Gone to Gili

Posted under Deja vu Asia 2010

Goodbye Bali, hello to the Gili Islands. We were quite pleased with our tour arrangements for a look about Bali, which we made at a street side shop in Ubud, and so booked our travel to the Gili Islands with the same shop. This may have been a bit of a mistake, as things didn’t quite work out as we had planned. Not bad, mind you, just not as we were given to understand. Now as the trip entailed a 45 minute run by car to the area where we were to catch our fast ferry, our private, air conditioned car was to pick us up at 7:00 AM sharp. Well we were on time but our air conditioned car was a tad slow, about 20 minutes, and actually was a mini bus — without A/C and packed full. However, thanks to some kamikaze manoeuvres by our driver, we made it to the fast ferry before it left. Well that, and the fact that all the passengers were in our van, but what the heck. Now the brochure of the fast ferry showed an impressive vessel of rather new construction. Now either the brochure was very old, or we got the standby ferry used for smaller crowds. I suspect the latter. But in fairness, it didn’t appear to leak, and it did get us to the Gili Islands.

Now the Gili Islands are a bit of a step back in time. The main island, Gili Trawangan, has a road around the circumference of the island. This, in itself is not that unusual, but the fact that you can walk this entire length of road in under two hours. Also, you are not going to take a car around the island as there are no cars, nor are there any motorcycles. Even the island answer to tuk-tuks are limited to a single horsepower. They are small passenger carts, with a roof, and pulled by a small horse. Freight is a bit different in that it is placed in a small cart, without a roof, and then pulled by a small horse.

Talk about laid back, you can watch the sun get up and the sun go down, and in between you could walk about, swim in the ocean, swim in the hotel pool, or shop in the few small shops. The rest of the time you must take it easy and avoid the stress of this hectic pace. Remember those idyllic dreams of a south seas island? This might well be it. It the hectic lifestyle of Gili Trawangan starts to get to you, a small boat will get you to Gili Air or Gili Meno, both smaller islands, without the hustle and bustle. In fact, without a great deal of anything. After just a couple of days on Gili Trawangan, I was contemplating quitting shaving and perhaps growing a pony tail, but we only had those two days and then we are off to Lombok.

A “quick boat” takes us over to Lombok, which is a similar size to Bali. It even has a large city, Mataram, and an airport. Our destination is on the west coast of Lombok, in an area known as Sengigi. It is situated on a bay, with a sandy beach, which is protected by a coral reef.

We are in a Sheraton resort, which I can assure you is quite comfortable. The grounds are immaculate and the staff very friendly and attentive. Add to this, there is probably not even a twenty-five percent occupancy in this, the off season. Cheap rates and no crowds, I like it all ready.

Lombok is a volcanic island, as are most of the islands in this neck of the woods, and although there are no active volcanoes here at present, the evidence is quite apparent. On the north central area of the island is their tallest mountain, which, of course had a volcanic origin. As the mountain barfed out the lava to form the rest of the island, and then cooled, it left a bowl where the top of the mountain once was. This, of course, filled with water and formed a sizeable lake. The odd happening here was that a subsequent, smaller volcano poked its ugly head out of the lake bottom, took a look around, and quit. So what we have is a volcano, nearly encircled by a fresh water lake, within a volcano. To actually observe this rascal entails an overnight hike, so I will just close my eyes and picture it. Besides, we only have 5 days in Lombok, and a tour of the south central region is in the works before we leave for Malaysia.

We will keep you posted, take care of yourselves —

T