Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

I think I love my stay at Gili Trawangan the best when we went to visit Lombok recently.

It’s an island, a little off from Lombok.

I love how everyone there on the island either walk on foot, hop on a Cidomo (horse cart) or rent a bike. NO cars or motorbikes!

I love the beach, the clear waters, the overall surrounding.

So grateful that we had such a wonderful weather during our one night stay there! (was told that it was cloudy and rainy days before we were there. Phew!)

Anyway.

Here’s more about our visit to Gili Trawangan.

There are three islands near Lombok, they are : Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air.

The biggest one is Gili Trawangan and it’s the most commonly visited one too, I was told.

We heard about how we could go snorkeling at Gili Trawangan, and so we decided to stay overnight at a Beach House (instead of going there in the morning and coming back to Lombok island on the same day)

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From our hotel (Senggigi Beach Hotel), we rented a car to take us to Bangsal Harbour. We reached there at around 11.30am.

We chartered a boat (one way trip) from the ticketing counter at the harbour, and we paid Rp185,000 (worked out to be about S$25, for all seven of us, ie. Five of us plus Wilson’s parents who joined us on this trip)

TIPS:

– We had to step into the waters when boarding the boat because the water was too shallow for the boat to really land on the shore. So, I recommend : wear shorts and slippers / sandals.

– If you’re going to engage local porters to help carry your bags to the boat, you’re looking at about paying them Rp3000 per bag. I recommend engaging just one or two local porters. Be aware that many may offer their services, and you’d need to (firmly, but with a smile =) say no to them.

By now I can’t quite remember how long it took us to get to Gili Trawangan (now you can see why I blog. My memory is getting so rusty, I have to pen down all this to remember my precious moments spent with my family!)

I think the boat ride lasted for about 30 mins or so.

Anyway, check out the view at Gili Trawangan!

I love, love, LOVE it.

Upon reaching Gili Trawangan, we took 2 horse carts (called ‘Cidomo’). One was for our family of five, the other was for Wilson’s parents and our bags.

The trip from where we got off the boat to our Beach House was actually a short one. You could actually walk there from the harbour. We didn’t know.

The Cidomo man charged us Rp50,000 per cidomo. That’s about S$6.90. Frankly, it’s quite expensive considering the short distance. Oh well, we ‘paid’ for the unique experience, I guess =)

As you can see, the above is how the main street looks like on this island!

People just casually walk here and there (many are barefooted, and in their beachwear), or on bikes.

Shops on your left and right sell sarongs, sun blocks, etc. They have snorkelling equipments for rent, shops offering diving lessons / trips, boat rides to Bali, etc. Quite a lot of eating places too (mostly western food).

Our Beach House has two small pools. The kids had a great time there, jumping off the side of the pool, … COUNTLESS times! =)

Eating places on this island are most likely along the beach, so I’d say nearly (if not ALL) restaurants on this island have a SPECTACULAR view of the ocean and mountains.

If the weather happens to be great when you’re on the island, … ah, expect refreshingly breathtaking view!

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We went snorkeling with the kids when we’re on this island (Brie napped and stayed at the beach house with my Mom-in-law =).

And THAT was a great experience too. The first time we all ever snorkeled.

Will share photos and how it went in another post! =)

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Okay now, here are more tips to share:

– Fresh water is not as readily available on this island. At our Beach House, we showered in ‘salty’ water and rinsed ourselves with fresh water afterwards.

– We waited for a very long time to get a Cidomo to take us back to where we could board a boat to take us back to Lombok island. And we could NOT find any available ones. So we walked to the ‘harbour’ and it was manageable, I mean … we pulled our luggages and the distance from the Beach House to the harbour wasn’t too bad.

– Instead of chartering a boat, we decided to take a Public Boat back to Lombok. It only cost us Rp10,000 per person (about S$1.40 / person). Bought the tickets from the one and only ticketing office there and waited for about 10 minutes to board the boat (basically, they always need to wait till the boat has ‘enough people’ before it leaves the shore)

– Again, I recommend wearing shorts and sandals because you’d need to get into the waters to board the boat.

– And oh, put on lots of sunscreen lotion! The weather does get pretty warm and hot there.

But then again, hey … you ARE after all on a tropical island! =)

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We definitely look forward to the day we can visit Gili Trawangan again!