Officially a Gili Trawan-ker!

This is 100% the week I became the stereotypical 'Gili's wanker'. I'd been warned about it when I arrived that you book a couple of nights and end up staying longer than anticipated and it couldn't have been more true, I would definitely have stayed even longer than I did!

Anyway, back to the journey as it was...

We were up bright and breezy and ready to jump on the bus to the pier for the boat to Gili T. The reception staff at the M Boutique Hostel must be permanently exhausted where the noise doesn't stop until late. When we got to the desk, there was a guy asleep on the sofa who had obviously flown in early and the reception guy was asleep on a piece of cardboard on the floor in the room next door so we just sat outside and ate our pastries whilst we waited to be picked up and left our room and locker keys on the front desk.

I was knackered for some reason and managed to sleep for the entire bus journey to the port which took about an hour including the various hotel pick-ups for other travellers. Once we arrived, Tanya, two other ladies and I were walked to the Ganggari office where I had to fill in some paperwork with our details before they could supply us with boarding passes.

The waiting area was packed and it was boiling! We had no idea what was going on but Ganggari had given us stickers so we kept a close eye on a few people with the same stickers to make sure we weren't left behind as we had been towards the boats and got sent away as ours hadn't arrived yet.

It was a relief to finally get in the shade on the boat once it arrived as we were definitely getting a sweat on where we had been waiting around! The journey took about 2 hours or so as the boat stopped at Lombok, Gili Air, Gili Meno and finally Gili Trawangan and I pretty much slept the entire journey!

The harbour was pretty packed when we arrived and the men were lined up along the water front to the boat to pass each bag/suitcase along and put it down on the sand whilst we climbed down some rickety steps into the shallow water.

Tanya and I had been sent a small map on our email confirmation for the Broken Compass hostel so it was easy to navigate the 10 minute walk there although it was so hot!

The lady on reception was really friendly and took our details and payment and then another member of staff carried our bags into the dorm; it was such a lovely place! Sadly for them, in the summer of 2015 a rule came into play that they had to reduce the number of beds they can offer tourists as the guesthouses and homestays were struggling so five of the beds were boarded up and couldn't be used making it a nice quiet room of three.

Once we'd dropped our stuff off, we had some food to keep the hunger at bay where it was gone lunchtime. I had the banana and Oreo milkshake which was divine and the Mie Goreng, a local chicken noodle dish with an egg on top.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beanbags by the pool where I managed to sleep for a further two hours (I really must have been knackered!) and then we went to wander along the island and do some exploring where we came across a charity that looked after the turtles and saw a lot of the bars, restaurants and the horse and carts! On the Gili's, the only modes of transport are bicycles and horse and cart.

Monday night was the Full Moon Party on the beach and the theme was all white so I got showered and dolled up, donning my white dress ready for the night!

(Another one of the daily selfies to Izzy!)

When I got to the bar, Tanya introduced me to Michael who was from Melbourne so I sat with them and had a beer. It was burger night at the hostel and I ordered their special which was rather interesting but yummy; a chicken burger stacked between two Yorkshire puddings.

By the time we'd eaten, more people had filtered into the bar area. I was sat with a couple from LA on one side of me (Julie and Matt), had Tom opposite me and Justin to the left of me (Michael's friends from Melbourne). It was a great buzz and everyone was so lovely. Justin, Tom and Michael all worked together and were on their Christmas party and Justin got everyone lively by starting on the vodka joss shots (a shot of vodka with a sachet of joss which is like a vitamin sachet with taurine). Sounds gross but makes the vodka taste better and got us all wired! I spent a lot of time chatting to Tom and then met Lucy and Bella who I instantly got on with (they were from Dagenham and Bucks) and by about 11pm, we were all ready to head out en-mass to the beach as the whole hostel was going out.

We then entered a long-winded debate about how we would get to the beach as the party was about a half an hour/hour walk away. We discussed bikes but then said it was pitch black and might be a bit tricky after a few drinks. The other option was getting a horse and cart which was obviously a lot more expensive and some people didn't like the idea of them as they thought it was cruel. That aside, in my head it was the most rational way of getting there and back in one piece! We discussed bikes with the staff, walked down the road to enquire about horses, walked back to the hostel to find out they'd run out of bikes so then made our way back to the main road to find some horses and luckily there were two left for 150,000 per horse! I was with Lucy, Bella and Tanya and the three boys were together; we got there in the end!

The beach was booming when we arrived and we all posed for some photos against the white backboard with some gatecrashers photobombing.

The music was some fairly trippy trance and house stuff but it was enough to get everyone dancing around. The bar was the first stop where we all bought beers and then found a good spot on the sand for a boogie. It was hard dancing around with flip-flops so they quickly came off and the hair went straight up where it was soooo hot and sweaty!

Bella had been really poorly for a few days and still wasn't feeling great so she went back to the hostel and not long after that, Michael had peaked and had to go back too! That left Justin, Tom, Lucy, Tanya and I dancing the night away. Tom bought me a couple of beers and we were pulling the weirdest shapes, laughing hysterically jumping around and kicking sand at each other. Lucy and I were definitely kindred souls and wandered further down the beach to dip our feet in the water to cool down and we were loving life dancing around when we went back up. Justin and I perfected our ballet pirouettes twirling around on the sand with Lucy laughing at us whilst Tom and Tanya were down at the water front; was such a great night!

Tanya had made friends with Elisabeth and Fredrik a couple from Sweden who were with a large group from the hostel so we joined them for a bit too, throwing all our flip-flops in the middle and dancing around.

I've got no idea what time we left but it must have been after 3 as Justin, Tom, Lucy, Tanya and I squished into an 'Uber horse' as the boys liked to call it and stopped at the pizza place. I didn't fancy a pizza so sat with the others and Tom disappeared a couple of times (think he was feeling a little bit worse for wear!) When he came back, he said he was going back to the hostel but had no idea how to get there so I volunteered to go back too, stopping en-route at a mini mart to see if he needed anything and he picked up some water, oreos and pringles; staple snacking foods in my opinion!

The walk back was entertaining as I felt surprisingly fine and just listened to Tom who was chatting away whilst I navigated the way in the dark. We knew it was about 20 past 4 at this point as the mosque was going off loudly for the call to prayer. Once we got to the hostel, I dropped Tom off at his door and handed him his snacks. By this point I was peckish so invited myself into his dorm and stood tucking into his pringles whilst we chatted a bit longer and then I went back to mine and had a shower to cool down and get rid of the sand before hitting the hay.

I woke up feeling surprisingly fresh and quite early considering I didn't get into bed until late and I'd heard Tanya come in a couple of hours after me! Deciding not to lay around, I got up and caught up with my messages on the wifi at the bar and ordered myself the complimentary breakfast; two pancakes with syrup, watermelon and banana.

There was a guy named Pat from Canada who was sat next to me so I got chatting to him about his travels as he had been on Gili T for 3 weeks and he ended up staying in the same dorm as Tanya and I for a night.

Bella came out and was feeling much better so I sat with her catching up for a while. After that, I got myself comfy on one of the bean bags by the pool ready for a day of baking to my heart's content! Lucy and Bella joined me and we all sat chatting away in between jumping in and out of the pool to cool down although it was actually warm water.

The lads surfaced and they spent the day with us chilling too but they popped to the beach for a bit in the afternoon. Lucy and I got to the point where we were ravenous and wanted something cheap and easy for lunch so we ordered the pad Thai although it was made with glass noodles at the Broken Compass which made it different but it was still really nice!

Lucy was debating about whether to spend a couple of months finishing her year visa in Melbourne working or whether to do some travelling in Asia so Bella, Justin and I discussed it with her. Bella, Lucy and I then created a pros and cons list which resulted in Lucy donning a German accent shouting bring on ze cons so we spent far too long laughing rather than getting to the task at hand! She did however, decide to go to Melbourne so was happy to have made a decision!

Tanya, Elisabeth and Fredrik had been out cycling so we chatted to them by the pool and Lucy and Bella went to the harbour to book their boat back to the mainland for the following day.

When it got to the point that tanning was starting to become a bit difficult where it was late in the day, I showered and got dressed and Tanya and I then headed to the local Warung by the harbour to eat dinner with the locals. The food was great where we got to try a selection and really cheap. Everyone was cramped around tables on plastic chairs and we got sat next to a British guy and girl who were lovely. He was a diving instructor on the Gili's and his friend had come out to visit. They were both telling us places to go and hostels to stay in and it wasn't until we delved further into conversation that it transpired they also came from Kent and lived in Hythe and knew Tonbridge!

Later we wandered back to the hostel and sat at the bar having a beer. I'd spoken to Lucy and she messaged to say her and Bella were with the lads at the veggie/vegan restaurant so would be back soon. We all sat together catching up and later retired to bed so I was ready to get up in the morning for the snorkeling trip around the Gili's.

After a surprisingly good sleep, I was up earlyish and had more pancakes and fruit to keep me going for the day. I then went and coated myself in sun oil to keep the burn at bay and met Tanya, Elisabeth, Fredrik, Julie and Matt by the bar so we could all go together. I ran to the girls room and said goodbye as they were making their way to the mainland for their last few days and Lucy and I said we would catch up in Melbourne. When we got to the beach I realised I'd forgotten my towel so had to dash back!

There were 65 of us on this long glass-bottomed boat and it was packed! It was a great day though and we stopped by Gili Meno to snorkel and twice around Gili Air. We were also fortunate enough to see a turtle by Gili Air and apparently there was a second one on the third stop but I was too far away to see it before it swam off! After the second stop, we moored at Gili Air to stop for lunch and Matt, Julie, Fredrik, Elisabeth, Tanya and I wandered further up to a diving school and had lunch there (I went for the watermelon juice and the chicken wrap with chips!) and we then had our final snorkel and made our way back to Gili T by about 3.30pm. Only downside was that the boat had been a bit uneven and slippery when walking along so I skated across and fell after the second stop and scraped my calf; was definitely going to bruise like a peach!

The weather was glorious so I spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool with Tanya, Elisabeth and Fredrik. Later in the afternoon the lads came back from the beach so I caught up with them too. Tom, Tanya and I spent a lot of time discussing different phrases in England and Australia one of which was 'hectos' for them meaning hectic which seemed strangely funny. Amongst many examples, Tom asked if we said arvo rather than afternoon and I said my friends and I had but Tanya was a different story!

In the early evening I went and showered to get ready to go to Pink Coco and watch the sunset with Elisabeth, Fredrik, Tanya, Tom, Michael and Justin. The boys weren't ready at the same time as us so the four of us caught a horse and cart there and settled ourselves on our seats on the beach with a beer; it was stunning!

The lads arrived and Tom took the spare seat next to me. I sat chatting with him about growing up in Melbourne, his apprenticeship with the studying and working with the boys. We had a right laugh swapping stories about detentions at school and getting chucked out of classrooms; luckily for me he appreciated my maths story where I got a detention for hysterically laughing in a lesson and disrupting the class when a squirrel had jumped from tree to tree and missed a branch, falling straight down the middle to the ground.

Char, a family friend, had told me how great Scallywags was for the fresh fish so I'd told the gang I'd like to go there. Once we'd finished our drinks, I jumped into a horse and cart with Michael and Tom and we made our way, following the others who were in the horse ahead. I sat with Tom and Michael and Elisabeth and Fredrik were with us too whilst Tanya and Justin disappeared to get some money out. We got up and looked at the fish counter; there was so much choice it was hard to know what to pick! I'd paid for the horse so Michael bought me a beer in return and we sat chatting whilst we waited for our food to arrive; I'd gone for the signature butterfish with mashed potato and pak choi.

Michael was telling me about his boat at home and camping trips he's done and told me that I should go with them when I get to Melbourne which I totally agreed to; would be so much fun! Tom also showed me his Instagram page for the woodwork that he does for fun; it was incredible and he's definitely got a talent there.

The food was amazing and we all thoroughly enjoyed it, despite having to splash out where it was a more extravagant restaurant. Justin was challenged to down his beer but was saying it was too gassy to do it quickly. I then asked him why he didn't just strawpedo it where you stick the straw in the bottle and stick the tip you drink from over the side of the bottle so the air can come out there instead. He hadn't seen that before surprisingly for an Aussie drinker so I was volunteered to demonstrate with the remainder of my Bintang.

When we had paid and finished dinner, we wandered back up towards the bars near the harbour and stopped when we found a live band playing at a beach bar and a little toddler was on her own in front of them dancing away. She then walked over to a little boy to try and grab his hand and get him to dance with her too and it was literally the cutest thing ever! Everyone in the bar was clapping for them and they were adorable.

Tom, Michael and I watched Elisabeth, Fredrick, Justin and Tanya on the sand dancing along to the band. Tom wandered off to get some food where his burger hadn't filled him up so Michael and I joined the others dancing along to classics like Summer of 69. I'd started to feel a bit hot and my stomach was churning so I walked across the road and grabbed a bottle of water from the mini mart and then sat down at the table with Tom to relax where he'd returned from eating again.

When everyone finished their drinks, we moved on to Jungle Bar where we found Julie and Matt and some other people from the hostel. The lads hit the bar and we walked down to the tables to catch up with everyone. By that point, I was starting to feel seriously dodgy so told Tanya I was off and she offered to walk back with me as she wanted to pick up some more cash.

We stopped off at the mini mart to buy some sprite, gum and water and then went back to the hostel. I got into my pjs and had to make a quick dash to the bathroom as soon as Tanya had left and threw up twice; absolutely rotten.

There's nothing like getting sick to make you miss home so I did what everyone would do; I rang my mum! Haha luckily it was late so the timings worked in my favour and got to chat to her for a bit but had to leave the conversation as I was starting to feel a bit rough. Whilst I was on the phone I saw Michael arrive back too so he must have had enough as well!

I had a seriously lucky escape as I had wondered at one point whether I had food poisoning and if it would start escaping from both ends but once I was sick, thankfully nothing else happened!

Apart from a slightly tender stomach, I slept well and woke up at about 7.30am so got up at about 8 where I couldn't lay down any more. I walked to reception and paid for an extra night at the hostel just in case I still felt awful later in the day. Considering I'm not a morning or breakfast person; I was really hungry! I had my pancakes with watermelon and banana and was settled on a beanbag by the pool by about 8.30am which was great as it wasn't too hot at that point.

Over the next hour or two, everyone started to surface and have their breakfast before coming to lay by the pool. I spent the majority of my time sat in the water with just my head and shoulders poking up as it was much cooler! Tom came over and sat next to me in the shade and I spent a few hours chatting to him either in or out of the water until he went to the beach.

By lunchtime I was hungry again so Tanya and I ordered food which they delivered to us at the pool; I sat in the water and ate the breakfast burrito with egg, sausage, bacon, tomato and mushroom in a wrap with tortilla chips which was great and so filling!

I spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the beanbags or in the water chatting to Tom and the boys and challenged Tom to try and touch the bottom of the pool. His was far more successful than me as he's 6ft 4 so the tips of his fingers were poking out the water whereas when he told me to do it, mine completely disappeared! The boys got on the strawberry and mango daiquiris laying by the pool and let me try them - the mango one was definitely the best!

At about half three, the lads had to leave to get their boat to the mainland. I was gutted! They'd been so much fun and I'd spent a lot of time with them, especially Tom who I'd got on really well with. When they came to say goodbye he told me to get in touch with them when I arrive in Melbourne which I was already looking forward to. I also made Michael stick to his end of the bargain for the camping trip he promised which we laughed about and I told Tom he had to come too!

After some more time by the pool, Tanya and I changed and cycled to sort out our boat tickets for the following day (me to Gili Air and Tanya to the mainland) and then we rode halfway around the island to get to the Sunshine Paradise Beach so we could watch the sunset with a Bintang and have some obligatory swing photos.

Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to shower and change and tried to find the veggie/vegan restaurant that Tom, the lads, Lucy and Bella had been to and seriously raved about. We got lost (it was easily done around that part of the island in the dark!) but after asking some locals where we were going, they pointed us in the right direction.

The others couldn't have been more right; the food was amazing! I followed Tom's advice and had a white bean hummus wrap which had different veggies in it and a dip, washed down with an apple, lime and mint juice; the flavours were incredible!

Once we had finished, we made our way back to the hostel and I sat up on the wifi looking for a place to stay on Gili Air before heading straight to bed.

I'd not been able to make my mind up the night before about where to stay but got up early to have breakfast and decided to throw caution to the wind and treat myself to a hotel rather than a hostel as it was only for one night. Looking through the options, I chose Scallywags Smugglers Hideaway Resort that was part of the same chain as the restaurant we went to a couple of nights before; it looked very plush compared with how I'd been living!

At about half 10, I grabbed all my stuff and said goodbye to Tanya, Elisabeth and Fredrik and made my way to the Ganggari office so they could take me to sort out my boarding pass near the harbour. It was an absolute scorcher and moving around with my luggage had me literally dripping in sweat as I had to wait by the pier for about half an hour but luckily it was sheltered.

The boat didn't take long at all to get across and I asked the locals where I needed to go to get to Scallywags. I remembered from the map that the restaurant was further up the beach and the hotel was more inland so had an inkling I was being sent to the restaurant but by that point, I was so hot I didn't care!

When I arrived, I told them I wanted to check in so I filled out all the relevant forms and passport details and they took my luggage from me and brought me a welcome drink; the Scallywags dragonfly mocktail and I also ordered a chicken, bacon and avocado baguette for lunch as I was starving where it was about half 1.

Once I'd finished lunch, I told them I was ready to head to my room and they sent someone to come and collect me. The guy was really sweet and had brought along a bicycle for me to use so I had my small rucksack and handbag and he had my big bag, guiding the way along the beachfront for the 5 minute ride!

The staff at the resort were so friendly and welcoming and gave me the wifi codes, told me I could rent a bike and DVDs and then showed me to my room. I'd got a really good rate on Agoda for a superior room so was situated in the Rumah Dua bungalow which was just two rooms, each with their own bathroom and private balconies. When the guy opened the door, I walked straight into a slice of heaven!

Once I'd settled and put everything down, I made my way back to reception to hire a bike and set off cycling around the island, dropping my laundry off nearby to get it done by the morning and stopping at the Ganggari fast boat shop to sort my boat out to the mainland for the next day. Where I was only there for one night in the end, I didn't have an awful lot of time to do everything but luckily it was much quieter than Gili T and I took my time having a leisurely ride for about an hour or so. There were a lot less people and it didn't seem busy at all but the beach bungalows looked so nice and the beaches were lovely too.

When I got back, I took a dip in the pool before going back to shower which was amazingly cool after my hot and sweaty cycle and there was no-one else there to begin with.

I visited the guy in reception to let him know that the wifi wasn't working and he said he would call his engineer in to check it for me. After heading out and walking around to find a restaurant, I settled for one closeby that had a few people already in it. Was cheaper than Gili T which was a relief for the bank balance and I ordered myself a Sunset Air mocktail (oj, grenadine and sprite) and a beef rendang curry.

I walked back to the hotel with the flashlight they gave me (wasn't well lit at all!) and went to reception to grab a DVD to watch; I went for The Duff which I watched whilst painfully epilating my legs haha! Was predictable but still entertaining to watch and I was just so pleased to be able to completely relax.

Once that had finished, I called the grandparents to see how they were and chatted for about half an hour to catch up and fill them in on what I'd been upto. After that, I tried mum but the signal kept cutting out and she could only hear every few words so I did a lot of cursing and told her I'd have to talk to her another time as there was no point trying to talk when we couldn't hear each other!

At that point, I was feeling pretty knackered so settled myself in to go to sleep, relishing on the amount of space I had where I could starfish across the huge bed!

When I got up in the morning, I collected my laundry and cycled over to the Scallywags restaurant on the beach for breakfast. They had a full spread so I tucked in to the orange juice, bacon, sausage, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms and beans before cycling back to grab my stuff and check out!

A quote to leave you on for today: "Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport."

Ciao for now! Xxx