The Infamous Night Market

When we first arrived to Gili T. all I wanted to eat was fresh fish fried whole.  As we were in search of this, we asked endless locals where we can buy it and they all would point to this empty lot and say "market".  We were frustrated and we didn't understand why this so called "market" had not a person or stall there.  As the sun began to set the market started to come alive.  It all made sense, we realized all the fresh fish had to be caught that morning, only allowing us to have it at night.

What once was just an empty space of land quickly filled up with smoky grills, freshly caught fish and endless amounts of tourists... really there were more foreigners than locals and I wasn't too sure if I liked it.  Landon said most of Thailand was like this as you traveled the "tourist trail" but this was my first time experiencing this.  It was definitely the place to be.  As we walked the maze of food stalls all I wanted was fish, while Landon wanted to try every single thing he saw!  So we compromised and did that each night there on Gili T.

I chose a big red snapper for grilling.  They would take the fish and either cut it on the floor on a wooden board or hand it over to the "fish gutter"... I tried not to watch that man too closely because fish is my most favorite thing and I didn't want to spoil anything :)  They then would open the fish and place it into a cage and put it onto fire, hot coals.  They had their teriyaki/bbq sauce they would slather all over and when it was ready, they would serve it with their spicy peppers and rice... yum! Without a second hesitation I could eat that fish for dinner every night.  Gili T's night life was one of my favorite experiences there.

Gili Trawangan Island, east of Bali in Indonesia