We departed Sanur early in the morning to catch our speed boat to the Gili Islands. It was rather a stressful journey as we realised when we were on our way to the port that we had decided to go on a day of a big religious festival at a particular temple on the way, and the roads were completely blocked in the direction of the pier. We had a couple of hours in the car thinking we were going to miss the boat, but they held the boat for us and we managed to make it, even if it meant running through the streets of Padang Bai with our bags.
After a few hours on a very bumpy boat, we got to our destination Gili Air, one of the Gili Islands off the coast of Bali's neighbouring island of Lombok. We decided to based ourselves on this one because according to our research, it's the island for couples, with nice sunset bars and restaurants and with enough going on to not get bored. Our first impression on the island was that it's a bit rustic but with stunning surroundings and views of the ocean and mountains of the nearby islands. We stayed for three nights and we had such a great time. The island is an atoll so the beaches are tidal, but they are gorgeous with a very bright blue colour. Our main reason to come to the Gilis is because they are famous for Scuba Diving. We did two days of diving, and it was certainly amazing - great visibility and we went to cool sites as well.
Diving in the Gilis
Something we really enjoyed doing every day was going to a bar to watch the sunset, having cocktails in happy hour (buy one get one free) and just enjoying a chilled time with a stunning view, followed by a fulfilling meal. Our favourite bar on this island was Gili Lumbung: the cocktails were very good, there was live music and the perfect vantage point for nestling down on beanbags to watch the sunset. Something quite curious was the number of Italian restaurants on this island: we had great pizzas and pastas - quality comparable to Europe. It was so refreshing after eating mostly Asian food for months. Gili Air was definitely one of the highlights in our time in Indonesia - we will definitely come back and explore further the other Gilis.
The only downside of coming to the Gilis is probably the transport - fast boats can be very bumpy, so take sea sickness tablets if you get dizzy easily, and the organisation to board the boats it's not the best - but apart from that, it's pretty amazing. Also the beaches have lots of corals, so reef shoes might be a good idea as well.
Beach in front of our hotel
Enjoying the sunset in Gili Lumbung bar
Sunset in Gili Air (Bali volcanoes in the background)
After three nights in Gili Air, we left to our last destination before finally getting to Australia, Nusa Lembongan. The boat ride was very bumpy but we managed to get to Lembongan ok. This island is famous for cliffs, great views of the ocean and in general nice landscape. In our opinion, this island is pretty but very difficult to move around. To see the sights, you will need to drive a scooter which it is quite scary as there are more cars than you expect, most roads are in terrible condition, some of them very steep. If you have not driven a scooter before, this is not the place to start.
We only had a day to explore the island but was enough to get the flavour of how everything looks like. There are certainly things that are worth seeing like the Devil's Tear (where water froths and spews from a cave with every wave), Blue Lagoon, and Sunset Point - very impressive scenery. Phil had his birthday here and we had a lovely hour watching the sunset from Sunset Point, which was right next to our hotel. We took a bottle of wine with us and sat on the cliffs, looking out to sea. After we had been there a while, someone came up to us and told us he had taken a photo of us with the sunset in and thought we might like to have it. Following that, we went for a really nice birthday dinner at Hai Ri Zen in Mushroom Bay.
Pool in our hotel
Jungutbatu Beach
Devil's Tear
Blue Lagoon
Watching the sunset in Phil's birthday
Overall, though, we found the beaches in Nusa Lembongan a bit disappointing (we went only to Mushroom Bay and Jungutbatu beach) - again, nice scenery, but with lots of coral, difficult to get in, and lots of boats moored along the whole beach. Most activities in the area are on the larger neighbouring island of Nusa Penida, which we didn't have time to visit.
It's now time to go back to Bali to catch our flight to Cairns, Australia - the place where we first hatched our plan to move to Australia, two and a half years ago. So, now our slow route to Sydney begins its final stage - but still a couple of weeks of travel on Australia's east coast before we get there!
Omar and Phil
This featured blog entry was written by omarp from the blog Slow Route to Sydney.
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