This was the first time we had to be somewhere or do something at a certain time since leaving Sydney. Don't you just love that! We had organised with the Alam Indah staff the night before to have breakfast a little earlier than the norm and they were quite happy to do this. Sunrise got her fix for her new addiction of banana pancake Alam Style and we were ready & waiting for our 7.30am transport pick-up. (Alam Indah Lotus room 2 nights 1.350,000)
The day before we had packed a backpack each and left our main luggage with our driver, Ketut. Did I mention he is worth his weight in gold? He would take our luggage back to Kuta, to leave at our next hotel for when we got back to Bali. He had also organised our booking with the fast boat Gili Cat, but I think he was a little concerned that we wouldn't get out of bed in time. It was raining a little but it hadn't dampened Sunrise's excitement of another adventure, but Sunblock may have been just a tiny bit concerned about the boat trip to come.
The Gili Cat mini bus was full, the drive to Padang Bai I think took about an hour from Ubud, but again it was nice watching the scenery and the many oddities go by. I have to remember to get a photo of a petrol 'station' hehe. Padang Bai was just as it sounds, a bay with the Bali type boats around the shore on the beach and a long dock. At the office our names were checked off and we paid for our tickets. Our bags were tagged, loaded on to a cart and taken down to the boat. There were 14 travellers on the boat which I guessed would take a max of 20, there was ample room so we didn't feel squashed in. Another fast boat, The Eka Jaya was boarding at the same time, there were many, many people lined up to get on it. Our captain introduced himself and his sidekick gave us a safety talk, where the lifejackets, etc were. We were also given a bottle of water each.
Within about 10 mins of arriving at Padang Bai we were off, great, no waiting around. Gili Cat have 2 boats, ours was the open type with roll down plastic sides, they had rolled down the left side & left our side on the right up, this we thought was a godsend as both sunblock & sunrise were very prone to motion sickness, and we were not alone. . The fresh air was great and because the boat was moving at a good speed Sunrise at least felt not even a twinge of motion sickness. But . .. within about 15 mins a bit of a breeze must have been hitting our side and mixed with a good splash, as the boat launched over the rise of the sea, mean't a nice little shower for sunrise. The girl in front of us was feeling quite ill, so we were quite happy to leave the side rolled up, afterall it was just a little shower . . . then a bigger shower, and a bigger shower, and a . .. OMG! Its ok, its ok. OMG! But the thought of the girl in front & the thought of vomit mixed with the breeze?? Hmmm. OMG! Sunrise was now drenched and Sunblock wasn't looking too much better, but still we laughed, but the crew rolled down the side. The trip was a little rough, but not uncomfortable, it was quite nice despite being wet and never was I concerned for my safety. I found it to be professionally run and would definitely go with Gili Cat again. The trip took about 1hr 10 mins, including a drop off to Lombok main island.
We waited on the dock a few mins while our bags were unloaded. 'hellooo, transport?'. . .no thank you :o 'where you going'. . . in whispers >Sunblock 'just walk, I don't know where we are going but we don't want transport yet'. We walked down the dock, there seemed to be people, horses, carts, bicycles everywhere. OMG! I don't think I have an address to where we are staying. So after a toilet stop and after much wide-eyed looking around we, Yes, got transport, in a Cidomo (pony drawn cart). The fellow wasn't sure of the place we wanted, but he would ask his friend. So off we went in the back of a wooden cart with Sunrise calling out to locals along the way 'Gili Gecko?' . .. 'Dias?'. Pondok Gili Gecko was owned by a local, (Bob) Dias and we were soon pointed in the right direction.
Welcome to Gili Trawangan! Sunrise was in paradise.
More to come of course. . . :)