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Published: June 20th 2012
Gili Air We arrive and straight away we like this island the best. Sandy track around the island again, accommodation on one side of the track and restaurants and bars along the beach front, but with a really chilled out vibe and ambiance. Less than Gili T but more than Gili Meno, so we stay for 7 days.
The walk around the island mixes tourism with village life passing paddocks with cows, small fires burning off rubbish or cooking breakfast. The beach shacks and bars all have character with shells and coral for decoration and pretty laterns at night lighting up the sandy tracks past cabanas on the waters edge. Mainly couples and groups of single girls, we have spotted some older than us for a change! This island is the cheapest for food and drink, 2 for 1 cocktails at NZ$9.50 and local spirit cocktails at NZ$3.70 – so guess which ones we sample!
We were lucky with our accommodation, as you walk down the road with your backpacks on they are all calling out "room?". Only 50 metres down the road we find the prefect bungalow. Its extremely high and large, shelves everywhere to put your
stuff, enormous bathroom, a private fenced in area at the front with table, chairs, umbrella and day bed with colourful flowers trailing over the gate. Plus it has a fresh water swimming pool and shower, fridge and its clean for only NZ$6 more than our one on Meno - fantastic value!!
We are near the pier the quieter end of the island so no roosters, no Mosque singing and no “boom boom boom”, just peace and quiet, all you can hear is the waves and the occasional jingle of a pony cart going past. There is partying apparently but at the other end of the island. They advertise trance parties, dance parties, lots of regge bars and of course they all offer “F**k’n good mushrooms!”.
They say here 60 million plastic straws are used globally every day! State of some of my straws I would say they are reused every day!
We checked out the Zipp Bar for happy hours and Chill Bar for fantastic food. Check this out: triple decker sandwich with lettuce, cucumber, chicken, tomato, cheese soaked in egg and fried – disgusting, but Carl loves it. Bali food is not that great with limited
local choices; so Carl is continuing his quest to taste the best Margarita pizza ever (if only they have heard of basil in the Gilis). Cannot wait until we get to Thailand for a Thai green curry. There are lots of little flies here, so you have to use one hand to fan the flies away and the other to eat!
There is a lot of construction of new hotels on these islands and so the wooden boats bring over small bags of cement by the hundreds, they dump them on the beach front and the pony carts carry them to the sites. Sometimes the locals carry them on their heads! We are sure most are set by the time they are ready to be used. Yesterday we saw about 25 local men laying drains under water out from the beach, obviously with the intention of extending across to Lombok. This wooden boat was laden with concrete pipe pieces, the men would drop the pipes over the side of the boat splashing into the sea, others would pick them up on their shoulders and pass to others who fitted with goggles and snorkel would fit into place. They were
laughing and giggling and splashing around - it was hilarious to watch. I would hate to think how they will do it when it gets into the deep ocean.
The cats here like to share your dinner with you, they are also very territoral and have scraps. They stare at each other, noses touching, backs arching, growling for minutes and then they jump and scramble on the ground with each other. They would not even know what a dog was!
We sat in the Chill Out Bar last night and could not help but notice how technology had changed the way people holiday. Five years ago we lugged around a laptop brick but struggled to get in room internet, we had to visit internet cafes to make skype phone calls and browse the web, at a cost. In the evening everyone would relax have a few drinks, eat, take photos of the sunset, watch the beach activities, chat and listen to music. NOW your room, bars and restaurants all have free WIFI, and everyone travels with a smart phone, tablet or netbook each. Now they don’t chat – they sit on their laptops and phones. There was a
couple last night both with laptops playing games - hardly a word spoken. Another couple sat in front of us for like 3 hours and both totally focussed on their laptops the entire time, hardly spoke. Although I did laugh the other day in Bali I saw an older couple writing a whole lot of postcards!
Now I am sitting on the day bed and we have just spent the morning walking round the island and snorkelling off the beach looking for turtles. We snorkelled at the same spots on these islands that the snorkelling trips take you, we just swim out to where they drop them off, 10-20 metres off the beach. The snorkelling is great, not as good as Koh Tao or Fiji but still pretty good for so little effort.
We had been buying up the DVDs in Vietnam and Bali for $2 so I am going to watch a DVD now, and stay out of the sun for a while! Then in a couple of hours it will be cocktail time, then sunset time, then cocktail time, then dinner time,then cocktail time, then bed time, then breakfast time and then start again – hard
life this!
We decide to move to the party end of the island as we have exhausted this end, time for more choices. We go on inspection of bungalows and find Sejuk, run by a nice Frenchman (apparently, yes, one does exist). So a 25 minute walk in 30 degrees with a backpack on tomorrow, I have the wet facecloths chilling in the fridge!
Well we managed the walk no problem at all, took only 15 minutes and this place is soooo relaxing. Its back from the beach, behind a grass paddock with tall trees and graizing cows. It is enclosed with trees and bushes all around with bungalows circling a swimming pool. With a deck off your bungalow, cane furniture, cushions and a hammock, we spend most of our time relaxing on our deck. I like to get up at 6am and swing in the hammock, no one else is up, I read and listen to the birds, owls, bumble bees, horses, cows, a chorus of roosters, and pleasant singing from the Mosque. Its so peaceful and charming. Although it is next to the village in the middle of the island where every one has many roosters,
so there is a chorus, one starts up and they all go for it.
I have just got back from snorkelling this morning, and was amazed at how clear the water was and how shallow, you could have stood on the ground if not for the coral. It was beautiful and I found a turtle! I watched it eating away at a bed of coral drilling its head in, so far at times he was doing a handstand, and then he would swim up and poke his head out of the water an inch to breath and back down again. There were heaps of scoals of fish and beautiful colours. It was fantastic.
Its very very quiet down this end but then we are normally home by 9pm, we cannot see any hint of partying, but we talk to a young backpacker on the boat when we leave and apparently the bar we go and watch the sunset has parties that sometimes go for 2 days! Oh to be young again....or afford enough cocktails to enable all night dancing. We went to Biba last night which is owned by an Italian couple, and we enjoyed some real fantastic
tasting gnocchi and lasagna. So nice to eat some western food cooked by westerners.
The Scoot boat is full today so we have to stay another night and tomorrow we leave for Nusa Lembongan, an island off Bali. We will stay for 3 nights and then catch boat to Sanur and stay in Kuta for 3 nights, then back to KL for 10 days until we fly to Krabi in Thailand to meet Grant and Letitia.
We have had some fantastic news in the last few weeks, we are going to be grandparents again in December and Great Aunty and Uncle for the first time late November. Also waiting the birth of our niece in July - very exciting - quickly expanding family.
Well nothing much happening, just relaxing so will upload now as our next hotel you have to pay for WIFI, and no ATM.
If its a relaxed beach holiday you are looking for - pass through Bali on your way to the Gilis. There are children around as the holiday season nears and you can snorkel so close to the waters edge children enjoy this as well (although some use life jackets to
keep them afloat).
Accommodation 7Seas - NZ$54. Loved this villa, very very large, very quiet, fresh water swimming pool and shower, nice outside private area. Made up room daily, very clean, replaced linen alternate day. Definitely would stay again. A few minutes walk to Chill Out for food and Zipp Barr for happy hour.
Sejuk -NZ$54. Really liked this place, Bungalow big enough, made up daily, changed linen every 2nd day, clean, unfortunately salt shower and swimming pool but appeared half and half, not too bad. We loved the relaxing surroundings amongst trees and bushes, felt rural, and the deck with hammock was enticing to relax all day!
C more pics below and Gili T blog for more travel info on Gili Islands.
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Chris n Lou
Chris n Lou
Really enjoying the blog guys
We're off to Bali in a few months time and your blog has been really interesting. I like how you give details on accommodation, etc, as so many blogs (annoyingly) don't do this. I've already made a note of many of the places you've recommended. Thanks. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Chris.