Backpacking Through Lombok Part III – Gili Air

My plan on my 4^th day exploring Lombok was going to Gili Air and stay for a night there. I booked a private room for 2 person already that even tho my friend canceled her trip I still wanted to go to there by myself. But luckily my Malay travel mates, Rafi and Ana and 2 other friends Ergi & Dika decided to join me to Gili Air.

We left Mataram around 2.30 pm by Dika’s car and we were lucky cause we arrived on time in Bangsal and still could get on the last boat to Gili Air. The boat costs Rp. 12,000/person and only took about 15 minutes boat ride. The cottage I booked was Tyrrell Cottages. It costs Rp. 198,000/night for 2 persons. Rafi booked 1 more room for 2 person that cost her Rp. 281,000/night so it was 2 rooms for 4 persons but it was 5 of us. So the 3 girls slept in 1 room and the 2 guys in the other room. The hotel staff was so nice for letting our 1 additional guest to stay there without any additional charges. The cottage was in a walking distance from the harbor and it was just 45 meters from the beach, it was pretty comfy too. The room price already include breakfast, and...it has hammock in every room \\(^o^)//

After checked in at hotel, we walked around to get to the sunset point and had dinner there. It was pretty cloudy so we couldn’t see the perfect sunset but it was still nice. Only some of us had dinner while others just had drinks. So after enjoying sunset we went back to hotel to take shower and plan to go out after. Around 9 pm we went out again to find food, we found a pretty cheap one near the harbor with grilled fish and chili sauce. We took it away and had dinner at the beach near our hotel. It was my best dinner during my Lombok trip :D, so simple, so good, so full.

After dinner we got offered to move to a better place, actually only few steps away from our 1^st spot. But the new place has light so it was better there. We were playing cards, at 1^st it was just simple card games, but ended up gambling and luckily I won :D. We had so much fun, playing cards at the beach till 2 am. Other friend joined us and it was just the best night ever. Not because I won but spending my time with those amazing people at amazing place, it was just wonderful. The fact that I was still following my schedule till the 5^th day gave me an incredible satisfaction and I just felt so lucky that I wasn’t alone there.

The next day after having breakfast, we chilled a lil bit at the hotel, the hotel staff gave us 30 minutes extra from the check out time cause we needed longer time to pack and take shower. After checked out we walked around to find food for lunch. Everthing in Gili is expensive but if you wanna walk lil bit deeper through the alley, there are still some cheap restaurant. After walking for a while we found place to have lunch and it was just Rp. 10,000. But even tho we saved money for lunch, we tempted to go to a pretty nice restaurant in front of the beach to taste their fancy dessert -,-.

With few dessert and few drinks we could just chill at that restaurant and one of our friends went snorkeling and she said it was very good and I trust her for that :D. Around 2.30 pm we went to the harbor to get back to Lombok, it also costs Rp. 12,000/person and luckily we didn’t have to wait long time for the boat to be full. 

It was actually pretty short trip, cause at 1^st I was planning on going to Gili Air in the morning but ended up going there around 3 pm but with those friends around I was so satisfied of the trip. We maybe didn’t do much but the moments and the laughter (and the costs -_-) we shared made us so much closer than ever. 

We got picked up by Dika’s car again so we kinda saved lots of money for that Gili Air trip, we shared costs for everything. I definitely will be back to Gili Air to enjoy the underwater, hopefully with these guys too. It was so much fun to be with them and that was something I would never forget.