Diving in Gili Air, Indonesia

We were browsing through the internet to find the perfect destination for some diving in August. One important matther was of course the rainyseason which is currently on in many countries in Southeast Asia. Although, we have already been to Indonesia 3 times before, we decided to go again. Why not going to the same place you have enjoyed before? Additionally, there are still some open challenges which have not been fullfilled yet (keep following my blog and you find out)

So okay, yes we decided going diving in Gili Air, which is just 1,5 hour boatride from Bali. The island is much more quiet than its neighbour Gili T. I personally liked it from the very first second. Some nice restaurants, bars next to the harbour and many cute little homestays. There are still no cars and motorbikes on the island. The only “public transport” which is available are horses. Still no grocery store like 7/11 or other international foodchains or hotelchains on the island. Th government also invests into the locals instead big hotel complex, which turned out to have dozens of little homestays available.

For our diving course we selected Manta Dive (rated as No 1 on Tripadvisor). The people were super friendly, but of course also quite busy. Almost every day you have the chance to start a course with many nice international people. Obviously, you still find some Germans and Swiss, but not as many as always 😉 Rob, my dive instructor was super cool and I can certainly recommend him, but also the whole diveshop. The dives sites itself were pretty nice, especially in terms of variety of fishes. Honestly, the corals were a bit dead as much as I remember from diving last time in the Gili (10 years back) Beside the deep dive and the night dive we also had just some fun dives, where we saw many many turtles and also some cool sharks. I think the Gilis are also a good spot to start diving, because there are so many divesites and they find always the right place for you. The water temperature is always at around 27 degrees, which allow most people diving in a short wetsuit.

Otherwise, there are some other activities on the island available. On the first day I tried my luck with Yoga (H2O meditation centre) which was a bit too spiritual for me, but quite relaxing though.

There is also Stand up Paddling, but was currently not available when we wanted to rent. Of course also the beautiful sunset and the amazing dinner with lots of fishes and seafood is another highlight.

Of course, it also happens that the whole island is out of power. The top restaurants and hotel have a emergency power generator (our hotel didnt although we also paid quite a lot). You probably just live with the fact that sometimes showering in the middle of the night in the dark with some bigger geckos are normal….

To summarize and tipps: