A paradise found: The Gili islands between Bali and Lombok

A paradise found: The Gili islands between Bali and Lombok

By Soenke Krueger

PEMENANG, Lombok (DPA): Every backpacker in Indonesia knows
them, and now the Gili islands are described in better-quality
travel guides too. Yet the local people, when asked about the
tiny islands off-shore, just shrug.

After all gili in their language simply means "island" - and
Indonesia has more than 13,000 of those.

The map is more helpful. The three islands are called Gili
Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan, but the lack of an indigenous
name for the group did not put off the first globetrotter who
arrived in the early 1980s.

They simply took the word gili from the individual island
names and made them the Gili Islands. This invented name
eventually found its way into the first Indonesian travel guides,
and so they remain today.

The islands are no secret any more. Word has spread that the
beaches are more beautiful and more empty than nearby Bali's, and
that the often basic accommodation is cheaper.

The islands are particularly popular among Europeans, which
means that high season coincides with the European summer
holidays. In July and August it can be difficult to get a room.

In addition to the white-sand, palm-fringed beaches, all three
islands offer snorkelers and divers marvelous opportunities,
although some of the coral reefs nearer the beaches have been
badly damaged by dynamite blasting.

There are still plenty of exciting underwater areas where,
with luck, a small shark or a turtle may glide past your goggles.

The lack of roads is another plus. None of the islands has
cars or motorbikes. Cidomos are the main transport medium, small
carts drawn by a pony, or single-axle wagons traveling along dirt
roads through the coconut plantations. As with any taxi ride in
Indonesia, it is best to negotiate a price beforehand, to avoid
any unpleasant surprises.

The range of accommodation is similar on all three islands,
mostly bamboo huts on stilts under the palm trees, equipped with
mosquito nets and a veranda. Instead of a shower or bathtub, they
have the typical Indonesian mandi - a large, tiled area with a
small bucket. The idea is to fill it with water and douse your
body with the contents - very refreshing in tropical
temperatures.

Gili Air, which is about 100 hectares in size, is about a 20-
minute boat ride from Bangsal harbor, near Pemenang on Lombok,
Bali's neighbor.

The ride to the central island Gili Meno takes about 40
minutes. Gili Trawangan, the largest of the three at around 300
hectares, involves about one hour's travel.

The sampans plying between the islands have room for up to 15
passengers. There is no timetable, the boats set off as soon as
they are full. Those in a hurry can charter a boat.

As soon as a sampan ties up at one of the islands, the locals
surround the newcomers, vying with each other to offer
accommodation and transport. The islanders call this "picking
white coconuts" - it is more lucrative than the hard work in the
coconut plantations.

The most dense palm plantations are on Gili Air, where hotels
and huts are dotted along the beach all round the island. Because
of the coral, only the beaches on the southern coast are good for
bathing. Gili Air has a large population of middle-aged
Indonesian men who call themselves "beach boys".

Floating on a cloud thanks to the beguiling local "magic
mushrooms", and singing reggae songs, they like nothing better
than to chat up lone women travelers - and tell them that they
have been waiting for them all their lives.

Gili Meno is the quietest of the three islands - its
attractions are "sunrise, sunset and sunburn", as one hotel owner
put it.

Accommodation here is more comfortable and a little more
expensive than on the neighboring islands, but still very cheap
at around $14 a night. A salt lake in the interior of the island
provides the islanders with salt and the mosquitoes with a
breeding ground - don't forget your malaria tablets.

Gili Trawangan is also known as a party island - a beach party
takes place somewhere every night on the east coast, where the
guesthouses line the sand. It is mainly the backpacking crowd who
meet here, and the locals seem to have grown accustomed to them.

But tourists who bathe without their bikini tops or lie naked
on the sand are very offensive to them, because most islanders
are Muslim.

Gili Trawangan is the best of the three for snorkeling and
diving, equipment is even available for hire. For those who take
their pleasures differently, a glass-bottomed boat is available,
or they can watch the fishermen returning with a load of freshly
caught sea food, and selling it direct to local housewives and
hotel cooks.

There are no package holidays to the Gili Islands, they are
still the preserve of the independent traveller.

From Bali there are flights to Lombok (20 minutes), or speed
boats (two and a half hours), or a car ferry (four hours).

Tourist buses link the ferry port and airport with Bangsal on
the north coast of Lombok, where wooden boats cast off for the
Gilis.

Anyone expecting to find smog from the recent Indonesian fire
catastrophe on arriving in the Gilis, had better take a look at
the atlas.

Fires are still smoldering in Borneo and Sumatra, thousands of
kilometers away. Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands have not had a
whiff of smoke. This is easily explained: tropical rainforest
hardly exists any more in this region.