In Reply to: GilliT info for early September posted by trayden on Friday, 19. February 2010 at 19:21 Bali Time:
Perama gives you a choice of using their bus and boat from Padang Bai direct to Gili Trawangan or their bus and public ferry and their bus and boat from Lembar to Gili Trawangan.
The public ferry option is cheaper and slower than the Perama boat option.
See: www.peramatour.com
In 2008, I tried to book a trip through Perama to Senggigi in Lombok, but as they were having a staff conference in Lombok, the best they could do was to sell me a ticket to Padang Bai for Rp 40,000. At 6 am the non-airconditioned bus took me to Padang Bai via Sanur and Ubud. At Padang Bai, I purchased a ferry ticket to Lembar for Rp 28,000. The ferry left at 9 am. I made a mistake of sitting near one of the speakers attached to a giant karaoke machine.
Otherwise, the trip to Lembar was pleasant with calm seas and I was able to observe small flying fish jumping from wave to wave.
When I reached Lombok, there was no sign of public bemos, so I had to bargain with the obnoxious bemo operators in Lembar. With two others, we paid Rp 120,000 for the bemo trip to Senggigi. The last time I had been in Senggigi was in 1977. Then, Senggigi consisted of an almost deserted beach. The only people on the beach were local villagers collecting sea shells to burn them in tiny kilns to make lime for cement. I had read about tourist development in Senggigi and I was expecting something like Sanur or Nusa Dua. Instead, I saw that Senggigi consisted of a narrow strip about 20 metres wide from the beach to the road. Into this space various losmen and hotels were established. The grounds of these places were cramped and did not have the lushness of Sanur or Nusa Dua. On the other side of the road were various shops and bars. The whole area looked run down as if there had been no recovery from the monetary crisis of 1998.
I found an airconditioned room at Lina Cottages opposite the Perama office for Rp 75,000 per night (without breakfast). After dropping my luggage, I took a swim in the ocean which was only a few steps from the hotel. At Lembar, a skilful pickpocket had stolen my watch. Being in Indonesia, I knew that a watch salesman would approach me in the next few hours. Sure enough, while I was eating my lunch a salesman came into the restaurant and sold me a Seiko watch with a blue face for Rp 50,000. This watch is still going.
Next night there was a small parade in Senggigi to celebrate Chinese New Year (Hari Imlek). There were two dragons and about twenty children banging gongs. I managed to photograph them.
After two nights in Senggigi, I had exhausted what was on offer there and took a Perama trip to Gili Trawangan (GT). As the Perama boat from Senggigi to the Gilis was not operating and the coastal road north was blocked by a landslide, the Perama bus had to travel south then inland through a monkey forest. Eventually, we reached the small port of Teluk Nara which is south of Bangsal. We waded to a 20' boat then headed to GT through two metre high waves. The face of one of the Australian ladies onboard took on the colour of her green top.
When the boat arrived at GT, I tried to find a hotel from the guidebook. A fellow came up to me with photographs of rooms in his Losmen. For Rp 80,000 a night (without breakfast) he offered me an air-conditioned room at Aldi Homestay in the village. This large room was clean with two large beds. More expensive rooms were closer to the beach. During the day there were frequent power cuts and thus no airconditioning.
As I am not a party animal, my two 'must dos' on GT were snorkelling and visiting the Japanese Cave.
I simply rolled up near the jetty at 10 am and for Rp 60,000 for the trip plus Rp 10,000 to hire flippers I went on a six hour snorkeling trip around all three islands. On my trip, I saw a large turtle swimming underwater and a Japanese wreck. Others saw a giant clam. We had lunch at a small restaurant on Gili Air which is not included in the price. On the snorkeling boat, I met a pretty NZ girl who had previously spent five years dancing with Riverdance in the US and Europe. She was looking forward to watching Balinese dances in Ubud. There is a great contrast in dance styles between Irish dancing with its emphasis on the feet and legs and Balinese dancing with its emphasis on the hands, arms and eyes.
My other 'must do' was a visit to the Japanese Cave. If you walk to the back of the village and along a wall, you will see concrete steps going up to the Communications Tower on top of the hill. The steps stretch for about a kilometre. When you get to the top there is a great view of the islands. Walk around the tower and follow the track at the back. You will see a small sign in English and Japanese. Walk down a slippery slope for twenty metres and you will see the entrance to an L shaped Japanese Cave. The cave looks like something out of the film "Letters from Iwo Jima". It has been blasted out of the rock. It has about a one metre high entrance and is about four metres wide. I walked in about twenty metres but did not fully explore the cave as I did not have a torch. I still do not know whether the cave was built by Japanese soldiers themselves or by forced labour.
You can return the way you came or walk down another set of concrete steps on the other side of the hill. If you do so, you will arrive at the "The Stud" - a horse riding place. Keep walking towards the beach and follow the path back to the village.
GT is a lot busier than Gili Air and is currently undergoing a boom. GT is a scene with western tourists lying on bamboo platforms near the beach ignoring the ocean and watching DVDs on small TVs. Their other recreation is to smoke through sheesa pipes. There are no motor vehicles on GT. The only form of transport is the Cidomo, a horse drawn cart.
After three nights on GT, it was time to head to Kuta Lombok. Perama took me by boat to Bangsal. There, I had to carry my luggage three hundred metres to the Bus Station. From there I took the Perama bus firstly to Senggigi, then to Mataram and lastly to Kuta Lombok.