A late night packing and then an early early morning start (30-09-08) a quick goodbye to Tehya’s Australian friend Owen and we were jumping into the free mini bus that was booked to take us to Benoa and the Blue Water Express boat company. Our tickets to the Gili’s were not cheap 2,600,000 Rp in English pounds thats £156 (return for two – Tehya travelled for free) the other option was to do it the cheap way for 170,000 Rp (each way) which is about £10.50. The fast boat takes two hours and delivers you direct to Gili Trawangan. The slow option includes a bemo from Kuta to Padang Bai (3 hours) then a wait and a ferry crossing with locals and chickens (anything up to 6/8 hours depending on the sea conditions) then travel over land north through Lombok (2 hours at least) and then a local taxi boat from Lombok to the islands (45 minutes). We did seriously consider the slower cheaper option and if we had been travelling like we did last time we were away (without Tehya) then we would have felt that there was no real choice (budgets considered). Things are different with Tehya – although I am sure she would have coped fine with all the changes and waiting – Gavin and I almost certainly wouldn’t have!!!!

So the fast boat was a pleasant way to travel, it’s as it says “fast”…… it was a calm crossing with no sea sickness from me. We arrived on Gili Trawangan in two and a half hours after a quick stop (pick up and drop off) on Lombok. As usual (always at bus/train/air/ferry ports) there was a large number of people trying to tout us for expensive (over priced) rooms and taxi services (here it was horse drawn carts as there are no cars or motorbikes on Trawangan). We ignored their advances and went for some lunch at a cafe to allow the crowds to lessen and to decide which accommodation we might like to go to.
The brochures don’t lie, the beaches are so white that the sun reflection hurts your eyes and the sea is picture postcard blue. We ate our food enjoying the views and the sounds of horses clip clopping by. Then we made our arrangements and headed to the most south western tip of the island (the best side for sunsets and much quieter).
We passed the surf break and then Home-stay Pondok Shanti (closed for the big Muslim holiday – the end of Ramadan) and Sunset Beach which was also closed for the holiday but also looked closed full stop (very derelict looking and ramshackle). We finally arrived at Dewi Sri and found the owner and his children, they showed us to a small rattan bungalow for 80,000 Rp a night about £4.75, it included breakfast. The whole place looked old and worn out with creaking floors and windows that did not open properly. There were other concrete bungalows scattered around but he was reluctant to show them or rent them to us. We had agreed that we would be on a budget for this part of our holiday and that we were looking forward to going back to basics (like the Perhentian Islands). So we shrugged and headed off to the beach.

The afternoon drifted by peacefully, the sea was beautiful flat calm and although there was a lot of sharp, dead and broken coral in the sea and on the beach we had a lovely time – swimming in the shallows and collecting pieces of white coral and painting them. We lay in a gazebo type shelter shaded from the suns intense rays and and bought some cold coke to go with our small bottle of vodka and snacked on the bit’s of food we bought over from the mainland (peanuts and cheese bread). The sunset was beautiful, it lit Mount Agung in Bali and the sky was really bright and very beautiful.

That night we ate at Dewi Sri – we had huge portions of fresh fish with rice and vegetable’s – enough for three hungry adults and all for 40,000 Rp about £2.40. It was home cooked Indonesian food at it’s best and we certainly enjoyed it.
The only down side was very little sleep that night, even thought the huts are close to the beach there was no wind to keep us cool and the fan in the room was tiny and ineffectual. The beds were uncomfortable and we got eaten alive by bugs – Tehya was fine and well protected in her pop up anti mozzie – anti bug tent (Little Life Arc 2). We were up early – packed, breakfasted and ready to leave by 9.00 am. We asked if the owner could arrange a horse drawn cart to take us back to the main strip of Trawangan but it wasn’t possible to contact anyone by phone to collect us!!! So we left with our bags and started the 45 minute walk back to the village in blistering heat with no shade along the road. It was pretty stressful and it proved to get more so when we finally made it. The first boats from the mainland had started arriving with tourists and with the higher (than usual) numbers of local tourists from Lombok and Java there seemed to be very few rooms available.

In the end I left Gavin and Tehya at a cafe having a cold drink and getting over the long walk in high temperatures. I set off in search of a suitable room at an acceptable price. I tried about 14 different places (every where was either full or shut for the holiday) before I finally came to Coral Beach 2 which is situated towards the north end of the island. There were two tourists leaving as I arrived at the gate, I stood there thinking to myself ‘not more people searching for a place to stay too….’ when I heard them say ‘thank you for a great stay’ so seizing the opportunity I dived straight in and asked if they had a free room. Thank heavens they did, it seemed fairly reasonable at 150,000 Rp about £9 including breakfast – the owner was just leaving for Gili Air for Ramadan celebrations with his family and said we could have the room for 75,000 Rp (£4.50) for the first night if I cleaned the room and made the beds…… it was a done deal!!!!!! I ran back to Gavin and Tehya with the good news.

Map of Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia

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click here to see our photos of the Gili Islands, Lombok