Exploring Gili Trawangan Lombok

The deal with the Gili’s is that you can choose your level of intensity. Gili Trawangan has good hotels, pools and an Irish pub, Gili Air has a selection of guest-houses and Gili Meno has not much going on.

I know people think of going to a tropical island would be paradise but if the food isn’t good and you can’t get a cold drink how long are you going to stay there?

Gili Trawangan has the reputation as the ‘party island’ but my impression was that most of the island is undeveloped, even for farming and the strip of wall to wall bars and restaurants was originally set up for scuba divers, not the low budget beer swilling crowd.

To get from Nusa Tiga on the north end of the island to the main strip would cost us 20,000rp on a cidomo. This seems a little expensive considering our room cost 40,000rp. The cidomo’s have a monopoly and a couple of times we walked.

Ika commented that the people in the Gili’s are nice because they don’t make saucy comments unlike some of the Kuta boys. From my perspective they are all cool but from an Indonesian lady’s perspective the comments they receive are sometimes unwelcome.

On our second day in Gili Trawangan Ika and I learned the art of the salt water shower. Since the island has no lakes, rivers or wells you have to buy bottled drinking water and also a large water jug of river water from the reception for 5,000rp.

Ika and I walked the whole way around the island on our third day and apart from small patches of road paved with bricks the whole way is a sandy track. We actually felt like we were walking in the desert and I was glad she brought a liter of water along. To walk around Gili Trawanagan takes about 2 hours.

At the southern end of the island is a hill fairly close to the beach. This is the highest point of the island. Dovovan, Carrie, Ika and I grabbed a bottle of arak, a few Sprites and strolled down there for the sunset. This is a popular thing for many tourists.

I used my little portable tripod for a sunset shot.

As far as food goes I’d say due to the scuba diving infrastructure there is a wide selection of western food available, some of it pretty decent. One of our favourite places was the Irish pub. I know for some people the mention of an Irish pub is enough to send them packing but I have to say this place was cool. Located downtown on the inland side of the beach road its was large with high ceilings, large screen showing Premiership soccer on Saturday night. Outside were many bale structures each with it’s own DVD player. We sat in one and ate dinner while watching ‘Terminal’ with Tom Hanks. Across the street was the beachside part of the pub where we sat for a drink. A nice atmosphere and not 200 drunks going crazy.

Donovan and Carrie wanted to make their ‘bulan madu’ (honeymoon) even more costly….I mean special by moving into an upscale hotel about 15 minutes from Nusa Tiga. Villa Almarik is Italian owned and serves good food. I had an Almarik house sandwich with all the trimmings including bacon (don’t tell the girlfriend). I think the price was around 25,000rp.

Ika and I were okay with our room. Nusa Tiga is located on a quiet stretch of the coast and in the mornings when the tide is in its really pleasant to go for a soak in the ocean. The coral shelf extends about 40 meters to a drop off which you would do if you wanted to snorkel. We noticed dive boats hovering offshore which is great if you are thinking of snorkeling alone.

We sat in one of the many bales next to the beach and drank some tea. I got so comfortable that I decided to go nude for the rest of the day.

There are 4 internet cafes in Gili Trawangan. The time I tried to get online the connection had failed. Donovan tells me the price is around 25,000rp per hour.

The Gili’s are part of Lombok and the population is Muslim. I spoke to many people who were from the mainland or a different island. People seem quiet and respectful and are used to westerners in bathing suits. Donovan told me about one Italian lady who was strolling down main street topless and said that she was getting more than a few glance from the local guys. If you need more privacy it’s not hard, you simply move around the coast a little way and another nice thing is that the locals will leave you alone.

Coming back from Lombok we got to the main beach and checked with the guys who run the little ferry office. A public ferry had just left and of course the next one would need 25 people before it could leave. I asked how much the charter boat was and the guy said 80,000rp. “That’s 80,000rp each?” said Carrie. “Shhhh” I said, “don’t put ideas in his head.” Funny that the prices coming back to Bangsal are way cheaper than coming in the opposite direction but we weren’t complaining. Another 10 minutes and we were riding a very rough boat back to Bangsal. I must admit to wondering if the driver was going to tip the thing over on a few occasions as we seemed to be heading almost sideways along the waves. It’s highly likely the boat operators couldn’t swim and didn’t have any safety gear. We made it though and quickly organized a taxi back to the airport for 65,000rp. Ika said the driver was nice and told her about the crops they were growing and even offered to stop and get her an aspirin for her headache. In Mataram we drove through a Balinese wedding procession which was a strange thing seeing how so many people on the street were wearing Muslim attire. Everyone was cool though and I didn’t sense any problems.

Our flight back to Bali took off 15 minutes early as they probably realized everyone was on board. My friend Mick who works for Cathay Pacific told me Merpati’s aircraft maintenance is only so-so. Lion Air’s is pretty bad and Garuda’s is obviously the best being the national carrier.

Arriving in Bali we decided to walk out of the airport grounds and catch a cab on the street. We got the driver to take us all for 25,000rp. The taxi office inside charges 40,000rp. For a new comer to Bali you can do the same thing no worries but the taxi drivers will definitely try it on and try to charge you a high price. At least with the airport taxi office you know how much you have to pay and it’s not super expensive.

• A long way away from Bali
• Taking a break in the Gili Islands Lombok
• Gili Island hopping boats: Lombok
• Surfing in Uluwatu Bali on Sept. 3rd 2004
• More photos from Ubud

Subscribe Bali RSS Feed

Print

Share

Comments