We were sad to say goodbye to our little piece of paradise in Lombok but we set off for Bangsal Harbour to catch the public ferry to Gili Air, which is one of the three Gili islands off the coast of Lombok. We had heard that Gili Air was the place to go for families, Gili Meno was for honeymooners, and Gili Trawangan was the party island, popular with young people. All three islands are well-known snorkelling and diving destinations.
We bought our tickets, which cost about NZ$8 for the whole family – Shaun was so stoked at how cheap it was, he practically danced his way back from the ticket office – then we waited for the ferry to arrive. It was a fairly basic style of ‘ferry’, but it did the job and got us over to Gili Air in about 20 minutes.
There is no motorized transport (except for boats) on any of the Gili Islands, so peace and tranquility can be easily found here. To get around, you can hire bicycles, electric scooters, a horse and cart, or you can simply walk.
As we walked along, lots of friendly locals greeted us warmly, and told us how much longer to our accommodation and even though we knew they were forming relationships for prospective sales of snorkelling gear hire, trips or eating at their establishments, we got a very good vibe from the place.
We arrived at Taanga Bungalows after a 15-minute walk, very hot from walking at midday in early thirties heat, and our lovely host immediately showed us to our family room and provided fresh papaya juice as a welcome drink. Her four year old son, Emerick, was a little cutie and he was very pleased to have Leo and Anna staying.
The bungalow was spacious, beautifully clean, and had a cool verandah with a comfy hammock that would become a favourite spot for all of us.
Once we had settled in, we went to find some lunch, and just down the road, we found a little place with cabanas overlooking the beach. We ordered chicken quesidillas, bruschetta, and some fries for a snack along with cold drinks and were really impressed with the quality of food and value for money. We’ve been alternating between eating local food and western food when it’s available, in order to keep the kids happy and our tummies settled. We really pushed them with street food in Malaysia! It’s interesting though, when breakfast is included in our accomodation, both kids often order nasi goreng for breakfast in Indonesia, once I’ve ordered it first and they’ve checked it’s not a spicy one! The spiciness varies greatly depending on whose cooking it.
After eating, we went for a swim followed by a stroll along Turtle Beach. We also booked ourselves in for a snorkelling trip the next day with one of our friendly locals from the day before, as the forecast looked favourable.
Ever since our Tioman snorkelling trip, I have become even more paranoid about weather forecasts and boats, rather than putting my faith in tour operators and ferry companies. I have been using this awesome website as my guide for when to book trips, as snorkelling or sailing in choppy, windy conditions is no fun: https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/gili_trawangan
The Best Snorkelling Trip Ever!
We found a boat with a glass bottom that we could charter for only NZ$85 to take us out for a four hour trip and the next morning, we were all ready to go for our 9.30am departure. Our guide, Isan, was very young but had excellent knowledge of the best spots and was also wonderful with the kids, staying near them the whole time and showing us different fish, coral and turtles, when they appeared.
As soon as Anna and I jumped off the boat at the first snorkelling location off the coast of Gili Air, Isan pointed out a turtle just beneath us…it was a magical moment…I had hoped to see turtles at some point in my life and I was finally right there, next to one! Anna was similarly mesmerized by this very special experience. We also saw lots of blue coral here and hundreds of tropical fish.
Our next spot was to see the underwater statues, off the coast of Gili Meno. These are a project called ‘Nest’ by sculptor and underwater photographer Jason DeCaires Taylor, placed in this location to create an artificial reef for coral to grow on, attracting numerous fish. It is a very popular dive and snorkelling site, and when we got there, it was very crowded, so we only stayed for 10 minutes or so to have a quick look. It was like snorkelling amidst a dense school of human fish! I was grateful to Isan for sticking close to the kids in the melee.
The third spot was definitely the best place for snorkelling. Not only were there hundreds of tropical fish to see, but there were also lots of turtles, floating around gracefully as they descended to feed off seagrass and coral on the seafloor before ascending to take a breath at the surface. It was incredible to watch these silent, graceful creatures in their natural habitat. I kept hearing exclamations of “Turtle!” coming from Anna and Leo’s snorkels as they saw another one. Each of us had a unique moment where a turtle swam sideways right in front of us, so close you could stroke its shell if you put your hand out. Swimming with turtles has been a lifelong dream of mine, and it is such a joyful feeling that it has become a reality, made even more special that we got to share this experience as a family. I’m sure our kids will look back on this with wonder in years to come.
Our busy morning in the water meant we were all starving by midday, and after swimming with the turtles, Isan and his brother took us to shore at Gili Trawangan so we could get lunch, while they went to the mosque to pray. We enjoyed more delicious, reasonable food here and then had time for snorkelling off the beach while we waited for our skipper and guide.
On the journey back to Gili Air, our guides took us along a route between the islands where we saw a huge array of fish, large and small, as well as some enormous turtles through the glass bottom in the boat. The final snorkelling spot was just off the east coast of Gili Air, right next to our accommodation. We were dropped off the boat with Isan at the top end of the beach and then floated along with the current parallel to the beach for about 500m, where Isan’s brother picked us up in the boat, before dropping us off near our accommodation.
After a shower and some downtime in the afternoon, we went out for dinner to an amazing seafood grill called Zipp Bar and Restaurant. The ambience of the place was lovely, with candlelit tables on the beach, and the fish and squid were grilled on the BBQ to melt-in-your-mouth perfection, with a delicious buttery sauce.
The salad selection was also very impressive, with the biggest selection of salads that we’ve encountered on our journey so far. We were all fed, including soft drinks and water for NZ$60, which for a massive fresh seafood feast is pretty cheap! It was such good value that we ate here on two of our four nights on Gili Air.
Cashing in on ‘Mummy Time’
The following day was a more restful day. I went for an early morning walk around half the island before returning for breakfast with the family.
Anna had given me a ‘Mummy Time’ coupon a few weeks earlier for Mother’s Day, which entitled me to some uninterrupted time with her, so I decided to cash this in, and we went to a local spa to get our nails done.
It was so relaxing sitting there together, looking out at the turquoise sea through large picture windows, chatting with the lovely women doing our nails. I had a pedicure and my toes painted, while Anna had flowers painted on her nails. Anna also insisted that I get matching flowers on my big toes. It was a morning and NZ$24 well spent for both of us to have some quiet mother-daughter time.
In the afternoon, we went swimming in the sea, although the beach was a bit rocky and full of coral at low tide, so it was pretty hard going to get out deep enough. We had an earlier dinner that evening and fitted in a family movie afterward.
Gili Air – The Western Side
We got out and about early on our last full day on Gili Air, walking across to the other side of the island, hoping for better swimming beaches. We were not disappointed, as you can see from the idyllic pictures!
We settled into a cabana on the beach, complete with its own swing and two sun-loungers nearby, ordering drinks and snacks in between lots of dips in the ocean. Anna and Leo loved the swings in the sea, which became more visible as the tide went out…although we had to remind them to get off once in a while so the holidaying couples could have a turn on them!
Escape Room – The Inheritance
Once we’d had our fill of swimming and sunshine, we made our way back to our bungalow to shower and get changed before taking up Leo’s chosen challenge for the day: an escape room called The Inheritance.
We were greeted by our lovely host, who explained how it worked, before starting the challenge. This was the first time we had done an escape room as a family, and it was brilliant! Everyone had different strengths that came to the fore, taking turns to shine. Anna was exceptionally good at noticing shapes, colors, matching things and counting things up; Shaun was good at figuring out some of the more abstract puzzles; My strength was putting words together and decoding and Leo was the master of all of us, figuring out the most complex puzzles in a matter of minutes…I don’t know how his brain works, but it was awesome watching him work through a complicated puzzle to unlock a secret compartment. He even got applause from the escape room team! We made it out with 5 minutes to spare, celebrating our teamwork.
A Sunset Gallop
Our next experience was Anna’s choice, which was a sunset ride in a horse-drawn cart around the island. We had to get two, since the carts are small, with Shaun and Anna in the front one, and Leo and I in the back one.
Even though it looked pretty cool, it was actually pretty bumpy and uncomfortable, especially for Shaun, whose head kept banging on the roof of the cart! Because the road was quite sandy, the horses had to go pretty fast, making it more of gallop around the island than a relaxing sunset cruise.
Once we’d recovered our equilibrium, we went for dinner. We thought we’d try somewhere on the other side of the island for our last meal on Gili Air, so we walked across to where the restaurants were. After looking at a few different options, we settled on a place with a live band called Cheeky Monkey, as it seemed to have a great atmosphere. Anna and I even had a dance while we waited for our dinner to arrive.
We didn’t know when we ordered, but a large table of 15 backpackers had ordered just before us, so we ended up waiting over an hour for our meals. It was brilliant that the band was there to distract us from our hunger, but I must admit I had reached hangry stage by the time our very average food arrived, so we ate and left pretty soon afterwards. The kids were real troopers about this episode, even though they were starving. Leo gave Cheeky Monkey a 1 out of 10 for food quality and customer service…I guess I wasn’t the only one who was hangry!
Religion on Gili Air
Like Lombok, the Gili Islands are mostly Muslim, and there is a beautiful mosque at the centre of the island, which we passed on our walk across to the western beaches. The call to prayer here was hauntingly beautiful, and the muezzin had an impressive voice, making it very pleasant to listen to.
Gili Trawangan
The next morning, our host arranged a boat to collect us and transport us to Gili Trawangan, where we had booked a cheap place on the beach for two nights. It was worth paying the extra money to be collected from the beach near our bungalow on Gili Air and dropped off on the beach in front of our accomodation on Gili T. We even saw a turtle in the sea on the ride over!
A Gem of a Place
Our accommodation at Balenta Bungalows turned out to be a total bargain at about NZ$60 for a family room, including a decent breakfast as part of that. It was beachfront, so we could wake up, walk out to a table on the beach for breakfast before taking up a sun lounger complete with beach towels supplied. Walking into the water here almost guaranteed a turtle sighting at low tide. It really felt like we were in paradise.
We enjoyed a lot of beach time here, although poor Leo was feeling a bit under the weather with a slight temperature after too much sun in the preceding days, so he had a quiet day inside on our first day. I was slightly paranoid about his fever the night before, worrying that it could be some kind of tropical disease like dengue, however, advice from a local medic (at 7am in the morning, when I went to find a doctor) put my mind at rest. After a couple of days out of the sun, Leo was back to feeling himself again.
Simple food
We ate out on our first night, enjoying an early dinner on the beach of grilled snapper and veges, complete with delicious pina colada mocktails.
We were so glad that we’d chosen to eat early, because just as we were finishing our meals and the restaurant was filling up, there was a power cut and everywhere was plunged into darkness except for the generator powered places.
On our second night on Gili T, we just had street food since we had eaten really well at breakfast and lunch and weren’t feeling particularly hungry. We bought corn on the cob from a street vendor, which was doused in garlic butter and very yummy. We supplemented this with a sliced loaf of bread we’d bought from the local bakery.
Attack of the Ants?
Our super cheap accommodation enabled us to stay within our daily budget, despite the outlay on paid activities and boat hire during our stay. Shaun, Anna, and I were perfectly happy with our simple bungalow accomodation, however Leo took exception to the fact that the indoor/outdoor living situation meant we had to co-exist with ants. By that, I mean that the odd ant would appear from time to time on the floor or on a surface. We kept food in sealed containers or in the fridge, so there were no problems with ants getting into food.
Leo’s total obsession with ants really escalated when he left his laptop charging on the floor of our bungalow, right next to the door. When he next went to use it, a few ants crawled out of the keyboard, much to his horror and total disgust! We pointed out that it was probably because he had dropped crumbs into his laptop when eating over it. This event fueled considerable anti-ant sentiments, which you can read below.
Why I Hate Ants by Leo
Ants are absolutely awful and I hate them more than anything. I would literally rather them go extinct than mosquitos, and those can kill people! We had about a quarter of the population of ants (there are about 20 quadrillion ants and 2.5 million per person in the world) in our room on Gili Air. It was a tiny room with two tiles missing from the bathroom roof and had a door with a 1.5 cm gap at the bottom. They infested my computer and it was more painful than watching Disney direct to DVD sequels getting them out. Here are 10 reasons why ants suck:
#10: They eat food
#9: They come when you drop crumbs
#8: About 2 thirds of their population are in Indonesia
#7: They are small
#6: They are unnoticeable half the time
#5: They go under doors
#4: My family constantly leaves the door open to let them in
#3: They go in your body
#2: Once the thought is in your mind, you keep thinking they’re crawling on you
#1: They go in your computer potentially damaging your internal hard drive and CPU potentially destroying a $500+ computer for the most stupid ass reason in all existence.
And that is it, I don’t want to think about ants anymore bye.
An Intervention
Leo’s ant crusade began to impact on the rest of us with Leo demanding that no doors were left open for longer than leaving or entering a room required, and shouting at us if we left a door open. It got to the point (after a week of this anti-ant, anti-social behaviour) where I had to take a stand. Thankfully removing access to all devices for a day sorted that one out, with me explaining that until Leo could moderate his behaviour regarding ants and keep it to himself, I was removing the laptop as this was the source of the ant problem in the first place. Funny how quickly Leo was able to turn things around and move on…although to be honest, I think the fact that he’d written the rant above was good therapy too!
Paradise Islands
The Gili Islands were a definite highlight for all of us in our journey so far. We really made the most of our time there, with lots of activities and excursions, but we also managed to have a lot of relaxing beach time as well.
Off On Our Next Adventure 
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