THE GILIS

What was supposed to be about a four hour ferry ride from Padangbai to Lombok turned into a little over six. And what was supposed to be a one hour bus ride to the bay where the boats take you to the Gilis turned into about two and a half. Add in the taxi boat and waiting time in between each step and 12 hours later, I finally arrive on Gili Trawangen. Everyone from the shuttle boat I was on arrived on shore and it was a free for all of lost looking people wandering aimlessly with their Lonely Planet books and backpacks trying to find the best deal on accommodation. I ended up finding a place after about 45 minutes and heading straight out to dinner cause I hadn’t eaten all day!

everyone on the ferry gets their own little napping cubby

Lombok from the ferry

Sunset over Ganung Rinjani, Lombok

I had Mexican food and listened to Los Lonely boys and Buena Vista Social Club by the band that was playing and it was amazing! Don’t worry, they also threw in the rest of the typical soundtrack so all was good. Later in the evening I met these two guys, one from the UK and one from Holland, and ended up drinking and talking with them all night. They too, like so many people I met along the way, were traveling Southeast Asia for the last year or so. Over the next few nights I managed to get adopted by random groups of people and spending the night drinking and having an amazing time getting to know everyone. I’ve never been anywhere like here, where everyone is so willing to put themselves out there and meet new people. It was pretty cool.

The lead singer of this band made his round between sets and I introduced him to Tom Petty from my Ipod. He was pretty stoked.

Me at dinner in my own little bungalow

My second day on the island, I rented a bicycle (there are no cars or motorbikes on any of the islands, just bicycles and horse drawn carts) to ride around the island. It was about three miles all the way around and would have been an amazing ride except that I decided to go in the middle of the day and it was soooo HOT and there was no road, only sand, so I ended up pushing my bike for the majority of the “ride”. It was quite the experience.

The island horses

Some of the many bungalows outside all the restaurants out on the beach

A pool at one of the resorts that I discovered on my "ride"

They constantly water the sand so it doesn't get too dusty in town...it kind of looked like something else though :)

On my way around, I went passed “the sunset bar” which my book claimed was THE spot to go to have a drink and watch the sun go down. But I couldn’t figure it out because the entire place looked completely abandoned and there was really nothing else around the immediate area. I made my way back though later on in the day, and saw other people there too and realized that the “bar” is really just this local guy with a cooler that sells beers to people on the beach. It turned out to be very pleasant.

my effort at a sunset self portrait

One of the bars on the island showed two different movies every night. This was the outside wall of the "theatre".

I went and saw Hancock while I had dinner.

On the main street, after the sun goes down, all the restaurants set up these tables filled with fresh seafood caught throughout the day by the local fisherman around the island. I had been eyeing it all for the first few nights and finally, on my last night there, ended up visiting one of the seafood bars with a group of Aussies I had met on one of the previous nights. I picked a huge tuna steak, jumbo prawn skewer, prawn and crab spring rolls, and a fresh veggie skewer. Along with all this came a huge salad bar. I had WAY too much food and all of this cost just $10. It’s pretty crazy how cheap things are.

My Australian friend picking out his dinner

Australians, Frenchies, and an American

A pretty sweet farmer's tan I spotted from across one of the pools I snuck into

After four nights on Trawangan, the “party” island, I decided I was going to spend a night on Gili Air, which is know as the laid back island that still has a bit of a vibe. Gili Meno is the third island (if you’ve read Eat Pray Love this is the island she goes to) and is the quietest of the three and very mellow. I got off the boat, much less hectic this time, and walked about a mile in the sand with my huge backpack on my back and my smaller one on my front and some other stuff in my hands, mule style, and found the most amazing (and one of my favorites of the trip) bungalow right on the beach. On my way there, I ended up walking with a guy who sells jewelry who later found me and hung out with me (trying to sell me some stuff of course) while I ate lunch. I ended up with a beautiful, long strand of fresh water pearls which he had to re-string for me with knots in between each pearl. Very tedious work but it turned out great. I got a few other necklaces from him too and sent him on his way. I was actually glad to have the company because the island was really a lot quieter than I had expected. I guess there were only about 100 tourists or so on the island.

a fisherman

shuttle / taxi boats that hop the islands

One of my favorite hotels I stayed at.

my hammock

the view from inside my bungalow

the outside

my very sweet necklace guy

I bought a bracelet after I finally gave into this guy trying to sell my on something for an hour.

I had a mellow day, watched yet another sunset on the beach and ended up going to sleep shortly after because over the course of the day I had become really sick. Over the next 14 hours, I slept and sweated off a fever. I felt like I was going a bit crazy and I could have sworn to anyone that I had malaria or something. It was pretty scary. This was about the time that I also developed a small eye infection. Ewwww. But better at the end of my trip than earlier on…

a bit of the Gili Air scenery