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Published: June 15th 2012
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GILI ISLANDS There are 3 islands which are just off Lombok, next to Bali. Gili T is the busy party island - Gili Meno is peaceful paradise - Gili Air is the perfect balance of both. These islands are peaceful and beautiful - why even go to Bali? Not many OZ or Kiwi visit, mainly Europeans.
Getting There: The easiest way is get a boat from Sanur which includes collection from your Hotel in Bali to Gilies, it takes a couple of hours at a cost of NZ$170 each return. You can hop between islands for NZ$3.50 for a 15 minute boat ride.
Attractions: Diving, snorkelling, glass bottom boat, its all about the beautiful clear water and the tropical sea bed. Snorkel hire NZ$4 per day. All islands have a sandy track/road you can walk around within a couple of hours, or bicycle.
Accommodation: Its beach living with villa and bungalow style accommodation. Average prices for decent budget rooms from 350,000 (NZ$55) per night if staying more than one night. You can get as cheap as 150,000 and of course there is always the luxury ones. Dont prebook for too long at one place, try it out
first, inspect others and choose best. Its standard to inspect they expect it. Although on Gili T New Years Eve, the blogs tell us, our 250,000 room went for 900,000 due to being last room on island, and some having to sleep on beach. there are no security guards or police so you could easily sleep on cabana or beach! Search for fresh water showers and swimming pool if you can, any more than a few days with a sea water shower is enough. Not all make up room daily, some change linen every 2 days, or you ask for clean linen and more loo paper.
Laundry: Washing ranges from NZ$2 to $4 per kg, if your hotel charges per item, then go elsewhere.
Food and Drink Costs: Gili Air was the cheapest with Gili Meno the dearest. You will relax on a cabana on waters edge to eat and drink. Fresh fruit juice is NZ$2. You can get local food from 25,000 (NZ$4) and western from 45,000 (NZ$7), with BBQ fish being 80,000 plus (approx NZ$12). Always breakfast included in accommodation. Cocktails are from 25,000 local spirit to 60,000 (NZ$9.50) for imported, but there are happy hours,
best deals on Gili Air. You will not have hangover they are just not strong enough. We had 8 one night before we felt tipsy. Wine NZ$10 cheapest local (Hatten) and yuk! There was a food night market in Gili T that was packed at night so assume very cheap, we did not try.
Money: Gili T has many ATMs but Gili Meno has none and Gili Air has 2, and most accommodation only take cash as do restaurants. You only get $1m RP maximum out of them which is NZ$150 each transaction, although you can do multiple transactions in one day, its all about the bank fees! At the time of our travel a NZ$1 was worth 6500 rp after bank fees etc.
Shopping: Forget it! Sunfrocks, sarong, beach shorts, jandals, coconut soveniers but mostly very overpriced. I got a sundress in Bali Department store for NZ$3, a sun top here they want NZ$120!
Weather: We were on all 3 islands the first two weeks of June 2012 and had fine weather the entire time except half an hour of spitting rain one day. the temperature was in the early 30's, low humidity.
Religion: They
are Muslim but you would only know this cos of the signing from the mosque.
Island transport: Pony carts are expensive, 60,000 (NZ$9.50) on each island.
Dont forget your sea shoes! They are cheap and they are a must, they are scarce here and over NZ$80 in dive shops. We got ours for NZ$8 at Number 1.
I have split into 3 as travelblog have them as 3 separate locations.
Anyway, this is what we did in Gili T:
Gili Trawangan We stepped onto the pier at Gili T and as we looked over the side and into the water we could clearly see every piece of broken coral, every shell, every ripple in the sand on the sea floor. As we looked up, out across the water it changed from clear to aqua to turquoise to dark blue – it was such a beautiful sight - we thought WOW!
As we walked to the end of the pier there was a row of ponies strapped to carts waiting to take the tourists to their accommodation. No cars, no motorbikes, no motorised transport allowed at all and guess what – no DOGS allowed
– yes – yippee! The only way around the island is walk, bicycle or on a pony cart. They tie sacks under the Pony’s’ bums so no pony pooh on the sandy tracks either.
Gili T has a road/track right around the island and on the beachfront side it is lined with loungers, beach shacks, restaurants and bars and the other side of the road is the accommodation and diving businesses. This is the party island of the 3 and there are young people everywhere.
It did not take long to find affordable accommodation, after a couple of offers, and after inspection we settled on Beach Cottages II Bungalow and moved in for 4 nights.
We walked around the island in 2 hours finding guest houses/hotels sporadically, stopping for swims, including a toilet stop at the Queen Villas which cost us NZ$12 for 2 lattes! – the cost of avoiding the hole in the ground! Gili Islands are Muslim so it does not matter where you stay on the islands you will not miss the sound of the Mosque, at regular intervals all through the day and night. Whether it bothers you or not depends on how
good their voice is - the guy here in Gili T he is a screacher.
We read, sunbathed, swam, ate, sipped weak cocktails, and thought WOW the young holidaymakers are loving this island. They sunbathed, learnt how to dive, snorkelled, took glass bottom boat trips during the day and partied at night. We were serenaded to sleep by “>>” most nights. Between the Mosque, the music and the roosters, I am surprised we got any bloody sleep. Actually the music was not too bad we were down the quiet end. There is this party boat we watched when we were in Gili Meno, it goes out at 3.30pm and back at 1am laden with party goers, it’s not a big boat (c pcis of local boats), no life jackets, they all stand on the front, dive off it, dance all over it and drink on it. I am surprised they don’t lose any overboard, or do they?
I got offered drugs – finally! Obviously I did not buy, I don’t want Schapelle Corby as my best mate. Magic mushrooms everywhere here, but after watching Bridget Jones I don’t think so, I’ll stick to my cocktails. No
police on these islands although they are building a police station on Gili T, but apparently they sweep through every so often.
We get called Ma and Pa here by the locals - cheeky buggers – bloody MA! Some call Carl “the boss” (little do they know lol).
Its more expensive here than Bali, they have to ship everything in I suppose. We don’t get to try the seafood, it’s too expensive for our budget plus we think it will taste of smoke, as they BBQ over wood fires. But we found a bench that make fresh crepes – banana and chocolate – delicious and a must every night walking home and only $1.50. Cocktails are NZ$9.50 and they are weak so you have to hunt out the 2 for one deals during happy hour. Big Bintang beer is NZ$5 but $3.80 during happy hour. We manage to have some beers and cocktails, get 3 meals a day plus a crepe on the way home! We are not missing out on anything except I would love a bubbly.
They have advocado juice on all the menus, we tried oneday an Advocade and Chocolate - very nice but
all we could taste was the chocoate.
Found a new cocktail: Vodka, Madori, Malibu and Cranberry juice - yummy try it!
Accommodation - Beach Cottages II – 250,000 (NZ$38). A bit rough but typical budget accommodation, huge basic outdoor concrete bathroom, you could get sunburnt sitting on the loo. Big enough room, fan, 14 inch TV. Free wifi and fabulous banana pancakes for brekky delivered to your room.
We want to visit all 3 islands, so we hopped on a boat to Gili Meno. We yearned for a bungalow on a isolated quiet beach, a comfy lounger and lots of off beach snorkelling.
c more pics below and dont forget you can enlarge by double click
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Hamish Guthrie
non-member comment
Our holiday
Loving all the good oil and great to see you still have those priorities sorted (food, drink, relaxation and a bit of shopping aye).