Gili Islands
May 2015
As a part of our holiday to Indonesia we visit the gorgeous Gili Islands. Our choice: Gili Air!
We travel from Bali to the Gili’s and after our stay we move on to Lombok.
When we wake up we go to the port of Padang Bai in Sanur, Bali, where we take the public boat to the Gili islands. We’ll see how it goes.
The boat is open and can fit about 20 people, strange enough they’re all locals.
The sea is quite restless but the fresh sea breeze feels great. At Gili Trawangan we get off, because we have to change boats. With our feet in the water and the backpacks over our head we enter the beach.
Gili Trawangan is a real backpacker island, which is clearly visible by the shabby people walking around.
We explore the island a bit and after an hour we take the next boat that brings us to Gili Air. In the idyllic harbor, we try to find some WiFi as quickly as possible because we have no place to sleep and we were pretty tired from traveling. Meanwhile it is 16:30 and we have lived on cookies all day.
A nice guesthouse on the other side of the island has a bungalow available, so we book two nights and take a horse drawn carriage to take us there. The Gili islands have no motorized transport, only bicycles and horse carts. Great!
Gili Air
The path is terribly bumpy but the bells and frills to the cart are very entertaining. Our old rumpled driver with skinny cheeks is trying to have a chat with us. With three teeth in his mouth he tells us in broken English about his equally ancient horse. He asks Jos how much horses he has.
We pay the man €2 worth of Rupiah for the five-minute ride.
The Bamboo cottage where we stay is great, there are about ten bungalows with an outdoor bathroom and dito toilet, an attractive swimming pool and a restaurant by the sea with reggae music. Waaah, good times are coming.
The following days we do almost NOTHING.
We snorkel with the beautiful fish, some coral and if you’re lucky: turtles. Nope, not today.
We walk around the island in two hours over the beach, very bounty! It is incredibly hot so the two-hour walk has exhausted us.
Fortunately there is the refreshing sea and… Bintang on the lounge terrace at the beach. This is the life. We book a night extra and after three nights we leave the public boat to the ‘mainland’.
From Gili Air we take the boat to Lombok. Together with two Chileans it’s and easy ride. A short but great meet with two strangers.
