of people are the Malay Bruneians who are predominantly Muslim whilst the Chinese Bruneian are Buddhist. There is a small population of indigenous people mostly still living in the Temburong rainforest. And then there is a group of foreign workers who are mostly Christian. This would give us a great variety of celebrations; stepping into 2015 under beautiful fireworks, following the Lion Dance into the new lunar year, and stepping into 1437 with our Muslim friends' open house celebrations. 

Sadly, this won't be the case in Brunei. Rather than celebrating the multiculturalism and each others' faith and customs, all other religions and cultures than Islam are suppressed, more so since the phasing in of Sharia laws since last year.

Some of you may have read my post about banning Christmas. Now this matter has become relevant again at the eve of the Chinese new year as the ban has been extended to other religions. Roughly 12 % of the population is Chinese and the upcoming new year is their biggest celebration that isn't even tied to the religion but is to celebrate the new calendar, the start of a new year. Lion dances have been restricted, or banned all together, and fireworks are generally banned in Brunei. 

As we are going to slip amidst the masses in Singapore's China town to enjoy the local festivities, I can only reflect on how different choices these two countries have made with such extremely opposite results...

Happy year of the goat! Gong xi fa cai!

Read about the bans for example here: http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/brunei-cracks-down-on-chinese-new-year/

At the doctor's

Sounds like an English text book but sadly is a reality in our lives. In the last two weeks we have visited the doctor for several ailments for three different people. In theory we are lucky as we get free healthcare in this country through Phil's work. Everyone in fact is entitled to free state healthcare but we get to use the local medical centre which is just 2 minutes drive away rather than going to the hospital, or any other government clinic.

Sunday, Monday, Post day...

We are lucky to have a UK address here, which makes on line shopping much easier - not many companies deliver to Brunei. And not just easier for us but friends too. Sending parcels is cheaper, if not quicker. But it does mean that we only get post once a week. Hence Tuesday is often the best day of the week!

Our January Sunday

Another mum blogger was calling for Sunday posts, and I decided to share ours. We actually do have a pretty much "standard Sunday" - lounging around the pool or taking the boat out for a picnic but this was neither.

Tennis mums

I am fully embracing the expat wives' life with children at school and signed up for tennis lessons. The course is actually organised by the school; they have got great facilities - especially if you get to play before 10 am - and the timing is perfect just after drop off.
Learning tennis is something that's always played on my mind but I haven't really ever picked up a racket except as a kid playing on the road, pretending. But who ever said old dog can't learn new tricks was onto something.... We've only had two lessons with two different strikes; last week was "easy", this week I was already all confused between the two. Front hand - back hand - where's the leg, how many hands to hold the racket.... Oh, that was the ball.... Better luck next time!

The group is quite a mixed ability one with only few beginners and occasionally it feels quite frustrating that all my balls are flying high. At least they are going over the net - yes, thanks for the encouragement! I'm not sure if 12 learners is the best group size as the lessons seem to go by demonstrate-practice line rather than getting 1-1 tuition and whilst I am aware what I am meant to do, it's not quite that simple in my brain. From low to high isn't as easy as it looks! I thought I was quite good at body and muscle control but this is clearly not my forte. But I am laughing and sweaty after an hour so I guess that's mission accomplished. I will never challenge the Williams sisters, though, and probably not many of my course mates either!

Busy biking

Unlike anywhere else I've lived, if it's a cloudy day we pull our boots on and head outdoors. If it's windy, even better as that keeps the nasty sandflies abay.

Education, education, education

I did not miss the 6 am alarm during the holidays... First term - and the Christmas break - is now well behind us, and it's a good time to look back on how starting school has gone for us.

Weather warning!

No snow for Christmas for us this year and I feel quite jealous looking at photos from Finland and - surprisingly - from the UK. We are just living in the midst of the rainy season, which means rain every day for about a month. We are lucky not to have typhoons sweeping through Brunei, and there were no tsunami victims on the island 10 years ago. But it does rain, and I mean rain.