The sea, beach and snorkelling from Coral Beach 2 were all amazing – we felt the sea life was as impressive as the Perhentian Islands ten years ago. The sea was warm and clear – the beach white and sandy without too much coral to cut feet. Gavin went snorkelling several times on his own and saw five turtles, Tehya went with him twice – they came back with tales of brightly coloured fish and beautiful corals.

The second morning we hired an extra set of snorkelling gear so we could all go out together. Tehya and I got to see and swim with our first ever sea turtle, it was so exciting – he was grazing on seaweed and then gracefully swam to the surface to take a breath and then dive back to the ocean floor to continue his lunch!!

Tehya also got to see her first ever coloured starfish – it was bright blue and she was delighted!!! (photo a little out of focus as using throw away camera).
I am proud to say that her skills in the ocean with not only a mask but a snorkel too are exceptional for a four year old, she was out with us for about an hour – occasionally getting lifts on our backs if she felt a little tired.

Later that afternoon I went out on my own and I saw beautiful blue and pink corals, I spotted two more turtles  and I got to see several large puffa fish, various colour’s of christmas tree anenomies popping in and out of the coral, sea ferns, so many different types of fish I lost count and my most thrilling sighting of the afternoon two large octopus that changed colour when I swam over them. The wonderful thing about Coral Beach 2 is that you can access fantastic snorkelling just off the beach without having to swim very far which reduces the need for expensive tours and boat trips.

The island itself is fairly arid and dry, Trawangan has no natural fresh water supply other than what is bought over from Lombok in huge blue containers and in bottles or by collecting and storing the rain that falls in the monsoon season. So water is precious and fresh tends to be used for cooking and drinking – washing clothes and yourself is usually done in salt water (unless you stay at an expensive hotel). It leaves your clothes and skin feeling a little sticky to touch and soap doesn’t lather up so well – but it was never a problem.
Trawangan has a reputation as the Gili’s ‘party island’ but it’s as easy to avoid this aspect as much as it is to join it, if you wish too. When we went out for dinner in the evenings the atmosphere was very laid back and pretty quiet, once we were back at our accommodation we would not have known there were people out and about getting drunk or partying.
On the whole the accommodation is more expensive on Trawangan than in Bali and the food tends to be more expensive too. We can eat a meal in Bali for about 60,000 Rp for three meals (average cost) – here it tends to be closer to 100,000 (£6) for two meals (Tehya and I often share meals to save money) this is still cheap when you consider what you would pay in the UK but still difficult if you are on a tighter travellers budget.

The down side of the home-stay were the bed bugs and mosquitoes, we ended up bitten more times in three nights than we have done in the last six months. The blood spattered sheets (old stains – a classic sign all experienced travelers look out for) should have been a good indication of what was to come but we had been pretty limited in our accommodation options as the islands were so busy.
We talked to the owner of the home-stay about boat times and accommodation info for Gili Meno, before we booked out – he was friendly but pretty vague about all of his information!!!
The Island Hopper leaves sometime between 8.30 am and 10.00 am (he said) and if missed there are public boats all day (he said) – he called and spoke to ‘someone’ who was ‘family’ and got us what sounded like a very over priced room he could not tell us the name of the place….. ‘but they will meet you when you arrive on Meno’…..(he said)!!!
We headed off to the ferry point to get a boat to Gilli Meno, this was to prove a little frustrating. We got to the beach where the boat departs at 9.40 am to be told the boat goes at 9.30 am and that there are no public boats that go to Meno – our next option was to wait for the second Island Hopper of the day, which was due to leave at 4.00 pm.
So we found ourselves in the joyful position of owning a small child in very hot temperatures, all of our luggage (which although is not much is still a pain to drag around and can’t be just left due to laptop and cameras!!!) and no accommodation to chill out in. The sensible thing would have been to check the times at the boat departure shed the night before but foolishly we had decided to rely on the local knowledge of our home-stay owner!!!
In the end we had (a very long) lunch at a cafe we had eaten in several times before and tried to relax while we waited for 4.00 pm and the boat to leave. Tehya made some friends with a few local kids who on holiday from Lombok, so she spent some of the day swimming – far less stressed and more chilled out than either of her parents.