Gili Trawangan

I’ll save you all the bullshit. The Gilis have been covered profusely by the travel blogger world, so mostly I’m here to post some of my pictures, and remind me why I’d like to go back. The biggest draw is the good old Gili Trawangan sunsets.

It’s nice, it’s sorta off-the-beaten-track. But then again, there are a plethora of hostels, guesthouses, villas, hotels, bars and restaurants to say otherwise.

Three little tear drop shaped islands off the coast of Lombok makes up the Gili Islands.

It seems like every other blogger out there has discovered and visited one of the three Gilis and then wrote a post on it. I’m not going to piss into the wind telling you all the same things and where to stay and make declarations as to what you should do there, I’ll just tell you where I stayed, what we did and mostly show you pictures. You can go on any booking site and figure it out for your self.

We stayed on Gili Trawangan or as you’ll see, Gili T for short. Gili Meno and Gili Air are the other two (smaller) islands in the archipelago. There’s not a whole lot to the islands, meaning they’re pretty easy to figure out once you’re there.

Where we stayed: Oceano Jambuluwuk Resort

We booked a room at the Oceano Jambuluwuk. It’s on the north side of the island. We didn’t want to be amid all the chaos and bars near the village. The rooms were nice and the price was decent. It’s right on the beach, a unique one at that. Yes the hotel grounds are a little goofy. African safari animal statues everywhere, but really who cares? If you’re hanging out on the beach that stuff is all on the backside of your head anyways. The room cost included breakfast each day.

Gili T seems to have the full array of accommodation types to for all budgets from backpacker fighting for the last rupiah to nicer resorts, I cannot speak for Air or Meno since I did not spend the night on either of those islands.

How we got around: Mostly bicycles

Upon arrival on the island we took one of the horse drawn carts since we had our packs and our hotel was on the north side , we were dropped by our boat in the village on the southwest end of the island. There are no motor vehicles on the island if you by some grace of God ended up on my site before the glut of other travel blogs that have all written about Gili T before me (and actually give two fucks about SEO and getting their site to rank on Google, if you’re not a blogger this makes no sense to you… but what it means is I’m not playing some stupid game with Google to get my site to pop up first on google when you search ‘Gili Trawangan travel guide’).

Once we were situated at the hotel we walked back to the village and rented bikes for the entirety of our stay. It was, if I remember correctly about a 20 minute walk to get back to the village from the Jambuluwuk. Gili T is small and the island can be lapped by sandal in about two hours, one hour if you’re peddling your happy ass around by bike.

Or I could have wrote: horse cart, bicycle, walking… and saved myself the carpal tunnel.

What to do, what to do?

Sunsets

Hands downs, the beset sunsets I have ever seen have happened from Gili Trawangan’s shores. There have a been a couple close runners up, but Gili T takes the cake here. Period.

Paddleboarding

We rented paddleboards one day and paddled ourselves over to Gili Meno, I’m sure with the currents they probably recommend against this.

Snorkeling

We snorkeled from the shore of our hotel, and saw a decent amount there. However, we did see more fish and turtles by going out on a snorkeling boat trip that included a stop for lunch of Gili Air. There’s plenty of diving shops around as well if that’s what you’re there for (I still have not gotten my dive cert. yet)

Bike rides

We rode bikes all over that island. The best part was when Tay hopped hers off this little drop off and it sounded like a gun went off… her tire popped.

Nightly parties

Each night of the week there is a party at one of the bigger bars on the island and there’s even a schedule. We went out to one one of the nights we were there and it was actually heaps of fun. If you want to read up more on this because I don’t feel like typing up more on the subject, The Drinking Traveller has a very nice and informative post on the Gili T party life.

Night Market

A good place to go for cheap food.

Or do absolutely nothing

It’s a good place to kick back and lay out on the beach.

What to watch out for

The main thing we were warned against visiting Gili T was to be careful of what you drank when going to any of the bars. There have been cases of bars mixing in methanol with the alcohol to cut cost. And if you paid any attention to methanols (wood alcohol) effect on a human… it’s not a good outcome, usually death. Rudy’s Bar was who we were advised to avoid because of this, we erred on the safe side and stuck with Bintang.

The Gilis, as with most of Indonesia is Islamic, so yes, you will have to hear the call to prayer bright ‘n early. I actually don’t mind the call to prayer, especially the nice song like ones. Although some are just an angry man screaming loudly into a microphone. Ya win some, ya lose some.

Otherwise just your normal travel advice, don’t be a dumbass.

Overall…

The Gilis are worth the trek especially if you’re planning to visit Bali and/or Lombok. If you’re looking for a party or to get away from it all you can here. Oh and those Gili Trawangan sunsets… Did I mention those?

Have you been to the Gilis?

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This entry was posted in Asia, Travel Advice

• Gili Air
• Gili Meno
• Gili Trawangan
• Indonesia
• Oceano Jambuluwuk