Gili T & Lombok

I do have to apologise for this blog post... It is a mess. I wrote it on three different days and while I was tired on all of these, I was also in three different moods... You might notice that. Next one is better, I promise.

18.3.

The last chapter of our journey ended with us departing towards the harbour of Bali. Our plan: get a boat with the speed of the black pearl to get us to the Gili islands. When we reached Padang Bay, the mighty Zeus had other ideas in mind. He had summoned a massive storm that noon over the straight we wanted to cross, and no ships were leaving for our destination that afternoon. Yet Padang Bai has about as many lucrative-oriented businessmen as Ketterdam, so we had many offers from people trying to help us find a solution. I might have to mention though that they are only slightly more trustworthy than the businessman in the barrel. Consequently, it took us some time to take this offer. In the end, we took a boat to the Lombok, the big island next to the Gilis. From there, a car whisked us away towards Bangsal, where another boat awaited to ferry us to our ultimate destination, Gili Trawangan. Finally, on Gili T, we were eager to jump into the water and immediately run into the waves. This turned out to be a mistake, as the ocean in front of the beach was infested with jellyfish, who had a special taste for Artey. This turned out to be a short swim. We instead spend our time exploring a part of the island. Gili T resembles an island straight out of a pirate movie (with nice pirates). Any fuel run method of transportation is banned on the island; instead, you get around by horse, carriage or bicycle. You can also get rum at every other corner. Jack Sparrow would have been delighted. However, it did lack the drunken pirates that Tortuga is usually filled with (this might change when it is high season in the tourism sector). We had a nice dinner at the beach and booked our boat trip for the next day.

19.3.

That morning we had a beautiful breakfast at the beach. Our pink smoothie bowls formed the perfect contrast to the deep turquoise water, making us think of Vaiana. The next point on our plan for the day was a snorkeling trip with a boat. We departed, excited to enter the realm of Ariel. We visited three different locations which did not significantly differ from each other. On all of them we could see magnificent fish and corals in all colours you could think of. At the second location there were also some statues in the water, creating an underwater museum. After not quite two hours of snorkeling we were shipped off to Gili Air for some lunch.

The afternoon was spent exactly the way you spend it on a small tropical island: doing nothing, treating us to a massage, and an unsuccessful quest to find a new bikini. Our dinner matched the vibe and our breakfast: a buddha bowl at the beach.

20.3.

This was another travel day, so I’m just going to describe it in brief. Also I’m too lazy to add fantasy: after breakfast we took the boat to Bangsal where we went to the office to drive us to Lembar. Nothing is interesting in Lembar except the port. ,,,plannedwas to book ferry tickets to get to our next destination after Lombok: Labuan Bajo. We were asked many times what the heck we were doing there but we had a plan.

However, when we arrived in Lembar and finally found an office where we could book the tickets we were informed that the ferry was broken and currently under

construction in Java… So I we had to find a new plan. We pushed finding a new method of transportation to after lunch and drove to our accommodation half an hour away. Travelling with our mum has multiple advantages. One of them is that we have a bigger budget and so we treated ourselves to a nice villa at the beach with a pool. It didn’t have a restaurant but the owner drove us to the next hotel for some lunch. The afternoon was spend finding a way to Labuan bajo and one to Bali. The two of us had to return there the following day because we had to get to the immigration office to extend our visa. We cooked dinner in the villa and went to bed early.

21.3.

We needed to get to the immigration office that day to get our visa extended but for that we had to get to the south of Bali. This was a bit of a hassle but not that exciting, so we will tell you about it a bit differently.

7am: Got picked up from villa, took breakfast with us on the way

8.45: arrived in Bangsal and checked into the ferry

9.45: ferry left towards Bali

10.30: saw dolphins on the way

12.15: ferry arrived in Padang Bai (half an hour later than expected)

12.30: had planned to take the bus but that would have taken too long so we had to get a driver to take us to the immigration office (told him to get us there fast). He did by going around 40 km/h over the speed limit, overtaking other cars by using the turn lane and the hard shoulder.

13.50: arrived at the immigration office

14.05: were out of the immigration office again and had lunch with the driver who offered us a cheap deal to get us back (he would have to go back anyways)

15.50: arrived in Padang Bai

16.20: got takeaway dinner for the public ferry

16.30: boarded the public ferry

17.00: ferry left

20.30: ferry arrived in Lembar but didn’t dock. Just threw out the anchor in the middle of the harbour bay. There were already a lot of ferries in the bay.

22.30: ferry docked at the harbour and we left the boat. We took two motorbikes to get to our villa

23.10: arrived back at the villa

22.3.

I would love to tell a thrilling story about this day but alas, there is no adventure to be told of this day. We merely relaxed in our little paradise and did nothing but to swim and eat.