Our first experience of the domestic Denpasar airport was a good one.
We lined up for our 8.30am Merpati flight to Lombok. We had pre-arranged our tickets with a local travel agent, through a friend living in Bali. They cost $A100 each for a return ticket. The ticket was just an itinerary and sufficed with check-in, but a group of girls next to us didn't fair so well, as they had a different piece of paperwork from their agent, an ‘E-ticket' that the check-in said was not a valid ticket. I don't know if they ended up on the flight or not. Paid 30,000 Rp each on yet another departure tax.
There must have been a big ceremony taking place over on Lombok, as the front half of the plane was taken up with local Balinese in traditional dress heading over with us. We were bussed from the domestic terminal to the plane and I had every appendage crossed, so that we would take off and land safely. We were given a small box each with a bottle of water and some kind of sweet bread inside. The flight took less than 15 minutes; we were no sooner up, than down again. Merpati was fine - an old plane, but it got us all there in one piece.
We tracked the East coast of Bali and had a great view of Agung - we didn't even get above the mountain (at 3000 metres)!
This was my first trip to Lombok and wow - it's so hilly compared to Bali. As we only had hand luggage, we were out of the airport in no time and our driver was waiting for us.
We had paid for return transfers with the resort, which was an easy way to travel - all worked like clockwork, everyone on time and it was a pleasurable experience.
Our driver in Lombok was from Bali, named Nyoman. He drove us north through the monkey forest for about half an hour to the designated departure point to the islands. We didn't see much of Lombok, it was getting toward the end of Ramadan, but people were about their daily business and we passed markets and villages on the way.
So back packs loaded onto the boat and a short wade into the water onto our power boat to Gili Trawangan. We were the only two on the boat for the day and it was a lovely crossing for about 10 minutes at about 10.00am - I kept thinking 'what are the poor people doing today?'
The three islands are located very close to Lombok and all water and supplies have to be shipped in daily, as there is no fresh water on Gili T. There are strong currents between the islands, so nobody should attempt to swim between them.
On our last trip we had met a number of people from Australia and the US who had been to these islands and they raved about them, so we had decided to head over for 3 nights.
Our boat arrived at the beach, a short jump onto the sand and we had arrived. Back packs in tow and in 20 steps we had arrived at Gili T.
We chose Scallywags resort to stay. It is run by Nigel and Jacky and they have set up a great place - friendly staff, delicious, top notch food in the restaurant and spotless accommodation. I was able to prepay the accommodation and transfer bill before we left home and this worked out really well. They do have credit facilities at the resort that we used to pay for meals etc. We didn't need to use the local ATM on Gili T at all, which was located just down the main street in front of Villa Ombok.
Our room wasn't ready yet, so we went for a wander north, past the jetty and had a cool drink. The island is so relaxing - no cars or noisy motor bikes, no dogs and no hawkers. There are horse-drawn carriages or bicycles to hire or just walk. One main north-south street along the coast and then the locals live inland from there.
It was quite windy and they said it was unusual for this time of year, so the water was quite choppy. But to sit at a bar with your feet in the sand and look at the view across to Lombok and the other islands, I found it nothing short of paradise. Plus no shops either, just plenty of places to learn to dive, boat tours, a few internet places if you absolutely must contact home and bars and restaurants galore.
Back to our room.....there are 10 rooms in total at Scallywags. The restaurant is located along the road side, then you walk through to the pool area and the rooms are in a row behind the pool. It was surprisingly private - I had expected the rooms to all face the communal pool, but instead it felt like a mini-villa. Each room was surrounded by high, thick walls. There was a small garden out the front, a sliding door to the bedroom (with a king size bed) and then out to the outdoor bathroom. The place was just about fully booked, yet we never heard anyone from the adjoining rooms - the walls are well built and insulated. We had a small bar fridge, a TV and DVD and it was perfect. I would definitely recommend a return trip to Scallywags again. The bar near the pool has a great selection of DVD's to take to watch in your room and there is a choice of covered bales or sun lounges around the pool area for your enjoyment.
Only one small criticism was that the shower had very little pressure and it was either boiling hot or cold - but considering the shortage of water on the island, I wouldn't want to encourage long showers here either!
Our first impression of Gili T is that this is paradise!
The peace and quiet, the quality of the food and the accommodation made it a great place to stay. I had been concerned about its reputation as the ‘party island' and that there would be a lot of loud party music at night, perhaps we just got lucky, but I never heard any noise at night and it was a pleasure to stay.
We enjoyed meals at Scallywags - our first lunch of smoked salmon Panini was to die for! The evening bbq dinner with salad bar was delicious too.