We are early risers, so we enjoyed our first morning walk along the beach of Gili T, watching the locals sweep the main road! I felt sorry for the horses, so we used our legs and didn't hire one of the horse-drawn carts during our stay. It's not as though the walk from one end of the main drag is far and you have plenty of drink and feed stops along the way.
Breakfast menu at Scallywags included mie goreng and nasi goreng, along with western options - all delicious. We discovered the mixed fruit juice of guava, pineapple and banana was a great way to start the day.
We hired two bikes, with a plan to cycle around the island and find the Spanish restaurant called Karma Kayak for a leisurely tapas lunch. Well, I had read that the path turns to sand, but didn't quite expect 85% of the trek around the island to be in soft sand! The mountain bike couldn't do much and I managed to not fall off once - but I was a beetroot red colour within minutes from the heat and the sand! We never did find the restaurant and have no idea how we missed it, but either it's not there or I was too focused on the bike staying afloat in the sinking sands of the island.....I think it was the latter.
The waters are pristine around the island - I didn't see one plastic bag floating around or any debris at all. It was a pleasant surprise. It took us about an hour to get around the island by bike and we ended up back at our starting point, in need of a very cold beer! We didn't get the leisurely tapas lunch this trip - perhaps next time!
Day 2 we decided to grab our snorkels and hired a glass bottom boat.
There are many options available around the ferry terminal and generally they cost around 75,000Rp per person for a day trip to each island, with time to snorkel and you can grab lunch on Gili Air.
I'm not a strong swimmer and hubby wanted to be more flexible than the boats filled with 20 people, so we chartered a boat to ourselves for the day and that cost us 700,000Rp; we only needed to hire flippers as we had bought along our own snorkels. (included in the boat hire cost). It also meant that our accomodating Muslim guides organised an esky for us, we grabbed ice and beers, so that we would not dehydrate on our day trip.....need to keep up fluids in the heat!
We ended up having a very smooth ride on the boat, as the winds died down on this particular morning and we were lucky we picked the best day to go out on the boat.
It was a fabulous day! We headed north to an area with blue coral. It's not far from the shore of Gili T and you could easily just walk from the beach any day and snorkel in the area.
Next stop was off Gili Meno and we followed turtles for ages - they are so graceful in the water. Our boat driver, Harry jumped into the water with us and he was the designated turtle spotter. It was so exciting that I completely forgot to slap on the sun screen and that evening I was more sun burnt all down my back than ever before in my life - lesson learnt, use the factor 40 before you step foot on board!
The boys put some bread into an old water bottle off Gili Air (the third and largest island). Wow - these fish love their bread, we spent ages feeding them and I was squealing through my snorkel.
They dropped us off on Gili Air for a few hours and it felt hotter than on Gili T.
In comparison, Gili Air is much less developed, has a more local feel and I would suggest that the food and accommodation isn't as high standard as what is available on Gili T. (but that is just an opinion after a quick visit, I could be wrong there).
There are dogs on this island and we had lunch at the ‘Chill Out' bar. We ordered bbq calamari and it was tough as an old boot, regrettably washed down with a couple of lukewarm beers; yep....the electricity was off for a while! Put it all down to experience - I would probably return to Air again on the public boat that leaves Gili T ferry terminal at 9.30am daily that returns mid afternoon, that way you can grab a sun lounge on the beach and snorkel away the day and feed the fish. I feel the need to discover Gili Air with a longer day trip and have a good wander around the place and discover a good restaurant with a generator for cold beer.
We returned to Gili T in choppy seas, as the winds had whipped up once again late afternoon. Back to dinner and a well deserved sleep.
Day 3 was a relax and take it easy day.
We ventured down the road to Kokomo; a 5-star villa resort located at the most southern part of the main road. It has been open for 3 months and they are still finishing off the restaurant area on the beach front. In a word the food here is 'wow'.
We also checked out the villas with the manager and its lovely.....so we have two options for a future stay - either Scallywags or else Kokomo (if the budget will stretch a bit further)
The Horizontal Bar at the northern end of the island is a groovy place to stop for drinks too. We didn't even get to try the Irish pub next door, or the bbq at the Beach House or Warung Indonesia that had a great write up in the local tourist magazine - I think it was closed for lunch due to Ramadan. But we do need to keep a few things on our list of things to do for next trip to Gili T.
We had a late flight at about 8.30pm back to Bali. The boys handed us over yellow plastic macs to wear on the small boat back to Lombok -people would pay for a ride like that at the Royal Show! A few lumps and bumps along the way, it was great fun.
Sploshed our way onto Lombok and this time we drove along the coast past Sengigi to view the sunset. We had a great drive and really enjoyed seeing this side of Lombok. Merpati was once again on time and another 15 minute flight and we were back in Bali. When the captain dimmed the lights for landing - they turned all lights out, so we ended up in a pitch black aircraft - maybe they needed the extra juice for landing?
Next ....Legian.....