Visiting the Gilis

Gili Air Island, Indonesia
8.6510°S, 116.3249°E

The Gili Islands are located off the coast of Lombok, the Indonesian island just to the east of Bali. The three “Gilis” are Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air.

Sarah and I decided that Gili Air – the smallest of the three islands – would be our island retreat from our island retreat. We arranged transportation at the hotel and headed on a bus to Bali’s east coast to meet our ferry in the town of Padangbai.

When we got off the ferry at Gili Air’s harbor, the first thing we noticed was the horse- drawn carriages that are all over the island. They are mostly used to tote tourists to and from their resorts and villas, but the locals also use them as a way to transport heavier items (water jugs, boxes of fruit, building materials, etc.) around the island.

There are no cars or motorbikes on Gili Air, and it only takes about 90 minutes to walk around the entire island. The island’s beaches are lined with cafes and restaurants, and as you walk or bike the road around the island almost every restaurant and shop has someone out front enticing you into their business.

Sarah and I rented bikes for the 24 hours we were on the island, which only cost us about $4 USD. We did some exploring before checking into our room for the night at the Manta Dive Bungalows. As the name suggests, most of the people staying in this little villa were on the island for its world famous diving. Two diving tours left daily from Manta, and there were a half dozen or so other similar places close to where we stayed.

After touring around on our bikes a bit, we decided to walk the island in search of a dinner spot. We took our time, but still made it around almost the entire island in about two hours, stopping mostly to look at the fresh fish being presented outside of nearly all of the restaurants.

We landed on a restaurant that had some great looking red snapper out front and a live band playing beachy cover music inside.

Cooking with Pian

After breakfast the next morning, Sarah went off to a cooking class and I rented a standup paddle board to cruise around the island.

I met Sarah afterwards at the cooking school, just in time to eat some of the leftovers from her class. Sarah learned from her host chef Pian how to make four traditional Indonesian dishes. Mie Goreng Ayam (fried noodles with chicken), yellow curry, peanut sauce and an Indonesian dessert called Kelopon.

After leaving Sarah’s cooking class we went to check out of our hotel and rushed down to the harbor to catch our 3:00 p.m. ferry back to Bali.

There was a big festival going on Gili Air the day we were leaving, and because of that the ferries were backed up and running late. We ended up sitting on the dock for three hours waiting for our ferry (evidently delays like this are pretty common). Fortunately we met some nice people from the UK and Ireland to help pass the time.

Goodbye to Bali

Our last few days in Bali were spent in Canggu doing a bit of shopping, some surfing, and revisiting the places where we had the best meals. Sarah and I talked a lot about all of the things we’d miss from Bali. Topping our list was the food, the beaches and the warmth of the Balinese people.

We both felt like our month in Indonesia flew by way too fast, but we woke up on our last day in Bali excited for the next leg of our trip. We took a taxi to the airport in Denpasar and checked in for our three hour flight to Malaysia.

Some more pictures of our last few days in Bali…..