Snorkeling with Turtles off Gili T – Bali, Indonesia

Imagine snorkeling with turtles… well on Gili T in Bali you can do just that!

While we were on the island there was lots of places offering snorkel adventures to swim with the turtles and see some sunken statues. I shopped around to get the best price and one place said they would do it for 100K rupee each, which works out to be $10 Australian. GAME ON! There were eight of us so it worked out to be about $80 Australian all up. We loaded the esky with Bintang beer and boarded our private boat.

Snorkeling Gili T

Now I’m not going to lie, we had a couple of drinks the night before. Now when I say a couple, it was 2 for 1 cocktails all night…. So we all were definitely washed up in the morning. As we approached the boat Renee screams out… ” Let’s go see some f#*king TURTLES !”

Not only us, but our boat crew who I presume were all under the age of 17, were also pretty hangover haha. As we set off we get about 150 meters offshore, the engine bolts come loose and the guys nearly drop the motor into the ocean hahaha.

While they were trying to mount the engine back on, the only thing we could do was crack open a Bin Tang and drink our way out of this.

A great feature of the boat was the glass bottom in the middle.

While the boat crew were trying to get the motor running again, it seemed they flooded the motor. So Brad had to give them a hand to get it running again.

The motor kicked over and we were back on the sea to the first stop. To swim with TURTLES!!!!

Snorkeling along turtles Gili T

We saw this turtle poke his head out of the water, so we stopped the boat and put on our snorkeling gear and jumped in the ocean to follow this guy.

It was so amazing to see this HUGE turtle just swimming around so gracefully in the ocean.

Turtle spotted while snorkeling in Gili T

Swimming around we found this shell on the ocean floor which was home to a crab inside 🙂

Swimming closer to the shore line I spotted another turtle

Snorkeling with turtles Gili T

I followed this guy for a while and dove down to get a better look at him

Turtle spotted while snorkeling Gili T

He was curious of me as I swam alongside with him until I couldn’t hold my breath any more. He then surfaced as well for more air.

Snorkel next to turtles Gili T

Once I surfaced I looked around and couldn’t see our boat, I must have followed the turtle for about 20 min. So I started swimming back to where all the boats were. Finally saw our boat, we all boarded and we were off to the next stop

Sunken Statues

As you can see in the photos, there is hardly any living coral left on the reef. This is due to dynamite fishing the locals would do back in the day. Pretty lazy way of fishing but I guess it was very efficient.

So now they are sinking statues and other objects to get the reef to start to grow back.

Sunken statues Gili T

There were so many colourful fish at this spot.

We got some bread to feed them.

The ring of sunken statues was so rad to see but it was quite creepy as well,
Here are some more photos of the statues-

One thing to be careful of while snorkeling and looking at the bottom of the ocean, is to always watch what out for is above the water as well. SK was helping Loz with her goggles and he hit his head on the rotor of the boat.

The next stop was a sunken japanese WWII boat and was about a Bintang boat ride away.

Japanese WWII Wreck

This spot is not the best for snorkeling, scuba diving would be so much better as the boat is very deep. Mitch tried to swim down and touch it.

We got back on the boat and headed to the last stop, which was some mopeds that they have put in once again to help rejuvenate the coral life.

Was cool to dive down and swim around them. The coral was starting to grow at the base of the bikes.

Underwater moped Gili T

There was so many cool fish getting around while we were snorkeling, check out this guy.

Was an awesome day out !! Definitely worth the $10 🙂

So if you’re ever in Bali it is worth the boat ride to Gili T so you can go snorkeling with turtles! Since you have come all that way, might as well stay a few days 😉

Here’s some more amazing things to see and do while on Gili Trawangan!!!

All these photos were taken on my YI 4K Action Camera.

Happy Travels 🙂

For another blog about snorkeling with turtles, check out 👇

Lady Musgrave Island snorkeling