After 4 days in Sanur we were picked up by the minibus and taken to Padang Bai for the fast boat to Gili Trawangan. This was all booked before I went to Bali. This is one trip that I don't think I got any discount on by booking it early. The fast boat ride was great. We had fairly calm seas and arrived in absolute heaven! Now all I needed to do was work out how to get to Gili Meno - the next island. Luckily my ticket had a complementary transfer to Gili Meno. So we were taken to a small boat and ferried over to Meno. When we arrived, there were a few horse and carts ready to transport us to the hotel. I had no idea how far or even if we needed a horse and cart - but hey it looked like fun! That poor horse! There were 4 adults in that cart - no bigger than a Daewoo Matiz! Add 3 suitcases as well as 3 sets of hand luggage and that poor horse! We paid about 50,000 to ride the 150m to the Gili Meno Bird Park and it was worth every cent!
The Bird park has some of the slightly better accomodation on the island. It is still pretty primitive though. The aircon in one room leaked and only just managed to keep our room cool enough. But Gili Meno - wow it is an amazing place! Pure relaxation. Swim eat walk relax read books wow I want to go back now! We stayed 4 days there and now my 15 daughter wants to go back for schoolies next year. Of course Dad will have to go too :)
Food on Gili Meno is amazing - pick your Fish each night off a bed of ice. Its cooked to perfection! Cost about $12
After 4 days we caught the public boat back to Gili Trawangan (20,000Rp each) and caught the fast boat back and the mini bus to Sanur. Waiting there for us was the car I had hired to go to Lovina.