Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Getting to the Gili's

The next day we had at our leisure as I used the internet (in vain trying to find the best way to get to the Gili Islands off Lombok - the Internet can be a real pain sometimes when looking for very specific information!), and then instead just walking around Kuta shopping for the best ticket price through an agent. The best price I could find was 140,000 rupiah ($14US) each, which included all transport to the island of Gili Air and a pick-up from our hotel (most places advertised 185,000). I found this at a fairly non-descript place on Poppies Lane, a pretty cool laid-back backpacker laneway that I hadn't noticed in Kuta before (although it is in the Lonely Planet of course).

So the next morning our taxi arrived at 6:10am and our driver ran into another hostel looking for a third passenger who it turned out had canceled - leaving just the two of us in the lovely comfy, modern air-conditioned taxi all the way to Padang Bai, about an hour's drive away. It's from here that the public ferry leaves for Lombok (you can get a fast boat direct to the Gili's, but it costs 690,000). At Padang Bai we had to wait nearly 2 hours before boarding the ferry (basically the agency leaves you waiting around until enough tourists arrive to fill one of their shuttle buses on the far side).

The ferry trip was an easy, relaxed 4 hours, and we got picked up on Lombok and taxied (via Mataram) directly to Bangsal. From here we were deposited at a restaurant about 200 metres from the harbour and told to wait. After about another 2 hours we were told to move down to the harbour itself, and after a further 30 minutes waiting around (basically for more tourists to arrive to fill a boat), we left for the 30 minute boat ride to Gili Air.

Once on the island I traipsed around and found fairly cheap accommodation (85,000 a night with a great breakfast included), at Lucky's Hostel, which turned out to be a great place, although a bit far from the scuba places and the main stretch of restaurants (but a much better location for watching the sunsets). Our rustic hut was right on the beach and even had an extra double bed on our veranda, which was a great spot in which to read.

Basically it had taken us a full 12 hours to get door-to-door from Kuta to Gili Air, and that was after paying for a single ticket to cover all the various hops in taxi, shuttle bus, ferry and local boat. But along the way I was noting the cost of each hop, and although it turned out we had paid a very fair price, the delays along the way were unnecessary really. If you make you're own way you can just hop in the next taxi, ferry or shuttle that's leaving, whereas if you travel the whole way with a single operator you have to wait until they have a full load before moving on. Anyway, on the way back to Bali I now knew we should be able to do it quicker and even cheaper, which was exactly how it turned out.

But for now we had safely arrived on the very pretty Gili Air. After just about catching the sun setting into the horizon as we arrived, we had a lovely dinner at Lucky's and I was really looking forward to a relaxing couple of weeks on the islands and hopefully getting in some good scuba diving.

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