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Published: July 24th 2007
Rock Pools
This young boy shouts to his working mum What a beautiful place that not many visit!!! Gili meno is a small island off the coast of Lombok Indonesia........it is basically just a big lump of sand with trees on surrounded by clear waters full of turtles! Over looking Mount Rinjani every morning when the sky was clear of clouds! The only transport being your feet and pony and trap, you have to be careful you don't run into a chicken as the island is full of them clucking around!
We went from Bali to Lombok by bus then by a ferry that took around 4hrs, it was a big boat full of very uncomfortable wooden benches that we sat on (we were lucky as some people did not get a seat). It was full of locals trying to sell you everything before we left then a young lad appeared playing a guitar along with some mates who were the money collectors......He was really good bless him! Anyway after our journey by sea we arrived in Lombok, alot different than Bali it reminded us of Goa the way it is green and full of colour! We had to make a decision to go to climb the volcano or
fresh fruit on the beach!!
Sophie trying to show me how to cut a pineapple ill show you all when im home!!! go to The Gili islands.........the beach and relaxing won us over so we took a bemo which is a form of local pickup, they ripped us off by trying to say that the ticket for the boat to Gili Meno was included when it wasn't very annoying when you then have to dish out more dosh!!!!! we only gave him a deposit and we did not pay any more as he lied! the boat was a wooden canoe thing again, what we have become quite used too by now.....It was full of people who were mainly going to Gili Trawangan the busiest of the three islands. It took around half an hour on the boat over quite rough waters watching the sunset, moments that make it all worth while!
Once we had arrived n Gili Meno we were chucked off the boat then Ste hauled our backpacks off into the sand, we had met a local guy on the boat who had told us which side the cheap rooms were on (to the right side). We headed right then soon realised that this island was like a desert island not many people with a small sand pathway that runs
5 day turtles!
breeding turtles!! around the island. The pathway does not have any lights on and at this point it was getting very dark and the first couple of places we tried were full......i went on ahead whilst Ste waited with the bags i found some where but guess what they were also full!!!! They said that there was not enough room on the island for the amount of people that travel over, which are not that many! They were nice enough to let us stay one night in there 'office'. The office was a beach bungalow complete with fax machine that obviously did not work, loads of snorkels, there CD collection, the laundry and there clothes!!!!!! Bless them they had set up a bed for us to stay in. The bungalow had all the mod-cons, fully air conditioned (by the half missing roof) and resident wildlife what more could you want???? ha ha ha. We slept well all the same under the safety of our mozzie net!
the next morning they found us a bungalow, it was split with another bungalow where a lady and her daughter were staying! that was fine by us and we agreed a good price, the only
Clear Blue Water
Snorkelling for Turtles in Indonesia clause being that we only had salt water as a shower in the bathroom along with an eastern toilet (hole in the floor). I am not sure if any of you have tried to wash yourself with salt water? well the soap does not foam and you are left with a white residue of salt on your skin and you have a very odd aroma of the sea! We got a large gallon of fresh water and had a method.........
1.use the pan supplied to wet your body
2.pour some fresh water in the pan and lather the soap up inside
3.soap yourself up
4.rinse with the pan full of salt water (the water comes from a large vat in the corner)
5.rinse with fresh water poured from the gallon!
and there you have it, you still smell like the sea and are not really clean!!!!!! We kinda got used to this method and it is all part of the fun. By the second day we asked for fresh water to be connected to the shower, that cost us a bit more but the shower head sat there doing nothing whilst you faffed around with pans was too tempting! They
Gili Air
from nearby Gili Meno connected it but then he told us that the pump had broken so we accepted it until.............i was busy panning when as if by an act of god the shower started spitting water out!!!!!!!! I shouted to Ste we were like 2 kids that had seen snow for the first time!
Once on the island a few days we became part of the community. Alot of the people that live there come from different places in Indonesia and they all love music! They sit and play guitars on the beach and paint tables like hippies would do with nature! It is fab. We soon became friends with Usman, a guy from Sumbawa the next island to Lombok. He had worked on the island for 7 years and had mama as an adopted mum. Mama was the lady that ran the show......she would come out and decide a price on the fish you chose for your tea then would take it away then a while later it would appear on a plate covered in garlic yummy! We ate at Ya Ya's every night, fresh fish some of which we did not even know what it was! They never failed to
In The Cafe
In our "Restaurant" with the pet chicken behind bex impress!
Ste went and joined the locals in the village to watch co pa America final between Brazil and Argentina! The village was in the middle of Gili Meno near a salt lake. All the locals supported Argentina and we had a bet with one of the guys for an ice cream that we thought Brazil would win! and they did, we did not have the heart to take it from him though. Ste was fed a hot sugary brew and sticky rice as it was 5am when the match was on in Indonesian time.
We met a local man named Morris, he had married an English lady called Emma! They had 2 children who were so cute with curly black hair rrhhhhhh. Morris was fab he gave us loads of free advice, which is very hard to find sometimes, there has always got to something in it for them ha ha ha. We needed to go and use an ATM before we left Gili Meno before we went to Sanaru to climb Rinjani.......so we decided to take a trip to the capital of Lombok, Mataram and do it all by local transport! We met morris on the
Becky,Usman and Mama
with the catch of the day public boat over and he also was going to Mataram so we tagged along! We took a pony to a place to get a public bus, The public bus was like a large people carrier and when we arrived to it a lady was packing her fruit and veg shop into it......she had bananas, green beans, local cakes wrapped in banana leaves and baskets full of 'stuff'. She ended up falling asleep on top of it for the journey to the city. We were dropped off at the mall, yes the mall! The only one in Lombok maybe i don't know. After living in our beach hut for 9days now we were so chuffed to see a supermarket! We went and purchased a few bits to take back as they have no shops on the island really (which is a good thing).
Turtles.........turtles..........we went on a snorkeling trip with a guy that had a boat called marlin! The boat was moored up by our bungalows and we saw him at least 4 times a day checking on it as the sea can get quite rough in the afternoons, we saw one boat that had let water in and was
Our Doorstep
20 yards from our 2 pound a night room sinking!!!!! We were out with him and his nephew (who i nicknamed the fish as he was in that water swimming around like one) for about 4hrs, He took us to a deep part off the island to see turtles i got in then soon got out as the sea was knocking me around and i could not see the bottom. For those of you that don't know me a have a slight fear of deep water! We moved onto a spot nearer to the beach where the water was like a swimming pool, i have never seen water that clear amazing! Keeping on the theme of marine life there are 2 places that have rescued turtle eggs and they wait for them to get to 8 months old then release them into the wild. We got to hold 5day old baby ones that were living in a bath as it was the only thing they could find to put them in! It was such a incredible feeling to hold them.
We were so sad to leave there, a few people turned up to wave us off on the boat quite tearful. As we had been there for a
Cheap Tasty Fish
every single night!! while we really felt part of it there you could not walk 50meters without somebody stopping to chat to you! It was lovely at night even in the dark with our torch it took us about an hour to walk our 10min to the bungalow, the night sky was just full of stars more than we have ever seen before. We will defo be visting Gili Meno again in the future just hope it stays as it is and does not get too touristy!!!
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Andy
non-member comment
Still the same...
We were on Gili Meno back in 1990. Is very good to hear that it isn't over run with tourists now, unlike so many of the quieter places we visited then. Ha, even Ya Ya's is still there!