The Adventures of Gili T.....Lombok, Indonesia

Gili T was a rather rude shock at first after Gili Air. Arriving on the first day of Eid probably wasn't the best timing as the island was booked solid with late arrivals without pre-booked accommodation spending the night on the beach. Stepping off the boat there were people everywhere. Backpacks bobbing up and down in every direction I looked. It was chaos. We knew where we were heading so we got the hell out of there quick smart, avoiding the speeding horse and carts that must claim a few lives each year. Cafes and restaurants lined the busy main street (path), with pedestrians, bicycles and carts all vying for their own piece of turf.

Stayed at Gili Nyepi, a really nice place only a few minutes walk from the main road in a quiet area run by a Dutch woman and her local husband. Service was very good and always willing to help out in any way.

It is quite an easy island to get around on by bike, except for a small section in the north east corner where the path has disappeared due to erosion and the wind has covered another section in sand. Take a back road and avoid the main drag. It is noticeably bigger than Gili Air however most of the development is concentrated in the south east corner.....restaurant after restaurant, cafes, tour agencies, dive schools, beach bars and guesthouses.....and every place seems to sell pizza (to their credit, half had wood-fired pizza ovens).

One of the better stretches of beach in along the east side towards the north. There are quite a few people here (good for accessing beer and cocktails from the bars but no so good for swimming, especially close to low tide). If you head away from the main town you will find plenty of isolated sand with nobody else in sight which was a little surprising given it is by far the busiest of the islands. The snorkeling again is very average off the beach. Mostly dead. Still some fish swimming about and the odd small turtle but nothing to get too excited about. If you do a snorkeling tour you will likely see much larger turtles.

Similar to Gili Air, we spent the vast majority of our time on the beach drinking beers and then migrating to a bar (Tir Na Nog) in the evening. Eating was a little more challenging than I had expected. Although there is no shortage of options available, the majority are all the same....very similar menus and try to cater to everybody by offering every food imaginable under the sun (a big turn-off for me). There were a few standouts that I recommend:

* Taman Thai - Set one street back from the main path, it is a busy hangout for those wanting a change from nasi goreng and ayam goreng. The yellow curry is a winner. Drinks are quite reasonably priced. You can't go wrong. Ate here twice.

* Night Market - Easily the cheapest place in town to eat. Gets very crowded after 7:30pm. Not a huge selection of food but if you want bbq seafood skewers or your standard nasi and curry, you could do worse than eat here.

* Karma Kayak is a quiet place in the north. It is a tapas joint that does them reasonably well, except the garlic prawns....give them a big miss. The fried small fish and meatballs were tasty. Not cheap if you are hungry. A hangover fixes that problem.

* Warung Bu'de - Right next to the tiny fruit and veg market tucked down a back alley. It serves tasty and super cheap local food. The locals eat here so it must be good.....or cheap....or both??? Go for lunch but get in early as it is rather popular.

The drinking scene here is a little difficult to work out. The busiest bar by far was Tir Na Nog. It has very well priced drinks, uses authentic liquor (I believe) and has a good crowd around the actual bar (why is it so difficult to find a bar in a bar!). This place turns into a mini beach club (sand dance floor) around 11pm. Each night there is supposedly a party at a particular bar - getting good intel on this was a challenge but invariably all places close around 2am and a rather dodgy establishment at the south of the main street opens up and kicks on until sunrise. This place I am almost certain serves dodgy drinks. Stick with bottled beverages. The crowd is also rather dodgy with many locals hanging around selling drugs and off their tits. I didn't like it that much but it is an ok place to watch the sunrise if you can hold out that long....I couldn't.

Head to Sunset Bar on the west side for a few sun-downers. Good crowd, some music and cold beers. Worth the walk or take a bicycle.

Very shallow reef surrounded the majority of the island. Quite tricky to navigate to the reef edge to go snorkeling. Average snorkeling at best. Most of the coral has been killed.

Waiting for sunset....

The Bali volcano in the background

Yep, sand everywhere....coarse sand too

Air time......... Lombok, Indonesia

My arrival in Gili Air meant the arrival of my mate Chris and time to reacquaint myself with alcohol on a new scale. I had been through a relatively dry patch for a number of months so it was going to be a physical and mental battle.

The Gili's comprise of three small islands within paddling distance of each other off the north west coast of Lombok. They have in some ways become the new Bali. I was there towards the end of Ramadan which coincided with the European holiday season so accommodation was a it of a nightmare. Lucky we booked weeks in advance. So Gili Trawangan (or Gili T) is the party island, Gili Meno is the least developed and the most tranquil, whilst Gili Air is somewhere in between. Most people seem to go to the Gili's for three reasons: 1) snorkeling; 2) to get their PADI diving certificate; and/or 3) party and try mushroom shakes. Let me tell you that if you are wanting to try the shakes that are more readily available than a ladyboy in a Bangkok brothel, do yourself a favour and ask someone who has tried them from that place recently as we got duped twice. And as for the snorkeling, it is rather poor. Guide books will let you know that areas have been affected by illegal fishing and bleaching but good areas could still be found. Don't be deceived, I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw....which was almost nothing. I only tried snorkeling off the beach (no tours as I don't like them) and it was, well.....crap. All the islands appear to be surrounded by extremely shallow reef which is all but dead and partially exposed at low tide. Although I am against the idea of reef shoes as they just encourage people to walk where they shouldn't, they are a good idea here as the reef is dead and you will invariably cut your feet walking out to the deeper waters.

We stayed at Biba Bungalows which were very nice (excellent service by the local employees, indifferent from the owners which was difficult to understand) and had one of the better Italian restaurants attached to it (yes, there are many, many Italian restaurants in Indonesia for some reason and pizza seems to be on almost every menu regardless of cuisine type). Hire a bike and push it around the island's edge (there is a lot of nontraversable sand that will help work up a sweat) and explore the sparse interior which is covered in fields of palm trees and cows and paths that snake to an unexpected end. 

So what is there to do other than the aforementioned three things? Um, sit on the beach and drink beer and cocktails and not much else. Air was very quiet in the evenings. We tried very hard to find something open after 10-11pm but struggled. For an island that was largely full, there didn't seem to be anybody around. Lots of couples and families here so perhaps that explains why. 

It is worth taking a walk up to the northern point for sunset. There are a few bars, a very good Italian restaurant and plenty of bamboo lounges and bean bags on the beach. Get there at least an hour before sunset to secure a decent pozzie. At some stage that evening you will end up at the Chill Out Bar which has friendly staff and an owner that perches himself in front of the till each afternoon, with a beer in hand at all times and doesn't seem to move until the close of play. 

Local dining options were hard to come by. I wasn't really impressed by anything that I recall having which was disappointing. I also enquired about diving here more for the sake of doing so and the description of the various sites confirmed my hesitation at wasting my money...plus it was more expensive than other considerably better places I have dived at. Maybe get your PADI here if you can't wait until you get to one of a hundred better places to dive in Indonesia, but nothing else.

And my last point, don't expect a tropical island ringed in fine white sand. There are patches of this but the majority is covered in broken coral pieces. Just letting you knowing.

Sundowners in the north of the island

Yep....margaritas!!

Scooter Kuta.... Lombok, Indonesia

I really enjoyed my time here. Maybe it was the great beaches, being back on a scooter and cruising the open roads through the hills and paddy fields dodging buffalo, goats and chickens or having a reasonable choice of decent food. In any case, there were more white people than I'd seen in a long, long time.....I must have been close to Bali. Lombok is only a 20 minute flight from Denpasar if you don't circle the skies three times like our plane did - it wan't an issue as the views of Guitung volcano above the clouds were stunning. The other plane below us doing the same loops was curious.....anyone thinking Die Hard???

Kuta Lombok is centrally located on the south coast and is more than likely the most developed town to base yourself to explore both east and west. Just about everybody rents a moto for US$4-5/day. Check them over carefully as many are death traps and arguments upon return just waiting to happen. I got mine at a small shack just past Sun Set Cafe on the left. Good tyres, brakes and it ran well. Trifekta! I believe manuals are slightly cheaper.

Most people visit Kuta to go surfing. The majority of motorbikes/scooters are kitted out to hold a few boards. The popular surf spots are between 5 and 30 minutes ride away. More advanced surfers head to Gerupuk, Mawi, Mawun and Seger beaches and catch boats out to the reef breaks. Beginners flock to Selong Blanak to learn on the gentle beach break that was also the nicest beach I had seen in a few months. The frustrating thing for me was not being able to surf due to an aggravated back. Really annoying. So Plan B was to just visit all the best beaches, chalk up a few miles on the scooter and indulge a little on the local seafood. Mission accomplished if you ask me.

Sun Set Cafe - An incredibly friendly and reasonably priced restaurant that gives back to the local community as well. Perfectly cooked fish. Icy cold beers. Fresh ginger tea. Heaven. Try the local style soup that I forget the name of. Delish.

Warung Turtle - Nasi Campur was ok. A little more pricey than I expected given it was a basic shack on the beach but they do serve you your food and beers at the sun lounges and cabanas right on the sand if you want.

The Spot - One of the more fancier places in town. Meals were good, of a decent size, but a little pricier than other places. Worth a try but equivalent quality can be found for less rupes.

Ashtari (9-6pm only) - Moroccan themed vego restaurant. Tasty but exceptionally expensive salad for the size. For a mediteranean salad it lacked mediteranean ingredients. The dressing was the saviour. Great views of Kuta from the balcony. Menu was a little boring and was scarce on Moroccan options.

There is another very popular vegetarian restaurant in town that is always full of an evening. It rates very highly on Trip Advisor. I gave them a go twice. Each time it was ok but I was left unfulfilled by the hype.

Main beach at Kuta Lombok

West of Kuta Lombok

Kuta Lombok from the hill nearby

Seger Beach.....barely another soul in sight

Warung Turtle, Pantain Tanjung Aan

Selong Blanak

Great location to learn to surf

The coconut shack at Selong Blanak