my friend laura came to visit from sydney and we went on a 4-day trip to the gilis, a group of islands on the northwest coast of lombok (the island east of bali).
we flew from jakarta to mataram (or sometimes listed as ampenan) which took about one and a half hours. we then took a taxi from mataram to bangsal to catch our boat to the gilis. i must say that being at the bangsal harbor is a little uncomfortable as there were people agressively offering us boat tickets as soon as we entered the premises. not to mention luggage porters that will snatch your bags and overcharge you for bringing it on to the boat. but anyway, if you are ever in bangsal, make sure you 1. buy your ticket the counter and 2. hang on to your own bag, and if your luggage is too heavy, you need to agree on the fee first, before you give your luggage to the porter to carry. no need to worry, the people in the harbor are harmless, they are just desperate for some work (and money). you can also catch a private boat from another harbor, but that will cost up to $35. considering our budget, laura and i settled with going by the public boat and we only had to pay less than US$ 1 per person. we got to gili trawangan, safe and in one piece =).
the gilis (gili means island) consist of 3 little islands, gili trawangan, gili meno, and gili air. gili trawangan is the biggest of the 3 and that's where we stayed. there are no motor vehicles in this island, so you either walk, cycle or take the horse carriage (or rickshaws?). how's that? clean air, soft sand, blue sky and crystal clear water. days in the sun do not get much better than this =)
my full set of pictures is here
