Gili Air... Part 1

Our extended stay in Ubud gave us plenty of time to hone our bartering skills.  Now that it was time to leave, we did so with transport booked all the way to Gili Air at well below half what was being asked (and without a street fight with any taxi drivers).

The Gilis are a string of 3 small islands lying of the coast of Lombok (the next major Indonesian island to the East of Bali).  Our choice of travel was the mid-price option; shuttle bus to the coast (2 hours) and the "fast" boat over to Gili Air... "Fast" should be and hour and a half but loading and unloading, especially at the more party centric Gili Trawangan, somewhat negates the fast element and drags the boat trip out to over 3 hours!  Still we knew this in advance slept most of the way and arrived late afternoon.

The Gilis are classic white beached paradise isles but, if you go about it right, they can be cheap as chips too.  We bartered our accommodation down to ~£7.50 a night for a private beach side bungalow with breakfast included.

For 3 days we mooched about the beaches, snorkled and ate and drank our fill, its not hard to see how people get stuck here, I met one guy from Yorkshire who has been marooned 17 years; he rents on the island for £7.50... a week!!!

We, of course, wouldn't be hanging around.  I had plans to drag Bex up more mountains and Indonesia is pretty great in that regard.  Gunung Rinjani, over on Lombok proper, is the second highest active volcano in Indonesia and you need to jump on a 3 day guided and portered trip to summit it.  We spent a LOT of time negotiating the best deal we could (including full transit from and back to Gili Air) and on the forth morning we were off adventuring again! Huzzah!!!

[Hellish...]