INDONESIA - LOMBOK - GILI TRAWANGAN - 19 to 24 July, 2014 - 'THE GILI T'

Info

Ekajaya fast boat – 1 000 000R return with pick up/drop off.

Indigenous Bungalows –

Villa Unggul – 1 000 000R per room with breakfast

Cimodo (horse/cart) – generally 50 000 to 75 000R – not worth it.

Three island snorkel trip - 100 000R

Our journey

We left (me, my wife and two daughters) Legian at 8am bound for the fast boat for the Gili Islands at Padangbai. The shuttle bus was old and uncomfortable. On arrival at padangbai, the rear luggage door wouldn’t open. It took a lot of prying and time to get it opened.

The boat trip was calm and fast. The boat landed on the beach at Gili Trawangan. We had booked Indigenous Bungalows for our stay. There was supposed to be someone there to show us the way. It took ½ for them to turn up. We got two cimodos (horse/carts) to the hotel.

The carts were a novelty but the suspension was very poor so overall it wasn’t much fun after a few minutes bouncing around.

The hotel was located at the north of the island and inland. It was suppose to be a short walk but the road/track was 10cm deep in dust and a 20 minute walk to the nearest restaurant. The hotel was nice with big rooms but it just wasn’t suitable for this trip. One of my daughters was unwell and the walk distance to the beach/restaurants was not possible for her.

With the coming of the new day, I went looking for a new place to stay. We decided to go more upmarket and have some luxury on this family leg of the trip.

After breakfast, we moved to the new hotel, Villa Vu. It was across the road from the beach and near restaurants and other facilities. The hotel had a great pool, restaurant and its own area on the beach. The rooms were huge and very comfortable. The bathrooms were massive as well. Everyone was happy!

We spent the rest of our time in Gili Trawangan sitting, swimming and snorkelling around the pool or on the beach. The snorkelling off the beach was good but boats were a problem. That is, not getting run over by them. The swimming was best at high tide.

I had a couple of bike rides that were hard but fun. I cycled around the island and on another ride I rode to the south to watch the sunset. The riding was fun but finding a good bike was difficult. Most were poorly maintained but they were willing to adjust it to my liking.

On another day, I had a snorkelling trip around the three islands with a nice friendly, crowd of people from a variety of places around the world. The coral was good with a number of fish. The currents were strong at some locations.

While I did my cycling and snorkelling the girls baked.

Food on Gili Trawangan was usually good but this time the ‘better’ restaurants were the worse and the ‘not so good looking’ restaurants were the best. The latter was better in terms of food and service.

I wasn’t long before our time in Gili T came to an end. The journey back to Legian was eventful with rough seas, poor service and a shuttle bus that dumped everyone at bemo corner. I definitely do not recommend the Ekajaya. Overall the trip to Gili Trawangan was hot, warm and fun and most of all everyone was happy.