Welcome to Paradise - Gili Air
Paradise. That is all I could think as we arrived into Gili Air. The contrast between the long stretch of white sand and the crystal-clear waters was so inviting, it would have been easy to just leave my backpack on the side and jump straight in for a nice dip in the tropical waters, but we had not booked anywhere so sorting out accommodation was the number one priority.
In a rare display of foresight, all forms of motorised transport are banned from the islands: your only choice is horse-drawn carts, known as cidomos, which are used to shuttle around anything from heavy suitcases to 5 very excited Brits. We huddled into two cidomos and listening to the chimes of the bells on the horses puling our carts, we went in search for our beach bungalows.
Gili Air is one of the smaller and quieter islands, and tourism here is not as established as in Gili Trawangan, also there is a healthy local population. The small sandy beach on the eastern coast is littered with accommodation to suit any budget and after sorting out what we thought was a good deal, we found a cafe on the beach with raised bamboo seating overlooking the turquoise waters. Our small Indonesian waiter, Ganna, was incredibly friendly and we filled our bellies with good Indonesian food whilst he made us laugh with his entertaining English phrases (lovly jubly and so on...) and rather rubbish jokes learnt from other travellers, which he laughed more himself. He seemed so happy and chilled out. I reckoned we would be exactly the same if we lived on Gili Air too. He also gave us tons of information about the islands and also about Lombok and the beautiful Mount Rinjani, which we could see from where we were sitting. We were thinking about climbing it, which is supposed to be fairly tough climb, but due to the unrelenting heat, air-moisture and the limited time we found it difficult to make up our minds.
Luckily we did not have to do any decision-making right there and then, and we spent the next couple of days chilling in various beach side cafes, snorkelling just off the beach, sunbathing and watching sunsets over Bali's beautiful volcanoes. It was utterly relaxing and we settled right into the serenity that comes with being on a true paradise island.
