Gili Trawanga, Lombok, Indonesia

August 10 - 14: I spent three days nights on Gili Trawanga, a small island of 800 people located in Lombok, Indonesia, a short boat ride from Bali. The island is beautiful - mountains and volcanos serve as a backdrop for white sand beaches and turquoise water, and while popular, it’s not overrun by tourists. Predominately Muslim, cars and motorbikes are forbidden on the island, and the only means of transportation is by bicycle or horse drawn cart - even the garbage man has a horse drawn carraige. Interesting tidbits on Gili T: biking around the island takes about two hours, the island holds the title of “Smallest Island With An Irish Bar,” and dogs are not allowed on the island.  At least one a day, electricity to the island dies - no reason, no set time - it just shuts off. Thankfully the outages normally last less than 10 minutes, and then things get back to normal.

On the boat ride over, I met a few travelers who, like me, hadn’t made reservations in advance. Not for lack of trying on my part though - apparently hotels there change numbers so frequently that the guide books can’t keep up, and replying to email requests for rooms (even those with the subject: URGENT - NEED A ROOM) go unanswered. When we got off the boat, we grabbed our backpacks, turned right  and started the search - hotel owners approached us every ten feet asking if we needed a room, and the bargaining began: $30 for a room with no AC or hot water. $35 for hot water but no AC. $50 for all of the above, plus breakfast. $25 for a small room with paint peeling off the walls, 300 meters from the beach down a dirt path with roaming cows and chickens, no AC, and no hot water. One of my friends decided to keep within budget and chose that room - I debated it, but in the end decided I could “splurge” and pay the $50 for a beach bungalow with both hot water and AC. At the time, I didn’t realize that I was right next to the Muslim Mosque, or that Ramadan was about to begin and the Mosque had a habit of blasting prayers through a loudspeaker every few hours - including 3am, 5am, and 7am.

My bathroom was also outside, which was an interesting experience. I had 15 foot high walls and and a few palm trees covered the the top corners, but it was an odd experience showering outside in the middle of the day - especially while listening to Muslim prayers blasted at me through a megaphone.

As was Bali, Gili was a completely chill experience. Days were spent laying out, biking around the island, drinking fresh mango smoothies on the beach, drinking local beer and sitting on the sand watching sunsets, eating grilled fish at little tables on the beach for dinner, and hanging out at the Irish bar at night. As I said - it was a pretty chill trip. We tried snorkeling one day but chose the wrong time of the day, and instead of seeing colorful fish were tossed into piles of coral, cut up, and I ended up losing my mask to one of the more powerful waves.

On day four, I left Gili and headed back to Bali to check out Ubud. On the boat ride back we somehow managed to lose two of the five ship’s engines, and our 1.5 hour ride turned into 4 hours. It didn’t matter though - I was on the top deck, the sun was out, and it was a beautiful ride.