Accidentally Tripping in Gili Trawangan
The clouds moved in perfection synchronization, swirling in the sky like a kaleidoscope. The horizon was a canvas of broad strokes of glitter, twinkling as the sun slowly sunk into the ocean. My concentration was broken by a horse walking along the sand – who started pooping. There was the sound of manical laughter everywhere. Oh shit….ABORT. ABORTTTTTT!!!!!!
Psychedelics have never really done it for me. They last too long and make me feel out of control. And as a perfectionist, control has always been a big thing for me. I want to organize everything perfectly, get out ahead of problems and always have a backup plan. But in life and travel, things don’t always work out as anticipated and sometimes you just have to go with the flow. And remember, as with anything, this too shall pass.
My boyfriend and I arrived in Gili Trawangan in the late afternoon after a rather long and very bumpy boat ride. I’ve always had a reasonably strong stomach, but over the years traveling I’ve had a few boughs of seasickness – in particularly rough water. This ride had been bumpy and was several hours long (we didn’t plan ahead enough to get the direct boat). So needless to say, I arrived feeling not my best.
After dropping our stuff down, we decided to go for a walk around the island to explore a bit. One of my favorite things to do when I first arrive is walk around to orient myself and pinpoint places that we may want to drop into later in the trip.
The entire island of Gili Trawangan is only about 4 miles in circumference (I know because I routed it while running). There are also no cars, so when you visit be prepared to walk everywhere – or you can hire a horse buggy cart. Although these are strictly for [lazy] tourists, so the prices are incredibly jacked up. Think $10 for a short ride….more expensive than Uber in Los Angeles.
We passed a number of high end fancy resorts and many cute little restaurants and beach bars. And after about an hour, decided to stop into one of the beach bars to chill and grab a drink. We chose a joint with bean bag chairs right on the beach, close to the ocean. Gili T doesn’t have deep beaches—the path from the road to the water is short.
The waiter brought over two menus for us and we quickly began scanning for something that sounded good.
Lauren, look! My boyfriend pointed to something at the very end of the menu.
A flipped a few pages and then saw it.
MUSHROOM SHAKES
Mild, medium, strong, super strong.
Should we get them? He asked.
I had already had mushroom shakes in Thailand and they were totally fine. Mellow and very mild. Perfectly enjoyable. Nothing like a full blown acid trip. Of which, I have only experienced once….and once was enough for me.
But as a result, I’m still a little leery of psychedelics. So I when the waiter came back, I asked him…So what’s the mild like?
“You may feel it or you may not!” he responded with a smile.
PERFECT.
I’ll have the mild,I state.
My boyfriend went with the medium.
Within a few minutes, our shakes arrived on a tray. I’m not gonna lie. They did not look appetizing at all. Greenish brown in color with little particles floating all around. More like a health juice – of which I’ve never been a particular fan.
But my boyfriend looked happy and excited to try them and that was good enough for me. I like making sure everyone gets to do everything that had wanted to do when we trip together.
Bottoms up!
It didn’t taste terrible, but I can’t say it was good either. If you like green juices you’d probably enjoy it. But I prefer to eat my greens over drinking them.
We finished them and continued talking as the sun started to set. About half an hour had gone by and I felt totally fine. Phew, I was probably in the clear. My boyfriend said he was feeling it a bit, but it was chill and relaxing.
After over a week of traveling together, I was happy to say that we still hadn’t run out of things to talk about. Always a good sign.
And as we jabbered on, two horses passed in front of us on the beach. The second horse stopped just a short distance from us and started pooping right there on the beach. I watched his tale lift, as moist brown balls plopped out onto the wet sand. Some of them cracking apart and spilling the contents of hay (and whatever else horses eat).
And I couldn’t help myself – I just burst out laughing. And I couldn’t stop. Every time another plop would hit the sand, the laughs came harder. I was almost crying with laughter. What was wrong with me?! Why was the horse pooping SO funny?!
At this point, I had fallen back into my bean bag chair and stares up at the sky. The clouds looked particularly fluffy and buoyant. They moved subtly, like they were dancers orchestrated together.
Oh shit.
It suddenly hit me. The mushroom shake was working after all. That’s why the horse poop was so funny and why the clouds looked so animated.
I told my boyfriend I was feeling it and I think he was pleased that he wasn’t alone.
The tide started to come in and restaurants were pulling their tables and chairs further back. But one vendor wasn’t quick enough and a bean bag chair was swept up in the current and pulled out to sea. An Asian woman was frantically chasing after it into the water.
LOOK!! IT’S RUNNING AWAY!!! THE BEAN BAG CHAIR IS RUNNING AWAY.
I was laughing hysterically & falling out of my chair at this point. This was the funniest thing I had ever seen.
When I finally pulled myself together, many minutes later. We decided we should probably grab the check and start heading home. This is when we found out that the bar only took cash and we did not have enough to cover the bill. The waiter told us where the nearest atm was and said my boyfriend could take his bike to get there.
I stayed behind. I guess I was the collateral. Seeing my boyfriend ride the bike immediately had me imagining him as a clown in the circus. And once again, I found myself choking on my laughter.
He was probably only gone 10 minutes or less….but it felt like eternity. There were flies buzzing around the bar and it felt like they were EVERYWHERE. It was as if each and every one of those pesky buggers wanted to tell me a secret and was shouting it in my ear. BUZZZZZ BUZZZ BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
The buzzing was all I could hear or think about. The flies were reminding me of rotting food, which was making me feel very grossed out and uncomfortable sitting there.
I didn’t want to reveal that I was tripping to the waiter or the bartender so I just kept sitting there amidst the flies….afraid that if I got up (or said anything about the flies) they would KNOW. I also wasn’t confident the words I wanted to come out of my mouth actually would.
In retrospect, I’m not sure why I was concerned about them knowing….since they were the ones who made the drink for me in the first place.
Finally, my boyfriend returned in his clown mobile [aka a regular bicycle]. I struggled as hard as I could to keep a straight face.
It’s not that funny. It’s not that funny. It’s not that funny.
Ahhhh it is SO FUNNY.
We paid and finally started heading home. But within a few minutes, both of us realized that we didn’t really feel like walking in the dark. Me, in particular, because I couldn’t handle everything going on around me and was anxious to get back to the safety of my hotel room where there would be nothing to laugh at or swarm me.
So we flagged a $10 horse buggy and hopped in the back. As we rode along, I noticed a chorus of birds singing loudly. It was like they were performing an opera for me with surround sound. It was less anxiety-inducing than the flies, but still very strange.
The waves seemed to be enjoying it. I could hear them clapping in the distance. Cheering the birds and their melodic tune on.
Each venue we passed was lit up with twinkle lights – and they too seemed to be joining in on the performance. The orbs of light seemed to glitter and sparkle as if choreographed with the bird’s song. I felt like I stepped into an EDM festival….enveloped in beats and beams.
My boyfriend looked at me and asked if I was good.
Ugh, yes. I’m just tripping really hard.
Really?! He looked stunned. Apparently it had barely worked for him and was over in about 20 minutes. This was now a few hours later. And still going strong for me.
We wondered if we had switched the medium from the mild. But his looked much darker than mine, so that theory seemed unlikely.
I was relieved he knew now. At least I could stop trying to pretend to be normal.
When we got back to the room, my boyfriend asked what I wanted to do for dinner because he was getting really hungry.
Nooooo. No. No. No. I can’t leave the room again. I was safe in this room.
I told him to go out and get a snack while I waited to return to normalcy. But to be really quick because I was scared to be alone for too long.
As soon as he left, I began pacing the room. I didn’t like the painting hanging over the bed. The woman looked psychotic and she seemed to be laughing at me. She knew I was tripping and it was vaguely stressing me out.
I tried lying on the floor to see if that would calm my mind down. Deep breaths. In thru the nose, out thru the mouth.
This seems to be helping. I think I’m coming down.
By the time my boyfriend got back, I felt a little better and thought I could go to get food. On TWO conditions, first) he was not allowed to leave my side and second) I didn’t want to have to talk to anyone. I still wasn’t confident in my communication skills.
We decided the easiest thing to do would be to just get dinner at the restaurant at our hotel. It was supposed to have a great restaurant so this seemed perfect.
As soon as we got seated at our table, my boyfriend got up to go to the buffet.
Ahh. No. I was left alone. I looked around at the lively bustling restaurant.
Better keep my head down so no one suspects I’m tripping.
That’s when a waiter approached the table. He immediately asked me where I’m from.
FUCK. Should I pretend I don’t speak English? That would reduce the risk of communication failure. But in the end, I respond – the US.
Wooohooo! DID YOU SEE WHAT?! I RESPONDED NORMALLY. A victory parade was launching in my mind such that I almost missed the follow up question.
“How are you enjoying Gili Trawangan so far?”
Oh fuck, this is an open-ended question. What do I say? I wasn’t prepared for a short form answer.
I went with the first thing that came to mind that seemed like it might be appropriate – BEAUTIFUL. Just one word, but that was ok right? I followed it up with a head nod and looked out at the sea.
He smiled. Seems like that was acceptable. Phew.
My boyfriend FINALLY came back from the buffet. Dude, did you like fall in. Take forever why don’t yah.
I’m pretty sure the waiter and everyone at the restaurant KNOWS.
Lauren, I’m sure they don’t know or care. Plus people come to these restaurants tripping all the time. It’s not like your special. Relax.
I suppose that’s true. They did have mushroom shakes on the menu. We can’t be the only tourists who have ever ordered them.
That knowledge relaxed me enough to eat some food.
By the time we got back to the room, I felt mostly normal. It had been about 6 hours since the initial imbibing of the mushroom shake. And what a wild ride it had been. I was already thinking back on the events from earlier with a chuckle (albeit a far more controlled one).
It may not have been how I expected to spend the evening….but sometimes that’s just how travel goes. One thing leads to another and you’re off on an adventure. Not all travel experiences are great ones….but I’ve found that the weird, stressful, crazy ones often times result in the strongest memories of a place. I certainly experienced Gili T far more vividly that night than I have most of my places. My mind was working in overdrive – listening and seeing things in a way that it wouldn’t normally….observing the island and it’s inhabitants in a fully unique way. So while I wouldn’t be returning for another mushroom shake anytime soon, I also knew I could sleep soundly, with no regrets.