2013 Indonesia, Lombok, Gili Trawangan Island

It was dark as we arrived at Gili Trawangan and disembarked onto the beach and walked to the nearest bar for a long overdue beer. Gili is quite charming as there are no cars, dogs, motorbikes. Only horse and cart, horse, bicycles or by foot.
There is a long semi-paved  parade right along the waterfront that extends around 1-1.5 km altogether, and is continuous set of accommodation, dive shops, tour shops, massage places ,restaurants and at one end it morphs into very large resort hotels that looked fantastic, but a bit far from the action.

After a beer, I wandered along a bit to look for some accommodation. I was approached only about 150 mtrs along by a guy offering coke or dope etc, which I declined saying I just needed some accommodation. He said there was some available just there so he showed me the first room which was a nice 2 level place but at 350k a bit much. So he showed me another with a double and single bed and veranda, and bathroom. We negotiated to 200k including breakfast, so deal done. I dumped the backpack there and locked up to go and get Eunmi and the kids.
After another beer we headed back to the room and settled in, and Eunmi and the kids seemed happy with it. After showering and relaxing a bit we ventured out and asked the owner where there's a good warung and they directed is to Dewi's just around the corner on an alleyway that led to the village, and next to a smallish vegetable market was the warung that has an assortment of chicken, corn fritters, rice and vegetables that we enjoyed thoroughly. We retired full with a couple of extra Bintangs for Eunmi and I.
Surprisingly in a way, we hadn't really missed the drinking too much during our time with Elly, and a couple of large beers were enough to feel it after a few days off it. Besides, I can't really stomach too much of the larger which is the only choice beside spirits or arak.

The next day we packed up and after some Dewi warung food headed down to a point on the Island for a bit of snorkeling. We found a nice big tamerisk tree to shade us, complete with a big boat beam as a seat. We found most of the coral was dead in the shallows, a legacy of the past practice of dynamiting fish apparently. But there were signs of it recovering and as we reached the edge of the drop into the deep channel there was a good assortment of live corals, quite colourful, and a large variety of angel, parrot, snapper, trevali, and other extremely colourful fish.



We were probably snorkeling around for a good hour or so, and the kids went in first to comb the beach for shell and crabs etc. I helped the kids shell hunting while Eunmi relaxed. The beach was full of kauri shells of varying colours and patterns, as well as many other types, so we collected a few which will no doubt be carried back to the UK by Ruby.
We had to be careful not to take ones occupied by the numerous hermit crabs found along the beach. On the way back everyone was flagging a bit, so we caught one of the horsecarts that ply the waterfront.







Later we walked down to a larger market area where all the warung collect with little stalls to sell food and long table seating is arranged amongst them.
I had grilled chicken and tuna steak with rice and veges, Ruby had grilled squid, Ellie a big thick pancake and Eunmi had noodle soup.We were all really full because our stomachs had shrunk a bit by now, but we grabbed some sweet cakes for later, and the morning.
Ellie ran ahead to see some kittens she'd spotted earlier while we picked up some sweetcorn for Ruby who still seemed to have some room left.
I walked ahead to see Ellie but couldn't see her, and after a few worrying moments combing the busy street Eunmi discovered she'd gone back to where we had eaten, so some relief for me. I think the island is reasonably child friendly but I prefer to be able to see the children in case some unsavoury character targets them. Even being a small island it would take a very long time to find someone amongst all the people. 
Anyway, we again slept well, although I woke up very early with a bout of the shits, so I stayed up and went for a walk to watch the sunrise over Mt Rinjani, which unfortunately was mostly cloud covered. 
The Canadian guy we'd met who was doing the trek up there would be getting wet!
Still a pretty sunrise and nicely reflected in the still water off the beach.

Later we hired a couple of Tandem bikes and had a pleasant flat ride to the far side of the island, stopping outside the Villa Julius(1.5 million per night) which is owned by a Danish woman. We ended up spending the whole day there and I had some perfect chicken satay.
The beach there was lovely with nice shade trees and we had recliners as well. The snorkeling was actually quite good about 2-3 hundred meters out, and we saw a turtle glide past as we hovered over the reef, holding hands spontaneously.
We ran out of cigi at one point so I decided to bike back out to one of the earlier shops to get some. The girls insisted on coming too so we ended up on one bike with Ruby sitting side saddle on the rear centre bar.
We had to go quite a way back to find some so it was hard work but Ellie helped with the peddaling.



I talked to the guy at sunset beach a bit and bought water, cigi and a sprite for the girls.
By the time we got back Eunmi was fast asleep and Ruby wanted to go out snorkeling, which we tried, but it had got a bit rough by then due to a passing rainstorm out towards Bali in the distance.

The visibility was poor and Ruby was getting a bit nervous with the waves, so we gave up. Her and Ellie reverted to a bit of beach combing and building a 'house' for a live crab I'd found, using shells and bits of seaweed. 
Eunmi and I talked with an Aussie guy who had turned up with an Aussie woman with her Indonesian husband and 7 week old baby. The single Aussie guy seemed a bit hard case.
He was a 40 year old stonemason who spent only 4 months working every year and the rest travelling. We left as darkness fell and made our way back watching to see if the famous sunset over Bali would happen, but there was too much cloud so not much colour in it. 
After a shower we went to the beachfront restaurant where I'd go for early coffee and had nasi goreng and beef grill. But it was full of MSG so not good, although the beef was nice, but a very small serving.
We discussed this with the very 'camp' owner who did seem to understand and promised he'd cook for us next time without using MSG, but we hadn't gone back yet.

We had booked a snorkeling trip for the next day(100k each), so we went back to try and get the girls to sleep a bit earlier.

Woke up a bit earlier and ordered the standard 2 pancakes and tea and coffee breakfast included with the room. We managed to get down to the departure point for the boat trip by the prescribed 10 am, but Eunmi had to return to the room twice, once for plasters for Ruby's feet to stop the flippers hurting her feet, and after realising she'd left the receipt for the tour behind.
The boat, about 40 foot was absolutely full by the time it left around 11 am or so and we found a space up on the bow.

First stop was between Gili Trawangan and Meno and was quite good. Ruby immediately snapped out of her moodiness and was off enjoying herself, often diving down 2-3 meters to have a closer look. Ellie grew in confidence and discarded her life vest so she could also dive down, and seemed to spend half the time underwater. During the lunch stop, we stayed on the boat and ate warung food we'd brought. After that I thought it might worth snorkeling that spot and it proved to be really good with some quite spectacular large corals, lots of fish and another turtle. We went back to see if the girls wanted to go out and Ruby came out, along with another Indian/European couple. 
We ended up talking with a few guys sharing the bow. One was an Aussie journalist who covered conflict and post conflict zones and had been to Iraq and Afghanistan for his work.
Another guy was from Argentina, and was actually the same guy I met previously in a warung in Ubud a couple of weeks ago. The other was an American guy. They seem like good guys.

That evening didn't do much at all, again, which is bit what Gili Trawangan does to you. I think the absence of traffic noise and instead the only sound is the gentle jangle of the bells on the horse carts has a profoundly relaxing effect. The only engine noise you hear is the fairly faint sound of distant boat engines which is fairly muted anyway.
I took Ellie to the market and got an array of food to take back. As usual, it seemed recently I got a bit of too much food because my stomach shrunk a bit, so the hotel cats had the benefit of some quite meaty bones left over.
The girls spent most of the time plating with the cats, carrying them around, holding them on their laps and generally pestering them, in a nice way though.

The next day we seem to do even less as I recall, apart from booking up our tickets from Gili to Bali for the 7th of April. We got them for 625k which was about the best price available, with others hanging up to 1-2 million!

Ellie and Ruby both seemed keen to do another snorkeling trip so that occupied most of the next day.
The route was in the opposite direction but with much the same stops. There was a couple of young French girls that we spoke to. One had been in Australia for several months travelling around and working there.
Ruby managed to spot a turtle again. On the last stop the guide was feeding the fish with bread which was great as we were all mobbed by a myriad of fish of all shapes, colours and sizes. 
We had to cut the trip short a bit because one of the frequent squalls was blowing in from Lombok. We made it back just as the rain was getting a bit heavier, and retreated to our room for a shower.
Later that evening we decided to walk along the parade a bit , and find a close by place for a quite swim. We found a spot in front of a dive school where there was a local guy I'd met a couple of days ago on an early morning walk. He had been taking another Kiwi bloke out fishing.
Apparently they caught a few big snapper out in about 50 meters of water off the islands.
Anyway he and the other guys there offered for us to sit in the barong they had by the beach, so we had a few bintangs and talked a bit about their life on Gili.

It's not an easy lot for them, with wages very low at around $60 per month, with 12 hr days and pretty much no time off. This means they're pretty much stuck there and very difficult to get work anywhere else on Lombok where most of the guys came from.
They were interested in Eunmi as she was from Korea, and many have a dream to go and work there in the fabric industry. But the 40 million airfare to get there is beyond their dreams. Some already had relatives there, but they'd already send a good part of their money home to their own immediate families so couldn't help them. I guess there could be worse places to get stuck, but if you're ambitious and have no choice I imagine it could be a bit of a nightmare.

After a while Eunmi and the kids decided to go in for a swim. The guys were admiring Eunmi's tits, saying they're big. I noticed quite a lot of local girls are very pretty as well, with quite a variation in looks from quite Indian looking to Chinese, to Malay and many in between. Definitely more attractive than the many standardised looking American girls of which there seemed to be many on the island.

As Eunmi and the kids swam another much more vigorous squall blew in accompanied by extremely heavy rain. We put the tables on their sides in the barong to try and stay reasonably dry but the wind was so strong we were getting pretty wet anyway.
In the mean time water was building up and the somewhat lower section of the parade where we were, and was rapidly being fed with flows from the side streets. Probably within 20 minutes it had become not quite knee deep and me and the other guys amused ourselves teasing the passing girls about what was in the very brown soupy looking water. Greatly hilarity as we elicited some loud screams and watched as they were trying to retrieve flipflops that had broken or come off. Bedraggled looking families passed on foot having given up on trying to stay dry, while others were in horse carts that plunged through making bow waves that threatening to enter some of the small shops.
Meanwhile the girls and Eunmi frolicked  in the sea, trying to catch the big rain drops in their mouths. Eventually they came out and joined us. Eunmi taught the guys some phrases of Korean, such as 'You are beautiful!' for the guys to use if they encountered any Korean girls, which they then practised on every passing girl. We probably sat there for another hour or so before the rain abated and the flooding receded enough that we didn't have to walk through it ourselves. We couldn't stop girls playing in it a bit though. It was very exciting for them as they hadn't seen a street flooding like that before.
So it was a very thorough shower and plenty of soap when they got home because who knows what was washing around in it.

We had a slow start again the next day, getting packed up ready to go, and Eunmi picked up some chicken and rice from Dewi's warung to take on the boat trip.
Everyone for the Ocean Star boat congregated right outside our hotel along with a huge pile of bags. Once on board we found a seat, and the girls promptly fell asleep and didn't wake up until we'd almost arrived.
The boat was a fully covered sort of cruiser, about the size of a large bus. On the back there were 5 * 250 hp Suzuki outboards(I'd seen another boat with 6 * 200 hp as well!!).
I'm not sure how fast it was but I suspect something like 30-35 knots so fairly quick. It didn't take long for the Gilis and Lombok to recede into the haze and for Bali to loom larger. I spoke for a while with an Aussie bloke who was on there with a family of 5 kids, one of whom had been in Japan with his wife for a music conference, and met up with them there. Turned out he was an accountant who'd done some time in London with Ernest & Young and other banks, including RBS. He was now mainly just sitting on various company boards so must be at quite a high level, but seemed very down to earth. He was saying he himself had a 75 ft boat he used to entertain clients in Aussie so he must be reasonably well off.

Eunmi and I took the opportunity to go up onto the roof of the boat while the kids slept and it was nice and cool with the breeze there, but you had to hang on over the waves, as there wasn't much to stop you going overboard. We struck up a conversation with a woman and her husband who'd lived in Bali for a number of years. She had some fashion brand in the UK but the manufacturing base was in Bali so they'd chosen to base themselves there. Her husband was a DJ who had plenty of work in that field. They had three children who attended an English school in Bali and loved it. They'd just been to Gili Trawangan for the weekend. Must say I'm a bit envious but from what they were saying it's not too hard to settle there if you have some money. A very tempting thought.


Ruby's Entry on Gili Trawangan