Advertisement
Published: June 28th 2008
So once again we were back in Kuta and back in room 4 of the Bendesa. It was just a quick stop over on our way to Lombok. Lombok is an island that is in fact larger than Bali lying to its east, but is still relatively untouched by tourism. It is strictly Muslim, rather than Hindu, as in Bali. We had heard it was very beautiful and definitely worth the effort of getting there, but also to be on careful as it could be a bit more dangerous for the naïve Westerner. We could get there the expensive way by flying, or go on the public slow ferry. The ferry it was. As a tourist, we had to buy the tickets through a company called Perama, who pretty much have the monopoly on transporting tourists around the islands, charging much more than the actual ticket value. But hey ho, that’s how it works.
The first leg of the journey started around 5.30am. We left our big rucksacks at the Bendesa, but we still had enough luggage (surfboards etc…) to haul about. The bus picked us up about 0.5km down the road- it wasn’t far, but walking through the hub
of Kuta’s still ongoing night scene at that time was eye opening. Men were stumbling around after one to many, locals were hovering at street corners, many night clubs were still pumping and many, many ladies of the night were still at work.
It was good to be moving on from Kuta. The bus journey was never ending, stopping in Sanur and Ubud to collect more passengers on the way, although neither places were actually on the way. About 2 ½ hours later we arrived in Pandangbai. It had little going for it other than the fact that it was a ferry port. It was typically dirty, bustling and ugly. The ferry was old, rusty and uncomfortable. And it was very, very slow. There were not enough seats for all the passengers, so many people were sitting or sleeping on the floor. We knew it wouldn’t be great, but the sun was shining and the seas were calm so we just waited patiently for the time to pass. At last we headed into dock at Lombok. Well nearly …..the ferry broke down in the harbour! Most of the passengers, locals and tourists, thought we were due to disembark so
clambered down to the lower decks, and all the vehicle engines were started. About 2 hours later we started to feel light headed from all the carbon monoxide fumes we were still inhaling. Watching the crew attempting to solve the problem was like watching a Laurel and Hardy sketch…..It took another 2 hours to get another ferry to come and push our ferry round the right way and correctly into the harbour so that the doors could open. We had given up waiting and went back on deck to eat Indonesian pot noodles and watch the cockroaches as it got dark. We finally arrived in our destination Sengiggi at around 8pm (ETA was supposed to be around 1pm), hungry and tired. Originally we had hoped we would have made it to Kuta or the Gillis that night - but bad planning on our part meant it couldn’t have happened even if the ferry had been on time!
We booked into the hotel next door to the Perama office as we couldn’t be bothered to search for anything else. I suspect they get most of their business this way. It was called Ray’s Hotel and it was just OK. Sengiggi
would just be a stop over for us anyway. It was nice enough, with many restaurants and resort hotels, but not much character. It is the main tourist hotspot on the island with few people venturing further. It was much quieter than Bali, and contrary to what we had been told, a lot friendlier.
After the ordeal of the day we deserved a slap up meal and a drink. So we did just that. The Papaya bar had a live band and we strolled past at ‘crazy half hour’ (as opposed to’ happy hour’) so drinks were cheap and plentiful. Remember I told you about that Smith thing, of not being able to resist a band and live music, well once again after the second drink, and long before the end of crazy half hour, he was singing at the top of his voice and strutting his stuff on the empty dance floor - the shoulder dance lives on! This band was actually pretty good so after a fun evening of guitar classics we dragged ourselves back later than we should have, as we were due another early start the next day.
We caught the 8am boat to
Gilli Trawagan with slightly sore heads, but feeling really excited about our destination. It was a small motorboat carrying just 6 or us. We got to see some of the fantastic unspoilt beauty of Lombok from the sea, rolling green hills and palm tree lined secluded beaches. The ‘Gillis’, meaning ‘islands,’ are a group of 3 tiny coral fringed islands on the north eastern tip of Lombok. They have a tiny population, no police, no schools, and best of all no vehicles. Transport is by foot or horse and cart. Gilli Meno and Gilli Air are very quiet although tourists visit both and cheap accommodation is available. Gilli Trawagan is quite a bit busier and attracts the most visitors as it is a diving mecca. In fact the east side of the island has a strip of bars and restaurants and hotels of all levels. We weren’t really sure which we would prefer so thought we would start on Gilli T and see how it went.
‘Good Will Diving’……sounds weird doesn’t it? It was an event that coincided with our time on the island. Let me explain, Will is an English dive instructor living on Gilli T and attempted
the world record of spending 100 hours underwater - for charity. It was so successful that the contributions managed to fund a small school on the island. He had a huge support team, but it did beg questions to be asked like how did he eat? How did he sleep? How did he drop the kids off?.......
At first we were not impressed with Gilli T. There were too many Swedish teenagers who pranced around in brightly coloured clothes fondly checking themselves out. But we found our own little paradise. About a 2 km walk down a sandy track that took you round to west of the island was a lonely little place called Pondok Dewi Sri. Most tourists couldn’t be bothered to walk that far, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We had a dusty, spidery little bamboo hut, that only provided sea water in the shower, but was set in the most beautiful gardens right on the beach. I hope the photos do it justice, and as always it was cheap, cheap. I have no explanation for the moustache photo! The little Indonesian guy who ran the place could speak little English, and we
were trying to pick up Indonesian, but our 5 words weren’t really helping. ‘I’m Stuart. What’s your name?’ He asked… ‘Here’ came the reply……. ‘No, What is your name?’ came the louder slower request again…. ‘Here’. Then the penny dropped, the poor lad was actually called Here.
Gilli T was beautiful, especially where we were on the quiet side. It was the best of both worlds. We were far enough away from the tourist tat, but close enough to partake if we wanted. The island had white sandy beaches with beautiful coral beds attracting turtles and all sorts of colourful fish, and clear blue waters that were like a bath. It was really stunning and we got to see fantastic sunsets over Bali and the volcanoes. It was suitable for snorkelling, diving, swimming and there was a surf break a short paddle away. We spent our days doing just all those things. In fact, we didn’t even find time to visit the other islands, as we were enjoying Gilli T so much.
I have to mention a restaurant called Scallywags. It was fab. It had candlit tables on the sand and served the most delicious freshly BBQ
fish and prawns, but also it was the first time in nearly 3 months that we had proper bread and potatoes - yummy. Another of our favourite moments was the night we had a drink at a bar called Sama Sama, and it was the night we met Little Rasta, a future Bob Marley surely. This kid was 7 years old and was dressed in the full reggae kit, baggy trousers, rasta hat and all, and sang and danced with his dad’s band. He was amazing, and boy did he have rhythm, there was no shoulder dancing that night. Thanks to him, we had a bit of a full on night. The crowds filled the bar to see him sing. There was also a heavy crowd of divers from the Good Will Diving team….anyway, we chatted to some other travellers and a guy called Paul from London insisted on buying a round of shots and it was all downhill from there…….Needless to say we spent the whole of the next day sat under the pagoda on our private patch of beach, moving very little, and besides it gave Here something to do, bringing us food and drinks, as the place
was dead otherwise.
We had a great time on Gilli T and I would recommend it to anyone. There is a range of accommodation to suit all budgets, and some great places to eat. It has a really lively vibe, or it can be peaceful if you choose. The water is amazingly clear and warm, with so much marine life, visible right from the beach. All water sports are available at really good prices. We were sad to leave, but we had other places to explore. We were heading back to the main island of Lombok to Kuta in the south (same name, different place).
This is for all you surfies out there: The waves were amazing, probably the cleanest and most pure that I have surfed. The size ranged from 3ft to 5ft, I have never seen clearer water. When you duck dived, the shoals of fish would swim around you, I was happy about the abundance of fish as the right hand reef setup that we were on had a resident 5ft black tipped reef shark No bother there though, he must of thought that there was more meat on the fish than me. Not the
same for you though Phillips.
By the way, have any of you heard the song ‘welcome to my paradise’? Think UB40 meets Peter Andre and it sounds something like that. I am not sure if it has reached the UK charts, but it is certainly number 1 here. In fact, I think it is the only song they have. It was literally played everywhere, and it is the definitely the anthem for Gilli T.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.13s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0879s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Liane
non-member comment
Photo 7 ????? A David Niven lookalike ! Or the latest Californian porn star ???. Good to see your both having fun.