Gilian's Island

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18th - 21st April

Early morning of the 18th we meet Eyal out the front of our hotel at 7am so we can all catch a boat together to Gili Island. This is a small island off Lombok., there are three Gili islands. Lombok is where the wedding is going to be. We have heard our other friends are staying at Gili Island Trawangan. We have booked a car to take up to the harbour and a boat to take us quickly there. There are only so many boats leaving the harbour.

Eyal is as I remember him. I met him once or twice quite a while back through the friends on this trip. He is hung over and explains as he is Jewish and with an Israeli background he found is very difficult to get a passport to come to Indonesia. Thank God he was born in America and was able to get an emergency passport at the last minute.

We have breakfast and wait for our driver to arrive but they never arrive. About 30 minutes go past and we become very suspicious. We head out the front and ask the front desk if they know anything about our ride. They say they don't because we didn't book through them. We ask if they know how they typically operate but they won't give us any information and we start to get suspicious again because no-one will tell you anything unless they're making a profit from it anyway.

Joey and Eyal head to the store we got our boat tickets - only walking distance away but in the early morning heat, with Eyal hung over and with all the hustle and bustle of Bali, it makes it hectic and difficult to do quickly. I wait with the bags. Joey and Eyal come back explaining that the store is still not open yet this early in the morning. Joey has a feeling we should move towards the harbour as quickly as possible otherwise we will miss our boat and there may not be other boats later. We ask a driver to take us to the harbour for a good price. He doesn't want to though as it's an annoying drive and too far away and he wants to be paid for having to drive back also. We negotiate a price and theorise we may be able to get it back from the boat company who forgot about us - but deep down we know this probably won't happen.

During our car ride we laugh and discuss the many ways we could get the money back from the boat company. Because the people here are so little we could get Joey and Eyal could hold them upside comfortably and I could tickle them!

We get to the harbour and find out our boat had just left! - without us! We talk to them about getting the next one and they say there is no next one, we will have to wait until tomorrow morning. We refuse to leave until they sort it out so they make a call to the company we got our ticket from. They get onto someone by phone who says that we cancelled our ticket. Eyal, Joey and I all protest in anger at the same time, the locals begin to laugh.

Eventually we get a boat - turns out there is another one going out to Gili on the same day! We're not sure if it's the right Gili island but it will do, it's one step closer to what we want but we lose out deposit from the previous ride. The locals say no hope in getting it back now. The dishonesty of the people here shits me sometimes and it's tiring having to bully yourself through everything so you get a good deal or get treated fairly.

We arrive at Gili island only about an hour later. The boat was excellent and the people working on the boat professional. If you ever travel to the Gili islands I recommend you travel through a company called gili gili.

Gili island being a muslim place as it's an island off lombok, which is muslim, kinda freaked me out at first but Gili is even more liberal than Bali. It's very pretty, the food is better, there are no cars and you either walk, ride a bike or by horse and cart. The horses look a lot healthier here than the animals in Bali. Instead of dogs, cats roam everywhere and use the beach as one giant cat litter. They are friendly cats too and where we stayed they allow the cats to sleep on the chairs out the front or on the office desk. You will find a cat sleeping everywhere and anywhere. Only thing is some of them have hacked off tails and the locals are not honest enough about how that happened. Some say it's natural and others say it's some bastard tourists that came by a while ago. Either way, a lot of the people working on Gili are from Lombok and are muslim but there are also hindus, locals from Bali, lots of European tourists and then us aussies. There was even a German gypsy lady making jewelry and selling on the beach. Some of the European ladies swim or sunbake topless and some of muslim women are fully clothed - but not many. They will cover their hair but wear shorts and a tshirt and ride a bike around like a boy. No-one cares here, there are no police, no hospital, and only one doctor (who apparently isn't here all the time). The ocean is flat and crystal clear. Large turtles circle the island and there is lots to see while snorkelling. There are fresh young coconuts at every corner waiting to be cut open and served as a drink. Even a lot of the cats and horses are named and treated as pets. Funky shops line the one main street that is made of dirt and sand and circles the island. There is even a yoga centre and an organic shop. It's funny hwo libarl this place is but quiet and non industrial it is. There is no rubbish and the locals have signs everywhere making sure this paradise doesn't become spoilt. But like I said, there is no police or no-one there to reinforce the rules. The rules are more unspoken but acknowledged and obeyed anyway out of courtesy. I like this place already. We hire a bike, find a place to stay and stay here for the next three days. This is truly a paradise island.

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