Indonesia: The Island of Gili Air

We enjoyed our time in Nusa Penida, but were ready to be slightly more active and explore the Gili islands after our week of straight chilling. We said goodbye to the staff at Penida View Village and Mimi (one of the owners) and off we went with the driver, down the windy, bumpy road to the port.

The port, while smaller than the one we left from in Sanur, seemed a bit better organized with one table of staff taking tickets and directing folks. They even took our luggage, which we had to schlep to the boat ourselves in Sanur. They had three different labels for luggage as there are three different Gili Islands: Trawangan (aka Gili T), known as the party island; Gili Air, the family friendly island, and Gili Meno, the super chill island. All of the small Gili islands are within a 20 minute or less boat ride from each other.

The port had a simple system, check in and sit on the wooden benches provided, or mill about in the general area, until boarding started. We sat near a Hindu shrine with generous offerings (the little palm frond offering baskets are called banten) from the morning. A pigeon stopped to pay his respects as well.

The boat was, luckily, much larger and more comfortable than the one we’d taken to Nusa Penida. It was also air conditioned, thank goodness. We made a beeline for the front row so we’d have some leg room, which paid off. The seats were cushy but there wasn’t a ton of room between rows. We’ve employed this tactic a couple of times on different modes of transportation and it’s a life saver for tall or even above average height folks.

We took some Dramamine (this was before I decided I’d rather be sea sick than take Dramamine), so the two hour ride felt quick, or at least, I don’t remember a lot about it. We shuffled off the boat at the final stop, Gili Air. We’d been told by the hotel to “find the man with the horse cart”, who would help us with our luggage as the Gili’s are all free of automobiles. There are a few e-bikes, and one can rent a bicycle (more on that later) and then there are men with horse carts. The horse cart guys transport tourists and their luggage around to their destinations and bring supplies to various shops and vendors from the port.

We decided that since it was only a ten minute walk from the port to our hotel, we would just walk. By the time we got to the hotel, I wished we’d snagged a horse cart guy (hauling all of my belongings on my back and one shared wheeler bag between us is heavy). We settled in to our bungalow at Unzipp Restaurant and Bungalows and by that, I mean we laid around for a while, letting the Dramamine run its course.

We enjoyed a meal at our hotel’s restaurant that evening, and what a meal it was. Unzipp is known for their fresh seafood which you can select from a trough of iced down fish and shellfish and they grill right there on the beach. I had the red snapper and Phil had a huge tuna. The hotel offered a salad bar of sorts with different vegetables, which was really nice and paired well with the fish, alongside our beers and french fries. It’s all about balance, right?

The seating area extends over the beach, creating a lovely view and Phil even made a feline friend. One of the many cats near the area continually tried to get close with Phil while we were eating our dinner in our cozy little booth, and he was having none of it. The little white cat was persistent, but we did a good job of shooing it away since Phil is allergic to cats. I’m cool with them, but not during dinner and I’m also not getting cozy with a random island cat. Phil and I often comment (to each other) on the tourists who pet and love up on the street cats in various places we’ve visited. I’m an animal lover, but no one knows what kind of fleas, fungus, or island mystery skin condition they could have. No thanks. I’ve got my own skin conditions to deal with.

Lo and behold, I laughed out loud when I opened the door to our bungalow the following morning to find Phil’s BFF snoozing on our table.

We headed out to explore some of the island we would be on for the next week. Most folks don’t stay that long, usually only spending a day or two, on each of the Gili’s. We had a week, so plenty of time to relax and take care of any must-do’s we decided on.

One can walk around the entire perimeter of the island in about an hour and a half, though cutting through the interior streets offers a different perspective and other cool things to see. While it can also be a short cut to a particular destination, it is much hotter than walking along the water with it’s ocean breeze.

Many people will offer to rent you a bike or suggest you rent a bike to ride around the island. Fortunately we: A). Like to walk and B). Have travel friends who have visited the Gili’s and told us that half the island is so sandy you can’t ride a bike through it and advised that we skip renting one. We’re happy we did just that. We saw many a tourist walking their bikes through the sand, which did not seem fun. I could see how a bike might make zipping through the interior of the island quicker, but then you’re navigating around walkers, locals on e-bikes, and horse cart guys. Also, I’m on vacation, where the heck do I need to get with such efficiency?

The Gili Islands are not in Bali, rather they are in the West Nusa Tenggara Province, near the large island of Lombok. Like all of Indonesia, other than Bali, the province is predominantly Muslim. The islands are not as conservative as some areas, given they cater to scantily clad tourists who like to drink alcohol. The most notable differences between the islands and Bali were more women wearing hijab, the five-times-a-day call to prayer from the island mosque minaret, and the occasional signs in the interior of the island asking that tourists not walk around topless or in just bikinis in the local neighborhoods (seems fair).

Our big must-do on the island was snorkeling, and swimming with sea turtles. There was a dive shop right next to our hotel that had all kinds of boating adventures. We selected one involving snorkeling over the coral and swimming with the turtles. This involved spending a lot of time in the water off of Gili Meno (which was to be our next travel destination) but oh well. We didn’t figure that seeing sea turtles would get old too quickly (and it didn’t). We had a blast out on the boat with our boat driver, who is called Captain and Ardie, our snorkeling guide and turtle whisperer. The price of our little half day adventure included the use of a GoPro. Ardie was well versed in using one and took over capturing our adventure via photo and video. We were cool with that and he did a great job.

We stopped the boat just off of Gili Meno’s shore and hopped in the water. The turtles aren’t usually out in the deep parts of the ocean as they eat the vegetation off of the sea floor and swim up occasionally for air. We lucked out as we were in a spot with few other people. Ardie spotted a turtle and waved us over. It was so cool to just hang and swim along with him while he ate. We ended up seeing three different turtles and spent a half hour swimming with them and observing them.

We stopped for lunch on Gili Meno and headed off to a Warung that our friends had recommended. The Captain and Ardie were surprised we didn’t pick a table at the tourist hotspot they’d moored the boat in front of, telling us, “Everything you need is right here”. We opted for a bit of exploring along with our lunch.

We walked toward the interior of the island, in search of Warung Pak Man (fun, right?).

The Warung was a hole in the wall, as they often are, but was recommended by friends and had a good Google rating, so we sat at one of the picnic tables and a very cute and kindly old man waited on us. We ordered the gado-gado, vegetables with peanut sauce (some list this as a salad, but it’s mostly cooked vegetables. We have never had it the same way twice but we really like peanut sauce), the urap-urap which is a salad with blanched vegetables and shredded coconut which I like quite a lot, but can’t find it everywhere, and we also had some chicken satay. The food was quite good and the old man told us that a chef from the U.S. had come to apprentice with him and she later opened an Indonesian restaurant in Washington D.C.

We took a bit of a different way back, but still made it to the beach in plenty of time to meet up with Ardie and Captain. We climbed back on the boat and headed for a snorkeling spot above the coral near Gili Air.

The photos don’t do the coral justice. It was really beautiful, in varying shades. We even saw some blue and purple coral along with some super cool fish. We really enjoyed our snorkeling day.

The rest of our time spent on Gili Air was quite relaxing. We walked around the island many times, had a beach day, and ate some good food, some Indonesian and some not. Phil’s BFF even made a few more appearances.

I also found a really good coffee shop that I liked quite a bit, Gili Coffee Roasters. We went there several times (these photos were all taken on different days. What can I say, my wardrobe is limited).

When it was time to move on to Gili Meno, instead of heading back to the port and over, we were able to secure a trip with the same company that took us snorkeling. They pulled right up on the beach outside of our hotel and zipped us over. We had a different captain who legit could not have been older than 15 and his two helpers who were under 12. He drove that speed boat so fast I was slightly scared that he might flip it, but we arrived safely in under 15 minutes, with a two minute walk down the beach to our hotel. Now that is some door-to-door service that I can get behind.

Next up: Chillin super hard in Gili Meno!