Days 177 – 178: Gili Islands

Our minds still in a haze, we awoke just before 6am and had to run to make our bus, which was pulling off as we were walking to the bus stop. Needless to say, a morning sprint with my backpack on was the last thing my body was asking for that morning.

But we caught the bus, and a couple hours later we were in the port town of Padangbai, Bali, where we'd catch our ferry to Lombok. The ferry didn't leave until 10am, but our bus company made sure to get us there plenty early so that we'd have time to buy an overpriced breakfast from their restaurant of choice.

The ferry itself was relatively painless; Jay, Ian and I realized that we knew very few card games between us, so we ended up playing BS and then a very loud game of Egyptian Ratscrew to pass the time. Perhaps our antics annoyed the other ultra-cool backpackers who were on the ferry, but their constant cigarette smoking annoyed me, so we'll call it even.

We had been led to believe that the ferry would arrive in Senggigi, which was only about an hour's drive from the port from which we could catch a boat to our destination, the Gili Islands, but in fact we arrived in the southern Lombok town of Lembar and had to catch a bus north to Senggigi. But by the time we reached Senggigi, we were running low on time (the last boat to the Gilis departed at 5pm), and there was no public transport to be found to Bangsal, the port town which had boats to the Gilis. There were, however, plenty of taxi drivers willing to take us to Bangsal at rip-your-face-off rates. We bargained for a while in hopes of getting the drivers down to realistic prices, and in the end the cheapest option involved hiring a converted pickup truck to take us north to Bangsal.

By the time we arrived in Bangsal, we had missed the last public boat; the only other option was a tourist shuttle, which is exactly the same as a public boat except for the fact that it costs three times as much. Our only other option being a night in the depressing, tout-filled town of Bangsal, we paid the pricey fare and hopped aboard the boat.

The boat was filled with most of the backpackers who had been on the ferry earlier that day, but our reception was anything but friendly. In fact, as would become a pattern in the Gili Islands, all we got from any of the other passengers were icy stares. I'm still not clear on why we were so hated. Perhaps it was our lack of tattoos and cigarettes which was so off-putting.

We arrived at Gili Trawangan, the busiest of the three Gili Islands, about an hour later, and we managed to find a guesthouse before dark. After a quick shower (we were disgusting after a full day of travel) we ate dinner at an overpriced restaurant on the beach. Such is life in the Gili Islands.

A quick word about the Gilis: they are three tiny islands off the northwestern coast of Lombok that have become a destination for vacationers wanting to escape the crowds of Bali. The islands are flat, sandy, and surrounded by coral reefs-- seemingly, a tropical paradise. There are no police, and if you have any problems you're supposed to contact the village head. The three islands are called Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan; Air is family-oriented (read: boring), Meno is deserted, and Trawangan is supposedly the place to go if you want to party. We didn't necessarily want to party, but Trawangan still seemed our best bet.

As it turned out, Trawangan wasn't as much of a party scene as we'd expected, but maybe that was because we had just come from Kuta. Either way, we had expected beach raves, and what we got instead was chill bars and people watching movies in little huts. Still recovering from three nights in Kuta, I was more than happy to take a break from the Bintangs for an evening, and so the three of us spent our first night on Trawangan smoking an overpriced hookah and talking about our coming travels. Or, rather, Jay and I smoked hookah and talked while Ian fell asleep. It's fitting that I'm friends with the one person I know who is more narcoleptic than I am.

The following morning we set out to do some snorkeling on the reefs surrounding Trawangan. We hoped to do our own thing and avoid the many snorkel trips that were on offer, but we soon realized that the reef wasn't consistent enough to see much on our own, so we headed back to town (in the pouring rain, by the way) and signed up for a trip aboard a glass-bottomed boat.

The trip ended up being well worth it. We snorkeled at four different sites around the three Gilis, and we spotted sea turtles, giant clams, and thousands of reef fish. The coral itself was underwhelming, mostly due to dynamite fishing, but the aquatic life was still plentiful enough to make for a pleasant underwater experience. But perhaps the highlight of the day was watching our guide skin dive down to where the sea turtles were swimming: the guy could dive to over 30 feet and stay for minutes at a time. Amazing.

That night we ate dinner at a restaurant that played movies, and over a mediocre dinner of mie goreng I watched the mediocre performances of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Charlie Wilson's War. Afterwards, we got a taste of true Gili Trawangan nightlife, which was far more entertaining (and far less hangover-inducing) than the Bali nightlife we had experienced the previous few nights. I guess they're not called "magic" for nothing.