I woke up the morning of my last full day on Gili Trawangan with a new sensation - energy!
Apparently, a night without alcohol can do that for a person. I walked through "town" and got an Indian chai tea and mini croissants from Scallywags - an organic restaurant I'd heard good things about.
While I was contemplating life over said tea, and the view, I decided to invite Jessica and Laura to my bungalow for a bottle of wine given they were leaving the island the next day as well.
They were up and about when I went over, so we chatted for a bit over tea and breakfast, before agreeing to walk around the island.
The walk was nice and relaxing in comparison to the breakneck bike rides.
I provided some comedic entertainment when I stepped in the island's biggest pile of horse shit while going over the differences in the sands of the various Australian beaches I had visited.
Embarrassed, I scuttled over a dune to wash my ankle in the sea.
Meanwhile, the girls were examining little hermit crabs. As I walked over, I painfully stubbed my toe against a piece of driftwood.
As we were finishing up our walk, we stopped for (more) tea at a beautiful spot on the north of the island.
I don't know how long we were there, long enough for the winds to apply a layer of sea salt to our skin. If I could slow down time, this would've been the spot to do it.
After our walk, we ended up back at Scallywags for lunch.
The day was slowly creeping by and we were simply changing environments while carrying on with fun conversations enjoying one and other's company.
We picked out a bottle of well known "Jacob Greek" Shiraz Sauvignon from a nearby wine shop, and headed to the island's fastest internet cafe (which wasn't that fast).
Once there, it started to pour rain so we tended to our Facebook accounts and photos. I left to obtain glasses from Sama Sama, where the bottle of wine was also uncorked.
The bartender invited us back later in the night for a "goodbye" song from the band.
Soon after, the girls arrived and we enjoyed a few glasses of my favorite Australian red wine.
After finishing off the bottle, we headed to (I know you know by now) The Beach House for our last dinner on the island.
There we ran into Ashlyn who stopped to chat. She and her husband Tim were leaving the next day as well. They're possibly the friendliest couple I've ever met.
Every time I bumped into them it always made me feel happy.
It felt right to leave at the same time. I didn't want to stick around the island to the point where I began to take it for granted.
Besides, my experience was so great because of the people I shared it with, not the island itself.
After dinner, we headed to Sama Sama where the band played "Leaving On A Jet Plane" and invited us to sing a song.
I'm a somewhat accomplished karaoke singer, however, singing to a live band would be a first.
I looked around, noting barely anyone was at the bar, or even on the island, and said we need to do this.
After much debate, flipping through books of lyrics written in somewhat broken English, we settled on the classic "I Will Survive."
I didn't know the lyrics or the timing, and soon let Jessica and Laura carry the song.
We said goodbye, heading in opposite directions with plans to meet up back in Kuta, along with Linus whose trip to Komodo was a bust.
