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Published: October 25th 2007
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We got up early to catch our taxi which we had arranged a few days ago to take us to the port in Padangbai. We had managed to get a cheap price for the journey as we were initially going to get the bus and the taxi driver gave us a good deal. As the taxi was about 10 minutes late, Mark went for a wonder and later signaled me that he had found our taxi driver. After having a nice chat with the taxi driver and being well into our journey we realised that it was not our taxi driver and that the one we had had told a little fib and the metre was running!
We made it to the port where we were intercepted by an agency and were completely ripped off for our boat tickets to Lombok. The man initially said that it was impossible for us to get to the Gilli islands that day as we needed to catch another boat from Lombok to the islands and we would miss the last boat. He then tried to sell us a ticket to the Gili islands and we told him that he had said it was
impossible, he then changed his mind and said oh no it is possible! We were like how bad a liar is this man!? Anyway to cut a long story short we got talking to some other travellers and found out that they had been ripped off more than us and they managed to get a bit of their money back. The guy then disappeared and the other people denied working for him and that he was their boss.
We waited nearly an hour for the boat to be loaded, and then sat on the boat for another 5 grueling hours (the only thing we could buy to curb our hunger was the equivalent of a bland pot noodle). The boat was the slowest ever, people were laid all over the floor and we were relieved when we got off. After getting on a minibus who tried to flog us boat tickets we were so annoyed by now that the company had ripped us off we were having none of it! The guy did not look very happy with us and when I shouted that we had driven passed a place where we wanted to stay he ignored us and
dropped us off at their office. He said that he couldn't drop us off there as his boss would be very angry with him. We said that's fine we would walk and were practically chased up the road by this boss man who tried to get us to go into his office. Eventually we managed to find somewhere to stay which had a lovely bar and restaurant overlooking the sea - the only problem was that our room was absolutely filled with mosquito's (coming in through the open air bathroom). As these seem to be attracted to Mark he was not best pleased so he sprayed the room with a can of insect spray which think it killed everything in sight - when we got back later the bed was covered in spiders!
We went out for dinner that night and then went to a bar which had a live band and met up with a Canadian guy we had met earlier and two french blokes. After quite a few Bintang beers, going to a club buying a beer then walking out, we managed to get to bed at 3:30am. This was not the best idea when you have
to get a boat at 9:00 am in the morning! We managed to make it after an hour an a half on a very small boat in very choppy water to the biggest Gilli island. This was not a good journey for me as I had a very dodgy tummy and thought at one stage I wasn't going to make it! On the other side we found somewhere pretty rapid to stay, it was called unique and it definitely was unique!
We stayed on the big island called Gilli Trawangan and the only transport was horse and cart or a peddle bicycle. The Gilli islands have no police and in the guide book it states to go and see the head of the village if any problems! Every time we walked out of where we were staying we got offered marijuana or magic mushrooms - not something we wished to partake in though. When we refused one time the guy replied "but you can do anything on the islands' !"
We spent 4 days on the Gilli islands and met up with the guy we had met in Sengigi and also met some people from London, Germany, America and Canadar. We spent most of our time here in an Irish bar, the only open nightlife on the island because of Ramadan. The alcohol here was really cheap, about 50p for a double vodka & orange and Mark was pleased as the group of us watched the England game!
We had planned to stay on the Gilli islands for about 7 days but left after 4 as we both weren't feeling that great. Not to go into too much detail but we both had stomach cramps etc. Not wanting to do the horrendous journey back to Bali, especially as we didn't feel great, we payed quite a bit of money for a new boat service that goes directly to Bali, expensive but worth it. The boat took 2 and a half hours and was very rough in places with quite a few people being sick. I had taken my sea sickness tablets and still didn't feel that great, Mark wasn't phased and sat and read his book for most of the journey. We were pleased to be off the island and I was desperately looking forward to washing my hair as we had been washing in salt water and my hair had become a matted wild mess!
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