Hey, Pulau Weh!

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Still to this day, after all we've seen Pulau Weh is still one of my favorite islands. Just off the northwestern tip of Sumatra; Pulau Weh is beautiful, tranquil, and cheap. We snagged a rustic bungalow amongst the jungle with an unobstructed view of the ocean for less than eight dollars a day. (The last photo in this post is looking out from our deck). Most of our food was cooked by Mama, the sweetest old lady I've ever known. The quantity of food was beyond American portions for barely over a dollar. 

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So what actually makes this island better than all others, I think a few things. Being a mostly muslim populated island drinking is expensive, so there are almost no bars on this island. Unlike our nights in Koh Phangan and Koh Phi Phi the evenings are quiet and peaceful which lends itself to wonderful conversations around Mama's dishes. Muslims also don't really go swimming too often so the beaches are almost always deserted. Lastly, the island is small enough that you can rent a motorbike and see the whole island in just a few short hours, soaking up the rays on deserted beaches. Need any more reasons to quit your job and live here for a few months? I don't think so...

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Gili T

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The three Gili Islands just off of Lombok, Indonesia were an amazing place to do a bit more relaxing, and partying. We finally got to Gili Trawangan after probably one of the worst travel days we've experienced so far on our trip. The beaches were some of the prettiest we've seen, and we were able to swim with some huge green turtles so it was worth it in the end. Once we finally settled in our extremely over priced rooms (only available place on the island), we celebrated with a couple icey cold Bintangs with Sarah and Aaron. 

On our last night we decided to walk to the top of the island for a lovely sunset. We passed by cows, chickens, and goats on our way to the lookout spot where we caught the last minutes of a beautiful sunset. It was a nice ending sitting in the tall grass, chilling with our friends. 

Walking on water

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One of the things that really caught my attention while in Thailand was how much the tides changed. After spending all day swimming in the ocean with the tide in it would be shocking walking back out to the beach after my daily nap. All of a sudden you would have to walk another 200ft just to reach the salty blue ocean. Depending on the beach you could then walk out another 200ft and still be only calf deep.

After cruizing all around Koh Phangan we found a nice little dirt road leading to an empty beach with a sand bar calling our name. We ran through the shallow waters to our destination and set up a cute little picnic with fresh fruit we had just bought along the road. Since we loved our private beach so much we decided to had back into town and buy a few ice cold brews to watch the sunset with our own little slice of beach front.

Bottles of free beer!

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After a few days sweating it up in the Jungle we headed to find another island. We probably would have skipped Koh Phangan, but the infamous full moon party was too near to miss. This would plop us on this island for 6 nights giving us one night to recover from any wrong doings. Once we swam in the most popular beach we set out for something a bit more remote. Forcing us to take the risk of renting another motorbike (they like to scam foreginers about previous dents) to find a beach to our liking. 

We cruised north seeking out bottle beach with Nathan in search of clear waters and quiet sandy beaches. Once arriving north, you have two options to reach bottle beach. This first being a three hour hike through dense jungle, the alternative we took was a nice boat ride around the bend to our destination. The beach was as I imagined, although lacking the free bottles of beer.