Gilis are parallel located on the north west of Lombok island, an island on the east of Bali. Many people think that Gili is a part of Bali but it's not. It's part of Lombok. To get to Gilis you can go by fast boat from Padang Bai Harbor in Karangasem regency(Bali). The harbor is about 65 km from Denpasar. From Padang Bai, it takes about one and a half hour to get to Gili by fast boat. It's charged 400k for one way fast boat ticket. You can choose the fast boat company you wanna take, for example Ekajaya, Marina, or Giligili.
Another way to get there is by taking the plane from Bali to the airport in Lombok, and then from the airport you take about one and a half hour to get to the Bangsal Harbor on the west part of Lombok and take the public boat which is only 10k to get to Gili Trawangan, about 30 minutes. For the transportation from the airport to the harbor you can take taxi, shuttle bus/car, or renting motorbike. You will find the taxi company which has really similar look like taxi in Bali, it's only named different. If it's bluebird in Bali, in Lombok it's called Lombok taxi. For your information, Here is the number of the taxi 0370 627000. If you wanna rent a motorbike you should consider about the safety place to put the bike while your stay in Gili, because it's not possible to transfer the bike with you to Gili.
Well, We took Giligili fast boat to go to GT last time. It was fun and not spending so long time compare with taking public ship which takes 4 hours to get to Lombok. The beautiful moment when i was on the boat is when i saw the flying fish jumped from the ocean and flied about 5 seconds before it got back to the sea. That was cute fish. I also saw the bird flying close to the ocean catching the fish. What a nature.
The blue ocean was all around till i saw the shadow of Lombok Island and appearance of Gili island. I felt the excitement all over me. Blue ocean, clear sky, warm weather, white sand, fresh air, floating boats in a row at the beach obviously made a great feeling.
Just after i jumped off from the boat i stepped to the beach and saw a main street of Gili Trawangan. There are many cidomo(horse cart) as the transportation beside bicycle which can be rent. The cidomo driver will charge you depending how far your destination is, while by renting bicycle you can rent it per hour or per day. It is normally 15k per hour and 50k per 24 hour. There are so many home stay and restaurants there. The average price for a room is between 100k-250k per night, in low season. It might be three times of the normal price when its peak season (July/August).
In Gili you can do diving, snorkeling, enjoying sunset or sunrise, sun bathing, relaxing, and also partying :D. There are many tourist information stations in Gili that offer you best package for diving or snorkeling, there are also big diving companies such as Manta Dive and PADI office. A best snorkeling offer is to do snorkeling in three Gilis including snorkeling gear, mask, fin and life jacket and also lunch package which costs 120k. You will be dropped to the snorkeling spot in GT, GM, GA. The most amazing snorkeling spot is in GT where you can see turtle swimming so calm and relax. I was there and followed him swimming around. That was awesome, never had it before. The turtle was so big, may be about 70kg weight, it was followed by algae-eating fish on his skin. That was so good to see. For your information, in Gili sea there are reef sharks you can see mostly when you are diving. I didnt see them when i snorkeled. The activity that most people do is bicycling around the island. It takes one hour nonstop bicycling to go around the island.
If you wanna go to GM and GA you can take public boat at the harbor in GT which costs around 23k. The boat leaves from GT at 9.30 am and come back at 4 pm. If you wanna spend one or two nights in GM or GA you can talk to the harbor staff so he can fix it. That easy.
Beside the nice views of Gilis, big parties are often done by some bars or clubs in GT. The famous bars such as Rudy's, Irish, Sama-Sama Reggae Bar usually publish their party event on brochures which are put on some places like wall, trees, but mostly known by ''mouth to mouth''. When a big party is held, it seems like all tourist in Gili are coming and gathering in one place. The bar becomes the center of the crowd by hundreds people.
Gili is also well known as magic mushroom heaven. Im not sure if it is legal or not to sell or consume magic mushroom in this island. But you'll find there are so many places sell it and they use it as the icon of their shop or bar. Ahh ya,, you will probably be offered marijuana, cocaine,or other kind of drugs by some seller. Just remember to be smart. ;)
Well, the other thing that unique of Gili is that it is not allowed to have a dog in Gili, that's why there are so many cats every where in Gili. I dont know what the real reason of the non-dog in the island. But it's certainly that you won't find any pork on the menu of any restaurant in Gili. Mostly of the local people are Muslim. :) The local food you can find in some places, such as chicken satay or gado-gado, and also many kind of food in the night market before the art market in the central area (area where there are many expensive restaurant, hotel or bar and local people call it as 'central').
Four days and three night staying in Gili, to me, living in Gili represents my favorite song by Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa ft Bruno Mars, Young, Wild & Free .
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