I immediately feel myself falling in love with Gili T. It is honestly one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a long time. The way of life is simple, there are no cars or roads as we know them, and everything there reminds me that life doesn’t ever need to be complicated.
I wake on Friday morning (day 8) and the storm has passed over, leaving blue skies and a new day plus the promise of a new adventure. Today I leave Bali and travel to the nearby island of Gili Trawangan, one of the most well known of the Gili islands which are part of neighbouring Lombok.
Feeling excited
I’m excited to see something outside of Bali. In spite of my positive first impressions, my first week here hasn’t been as idyllic as I had imagined it would be. I wake early, have breakfast, pack, and head to the check in point for the ferry to Gili T. Having bought my ferry tickets when I arrived yesterday, I feel optimistic that the day will go to plan and that I will soon be living it up on Gili T.
This is the start of a week where I expect to go shamelessly over budget. I’ve booked myself a small but private villa for a few nights on Gili T, followed by what looks like another very nice accommodation at the next stop. I board the boat in Padangbai hoping that these next two destinations and a little bit of relative luxury will shift my perceptions of this trip into a more positive space.
The journey goes well. I don’t travel well on boats, and it occurs to me only once I am on there that this is the first time I have been on a boat since my close encounter at the Great Barrier Reef a little over a year ago. The trip is pleasant and uneventful though, with no small thanks owed to the fact that I had the foresight to take travel sickness medication that morning.
The boat pulls up almost onto the beach on Gili Trawangan and we are directed towards some fold down steps to disembark. Our bags are expertly passed down from the boat to some very hardworking baggage handlers in shorts and bare feet who wade into the water and transport our belonging safely onto the dry sand for collection.
Click here to read my Bali diary from the beginning.
Finding my way
There are swarms of tourists waiting to board a long line of boats all pulled up side by side near the sand in a similar fashion to how ours just did. I will learn later that this is what is referred to as the harbour. I do not notice as I am leaving this morning, but there is a row of check in offices across the road for the various boat companies. It all looks chaotic to me as I collect my backpack and head up the sand towards the “road”, but there is a system here and it is undeniably working.
It’s bloody hot on the island, 30 degrees or thereabouts, and I’m not really thrilled with the idea of the 20 minute walk that Apple maps tells me I have ahead of me to get to my little villa. My only other options are to rent a bicycle or go with a horse and cart. The horses look hot and tired, and I’ve heard that they are overworked and not treated particularly well. My track record on bicycles isn’t so great, and my skill level would be unlikely to improve carrying a backpack plus my smaller bag, so it seems that walking is my choice by default this morning.
I head off up what seems to be the main street, with the beach on my right and shops, bars, restaurants and hotels on my left. When I reach my turn off point, I decide to stop into the restaurant on the corner to have some food and a little rest and a cold drink. I have been walking for roughly eight minutes now, so I feel like I’ve earned it. My route is bringing me inland a little and away from the bustle of the seafront, so I am unsure what my dining and resting options will be like further along the way.
The staff are friendly and helpful . A man rushes to help me take off my backpack, sits me at a table, and repositions a fan to cool me down. Maybe he’s a very kind man, or maybe I look like crap and he’s scared I’ll fall down in a heap and make his day a lot more dramatic than he would like. Either way, it’s all to my advantage and I’m super grateful for his kindness.
After a longer, more leisurely stop than I had planned, I head off on my way again. The paved surface of the seafront road is gone now, and I’m walking on dirt tracks which are waterlogged in places. It seems that the storm that hit Padangbai last night paid a visit here as well. My phone leads me straight to the villa (I’m more and more glad as the days go by that I invested in a local SIM card), and I head in through the gates, hot and sweaty and ready to relax.
A little bit of luxury
Check in is quick and efficient. A pleasant young man brings me straight into my villa and gives me some information about the island, including where to get the best sunsets, a handy map, and his phone number which he says I am to use if I get lost on the island. Honestly, I’m hoping it won’t happen. This is a small island which can apparently be explored in its entirety on foot in a few hours. If I manage to get lost here, it’s probably time for me to pack my bags and go home with my head hung in shame.
When he’s gone, I have a look around my little villa. I experience what I can only describe as an intense feeling of absolute glee. It is exactly as it looked on the booking website, and absolutely worth breaking my budget for. I have a semi outdoor bathroom. It is walled and has a roof for the most part, but the area above the shower is open to the elements. I have a simple but spacious bedroom, with a massive bed and aircon, plus a view out to my private yard with my private whirlpool. This is where I will spend the next three nights, and I couldn’t be happier with the situation.
Later that evening I go for dinner. My stroll along the dirt roads to and from the beachfront is made all the more enjoyable by the lack of mopeds and therefore the absence of offers of taxis every few seconds. Instead, the source of interest and the main conversation starter this evening seems to be my mosquito bites. Two local boys on the road call me to ask me what is wrong with my skin, and an Australian man in the restaurant tells me he has never seen anything like them.
Back at the villa I go to bed tired and happy, disturbed only briefly by another storm which thankfully only leaks very slightly into my bedroom., and wake the next morning ready to relax and see more of this beautiful island.
Daily Spend
My daily spend for my time on Gili T is obviously going to go way over budget, but rules are meant to be broken. My villa costs more per night than my actual daily budget, plus I have been warned that everything will be slightly more expensive here, simply due to the logistics of transporting goods to the island. Ferry to Gili T 400k, villa 627.75k per night, food and drink 250k. Total spend for day eight 1,277.750 IDR.
Sounds great once you are settled in.