The Gili Islands are three small dots just off the coast of Lombok, Indonesia.

The islands are named Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air — and each has it’s own reputation. Trawangan is party central, Meno is the quietest, and Air lies somewhere in the middle… figuratively, not literally, as you can see in this map:

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And this is what they look like from above:

[image via]

As I mentioned in my post on diving in Tulamben, I catch a ferry from Bali to the Gili Islands. An hour or so later, I’ve traded one paradise for another.

I have dedicated three nights total to the Gilis and decide to spend my first night on Gili Trawangan, despite its party-town rep. I’ll skip the nightclubs in favor of restaurants, shops, and beaches.

All three Gili Islands have banned cars. Aside from your own two feet, the primary mode of transportation is horse and carriage. How quaint!

Once again, I’ve decided to wing accommodation. This proves to be more challenging than expected for a few reasons. First, the lack of roads — my roller board suitcase doesn’t operate well in the sand and it’s heavy to drag. I grab in iced tea at one of the beachfront restaurants and ask them to hold my bag while I seek out accommodation (thankfully they say yes). The second issue is that despite dozens of men hocking guesthouses and hotel rooms, none of them are in the (low-budget) price range I’m expecting.

A quick note about this rental system: there are men on the streets actively looking to rent out rooms on behalf of the guesthouses in the neighborhood, in exchange for a small commission from the owners. They match up tourists with accommodation and they’ll happily show you a few rooms until you find what you’re looking for. It dawns on me that these dudes are sort of like the pimps of the Balinese rental market. I actually laugh out loud when one such man, probably in his 70s and clearly a life-long resident of the Gili Islands, introduces himself as “John.”

After looking at around five different rooms, I finally find a keeper:

This room sits above the family’s main house (they have another guest suite on the property, too). It normally rents for $25 a night but I talk them down to $20. There’s a private bathroom with a toilet and sink just next to the room; there’s a shared shower downstairs. The room has A/C but no wifi, and totally fits the bill for the night.

With my room settled (and luggage retrieved from the very kind restaurant) I set out to watch sunset on the other side of Trawangan. I find the path which cuts directly across the island.

I emerge on the other side to find a local bathing his horse. It’s quite picturesque in the golden light:

Your friendly photographer says hello!

I’ve got a slog of beach-y sunset photos so bear with me, or scroll down a bit to bypass the technicolor sunset fun.

That’s one for the record books. So pretty.

As dusk sets in, I cross back to the other side of the island (which takes about 20 minutes).

Some locals are burning trash, a common practice in Indonesia and many other Asian countries.

Interesting fact: the Gili Islands (and their next door neighbor, Lombok) are Muslim, while Bali is Hindu. This is my first time hearing the call to prayer, which happens five times a day as loudspeakers at the mosque summon Muslims for worship. Here’s the mosque near my guest room:

And now I’m back on the main drag in Gili Trawangan.

There is a turtle sanctuary in town. They keep hatchlings safe until they’re old enough to be released into the ocean. See the baby turtles below?

By now I’ve walked down the main road several times and I’m already tired of the incessant harassment of locals calling out, “Lady, you need a room? You need transport? Where you from? Come look at my restaurant!” I decide that one night here is enough. But I enjoy a nice meal at one of a zillion beachside restaurants.

I order a kebab. This appears to be the most popular dish on the island with many restaurants grilling them out front (as seen in the above photo) with beef, chicken, fish, and veggies. These restaurants also have a salad-type buffet. YUM all around.

The next morning I take a leisurely stroll down main street, since my boat to the next island (Gili Air) isn’t until mid-afternoon.

While I don’t test them out, I love the look of these comfty, bean-bag-esque chairs:

That water… man, I’ll never get tired of gazing at those colors.

Fun fact: while everyone in these photos is clothed, it’s not uncommon to see nude bathers around these parts. But the locals are rather conservative so it seems disrespectful for some tourists to prance around naked on the beach.

This is the style of most water craft here — long wooden boats which hop from island to island.

I stop back at the turtle sanctuary to say hi to these guys in the daylight:

I find the one place in town that has soy milk — Kayu Cafe. I order a soy vanilla iced latte and it is HEAVEN! Heaven on earth, I tell you. Their salmon salad is pretty decent too.

I get a kick out of the fact that a local “movie theater” (i.e. bunch of chairs sitting around a projected image from a DVD) is screening The Impossible, last year’s award-nominated film about the 2004 tsunami that hit Asia and killed over 230,000 people.

I have one question: WHY WOULD YOU SHOW A TSUNAMI MOVIE ON A TINY ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC?

I dig whoever wrote “Leo” under The Beach. Not “with Leo,” just “Leo.” Because that’s all you really need to know.

And with that, I bid adieu to Gili Trawangan and seek out a more secluded paradise on Gili Air. Will I be successful in finding solitude? Tune in Monday on As Her World Turns to find out…