The Gili Islands- Indonesia

Gili Trawangan

We left the island of Bali to try another of Indonesia’s gems- the Gili Islands. These are three tiny islands near Bali with the largest being Gili Trawangan- our island of choice. We took different routes to access the islands, with mum and Demelza choosing the faster more expensive option of a one hour boat from Bali. We left on our boat from the same pier, and four hours later we were on Lombok island- a Muslim, un-touristy island. After some hanging around we had a three hour bus journey (with a 50min sales pitch pit stop) up through the island, then more waiting at the pier (drug sales pitch this time) and finally a one hour crossing to the island! One hour vs twelve hours, $110 return vs $36 – we are on a budget!!

The Gili islands have no cars only bicycles and ‘horse and cart’, no police, no real rules- it’s just chilled our island living- for tourists. We chose Trawangan ‘the party island’ so we’d have a few options if things got to boring. I think ‘party’ might be exaggerating it a little. It’s totally chilled out, there is one area concentrated with bars and restaurants and each night of the week a different bar is the place to party. Generally it’s great. Of course you can’t go to far without being asked if you’d like some pot or magic mushrooms but that comes with the ‘party’ tag.

Demelza and mum found two beautiful beach huts and we found a less pretty hut close by.

Such bliss, each step you take on the island is a perfect picture postcard moment! The water is crystal clear, you have the beach practically to yourself and the only down side is the coral- you have to watch your feet in the water. It’s not the best for swimming because of it, but if you’ve a pair of crocs on you’ll be fine.

It’s so extremely cheap in Indonesia that even at the fancy restaurants (although we didn’t go to the 5star resort) you can have a gourmet meal for under a fiver! The bars were fun and we’d a great time at ‘Reggae Sama’ listening to the local live act and their famed self penned tune ‘Reggae Sama Sama’.

The island men fancy themselves as gigolos but there was no tempting the Burke women!

Unfortunately we could only stay four nights on the island, but we did manage to have two wonderful dives in that time. Some of the best diving in the world can be found in Indonesia and thankfully we weren’t disappointed. They have an amazing coral garden where we saw beautiful multi coloured fish, huge turtles and a ship wreck. We didn’t see any sharks as shark’s point, but perhaps that’s for the best!

We also celebrated Demelza’s birthday while there, with the restaurant staff singing to her over chocolate dessert

and even the ‘sama sama’ crew sang to her over a strawberry daquerie- much to her embarrassment and our amusement.

Oh they even have a beach cinema showing all the latest pirated DVDs and we cycled around the island in an hour- albeit being caught often in the sandy path. We’ll also be back here again!

Kuta to home for the girls

We returned to Kuta for Demelza’s last night with dinner at a Mexican place- thanks mum- and some further spa treatments before we deposited her at the airport the next day (bags bulging from all the latest pirated DVD’s!). We think she enjoyed herself!

For mum’s last day we checked out the massive Discovery Mall and picked up the last of her souvenir and it was to soon again before she had to leave the next day.

It poured rain after her departure and we felt a little down so the only things for us to do was buy a load of DVD’s and vegetate until the sun came out again.