Tuesday, November 05, 2019

Day 3 - Gili Trawangan

what goes around comes around
like a boomerang in the universe
boom boom my heart beats strong
we can't be wrong on top of the world
What Goes Around - Philippe Cohen Solal & Chassol ft. Adam Glover & Tim Gustave

Day 3 was spent going to Gili Trawangan. We were taking a speed boat there and the beach to take it from is somewhere in Senggigi area. It's quite a drive to Senggigi but not as far as the drive the day before to Senaru to see the waterfalls. First stop was at a lookout point where we could see the 3 Gili islands across the water - Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, Gili Air. The picture below if I'm not mistaken is the Gili Trawangan island.

On the other side of the lookout, you could also see the Senggigi beach. You see more tourists in Senggigi than Mataram where we stayed, but we hardly spent any time in Senggigi at all.

After that we made our way to the beach to take our speed boat. The boat was rented just for us and it was really fast, I think it only took 15 minutes. Our driver / guide already told us that Gili Trawangan would feel more like Bali because there's so many foreign tourists. I first heard about the island from Eat, Pray, Love, the book. I guess many people do too and hence it is increasing in popularity. When we arrived, the island did look quite crowded. The trip we booked included free rental of bicycles and everyone was on board to do this. There's no car in the island, transportation is by bicycles or horse drawn carts. Once our bicycles were sorted out, off we went. The day was pretty hot and I stopped a few times to take pictures. Went to go nearer the empty beach a few times, but the beach wasn't that nice to walk on with the many corals washed up. In fact the nicest beach to walk on was the beach we were dropped off in, but that area had a number of boats so it's not that empty. Anyways below is a picture of some of the swings at the beach that many tourists like to take pictures with. As you can see, they're submerged. I guess the low tide is more during sunset which is the time when many people take their pictures?

Along the way my brother was way ahead that he left us and it's just me and my mom, aunt, and uncle. There were some parts where the path had many sands on them, so it wasn't that nice to ride on. In fact it's pretty impossible that there were a few times when we just had to walk our bicycles. The stupid us kinda overshot our starting points. I guess we're just in a hurry to leave the crowded area with all the restaurants, cafes, tourists (especially the ones newly arriving in boats) not realizing we have passed our starting point. I did have an inkling that we may have passed it, but then I was the last in the group so I just followed the rest until one point when I was super sure that we have passed the same place. So then we had to backtrack. Well as I said at least I managed to get 2 scoops of ice cream when we overshot our starting point.

Our starting point was a restaurant that provided our bicycles and lunch. When we arrived back, it was time for lunch. After lunch, we just sat around and talked. We only explored the perimeter of the island when we went cycling. The perimeter is dotted with hotels, restaurants, and such. More inside the island is where the locals live and I think there's quite a number of residents there. We saw little kids in uniform, so there's a school. There's also a mosque because I heard the call for prayer. I wonder how the locals feel about all this. If they're practicing Muslims, how do they feel about the many foreign tourists with all their merriment which do not exactly fit with the more conservative culture and religious obligations? I don't know, maybe they try to be understanding because their livelihood is dependent on it? That's what we assume at least. Anyways, I guess it's around 02:30 pm when we said we're ready to go. Our driver / guide called the boat and off we went back. The ride back was rougher. The boat guy was saying afternoon waves are bigger. I would definitely get sea sick if not for the motion sickness pill I took that morning. Even though I was fine, it's not a pleasant feeling being tossed with every bump of the wave. I'm glad everyone made it okay. Then we're driven for dinner in Senggigi area. The restaurant was overlooking the beach. It was too early for dinner so I thought we should walk around first, but only me and mom did that. We tried to get to the Balinese temple below, but we were approaching from the side gate and when we went in, the locals were telling us to go enter from the front, but we're too tired to do that, so we went back to the rest.

It's kinda interesting that the beach we were in has black sand. We spent the rest of the time waiting talking and watching the sun set. By the way somehow during all our dinners in Lombok, we always had cats nearby. This time too, there were cats waiting.

Overall I thought the whole trip was pretty good. It was nice spending time with the family and I'm glad all went well. There are other places in Lombok that we have yet to visit, but I don't know if I'll go back anytime soon. Below is the last sunset we had in Lombok while waiting for dinner. For pictures of Senggigi and Gili Trawangan, you can go here.

We left the next morning. I was transiting in Jakarta again. So when my family left, I still had to wait quite a long time :( Now that I'm back, it didn't take long to go back to the downward swing. It should not be surprising, but I did feel rather surprised at how fast I was feeling down :( We have less than 2 months in 2019 and I feel like I have so many things to do and not enough time to do them all. I do hope you have less anxiety than me.

:) eKa @ 8:30:00 PM •