One of three tiny islands located off the coast of the northwest coast of Lombok (which is a much larger island, like Bali) Gili Air was our first stop after leaving Nusa Penida.
The locals call these islands Gili Indah, which means small, beautiful islands, and we can confirm that is the case. Gili Trawangan is the largest and has the most people and action with lots of bars and party people. Gili Meno, where we would visit next, is the smallest and most rustic, and Gili Air is for families and couples, usually. There are no cars allowed on the islands, so transport is by motorbike, bicycle, horse-cart, or good ol’ walking, which is how we explored them.
We took a two-hour fast boat from Nusa Penida (Dramamine definitely helped, though this was a boat of about 100 or so passengers, so bigger than our last boat), and soon we were at the Gili Air harbor.
We carried our bags 15 minutes to the hotel…
which were bungalows with porches, and an outdoor bathroom, which was new to us.
As you can see above, the bed was set up with flowers and towel shapes, as many couples visit the Gili islands on their honeymoons. We dropped off our bags and decided to walk the island a bit. There are some inner, paved or brick roads, that we walked later. The ring “road” around the perimeter of the island is occasionally paved, but is mostly sand or a sand/dirt combo. After a while we stopped at a beach bar, of which there are many, and took in the view, even catching a rainbow!
After that we returned to the hotel, which also had a restaurant on the water and fresh fish on ice. There are many restaurants that sell fish that they will grill, but Jessica made sure we did not eat at any that didn’t have them on ice. Jessica had red snapper and I had a Tuna, with a side of french fries (because everyone loves french fries) and we had a great meal while the sun completely set.
There was also this white cat that kept wanting to get close, it would rub itself up against the posts, and that was a sign to us, of fleas. Also, I am very allergic to cats, so I kept pushing it away, but it wouldn’t leave us alone all dinner. We took another walk to see the island at dark and were treated to many stars.
We woke up the next day, go outside, and what do we see?
This cat would hang out with us when we would hang out on the porch, especially when it rained, even though I was nice enough to tell him to leave me alone many times. On this morning it had rained heavily the night before, and it often would rain during the day for an hour or so, or overnight; which would make the inner streets of the island slick and sometimes create some huge puddles.
We spent many days wandering the inner streets of the island, though it was much warmer inland than walking on the outer beach road. Here are some more street pictures that I liked from our visit.
Of course, this being a tropical island, has a lot of greenery, too and the air quality here is top notch.
There are so many interesting and colorful flowers, especially bougainvilleas, which were in season and all over.
Even the trees, some solitary with just the beach and ocean behind them, added to the natural vibe.
Of course, there were some funky and eclectic places on the island, too.
We mostly just walked around, went into the ocean when we could, and took in the island vibe, doing what one does on a tropical island. Rest assured we actually did some things, like go swimming with turtles and visited the island Mosque, with details and pictures to come in the next post from Gili Air!
Phil's WayPastCool 