The Old Man And The Sea plus Gili Travel Tips

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Having traveled extensively since a young age I have grown somewhat weary of routine tourist package tours. Riding in an air conditioned bus all-day and visiting butterfly farms really doesn’t do it for me anymore. I was discussing my plight with Eddie and Afid at Go-Go’s when they hung a particularly shiny apple before me. Eddie’s father is a fisherman. Not only that but he runs a three boat fleet with 50 guys in a netting operation. For 250,000 Rupiah ($22 US) they offered me a chance to fish with the big boys. This was no fly fishing trip with gear by Orvis. I pictured myself hauling in nets laden with monstrous reef fish. Smokin’ and jokin’ with the guys. Maybe a sarong and turban thrown in for good measure. I bit hard and signed on the dotted line. They told me to be ready to rock and roll at 7 AM the next day.

Promptly at seven I arrived at Go-Go’s. Afid was just rising from his cabana bed. We breakfasted on strong hot Lombok coffee and noodle soup with vegetables. A real fisherman’s meal. Lombok coffee is a learned addiction but one that I have taken to with a vengeance. Served in a standard sized cup it is as dense as expresso and has twice the caffeine. I douse mine with a ton of sugar and hot milk though the islanders leave it at the sugar alone. It’s made from 100% Robusto beans and leaves a full nutty flavor in the back of the mouth as well as a pronounced tremor in the hands. It’s become a new favorite of mine. Karen’s enthusiasm for the drink is a bit more reserved. After slurping the last noodle we got into Afid’s boat and headed north in the waters between Gili Air and Lombok. The sea was so still coral heads were clearly visible 15 meters below. Ahead of us stretched a wide green ribbon of aquatic plants washed from a Lombok river by the tide. We sliced a wake through them and came upon a pair of pearl farms. Their black, spherical support buoys reminded me of a World War II Tokyo Harbor minefield just waiting for US Navy PT boats to try something foolish. No explosions this day. Afid called my attention to three fishing boats dead ahead. It was show time.

These boats use a purse seine net. The net, which underwater looks like giant webbed ice cream cone, hangs between two of the boats. Two boats carry the netting and ten men apiece. The third boat is a scout and is headed by Eddie’s father. He is a very distinguished looking man with a full head of short-cropped grey hair, sun darkened skin and a smile that could light up a pilot house but piss him off as I saw some men do and he his quick to bark and bite if need be. His job is to find the most promising spot to drop the net. The idea is to place the net over a reef in an active current, which will help push the fish into the cone. After he finds his hopeful winner the net boats joins him. They each have one half of the cone. A man joins the halves together under water, his air supplied by a long yellow line fed by a gas-powered compressor aboard one of the boats. He wears a huge weight belt and walks on the bottom in a pair of tennis shoes. The condition of the hose is betrayed by a number of small air geysers along its length. The net is weighted at the bottom and the top is secured with lines fastened to the boats. Once the cone is in place the third boat distributes two dozen teen boys in a wide arch anchored at each end by the net boats. Each boy is equipped with a 5-foot length of bamboo. A long length of strong cord is tied to the bamboo float. 4-foot lengths of braided palm fiber are tied to the cord at three-foot intervals. Underwater in the fast flowing current the cord looks like a line of thin yellow pendants. To the bottom of the cord a loop of heavy metal chain is affixed. When Eddie’s father gives the word the boys start to collapse the human arch in towards the net. As they move they slap the water and shout out to frighten the fish. They constantly lift and drop the weighted cord, clanking the heavy chains. Underwater it sounds like Marley’s ghost on Christmas Eve. The humbug fish begin to panic and look for a way out. If they try to swim past the boys they are brought short by the wall of braided palm fiber pendants and turn tail back towards the net. Occasionally the chain will drop off or hang up on a coral head. When this happens the boy will free-dive to the bottom retrieving or freeing the chain as need be. Watching the amount of time they could stay under water made my lungs burn. As the arch collapses the fish go into frenzy. Once the net is as full as it is going to get, the man on the air hose attaches a line to the bottom of the net which is passed to one of the net boats and pulled up. If everything goes correctly they now have a net pouch full of fish. This done the boys scramble aboard the boats and start the fun part of the procedure. As the net is pulled in and the size and variety of catch becomes evident the kids squeal with Christmas morning delight. Small and inedible fish are tossed back. Edible varieties with poisonous spines are clubbed by a man specifically ordained with that task. The deck of the boat comes alive with skittering colorful sea creatures. I was surprised at the great quantity of squid caught. Once the net is empty the fish are separated by species and tied together. Speedboats come out to the fleet every half-hour to take parts of the catch to market. This is as fresh as it’s going to get. The whole process takes about a half-hour and I watched 5 drops.

To avoid mucking things up Afid anchored us about 100 meters behind the net boats. To get to the boats each time required swimming the 100 meters against the current. By trip number five I was one tuckered but happy geriatric dude. While I watched the goings on under water I anchored myself by putting one of the fishing boat’s bamboo outriggers into a full Nelson. The kids would swim over to me and ask me where I was from as if they couldn’t believe that anybody in their right mind would come out here unless they had to. All in all it was the most interesting thing that I’ve done on Gili Air. Sometimes I would stay with the net and watch the fish come in, other times I would swim with the kids in the arch. One of the boys asked me if I wanted to use his noisemaker. I considered its weight and declined though now I wish that I had.

At the end of the morning Afid got some of the fish and we headed back to Go-Go’s for lunch. He butterflied the fish and grilled them over coconut husk coals. Karen and I ate them with a salad and they were very good.

If you are interested in trying this call Eddie at: 6287863889095 Afid’s number is: 6287865070793 The cost is 250,000 Rupiah. The boat leaves at 7:30 and returns about 11:30 in the morning. The cost includes a light breakfast. If you prefer not to swim you can watch everything from the boat though watching the underwater show is what it’s all about. You’ll need to book a day in advance. You can call Eddie or just stop by Go-Go’s at the south end of the beach road just East of the Gili Air boat pier.

At 7:30 that evening we headed to Soop’s place for dinner. The sandy paths that serve as neighborhood streets were teeming with happy kids. Adults sat on their front porches and greeted us as we walked by. At Soop’s we dined in the cabana next to his house. His wife Anna prepared a huge spread including grilled chicken, which had been split and flattened between two stones before it was grilled. The squished bird with head still attached reminded me of the Archaeopteryx fossil in the Berlin museum. We also ate tofu, tempe, spiced chicken wings, vegetables, rice, something called Lik Lik and we drank green coconut milk through a straw sticking out of the top of the shell. Lik Lik is a Lombok recipe made of shredded young coconut cooked in coconut milk to which is added the leaves of a specific tree. We were never able to ascertain what kind of tree it is. Soop was dressed in a plaid sarong and Muslim skullcap. Soop is a devout Muslim and attends to all of his daily prayers and duties as prescribed in the Koran. He doesn’t drink or smoke nor does anyone else in his family. As we were his guests he prepared our plates for us describing the dishes and how they were prepared. We sat cross-legged on the platform around the serving platters. With our plates in our left hands we ate with our right. A large bowl of water allowed us to wash up when finished. I dropped enough food on my lap to feed a litter of puppies. It was all quite good. Not till we had had our fill did the rest of the extended family join us in eating. It seemed uncomfortably weird at first but we went with the flow making sure not to eat too much nor to dally. The small children couldn’t take their eyes off of the candied dessert. As we dined, a steady stream of Soop’s neighbors came by to check us out as tourists rarely venture into the village itself. When they learned we were American the conversation automatically centered on Obama. Indonesians love Obama or at least the Obama story. They believe that he will cure all the economic ills currently effecting the world markets. We nodded politely. Every person we talked to was exceedingly friendly and welcoming. As darkness descended a group of young boys played on Soop’s porch with a set of drums under a dim fluorescent light.

Soop works as a waiter at the Sunrise hotel. He works eight hours a day, six days a week at a wage of 4,000 Rupiah an hour (about thirty five cents US). All told his income is about $60 US A month. He augments his income by doing errands for hotel guests. Need electrical connectors, call Soop. Need enough fresh water to wash the salt off after a shower, call Soop. Need some medicines, call Soop. Karen and I call him the ‘Michael Clayton’ of Gili Air. He’s a fix-it guy. Makes life a lot more comfortable. He needs to do these things because supporting a family on $60 a month is hard to do even in Indonesia. He doesn’t get tips. Tipping in Indonesia is unheard of. In our travels Karen and I have discovered that very few travelers tip, as it just isn’t done that much in other countries. Even in Australia, restaurant staff is paid a salary and rarely sees a tip. Meanwhile Americans are dropping 15% on tables all over the world, which tends to make our fellow travelers look miserly to the natives in comparison. Dropping extra change at a restaurant leads to sidelong glances and frowns from the other tables. Nobody wants to see a new precedent set to his or her financial detriment. Soop also sells cell phone credits for additional money. Every week he crosses the water to Lombok and purchases 500,000 Rupiah ($50 US) worth of phone cards, which he takes back to Gili Air and doles out in 5,000 Rupiah pieces for a twenty- percent commission or about $10 US a week. He only buys 500,000 at a time because that is the extent of his investment account. Since it costs him $4 US for the round trip boat to Lombok his take per week is reduced to $6 US in the phone credit business.

We learned all of this by asking questions. Karen and I enthusiastically embrace the cultures in which we travel. Sitting by a hotel pool or in a hermetically sealed tour bus isn’t conducive to a full vacation experience. The first native people we meet are generally the folks who staff the hotels. These are the people that can open the doors to some wonderfully fulfilling experiences. Show a little interest in their lives, learn to say hello in their language, show the least bit of interest in them and they will show you their world. Never a dull moment. After going over Soop’s business figures with him we extended him a loan of $150 to allow him to buy more credits cutting the number of trips to Lombok per month to one. He signed a debt note with us the next day agreeing to repay the amount within one year. Will he? We think he will. He is an extremely moral person and as sincere a man as I have ever met but who knows? He might very well figure that he will never see us again and abscond with the money. Perhaps a relative will call him a fool if he returns the funds. We believe that he recognizes the value of the relationship. There are no banks in Gili Air. There is very little if any investment money available anywhere in Indonesia for small businesses. There are certainly no funds available to help with emergencies. No pawnshops or auto title loans or pay day cash advance operations. We have heard dozens of stories here about families brought to ruin by a debt of a few hundred dollars. A broken leg, a sinking boat, a sick baby, all of these things which to an American are resolvable problems can destroy a life or lives over here. Knowing someone who can help you out is an enormous advantage to have. And for us? It’s a wonderful thing to find out that you can change a family’s future for the better at the cost of a few tanks of gas. Besides, I've always had better luck when I lend to people unrelated to me. The vast majority of Indonesians will never own a car or take a vacation or ride in a plane. The things we take for granted every day of our lives are unattainable dreams in their minds. The average family here has a household income of $2 US a day. According to the United Nations that doesn’t even qualify Indonesians to be considered severely impoverished. In order to reach that lofty goal they would need to earn $1 US a day or less. Sounds incredible doesn’t it? But believe it or not the UN says that there are 1.5 Billion people in the world that fall into the severely impoverished category.

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor

Paul Simon

We’re sorry to say that we must be leaving Gili Air. Having planned to spend three days here we ended up with seventeen under our belt along with a sizable quantity of fish. And while we would never consider flying half way around the world again just to see Bali we would have to give a great deal of thought regarding the same distance to revisit Gili Air. It is that nice a place. So if you are on your way here do us a favor: Say hello to Afid and Eddie at Go-Go’s, tip a waiter, visit the turtles, catch the sunset every day and eat a lot of fish. It’ll do you good.

Tips for visitors to Gili Air:

We looked at a number of hotels on Gili Air and discovered that the location is the most important thing to consider. Air’s reef is accessible from the beach at the South and North ends of the island. Sunrise Cottages has a great location on the South end. Standard rooms go for 165,000 Rupiah a night. You can negotiate a lower rate if you’re staying more than a couple of days. The bungalows are two story affairs. The bedroom is upstairs and only accessible through a trap door so older or handicapped travelers might have a problem with this aspect. The bathroom is downstairs so if you have to get up in the middle of the night it can be a bit inconvenient. The showers are cold water. Breakfast is included with the room and is served in the cabanas on the beach between 7:30 and 10. If you want breakfast delivered to your room there is an additional charge of 5,000 Rupiah. The bungalow’s veranda has a nice table and chairs as well as a day bed. There is one A/C room at Sunrise, which was going for 300,000 Rupiah a night when we were there. A deluxe room can be had for 220,000 Rupiah per night. It is the same size as the standard room but has tile floors. The owner is some Scottish guy who’s hardly ever there and the maintenance could be better, like the brickwork falling off of the bar. Are you listening out there?

Coconut Cottages is a nicer hotel. Cost is 200,000 per night and they will not negotiate. Fee includes breakfast. Very clean rooms with hot water. Scottish woman named Elaine runs the place. Lots of Scots about but where can you find some Hagis? She’s a little monosyllabic but always ready to help when you need something. She has a small library but it’s mostly German stuff. The hotel’s restaurant is a bit overpriced and the cooking pedestrian but they do have fresh yogurt daily. The main drawback here is the location. It’s a 15-minute hike to the South end. If you take a pony cart to or from the hotel pay no more than 30,000 Rupiah. Do not try to walk to the hotel at night with luggage. It’s a dark and sandy path you must tread. If you go out at night always carry a flashlight. “Stay on the road and out of the moors”. The pony carts are uncomfortable. The ride itself is like sitting in a bouncing wooden packing crate. Yeah, the pony carts are cute but after a couple of days they just become part of the island’s background. I’m not an animal rights fanatic but every time I got into one I couldn’t enjoy myself because I constantly felt sorry for the pony but if you’re hauling luggage around the carts are the only game in town. I never saw a pony mistreated in any way while I was there. The pony cart terminal is just outside the port. Be advised that if you come to Gili Air on the Perama boat you will not arrive until almost 7 PM. It may be dark and during season you may not be able to find a vacant room. In that case most people will sleep on the beach until morning. If you’re not into that you may want to book a room in advance. During low season there are plenty of rooms available for late arrivals.

At the North end there is the Gili Air Hotel. Very nice selection of rooms but extremely expensive. They quoted me 450,000 a night if we stayed a week. The manager has all the subtlety of a Lombok watch salesman. The hotel is far from everything except the reef but they do have a salt-water pool. They also have a wild looking outdoor weight lifting area. The weights are made of rough poured concrete and look like something Hercules might have trained with back in the day.

Kira Kira is a new place that just opened North of Coconut Cottages. Cute bungalows with fridge, loft and A/C for 350,000 a night including breakfast. We didn’t stay there so we have no idea what the service is like. There are occasional power outages on the island so be advised that the A/C might not always work.

Santay Bungalows is at mid-island. 135,000 per night will get you a thatched box on stilts with a bed. The planks that make up the floor have quarter inch cracks between them so bring mosquito repellant. There are no electrical outlets in the rooms. In fact many of the rooms in Gili Air have no outlets so make sure to check this feature out if you have need of electricity for recharging batteries and such.

Internet can be found at Ozzie’s Internet near Coconut Cottages at 500 Rupiah per minute. Ozzie’s is a very nice and clean establishment next to a small grocery store with the same name. You can also call internationally here. If there are more than two people on-line the Internet connection is extremely slow. Great for e-mail but forget day trading. Best to get here the first thing in the morning. Near the port on the South end is Gecko’s Internet. 600 Rupiah a minute and super fast for the Gili’s but the computer room is a pit. Dark, damp, moist and those are the positive points. He has 4 PC’s crammed into a little dirty room with one small table fan. First person there gets the fan. Everybody else sweats. They also serve food there. I’ve seen the kitchen. Don’t eat it.

Best food we had was at Sasak’s just South of Santay Restaurant and North of Green Café. The best fish on the island and the best prices. The owner’s wife is the cook and this girl can bang some pots and pans. Try the fresh Yellow Tail grilled or the Fish Curry. Simply outstanding. We ate at every restaurant on the island. Sasak’s was the best and Wi Win restaurant was the second best but pricier. If you’re lucky there’s an old man who plays Sasak guitar and sings at Sasak’s a few evenings a week. It’s pretty cool. The owner also has a three-year-old reprobate son who can be found on occasion chasing other kids around with a flaming stick. It’s quite entertaining at night actually. There are a few cabanas with low tables right next to the water. Very romantic when the moon rises.

Go-Go’s is the best place to view sunsets as they have a 200-degree horizon. One evening we watched the sun set to our right over Bali and the moon simultaneously rise to our left over Lombok’s volcanoes. Amazing stuff.

For shopping go to the small shops in the village. The shops along the beach are more like souvenir shops that also sell cookies and chips at stupid prices. The vendors on the beach are hungry for Western clothing, particularly men’s shirts. Bring your extras and trade for cool new stuff like sarongs, T-shirts and cheap jewelry. I kid you not. The vendors here do not sell hats. I don’t know why, so bring a baseball cap. The sun is intense so take sunscreen with you and use it or you’ll be sorry. Every day here someone is.

Bring snorkel gear. You do not need fins. The reef is half the show here. You can rent gear here for 25,000 Rupiah a day. Buying it here will set you back 300,000 Rupiah just for the mask and snorkel. You may want to consider bringing a disposable underwater camera. It’s that nice on the reef.

Bring medication with you. There are no drug stores here. If you get sick and need something you will have to go to Lombok. Bringing Tylenol, mosquito repellent and some antibiotics would be a good idea. Cipro is a good choice for intestinal infections and Keflex is good for bacterial infections of the skin. Your doctor will need to prescribe these meds in the States. Buying meds in Indonesia is ridiculously expensive. If you are in Thailand you can buy them over the counter cheap. Bring some Imodium and anti-nausea medication. For diarrhea, Lomotil is a good remedy. I am not a doctor but I do have experience in tropical medicine. If you do get sick, which isn’t likely, it will probably be an intestinal complaint. Treat the symptoms and drink fluids. If you drink water make sure that it is bottled water. Never drink tap water in Indonesia. Besides bacteria you can also be infected with parasites and viruses. Drink bottled water only. Check with your doctor regarding any of the drugs mentioned in case you are allergic.

Talk to the locals. Go to Sunrise and speak to Soop. Tell him Mike and Karen sent you. Ask him to show you around the village. Ask if there are any weddings or celebrations coming up. All events are open to the public. Take advantage of the opportunity. Gili Air is worth exploring so take a walk up through the middle of the island along the paved path next to Gecko’s. It’s well worth the effort. As Karen so succinctly put it, “This place does not suck.”. It is true my friends. Gili Air sucketh not!

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Photos

Time To Get Up And Fish
Afid as I found him in his beach 'Bedroom'.

Water Plants
Looks like lettuce but it's actually a type of water hyacinth washed out of a large river on Lombok's West side by the morning tide. There were thousands of plants in the water.

CruisingThe Reefs
The straits between Lombok and the Gilis are loaded with live reefs at a depth of 15 to 45 meters. The fishing boats run an area of about twenty square miles.

Happy Guy
Afid worked the boats as a kid from the time he was ten years old until the age of eighteen. He likes this end of the business better.

Cleanup Man
This kid's job was to pick up any scattered equipment like this net float. Left in the water it could easily damage a prop.

Fun Time
Pulling in the net.

Remembering
Afid fixes a float for one of the kids. The kids on the boats make a dollar a day US. The skilled guys like the guy on the air hose make $2 a day.

Net Guards
These guys make sure that no fish escape while the net is lifted.

Splash
As the fish come to the surface they get pretty frisky. Boatmen give them a lot of space to avoid getting seriously injured. Scorpion Fish are common to these waters and can ruin your day if they sting you.

Cleaning Up
After the last drop everybody starts storing gear and separating the last of the fish for the market boats which come out to pick them up.

Lunch
String of Black Snapper we took home. 30 pounds of fish cost us $4.50 US

Soop and Family
Soop, Anna and their son came down to say goodbye the morning we left Gili Air. Wonderful folks.

Fruit
Mariah brought us a fresh pineapple and a mango every morning for lunch. She lives in a small hut on the beach with her three kids.

Last Gili Sunset
Karen outside of Go-Go's on our last night on the island.

Afid and Eddie
The other side of Muslim culture in the Gili's

Last Night Party
Karen and Afid. The girl on the left is Renata from Holland. She works at a zoo in Amsterdam.

Sunrise Cottage
Typical bungalow at Sunrise Cottages. Standard room will set you back 165,000 Rupiah or $15 US per night with breakfast.

Comments

[Ene]

Nice piece!
Hi, I came across your blog (and at times loathing, hahaha!) as I was looking up for things to do in Lombok. I was undecisive about Santai Beach Inn at Mangsit in the beginning, but reading one of your earlier peices helped me make up my mind! Gili Air sounds like my kinda place, but my bf loathes the idea of lugging our luggage + dive gear around for short stays, so we are basing ourselves in Mangsit. Will keep coming back to hear more from you guys! - Ene, Malaysia