Travel Day 679 – Gili Air to Denpasar on Bali, INDONESIA
After a long internal debate with myself regarding how far east I should travel in Indonesia, I finally made a decision today…
Reaching Lombok by Public Boat from Gili Air, Indonesia
The main dispute that had been lingering inside of me was regarding the general decision to either travel further east towards Flores to see the great Komodo Dragons, or rather west towards Java and Sumatra to see Orangutans in the jungle. Today the final decision was made in favor of the Orangutans and so I had to figure out my onwards travels, which seemed difficult enough. Since it was imperative to save money, taking the expensive fast boat to Bali was not an option and how long everything would take on public transport was not quite clear, but I reckoned that it would take me two days alone to reach Java…
So I caught the first public boat in the morning from Gilli Air to Bangsal on Lombok. From there it was possible to share a ride to Pemenang and then catch a public bemo to Mataram. Another public bemo brought me to Lembar, where I could jump on the big, slow ferry to Padangbai on Bali. Unfortunately we arrived in Padangbai too late to continue travelling by public bemo, leaving me seemingly with the only option of spending the night. But luckily I ended up finding someone to share a hired ride with, towards the main bus terminal in Denpasar…
Delicious Sides for Nasi Campur in Local Warung, Indonesia
From the Ubung terminal in Denpasar it seemed easy enough to find a good bus connection towards Java in the morning and so I settled for a really cheap hotel right behind the station. Unfortunately there was not a lot to see in this area, but at least there was a great selection of street food and little warungs serving delicious local cuisine. So after being 12 hours on the road, I managed to eat my third Nasi Campur of the day. Luckily it was always possible to choose all the sides for this mixed rice dish and so I had egg, mie and sweet coconut for freakfast; fish, vegetables, corn patty, peanuts and spicy sauce for lunch, while egg, tofu and my absolute favorite, tempe, were for dinner…
It had been a really long day on the road, but at least I had covered half of the distance and, even better, I had done so really cheaply while using public transport…
When I saw the word Gili Air for the first time, I thought It was a local airlines!
looking forward to some great Bali snaps , also of the locals who are very beautiful!
enjoy your travel and the stay for I always believed journey is more important than the destination!.
Good luck!
Thank you R Srinivas! You are certainly right the name Gili Air sounds quite deceiving in English, but the name has a more logical meaning in Bahasa Indonesia, the local language. The word “Gili” means “small island”, while “Air” means “water”. So Gili Air is actually the small island that is surrounded by water, even if this is stating the obvious…
By the way, at this point I am just travelling through Denpasar to reach Java, but you can find photos and more in the Bali section…