The Gilis

  Gili Trawangan, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

After a four hours ferry ride which ended up taking seven hours of, to choose from : laying on cement on the penthouse under the sun and in the wind cramped in between a hundred surfboards, hundred guitars, a thousand backpacks and about as many westerners or seating inside on a thirty people wooden bench with fifty locals singing karaoke while listening to extremely loud music. Well, in between the two, my heart was balancing so I did them both. Once in Lembsar, the main harbour of Lombok, it was impossible to find any means of transportation out of there cause everybody, all my now all sun dried bright red fellow backpackers were being picked up by minibuses as they had bookings with some kind of door to door trips from Kuta or Ubud in Bali either to the Gilis or to Kuta, Lombok (yes, there are 2 Kuta but they do not ressemble each other at all). With a little bit of hitchhiking, a big smile and heavy negotiation, I managed to get a ride to Sengiggi, squashed in the boot of a minibus sitting on the bags. That did the job ! From what I could see of the road, from the little back door window, I enjoyed it very much. It was a very hilly ride going from the top of the hill in the jungle to a secluded beach to back up the next hill down the following alcove beach and so on for about an hour.

Sengiggi is a nice litte town hosting a healthy mix of tourists and locals. A nice beach with manicure, pedicure

Manicure and pedicure on the beach

and massage in the comfort of your towel laying on the beach while watching the sunset with behind the scene the Gunung Agung volcano of Bali A nice reward after this long trip.

Sunset in Sengiggi

But I can not believe that even after all those hours of travelling, I could still see Bali ! It seems like every other journey in Indonesia while it is close in distance, it is far in time. It is not rare that a 50 kilometres trip takes well over four hours. Hard to judge when you arrive, this is when you actually know when you are leaving ...whenever the minibus is full that is...If you are lucky enough to actually find a mean of transportation !

In Sengiggi, as my hotel was right on top of a very loud club, but you can not guess that during the day when you are checking in, it makes sense to actually hang out in the bar until it closes at about 4:30 am. Just on time for you to enjoy a little half an hour snooze before the mosques start their loud speakers prayers at 5 am. Seeing it positively, it allows you to have an early start to make it to your next destination before dawn. In my case, the next destination was very close, only three hours away by bemo ( mini minibus), boat and on foot. The bemo ride was beautiful, the same kind as the day before but this time, I could enjoy it while sitting in an actual seat . Well half of a seat as they always squeeze more people than the bus is normally designed for in order to make them more profitable. Then, I took a wooden motorboat ride to the island of Gili Trawagan. Of course, there was a lot of waiting in between the bemo ride and the boat ride as each means of transportation needs to be full, even more than full if possible. No matter what it took to get out there, it was worth it.

The island of Gili Trawagan is a place on its own with a very specific character, culture and unique atmosphere. Before going to Indonesia, I was expecting to have to cover my hair and wear long sleeves and long trousers in order to respect their tradition but little did I know... Where I landed was far from traditional muslim culture. The entire island of Bali is mainly hindu, Flores is 85% catholic, even if the island of Lombok is 95% muslim, very few wear the scarf on heir head and when you get to talk to the locals, they are far away from respecting the rules of Islam. As far as the Gilis are concerned, it hosts all the bad boys of Lombok who refuse tradition, have long hair, tatoos, drink a lot, do drugs and are eager to mingle with cute, white skin, young westerner girls...for some reason.

Water in the Gilis

You can walk all around the island in about an hour and a half and a good hour of that walk is through completely deserted beaches as all the activity is concentrated in the east side of the island. Indonesian food is hard to get on Gili Trawagan as the whole east side of the island is filled with western restaurants, cafes, travel agents and guest houses. There are no ATMs nor bank in the Gilis and only one internet cafe...when you are lucky to find it working. There is no freshwater, which means that your showers are with salty water and to brush your teeth, same, same ! When everybody comes back from the beach, there is no electricity, ie from 6 pm to about 11 pm...if you're lucky. Not all restaurants have generators, so you can not always choose your meals, get cold drinks nor hot coffees. Right on the beach, they have fantastic "movie theatres" that are nothing else than big cushions to lay on in a wooden bungalow on stits while TV and DVD players are in a little wooden box righ in front of your bungalow. They have all the latest movie, copies that is of course, and if you decide to watch a movie, you would be lucky not to be cut off in the middle of the film because of the lack of electricity. There is no motorised transport on the island but you can enjoy lovely "cedomos",

Transportation in the Gilis

ie little carts pulled by a poney wearing a very noisy christmas bells necklace. There is a mosque, maybe for the ten people that are actually following the islam rules, but all the thousands of other peole can hear the prayers at 5 am, 7 am and three other times during the day as they need to pray five times a day. There are as may chickens and roosters on Gili Trawagan than there are inhabitants and it seems that all of them are very confused about their role and the times of the day as you can hear them at absolutely any time of the day and the night. When they are right next to you, which they always are cause every guest house raises chickens, they can be very loud !

Prices are higher than anywhere else and nevertheless, it is a real paradise. After the picture that I have made of Gili Trawagan, you may think I did not enjoy it, well on the contrary, I loved it ! This is the place where I stayed the longest of my entire trip (after Siem Reap for the orphanage). All those little specificities and details make it very charming and what is more exciting than taking a salty water shower in the dark after a beautiful day in paradise turquoise waters !

The beach at Gili Trawagan

Indeed, the water can not compare to anywhere else and the underwater world is very specific. I passed my second level of scuba diving out there and had five days of fantastic dives with brilliant, though english, instructors. All my dives have been a real pleasure, all of them being very different from one another. I dove with eagle rays, sting rays, white tip sharks of all sizes, the biggest turtles, beautiful lionfish, parrot fish, angel fish, scorpionfish, sea cucumbers, big shrimps, eels and I am boring you already. As you can see, I had a "nature discovery" lesson which led me to discover more about what it is I am actually diving with. I also did a deep dive at 30 metres, quite impressive where all you can see is deep blue and a big ray coming towards you. I felt like in a movie, it was awesome. Because of the current, I got lost, well the dive master was with me and we enjoyed a beautiful drift dive, taken away by the current to end up not at all where we were supposed to be but no big deal, the island is pretty small and we could do a shore exit, coming out ot the water with our outfit and heavy tank right on the beach ! I also did a night dive which was very exciting. Simply just going on the boat at night jumping in pitch black water and turning of the lights while underwater to see millions of flashy fluorescent green plancton pieces dancing around us, that was something. Night life on the island, apart from the underwater world was very diversified, from chilling out watching a movie on the beach to dancing like crazy in a late club, there was also everything in between with plenty of restaurants, and bars to satisfy all tastes. A little paradise !