Island Islands and the Ferry Ride from Hell

From Kuta Lombok, we were off to the Gilis for some R&R. The Gilis are three very small islands off the coast of Lombok and are a famous spot for super-chilling, diving, and snorkelling. Gili is Indonesian for, you guessed it, island. So when we refer to the Gili Islands we are really saying Island Islands and the Indonesians are probably laughing at us. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the islands, only bicycles and horse carts. This may not sound like a big deal if you haven't been to Indonesia, but not having to constantly dodge cars and worse motorbikes coming from all directions, driving on either side of the road, with usually no sidewalk, was a huge relief. There are also no police, I guess because there is no income from giving tourists traffic tickets.

We hired a driver from the Kuta Lombok mafia to take us out there. It was a stormy day, so we thought it was perfect for travel since we wouldn't want to surf anyway. Obviously all the tropical air had messed with our brains since if you wouldn't want to surf, would you really want to hop in a boat? The drive went fine and we got to see some beautiful scenery and also lots of monkeys. When we arrived at the ferry landing, we were mobbed by a huge crowd of locals trying to sell us all kind of confusing moto rides and expensive boat rides. Luckily we had been prepared by the guidebook - which said that the ferry landing was so unpleasant there were frequent fist fights, and just to ignore everyone and buy a ticket from the ticket office. So we walked right by them all to the ticket office. Except it was boarded up and there was nobody in sight. Panicked, we ran back to our driver and demanded to be taken to the real ferry landing, but some tourists coming from the island informed us this was it, and the ferry was not running. The guidebook failed to mention that the ferry only runs once a day, if at all, during the rainy season! And of course the local mafia there knows that! So we had to get the moto ride to the local harbor, poor Sam struggling with the surfboard, and then pay $30 to get out to the nearest island, Gili Air. This doesn't sound like much but when the ferry is running the cost to charter a boat for the whole day and go wherever you want around all the islands is only $15! However all the locals have a no-compete agreement and wouldn't take us for less. If you try to bargain with a different guy, the first guy follows you and tells the other guy in Indonesian something along the lines of "The price I quoted is $30, so I'll break your kneecaps if you offer less than $35."

Once we agreed to go, a bunch of locals who had clearly been waiting all day hopped into the little fishing boat with us - at least this made us feel that the ride might be surviveable. Why they were using the only boat without outriggers was not clear to us, maybe it was too stormy for outriggers? Anyway we did in fact survive the short ride to the island, though the boat got swamped by every third wave. When we got to the island, we finally caught one of the pony carts, our first and only horsecart ride. Most horsecarts in Indonesia just have to haul supplies, but the poor Gili ponies have to lug fat tourists!

We stayed at Coconut, which has a very pleasant secluded garden, though it costs a little more than some of the places closer to the beach. We got delicious empanadas at the Thai cafe (I know, it makes no sense.) Sam tried to surf the little ankle-to-knee-high waves breaking off the island along with all the locals under 14 years/100 pounds, with only a little luck. Unfortunately it was too stormy for snorkeling but we did take a walk around the island. The crystal blue waters we'd heard of were all a storm tossed uniform gray, but it was kind of fun because the whole place was pretty deserted, especially the stormier north and west shores, and we could pretend we were shipwrecked adventurers on sabbatical.



The next day our friends from B.C. showed up, having gone through exactly the same ferry hell, and Sam and Kyle commiserated over their sore assholes. Except their horsecart driver had hit a tree and nearly broken their surfboards! Anyway we stayed and relaxed for a bit, but the weather did not improve, so we decided to take off for Ubud ahead of our friends as soon as the weather improved enough for the Bali slow ferry to run. Usually the fast ferry is the way to go, but it doesn't seem to run during the rainy season. You can still buy tickets for it though! You just end up taking the slow ferry for double the price - we ran into a bunch of people in this situation. In retrospect we should have flown again. First we had to take a ferry to Lombok, then drive on a bus for hours to the main harbor south of Mataram, then get on the big ferry which was completely overloaded with the huge transport trucks. The trucks were backed up along the road for 3 miles in an impromptu truck driver village, because the ferry had not been running the last few days.

All those stories about Indonesian ferries capsizing? True and believable - we had a calm day but the ferry still rolled like crazy when a swell came up. Luckily it died back down when the rain hit, and the swell actually helped us arrive on Bali in only four hours instead of the usual five. Unfortunately we then had to float around for hours while we awaited our turn at the ferry landing, which was similarly crazy to the Lombok side with a line of trucks. We'd booked all the way to Ubud, so we got in a minivan with a family of tourists with tired young kids, and finally made it to Ubud!