Falling for the charms of the irresistible Gili Islands

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Day 256: Thursday 12th March - Unwinding in quiet Senggigi

Last night when we arrived a number of us commented how quiet Senggigi was as we walked along the main drag in search of a bed for the night. The arrival of a new day has brought no change on that front, despite a healthy number of restaurants, tourist agencies and hotels, Senggigi is almost devoid of tourists. It must be operating at no more than 10% of capacity which is great. There doesn’t seem to be any more than a dozen tourists and half that number have come from the Komodo trip. I begin the day by inquiring about climbing Lombok’s highest (and Indonesia’s second highest) peak Gunung Rinjiani. I hold out little hope as a number of people have told me over the past two days that the sacred volcano is not yet open for the trekking season as it is too dangerous at the moment due to landslides. The Rinjiani Trekking Club confirms that it will be two weeks before the trek will run again. I’m not that bothered to do it so I won’t be hanging around Lombok until it reopens. This gives me some additional time I hadn’t envisaged (the trek takes 3 days), which I will probably use in Sumatra and gives me the luxury of not travelling around in such a rush. I walk further down the street to my favourite travel agency, Perama, where I book a trip to the Gili Islands tomorrow and get them to book me a flight for me to Java on Monday. Originally I had wanted to island hop via boats and buses, but this was without quite knowing what was involved. The time this would take is often prohibitive and for the extra comfort its worth paying the little additional money it costs to fly. I ask which airline it is and they tell me it is Lion Air. Now I’m sure I was warned not to use this airline in Darwin as they had an appalling safety record but which traveller ever shied away from taking the odd risk?

Lombok is back on the tourist radar and as such there is a corresponding increase in hawkers. I don’t know if it’s just me becoming more used to the Indonesians’ harmless if irritating requests after 2 weeks in the country, but they seem more friendly in their barracking than the Balinese. I lose count how many times I’m asked if I want a motorbike or to go to the Gili Islands. One guy, Mohammed is particularly funny and with it friendly as he seemingly follows me around Senggigi trying to buy a necklace off him. I must see him on at least half a dozen separate occasions but I manage not to succumb and in the process get advice on the fastest internet in town, directions to the bookshop and where is good to eat. In the afternoon I venture down to the beach. The first strip near where I am staying reminds me of Kuta in Bali, full of people selling food and souvenirs, rubbish on the beach and regardless of these irritants there is nowhere to lay a towel as there is a boat on every available spot. I walk down the beach and around the headland to the next beach which is clean and more importantly deserted. I find my haven of tranquillity in the shade under a tree. I fall asleep looking out across the sea to Bali in the west.

In the evening I meet Mike and Trudi for dinner. We’re staying in the same guesthouse and we had breakfast together as well. They’re good company and we have a laugh over a good meal. Senggigi feels a bit more upmarket than the places I’ve been to in Indonesia to date and the food is priced accordingly but it’s good. Ivy, also on our Komodo boat trip joins us later in the evening. We’re all off to the Gili Islands tomorrow so hopefully I’ll bump into them again.

Day 257: Friday 13th March - An instant attraction to the Gilis

I’m awoken by the mosque in the middle of the night, or should I say two mosques that surround my accommodation. Lombok is my first real taste of Islam, the archipelago’s dominant religion. I try to get breakfast ahead of my trip across to the Gili Islands but everywhere is shut in sleepy Senggigi. I catch the boat across to the Gili Islands, or more specifically Gili Trawangan, the largest of the three islands that make up the Gili’s off Lombok’s North-West coast. I enjoy a nice chat with an American couple in their 60’s on the boat on the way across. They’ve just been backpacking for 6 months in India and it’s quite inspiring to see them being so adventurous in their retirement, I hope I’m still as active and as intepid at their age. One of the interesting conversation topics I have with them concerns that how you are feeling and what has gone before you arrive in a specific place can radically shape your opinion of it. Perhaps the reason I didn’t care much for Bali is that it was so in your face after Australia? Gili Trawangan however I love from the minute I set foot on it, an idyllic island to unwind and get away from the stresses of travelling through Indonesia, the chaotic traffic and of course the frequent exchanges with hawkers.

So why did I fall for the Gili Islands so quickly? Well first the turquoise tinted waters which offer snorkelling opportunities aplenty and that surround Gili Trawangan’s cracking beaches as the boat pulls into the harbour is a damn good start. Then walking down the main thoroughfare that circumnavigates the island in the absence of any motorised traffic and dodging the odd horse drawn cart is a very welcome change from the chaos that is Indonesia’s roads. Then the home stay I find is quality out of the top drawer. That’s before I mention the quality restaurants all with a sea view that line the island. Finally, you have some great nightlife. To cap it all with it being off-season it’s not that busy but not too quiet to be dull. Gili T has it all.

Initially I struggle to find reasonably priced accommodation. Normally you should be able to pick up a room for 70,000 Rupiah (£4) a night but the best price I’ve been offered is 80,000. I bump into Mike and Trudi as I’m in the middle of finding a place and they say they paid 80,000 Rupiah for one of the places recommended by Lonely Planet, but it’s now full. After initially dismissing a homestay at the place of the manager of the restaurant I’m stood next to for being too expensive, I go back and tell her I’d like to take a look. How glad I was that I bumped into Mike and Trudi at that point, for if I hadn’t I would undoubtedly have kept looking and so missed out on the opportunity of staying in one of the best places to date on my travels. The home stay has charm from the moment I struggle through the hobbit-sized entrance to the property. My room is half the property, the other half being taken by the English-Indonesian couple. The room is tastefully decorated in bamboo furniture, has a nice stone floor and on the huge bed lies two complimentary towels, some flowers, a couple of lifestyle magazines and cushions. This is in the league of a resort hotel not a backpacker guesthouse! My favourite though is the outside bathroom. It’s like taking a shower in the yard, but again it’s smartly presented and it definitely works. What’s more it even has a flushing western style toilet! I say this because most places advertise that they have this essential requirement, but instead have what looks like a western toilet which you have to use water from the mandil (water drum) which sits next to the toilet to clean the toilet after you’ve done. And before I forget, I have free use of Persona’s (the Indian restaurant) swimming pool and can have a complimentary breakfast there each morning. Deal sealed, now to kick back and settle into the pace of island lifestyle.

In the late afternoon I set off to walk around the circumference of the island. It’s about 5km around and I time it so that I will get to the western side of the island for sunset. Once I reach it I decide to climb up the hill in search of a lookout for the best view of the sunset. The path up is overgrown and I don’t find any lookout so I return below to the beach, buy a Bintang and watch the sun descend behind Gunung Agung, Bali’s highest volcano. Not quite as impressive as the sunset at Uluwatu in Bali, nevertheless it’s well worth the walk as the sky turns various colours as I look across the sea towards Bali. While I’m sat watching the sunset, one of the locals asks me if I’m a Komodo Hunter! He’s misread my free T-Shirt from my Hunting Komodo by Camera tour that is draped over my shoulders. I can just see myself as the Steve Irwin of the giant monitor lizard world!! Best practice those wrestling moves though!!

I call on Mike & Trudi to go out for dinner at 7pm. They have seen Liz during the afternoon, who has made it to Gili Trawangan from Gili Air, and have arranged to meet her at a restaurant. The four of us then indecisively walk past numerous restaurants with great fresh fish displays and various other quality restaurants ending up at a local Indonesian Warung for cheap food in the island’s back streets. I think I was the spanner in the works as I’d already had fish for lunch (and so don’t fancy it again) at a restaurant that had traditional low tables placed inside a open sided hut where you sat on cushions. After eating we find a bar which has the same style tables. The bar has signs advertising magic mushrooms, and already walking around the town I’ve come to realise that such offers are ubiquitous. I’ve also been offered dope a handful of times. Clearly Gili Trawangan has a drug problem in the absence of any police to hand-out potential life imprisonments to unsuspecting tourists. The magic mushrooms signs do make me laugh though, the signs advertising them are usually amusingly worded.

The four of us end up at Rudy’s pub which is supposed to be the main establishment responsible for giving Gili T’s party-hard reputation. On arrival, I don’t see it. Yes it is fairly busy, but far from heaving and it’s tame in comparison to the bars at Kuta, Bali. However, after Mike and Trudi have headed back at 11ish it starts picking up. I stay with Liz for what I intend to be maybe a couple of drinks to the other side of midnight but it ends up being one of those great spontaneous nights. With the dance floor thinning and me overheating from all the dancing I look at my watch and it’s 4:30am! My watch must be fast or I’ve lost some hours somewhere, but no I guess time flies when you’re having fun. As we’re about to leave I get myself caught up in an altercation with a guy from Bali who’s taken a fancy to Liz and won’t leave her alone despite her objections. I politely tell him to leave her alone and get lost and he gets all aggressive on me. As I walk back to my home stay after walking Liz home I’m half expecting to be jumped on by a mob of angry locals but thankfully that never happens. I have however managed to get a bloody toe at some stage during the night, the same toe where the nail has only just grown back to its original state this week, 7 months after it fell off from climbing Cotapaxi. After cleaning myself up I crawl into bed 24 hours after waking to the calls to prayer from the mosque in Senggigi.

Day 258: Saturday 14th March - In a daze

I’m woken by the combination of roosters crowing in the neighbourhood and the bright morning sunshine streaming through the curtains of my room. Rather I should say I’m half woken as for the duration of the day I’m in a daze, neither fully awake after only 3 hours sleep or tired enough to fall back asleep. I try to read but I can’t hold my concentration long enough to see the words on the page and well it’s just too bright in the morning to enjoy the sun. I settle on the least bad option of spending a couple of hours in an internet cafe. Finally, in Indonesia I find a connection that doesn’t keep breaking and is slightly faster than a snail’s pace. In the afternoon I get a mask and a snorkel and venture into the waters just off the beach. There isn’t too many fish to see so after a short while I return to the beach, where I continue to lie in a semi-conscious state for the remainder of the afternoon. On my way back to my homestay, Puri Hondje, I run into Liz. She was supposed to be leaving the island this morning but slept in. I’m not at all surprised after the state she was in last night when I left her!

I arrange to meet Liz, Mike and Trudi at the Beach House restaurant at 7pm. We walked past it yesterday and the selection of fresh fish was superb so we just had to come back. I share a snapper with Liz as it’s too big for one person. It’s great having a selection of fish in front of you and getting to choose which one you want. I’ve only done this once before in Egypt and loved the experience then. Even better is the price, the equivalent of £4 for half a snapper and a drink. After a couple of hours we part our ways, all of us dead to the world. The three of them have been great company and there’s every possibility I’ll see Mike and Trudi again somewhere in South-East Asia as we’re heading in the same direction. I go next door to the Irish Bar (there’s always an Irish Bar wherever you go!) to watch the football. Ordinarily I’d be off to bed as I’m shattered, but Man United versus Liverpool has never been ordinary. The next two hours watching the game is the unravelling of an embarrassment of titanic proportions for a Man United fan as we gift them the game 4-1 with three bad defensive errors after taking the lead. Gutted, I trudge off to bed. Thankfully I won’t have to endure seeing friend’s or colleagues who are Liverpool fans over the coming days after that shocker. At least I can console myself as I drift asleep that the greatest team in the world will still win the league this year making it 19 years of hurt for the Scousers. (That’s especially for you Tel, Martin and Ready if you’re reading this!)

Day 259: Sunday 15th March - A snorkel trip around the Gilis

After a late breakfast looking out to sea, I meet for my snorkelling excursion. The boat takes us to 4 locations around the Gili Islands (one off Trawangan, two off Meno and one off Air) and then we finish with lunch on Gili Air. The snorkelling off Trawangan and Meno is average, not too many fish and the coral is fairly colourless. After swallowing a stomach full of sea water as we swim against a strong current in choppy seas with a leaky mask on the second of the snorkels, things do improve. On the third snorkel I see a couple of turtles but the snorkelling off Gili Air is the best, more colourful corals and plentiful fish to see. The trip is good, not great and finishes back in Gili Trawangan in the mid-afternoon. It’s probably a good time to finish as it starts raining as we’re about to leave Gili Air. I think the best part of the trip is meeting a really nice Australian girl, Mariska. She has a boyfriend though - the nice ones always seem to, don’t they?! On the way back home (and Puri Hondje is starting to feel like home) I run into Liz. She missed the boat again this morning and is laden with her bag hoping to make it third time lucky. Mind you, once Gili Trawangan has you under its spell then it’s hard to leave.

With Mike, Trudi and now Liz (presumably!!) gone and Mariska declining my dinner invitation as she has a prior engagement it’s back to a table for one for dinner tonight for the first time since the lonely days of Bali. Having had a fairly flash meal last night I should really resort back to more budget fare but that’s just too hard to do with all the good restaurants on the island. Sod it, I’m going to go all out and get a desert as well, it just feels like an appropriate way to round off a special few days on a special island. I started my blog on the Gilis by explaining why I loved them so much, but perhaps I missed one important factor. The people I spent it with also made my time on Gili Trawangan special. Forget the more famous Bali, the Gili Islands are the jewel in the crown in Indonesia. Each of the three islands has its own character so there's something for everyone. Whilst Aitutaki still shades it as my favourite beach spot on my trip, the Gili Islands are right up there. I intend to leave tomorrow to catch my flight to Java but stranger things have happened and Gili Trawangan has got under my skin.

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Comments

[amanda]

Nice blog!
Hello, I really enjoyed reading about your travel to the Gili Islands. I am heading to Bali/Lombok/Gilis next week and am having a tough time trying to find a reputable company that does boat transfers from senggigi gili trawangan. Any recommendations? Cheers, Amanda