Gili Islands consists of 3 islands, Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air, located in the north of Lombok Island. Popular with tourists to Bali and Lombok in recent years, these islands boast dazzling white sand beaches, crystal clear water, and impressive coral reefs.. Offering an aquarium-like sea in the sea just a few meters from the beach and affordable accommodation for every budget, these islands offer more than that for those who love the sea, sand and sun trio. Fast boat services are the most preferred way to reach from Bali, but together with my travel friend Dutch Farid, we decided to try something different.. We will make an agreement with Wayan from Amed, where we went fishing yesterday, and we will go to Gili Trawangan from Amed, Bali with his brother Made’s fishing boat. We paid 51 TL per person for accommodation.. If we do not count the insects, we stayed very economically in a very nice hotel and had a pleasant time.. I rode Fisherman Wayan’s motorcycle with my backpack on my back, while Farid jumped on the back of his brother Made’s motorcycle. After passing another village 4 km away, putting our backpacks on the boat, we set out to sea.. The traditional Bali boat, which has a narrow and long shape, has legs on both sides that keep it balanced in the water.. In this state, the spider-like boat has an engine at the back and a huge sail.
We had just set off and sailed a bit, we got soaked by the waves, so we came back as it would be difficult to continue the 3-4 hour journey.. We hit the road again when Wayan the Fisherman told us that it was choppy here and that the waves would decrease in the future.. To prevent our backpacks from getting wet, Made had wrapped them with plastic nylons, but we did not trust them, so we untied them and reconnected them.. The waves were rocking us up and down like a cradle for the first half hour.
After we went for a while, the captain of our tiny boat, Made, turned off the noisy engine and opened the sails, and we started to navigate more comfortably in the shade of the sail.. We stopped the boat and took our raincoats from our backpacks, so we were protected from both the water and the wind.. But we were shaken so much that we couldn’t turn our eyes away from the summit of Mount Agung on the island of Bali, which we left behind, in order not to vomit.. We did not look away until the summit of Mount Agung disappeared in the fog.. On the way we passed an oil tanker and a passenger ferry.. The freely swimming dolphins were passing by us.
The fast boat can travel the 40 km sea route between Bali and Lombok in 2 hours and 15 minutes.. Captain Made’s brother, Wayan, said that this journey would take around 3 hours and 15 minutes.. It would be too optimistic to believe that. We expected that our journey would take longer, but we did not take into account that we would surrender to the waves so much, it was a pleasant adventure.
We were able to reach the western end of Gili Trawangan island after 4 hours.. While we were sailing with our boat towards the northeastern part of the island, where the hotels are, we were waving to many diving and snorkeling tour boats.. We must have looked strange in an environment where everyone was in shorts and bikinis, in our raincoats on our sailing boat, we were followed by curious eyes.. There is only one place on the north east coast of the island where boats can dock, the other coast is completely covered with coral reefs.. Even as the boat approached the shore, Captain Made was maneuvering very carefully and advancing very carefully.. Our captain is quite talented; While controlling the rudder with his foot and the sail with one hand, he was fishing with his fishing rod with his other hand along the way, without missing a cigarette in his mouth.
We brought our boat to the shore with the help of the people on the beach.. Made took us to a hotel he knew and we settled in, Rp 175,000 per night. We had no intention of staying in our room after a tiring and enjoyable journey.. We mingled with the voices of the azan on the one hand, the prayers read from the mosque loudspeaker, on the other hand, the young people lying on the beach and having crazy fun.. The white sandy beach of Gili Trawangan, a police-free party and holiday island, now welcomed us.
Day 356: Indonesia:14 Gili Island, Lombok, 26 July 2011