Lauren –
After nearly two months on the road David and I decided that we deserved a holiday from our holiday, and the Gilis seemed like the perfect place to relax. Neither of us had visited this cluster of islands which had become increasingly popular, but we were excited to partake in some relaxing beach time, diving/snorkeling and good food. We decided to split our time between Gili Air and Gili Trawangan, the latter being the notorious party island – but we were confident that the low season meant that it would be a nice lively atmosphere.
We were dropped off at the Lombok Bangsal port and asked our driver to point us in the direction of the public boat ticket counter (we thought we were clever in taking the public boat over the tourist boat as it had always worked out perfectly and much cheaper). We smugly bought our $3 tickets and waited to embark on the boat.
Things didn’t quite go to plan.
Firstly, we had to wade into waist deep water with our bags to board a tiny rickety boat (a feat not easy with our sore legs after the volcano hike – I could barely walk!). Once on the boat we settled in and looked forward to what we thought would be a peaceful 20 minute journey across the tranquil ocean. What transpired was probably the scariest 20 minutes of the trip. I genuinely thought the boat was going to capsize and I started making plans to flee to shore! The driver seemed to speed through the waves and relish in the extreme turbulence and waves breaking over the boat. Thankfully we arrived safely, but we and our bags were completely soaked. We agreed that when we left the Gilis we would spend more money on our boat transfer!
When we arrived we were greeted by a throng of people on horses shouting at us to go with them. We had heard that the islands didn’t have cars, but we didn’t expect the number of horses that bellowed around the dusty streets. We both felt a little sad seeing the horses lugging around tourists and their belongings, it was incredibly hot and we weren’t confident that the horses were well treated. So we decided to walk to our accommodation.
Gili Air didn’t really live up to our expectations. It was meant to be a lively yet tranquil paradise – but there was absolutely no-one around and a complete lack of atmosphere. It was dusty, messy and dirty and not what we had envisaged when we thought of a relaxing beach break. We were glad that we could be be flexible with our itinerary and decided that we would only spend a couple of nights on this island.
We made the most of our couple of days on Gili Air and sipped Bintang’s by the beach, watched the impressive sunsets over mainland Bali and caught up on some sleep. It was nice to not do too much for a few days after the volcano climb (it took me nearly 4 days to be able to walk properly again!).
Next stop was Gili Trawangan – a notorious party island. We thought we’d see what it was like and plan our stay accordingly and ended up staying for five nights! Although it was low season, the atmosphere was still lively, really pleasant and great fun. The beaches were clean and David was excited to get some dives under his belt!
Our first night we stumbled across a bar playing rock and roll bingo and ended up staying dancing and singing to some classics in the middle of the street. When someone incorrectly called bingo they were forced to stand in the street as the crowd chanted “SHAME, SHAME, SHAME” and a suspended bucket filled with water and drenched them from head to toe!
We spent the next five days chasing turtles in the clear blue waters, sipping Bintangs on the white sand and eating a variety of delicious cuisines. David was a little nervous to book in for his first dive in six years, but soon remembered everything and kept going back for more. I was happy snorkeling in the shallow reefs and was so amazed to spot huge turtles that let me follow them for hundreds of meters!
We ventured out to the West of the island one afternoon on the recommendation of our homestay host. Amazing sunsets were promised and oh they delivered (plus some rather amusing Instagram watching).
We couldn’t believe how Instagram had completely taken over this picturesque spot – one standout was a lady mounting a horse and posing through the trees for over an hour…yes and some poor local was paid to take her photo over and over.
We had such a relaxing time on Gili and it was the perfect end to our two months in Asia. We booked ourselves onto a rather expensive (but we decided the safety was worth it) fast boat to Bali and set our sights on our next adventure – two days with Nick and Tuuli in Bali before jetting back to Sydney. Part one of our big adventure was coming to an end!
Far Away From Home 