Gili Air

Day 1 – Italian Job

After breakfast of Banana pancakes it was time to leave Three Little Birds and move onto the second island of Gili Air, which is a smaller island and considered to the more cultured one.  So we packed our belongings and headed off for the port.

 

We had decided to go for the more expensive  local boat as we thought it would be easier to get on and off and it went every hour so we did not have to wait around.  The boat was a medium sized outrigger which took around ½ hour to reach the island and it had no cockroaches either!

 

Again we disembarked straight onto the beach and once we had our luggage we set off to look for our accommodation which was about ¼ mile away.  We found it pretty easily and we were soon checking into The Italiano Classico, which was basically a few bungalows attached to an Italian pizza restaurant (apparently the best pizza in Indonesia – which made me happy!).  The room was pretty nice and had our own sitting area outside and a walled open air bathroom (at least I won’t have to light a candle!!).

 

The island did seem slightly quieter that Gili T with not so many bars and restaurants or as many pony and traps that you had to look out for.

 

Once ensconced we headed out for the day and had a little walk until we found a beach bar we liked the look of and plonked ourselves on some beach recliners on the edge of the sea (only later to be told there would be a £2.50 charge for these (even though we were buying drinks).

 

Making use of our new snorkel gear we snorkelled for a while just in front of the bar before getting out ready to relax for the day on the recliners, only for it to start raining 15 minutes later which saw us retreat into the bar where we had a few more beers and a spot of lunch whilst waiting for the rain to stop.

It didn’t stop so we returned to our accommodation and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with some blogging and reading.  We also learned that an open air toilet was not such a good idea in the rain!!

As we were quite tired and the weather had not improved that much we decided just to go and have pizza in the restaurant and a quiet beer.  The pizza I’m afraid to say did not quite live up to its billing but was nice enough.  It was strange though as any additional toppings you wanted was costed per gram??

Pizza’s finished we headed back to the room to watch a bit of TV and read before going to sleep.

Day 2 – It’’s Hammer Time!

When we got up we were in the middle of a powercut, so it was just as well our breakfast was muesli topped with fresh fruit, milk and honey.  We were also treated to some proper Italian coffee, a Latte for me and an Americano for Shell.

After breakfast we headed back to the beach bar only to find that all the sun loungers had been taken so we had to settle into a beach shelter (bamboo/thatch job) within the bar.  We then went for a bit of a snorkel for a while, as usual seeing some very pretty fish, nothing too big or scary!

 

Once we got back to our shelter it began to rain again and we felt quite smug that we had bagged one of the few shelters whilst the loungers had to run for cover.  Again we stayed there for a bit and had some warm beer (still a power cut so fridges were not working) and a bit of lunch whilst we waited to the rain to stop.

The rain eventually stopped so Shell and I made a determined effort to walk around this Island, which we did with a beer stop along the way. The whole island was pretty and you had great views of the other Islands including Gili Meno and Lombock along the way, although we did see a large concrete monstrosity being built (most probably a large chain hotel).

 

We then returned home before getting ready to go out for the night, I was hoping I may be able to catch the West Ham v Arsenal match somewhere as it was a 12.45  kick-off in the UK which meant around 19.45 our time.

Before that Shell had checked out tripadvisor and found the number one recommend restaurant on Gili Air so we headed for that as it was not too far from us and in our budget.  The food was reasonably priced and very tasty and the guy running it was a fellow Londoner.  I enquired about anywhere that may be showing the football and he told us about a beach bar down the front that might be, unfortunately just before leaving he informed me that West Ham were already 0-1 down.

More unfortunately by the time we had found the bar that was showing the match we were 0-2 down, but we sat down to watch anyway as I told Shell we can score goals this season.  Whilst sat there a woman turned to Shell and asked if we were in Sri Lanka, which after a few seconds we said we were, then we realised it was a couple we had met in a hotel in Sri Lanka for ½ hour at the beginning of our trip, Olga and Steve (a fellow massive hammers supporter).

So we started chatting to them and soon it was 1-2, we had got one back (big shouts from me and Steve) then just as half-time approached it was 2-2 (more loud cheers).

 

We carried on chatting and having beers and then the second half started ad shortly after it was 3-2 to West Ham (More raucous noise from Glenn, Steve and Shell!!), what a come back, but unfortunately it did not finish like that Arsenal got one back before the end to finish with a 3-3 draw, but it was a cracking match.  It was also very surreal to have met up again with Olga and Steve on the tiny island of Gili Air and to be enjoying a West Ham match together.

 

After the match we carried on drinking a chatting to Olga & Steve although Olga stopped and kept reminding Steve that they had to get up very early the next day as they were moving on.  We then left the bar and walked part of the way back together before saying our goodbyes and returning to our hotel.