Pondok Gili Gecko on Gili Trawangan is owned by a local fellow named Dias. He built the place late last year. It is situated amongst the local villagers homes & a couple of other homestay/bungalows. It is only a 3-4 minute walk to the beach & main strip, but quiet and not nearly as busy. The rooms are basic but very clean and comfortable, with slightly salty cold water shower, which we called 'off white', not cold but not warm, and fresh water to rinse in. It cost us 400,000 for two nights including a basic breakfast cooked by one of the village women. Dias can arrange bicycle hire, day trips, fast boat or anything else you need, and he speaks very good English.
When arriving, we were met by 'bob's brother' and our breaky cook, who suggested we rest in the cool under the Bruga. OMG I love that Bruga. It was definitely hotter here than Bali and we could feel the sting of the sun. 'Meow, Meow' we heard tiny little voices say and sunblock's vet nurse ears pricked up. There were a litter of the tiniest little kittens you ever did see, so cute and scrawny, mum lived next door. We were later to learn that there are 'many' cats on Gili T, but no dogs. Almost every house, restaurant and hotel have at least one cat, they didn't seem like a pest to us, and most of the locals were happy to have them, they kept away the mice.
So Sunrise & Sunset set off toward the main street in search of lunch, 'just a plain ol' aussie style sanga would be good'. We soon came across an interesting looking place with some brugas(?) to sit in while eating. There were some signs out the front mentioning some special type of vegetable milkshake we could have, but we also seen the word sandwich & 'yes, yes, you come in'. So we grabbed some cushions, got comfy, ordered our lunch and for the 8th day in a row sunblock got the same quizzical look and shake of the head when asked if they had the elusive Pepsi Max. Sunrise was about to start taking some more of her plaits out, when Montana came and introduced himself, he asked where we were from and he was fun to talk to, next thing we know he is plaiting sunrises hair! Then a couple more fellows turn up with backpacks full of Cd's and Dvd's for sale. So here I am sitting under a bruga type thing on a cushion, at a little table, on a little island in the middle of the Bali Sea, looking through a mountainous pile of cd/dvd's, eating a tomato sandwich, while an Indonesian man takes photos of another Indonesian man plaiting my hair! And how different is this from my usual daily grind at home in Oz?!! Two sandwiches and two cokes - $5.50. Dvd's - $2 each. The fun & the memories - priceless.
We walked across the road to the beach & swam in the beautiful crystal clear waters, with an awesome backdrop of Gili and Lombok main island with Mt Rinjani across the water. We had forgotten to bring a towel (mostly unneeded) so it was back to Gili Gecko for a chat to the kittens and a snooze under our Bruga. 'Ah this is the life'.
One of the restaurants we liked to frequent, right next door to Montana's, was Fortuna Café. After a late afternoon swim we ordered a snack of guacamole at Fortuna for 20,000 which came with yummy freshly made warm dipping chips and talked to a young local guy for a while. He explained that he was 19 and working at Fortuna many hours so that he could keep paying for his education as he continues on to uni, he also told us about their dinner menu that was starting soon at 7pm. An hour or so later, after a quick off-white shower, we were back at Fortuna. Fortuna Café is situated outside, alongside the beach, at night they have mozzy lamps on each table. When we got back there, they had a table out the 'front' with a selection of whole fish, fish steaks, prawns, lobsters, etc. All freshly caught that day. We selected 2 nice looking snapper for 60,000 each, shown where the salad buffet and juice was, seated at a table and brought a welcome drink. Next to the selection of seafood was a BBQ where our fish were grilled over hot coals. The fish was beautiful, especially washed down with a bingtang.
Sunblock, the vet nurse, wasn't yet running at full capacity & couldn't finish her meal. She had however bought a little plastic bag, uhuh. However she had not bought along a handbag. So we set off giggling down the road to the Sama Sama bar for a drink or two, with Sunrise carrying a piece of fish in her handbag. Those scrawny little cats better appreciate this. Sama Sama Bar & Restaurant have a live Reggae band every night I think, at about 9pm. It was pretty full by the time we got there, but managed to find a table. We met another local, Sunburnt, who sat ('like at the movies') and talked and laughed with us. Sunburnt was a musician who also played at Sama Sama sometimes, and he owned a shop down the road. The band was great, the company was great, and you gotta love that table service.
The lanes were dark when we left Sama Sama, Sunburnt walked with us while Sunrise rustled around in the handbag, amongst the fish, until she found a torch. She wasn't a seasoned drinker and had had a couple of bintangs and 'all night long' cocktails. I have a vague feeling that the torch was a little useless to Sunblock & Sunburnt as it seemed to wave about a bit in the trees. We said goodbye to Sunburnt and walked through Gili Gecko gates to find Dias & his mate Roby under the Bruga. Sunrise had a bit of bintang-lay-down-room-spin thing happening so we sat with Dias & Roby for some more talking & laughing. Dias also told us how he came about to build Gili Gecko and how he had bought the land it is on because of his concern about more & more foreigners owning parts of Gili T and therefore less being owned by local islanders. Roby offered to give Sunrise a wake up call so she could see the sunrise, but at that stage of night . . .didn't think she could make it.
And then there were the Damn fussy cute little damn pussycats that weren't sure about the damn fish that sunrise had carried around in her bag all night for them.
I'm sorry but there is still more to come . . . if you want it or not hehehe