Good snorkelling in the Gilli Islands

Gilli Trawangan

Last Monday (9th February) we took the island hopper boat from Gilli Air to Gilli Trawangan, the largest of the three Gilli Islands off Lombok’s northern coast. The sea was benign, the high swells of the last week having subsided with the waning of the moon; it was such an enjoyable trip being on calmer waters. Gilli Trawangan is far more “touristy” than Gilli Air so it made a pleasant change for a day trip, however, we much prefer Gilli Air as a place to stay. One sad thing about these islands, however, is that despite their natural scenic beauty, they are dirty (littered beaches, rotting fruit and veg n the streets) and they are also littered with overbearing hawkers and drug pushers; it gets a bit tiring keep having to say “No“. We found a café with broadband internet, giving us a chance to open our email, however, as soon as we had done so the power went down so we were unable to blog. When power was resumed later in the day, we went on line again, but after only uploading one photograph in an hour online we gave up; a tad slow.

Thanks to the calmer weather we got our first chance to snorkel on Tuesday. The water was still a bit cloudy but it’s great being able to swim over live coral and see brightly coloured tropical fish right off the beach. By Wednesday the rain and cloud returned so we only had one day snorkelling in Gilli, but we count this as a bonus, after all, it is the rainy season.
Yesterday we made the long nine hour journey back to Padangbai in Bali where we are now (boat, bus and then ferry). This time the sea was calm so it was a good trip. We had six days on Gilli Air and really loved it. Now we want to go to Flores and Komodo to see the dragons. We tried to book flights today. We failed; or rather we gave up in frustration and went for a swim instead! It is Friday 13th! Tomorrow we are just going to get to Dempasar airport and take it from there. Indonesia isn’t an easy country to travel in and it is hard to gain concrete information, especially regarding the cost of things (like flights); everyone has a different price, failing to understand that some people such as ourselves do not want a whole package tour, just flights. So we are off to the airport tomorrow, not knowing times, costs or anything, unable to get on line, unable to get information over the phone or from the so-called ‘Tourist Information” shacks by the harbour here. We are not bothered by this, however; this is Indonesia! If we can’t get a flight tomorrow we’ll just get a hotel instead near to the airport and travel to Flores when we can. We also need to find out about leaving one rucksack at the airport in “left luggage’ because what we have found out is that on domestic flights here the baggage allowance is only 10 kilo each. Tonight we’ll re-pack the rucksacks accordingly so that we can leave one behind. Oh the joys of travel!