Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Next up was Gili Trawangan, this is a very small island off the coast of Lombok, Gili literally means Small Island, but this collection of 3 islands tends to be known just as the Gili’s. Gili T is the biggest and has a reputation for being the most party island of the three. The island is only tiny, about 3km by 2km, all perfect white sand and coral reefs and no cars, sounds dreadful! Getting to Gili T involved the most expensive boat yet! About 40 quid each and it was a bit of a minefield. These boats have varying safety records, some do sink and the Lombok straight is a rough and dangerous bit of water, so we splashed the cash for the most reputable we could find. This paid off though as we had an easy trip out to the coast in the bus and a safe if not a bit rough boat to Gili T. We were even given a safety demo, including a demonstration of how to get off the boat…unheard of in Asia!
We walked from the harbor to find our accommodation, a home stay recommended to us by friends, it was a bit off
the beaten track (well as much as you can be on an island this size!), but that made it nice and quiet. We were put in a room which had a mezzanine floor upstairs containing a second bedroom, there was an outside staircase to here and no wall between the two rooms, the room was basic, with a fan and big open gaps above the windows…walls are clearly unnecessary here! After an initial freak out about security and insects, this accommodation turned out to be brilliant! Very well looked after wit breakfast on our terrace whenever we wanted it and the rooms got cleaned and rearranged twice a day, with mozzie nets and coils placed at night! There was a lovely pool and nice gardens with lots of fresh fruit and veg. Perfect place to relax!
In terms of how we spent our 4 days in Gili T, there is not so much to tell you, this was a proper relax! The days were spent relaxing on the white sand or in beach bars. The sea was beautiful and clear although not brilliant for just paddling in and out due to broken coral on the sand and rocks and
reefs right up to the sand. We went out snorkeling (it’s a real dive and snorkel place!) and as well as all the fantastically colourful fish we saw turtles swimming about at a depth of less than 2m. There is a turtle conservation project on Gili T and it is pretty much guaranteed you will see them!
Every night we walked right around the island in order to sit at a chilled out bar at the far end and watch the most stunning sunset we have ever seen, over Bali and the Gunung Anung volcano. Beautiful bright red colours over the still evening sea! We took far too many pictures! Evenings were spent eating lovely fresh seafood and having cold bintang beers whilst watching live cover bands play far to many U2 and Bob Marley songs, as well as Hotel California….a lot!
The gili islands are unusual in that although there is a really thriving tourist industry, (we were there just at the end of high season and apparently when it’s full, it really is full, you sleep on the beach!) there are no motor vehicles, everyone rides bikes or they use horse and cart, and no police,
just an island head! There is relatively little crime, although I believe this is growing as the visitor numbers grow, and there are quite a lot of drugs! Drugs are illegal in Indonesia and possession carries some pretty hefty fines, but on Gili T there are signs everywhere advertising “Bloody F’ing Fresh Mushrooms!” its crazy!
On our last day I (Rach) wanted to go horse riding, James not so much! I really couldn’t resist though, how many times can I go riding round a desert island?? So after some usual Asian confusion, involving me being put on the phone to random people and agreeing to meet someone, not sure who, in the morning, then us walking round to the stables for them to then decide I needed to go back in the afternoon, I got my ride! I was pretty nervous as for all the riding I did when I was younger; it’s probably been a good 5 years since I rode even once! It was brilliant though, went slowly round the tracks, rode down an abandoned part of the beach, flat out across the fields, on my riding school style pony who decided when we stopped and started.
We were also accompanied by the foal of the pony I was riding, who was allowed to run loose alongside us around the island…only in Asia! The only problem being I stupidly rode in shorts….leaving me with some pretty special bruises from the stirrups. Brilliant though!
We are heading on to our next Gili Island tomorrow, we are going to Gili Air for the next 4 nights. Gili Air is supposed to be much quieter, although not as quiet as Gili Meno. It is also the closest to Lombok. Don’t know how we will possibly cope if it is just more white sand and blue sea….terrible!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0908s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb