iDiveToday: Planning a Trip to Gili Trawangan, Lombok?
If you are based in Jakarta for work or other reason, best way to survive it is to get out when ever possible like long weekend holidays or even just over the weekend. Unless of course if you enjoy shopping malls because they have a lot of it here. City with most number of malls. Yes, there's no decent park or garden in Jakarta, you have to get out of Jakarta for fresh air.
I miss life in Gili Trawangan so I decided to spend my long weekend holiday there last April 2-5, 2015. I took LION AIR Thursday afternoon flight to Praya Airport (Mataram Lombok), there's 2 airlines with regular flight schedule to Praya from Jakarta. The other one is Garuda Airlines which is 2-3 times more expensive.
The other route to reach Lombok is through Bali, you can fly from Jakarta to Bali then 2-3 hours boat ride from Bali to Lombok. There are more choices of airlines (Jakarta to Bali): Air Asia, Lion Air, Garuda, City Link, etc - check skyscanner.com or wego.com.
Anyway, Lion Air is budget airline so manage expectations like 1 hour or more delayed flight, flight schedule changes few days before departure, all those things. But they make sure the passengers are informed, they send you an email and call you.
I arrived Gili Trawangan really late, at about 10:30pm local time but still with full energy and excitement. When I got out of the boat, loud party music welcomed me, restaurants, tables and chairs along the small street, I missed this so much.
Its a very small island and bars take turn to have party at night so not all bars will have party every night at the same time, I guess to give each of the bar a chance. Its not a fancy island which I love.
I spent one night at Blue Marlin Bungalow. Its basic accommodation: aircon, hot water, wifi, breakfast, etc. Blue Marlin is a dive center but they also provide accommodations to divers.
I stayed there for one night and moved to Villa Ombak next day for 2 nights, this is a resort so its good quality stuff. Its not very expensive (if you're traveling with group of friends and share the cost), its very close to the pier and restaurants. There's another option if you prefer a more quiet experience, in 2013 I stayed at Ombak Sunset. For solo travelers, there are back packer bed space accommodation, I havent tried this but agoda.com should be able to give you some options and check out tripadvisor.com on ratings.
The island doesnt have any motorized vehicle so there are 4 ways to go around the island:1) horse cart,
2) bicycle,
3) walk or run or jog and
4) if you are really good at it, swim. LOL
I rented a bike, an awesome bike called FatMan. It took me 45 minutes to cycle around the island, amazing experience, if I had more time, I'd go more than 1 round.
I mounted my GoPro on FatMan and cycled around and here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z81yaa7N2C4
And here are some more photos that will make you book your flight to Gili Trawangan tomorrow...
So that's above water... my main itinerary in Gili Trawangan was underwater...
Spent 2 days diving, I scheduled 3 dives per day through Blue Marlin. Blue Marlin is known for breaking deep dive world records. They are very efficient in arranging my first night accommodation, airport transfer and dive itinerary. Hannah Dixon is amazing, she's the booking manager at Blue Marlin, she responds very quick on my queries.
Dive experience was great, dive instructors are professional and they really take "safety first" seriously. I also took videos underwater, GoPro Hero4 is such a wonderful invention.
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