Gili, the local Sasak Language that means island. Indonesia have so many Gili across the country. so many beauty behind it and so many adventure for adventurer. one of them are the Trio Small Gili near Lombok Island, Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, And Gili Air. although i have been go there a few years ago, but this time was special because this pandemic season. this is my adventure in August 2021 first part of hiking Mount Rinjani in Lombok Island on the same years.
In the middle of the night, i travel from Bali Island where Bali is my working project place, to the Island of Lombok. From my place in Buleleng, i need go to the east and through long road until get to Padang Bai Harbor. as usually i go there with my beloved Yamaha Xabre 150 cc Motorcycle with 3 motorbox behind it. anyway, as pandemic happen and getting higher in August, vaccine start to distributed around Indonesian country, suddenly it become the first Terms if you need to travel among the island in Indonesia. from vaccine to rapid test that confirmed you are not infected to covid 19 virus. from Padang Bai port, we use ship to go to the east and need 4 hours to finally arrived at Lembar Harbor. anyway i arrived here about at 4 A.M. Center Indonesian Time. so since my plan to hike mount Rinjani start 3 days later, so i go to the Gili first. let me tell you first how you can arrived in Gili.
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| Gili Trawangan Milkway (Shoot By Yu, Canon EOS 800 D, EF-S 10 - 22 mm f/3.5 - 4.5 USM, Shoot at ISO 1600, 10 mm, f/3.5, 20 Second, LR Classic) |
How do I Get to Gili Trawangan? and How Much?
There are two ways to go to Gili Trawangan or the other two Islands. from Bali direct to Gili Trawangan, or From Lombok Island. if you go from Bali, you can choose one of this three place that are:
1. Serangan Harbor
Serangan harbour is one of the harbour in Bali that near from airport. this place was actually reclamation island, the price from here is about Rp.500.000,00 each pax. if you want to go from here, here is the link from google map.
Serangan Harbour Location --> KLIK HERE!
2. Sanur Beach
the second place is one of tourist favourite beach. i love this place too when at new year. fireworks always blooming every second until morning. there are a lot of speed boat that can bring you to Gili Trawangan from here. the price from here is about Rp.500.000,00 each pax. this is the link from google map the location of Sanur Beach.
Sanur Beach Location --> KLIK HERE!
3. Padang Bai Harbor
Padang Bai harbor is the main harbor if you want to go to Lombok Island. here you can use speed boat too for direct travel to Gili Trawangan. the price if you go from here is variated. about Rp.300.000 - Rp.500.000,00. this is the link from google map for the location of Padang Bai Harbor.
Padang Bai Harbor --> KLIK HERE!
those three places were the places to rent speed boat from Bali Island directed to Gili Trawangan. the other way is from Island of Lombok itself. you can go to Lombok Island from padang Bai to Lembar Harbor then transport to Bangsal Harbor. or you can choose air transport like plane, arrived in Zainuddin Abdul Majid International Lombok Airport then travel to north to Bangsal Harbor. Bangsal harbor itself is the only official boat ticketing to travel to Gili. here you can choose fast boat or normal wodden boat. this is the place of Bangsal Harbor if you want to travel to Gili from Lombok Island.
Bangsal Harbor --> KLIK HERE!!
the price if you want to go there by speed boat is about Rp. 300.000,00 - Rp. 500.000,00 thats depend on how many passenger on the speed boat. the cheapest of all is by come to Bangsal Harbor like me, so you need to go to Lombok Island First, then use normal wodden boat and they just charge you Rp.15.000, 00 each pax to Gili Trawangan.
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| The Price of Normal Wodden Boat From Bangsal Harbor (August 2021) (Shoot by Yu, Samsung Galaxy Note 20, Normal Lens) |
Travel use normal wodden boat is quite fun. we go there with so many other tourist and many local people. they bring resource from main Island. we need to wait for a while in harbor because the boat not ready every time. about every 15 minutes, the new boat will arrive. but dont worry they make a very cool waiting room beside the beach. this place is not exist last time i come here in 2017. people said that this waiting room was built after the earthquake.
After the boat arrived, the officer will check your ticket and we can go to the beach to hop in to the boat. a few years ago, resource and people are at the same place. imagine if the local people bring a union from the main island. but this august 2021, i can proudly confirmed that that will not happen again. the boat are quite clean and the logistic are above us (on the roof of boat).
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| Bangsal Harbour (Shoot by Yu, Samsung Galaxy Note 20, Ultra Wide Lens) |
What Can We Do On Gili Trawangan?
Many things that we can do in Gili Trawangan. i come here on August 2021 and it was still pandemic Period. Java Island and Bali Island have PPKM some kind minor lock down. so this place is quiet empty. The hotel Give me a 50% discount for stay over night so i decided to stay at Gili Trawangan for a night. but most of them are closed because there are not many tourist here. there are several places under construction but many place still open too. dont worry to get food here, although tourist are quite rare, but there are still local people here.
the first one that i love the most is
a. Cycling Around The Island
In my opinion, the best thing of this island is no motorcycle. every single transportation in this small island only bikes, electric motorcycles, and horses. If you dont like cycling, you can choose electric motorcycle athough you need to pay more because the electric motorcycle is quite expensive. How about horses? as long as i stay there, horses are rent able but the owner must be keep his eyes on you. so you cant use horses freely riding around like a cowboy movie. in another hand, horses are usefull for pulling carts. so many local people use horses for taking their logistic, food, and many other in large quantity.
The best one for me is bicycle. you only pay Rp.30.000,00 - Rp. 50.000,00 or an exclusive mountain bike for about Rp.70.000,00 - Rp.100.000,00. with that price you can use that bike for a whole day long freely. except you broke that bike, you are free to where ever you want in that island. that price are very cheap while if you walk from east to west of the island need 1 Hour long (i have tried it a few years ago).
No pollution, because no transportation that use fossil fuel except the boat. so it was nice cycling around the island and enjoy the sunbathing. there so many kind and type of the bikes with a many various colors too.
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| Cycling Around The Gili Trawangan Island and Finding Food (Shoot by Yu, Samsung Galaxy Note 20, Ultra Wide Lens) |
the only things that you need to know is not all road around the island are covered with concrete or paving block. sometimes the road are covered with sands and this make you difficult to pull the pedal. in that time I spend afternoon time in west side to see the sunset, but the road are covered by sand. some point I cant move forward and need to push my bikes. for this point I hope in several years later this problem are fixed and we can enjoy better the cycling time around the island.
b. Snorkeling
where there is an island, there is an ocean, and there are much view underwater. of course Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, And Gili Air give us attractive view underwater. let me compare first about this activity during the pandemic situation. we know that the main tourism come from Bali Island, since Bali Island are Lock Down, the quantity of tourism that come to Bali are quite decrease. so this things are impact to Gili Trawangan activity. I know there are still a lot of people that come and stay here, but not much. this is my first experience come to Gili Trawangan and try Snorkeling here with their guide and small wooden boat, but i know how desperate the guide since pandemic happen in this world.
The snorkeling activity are impact. the guide said that before pandemic, there is a long track of snorkeling around the three island. there are so many spot and so many things that we can visited. but in this pandemic, they give us only a short track. the people in small boat are various and they only charge Rp.70.000,00 - Rp.150.000,00 each Pax. this is depend on how many people on a single small wooden boat.
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| Snorkeling Around The Gili Trawangan (Shoot by Yu, Go Pro Hero 5) |
this is the funny story. I meet this guy (guide man) when the boat first lie at anchor. like many places in Indonesia, guide people will come to you and offer you hotel, travel package, transportation, and many others. this man too, offer me a snorkeling package about Rp.150.000,00 and of course I say yes and I am Okay with that price. then we talk a while suddenly I know that he come from the same city as I was born in Lumajang East Java. same hometown, the guy give me price only Rp.50.000,00 for this package. then I ask him to stay and lunch with me. This is the funny of Indonesian people, if there is something that similar or same for any reason, they will assume that you are his or her brother.
Anyway, I stay at hotel, check in, then lunch with this man, then we start going to a small boat with 3 other boy. so there are five of us. we go to many places, Blue reef, A circle Statue under water, see turtle, shark, and many other. I have all of them documentary in my Go Pro Camera, but I will spend another time to write down the full Episode of this snorkeling in Gili Trawangan.
c. Sunset Moment
This is the Third time I came to Gili Trawangan, and there was so much change here. but I love the west side of this island where we can see the amazing sunset. The things that makes this place special for me are the view and the wave. many beaches have a great wave, cool wave, amazing wave, but this west side beach? have a lot of coral so the wave break so far away from us. make the water clear and literally only a very small wave come to us sometimes. this make a calm situation watching wave break on far away and like a glass of water in front of us. I stay, sit down watching cloudy sky like a war between nature, Mount Agung the highest point in Bali, with a golden background. this is so amazing view. Best moment for relaxing your mind.
I take several photos too, and make them some of the best of sunset photos of mine.
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| Sunset View Gili Trawangan West Side (Shoot By Yu, Canon EOS 800 D, EF-S 10 - 22 mm f/3.5 - 4.5 USM, Shoot at ISO 2500, 10 mm, f/3.5, 1/4000 Second, LR Classic) |
d. Dinner in a Beautiful View and Beautiful Sound
When the sun already set, that was the call for dinner time. The special dinner in an island are fish and seafood. But that was not the main event of that night. Eat fish in the beach and with a slow jazz music then combined with the sound of wave. That was really relaxing moment. For every hard work that I have done before, I really love that moment. There is a small tree near my place, find that tree in this island and you will found a cafe that provide this beautiful moment.
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| Beach Tree in a Relaxing Cafe (Shoot by Yu, Samsung Galaxy Note 20, Wide Lens) |
I have stay in this beautiful island just for one night, but that was a moment. In the mid night, most of hotel are closed and this give me a moment for take a milkway photograph in first photo of this post. Anyway, i hope covid 19 finished, people recover and this island and the local people, guide, hotel, tourism, and many other can get recover too.
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