Indonesia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget

Travel Reference

In-Depth Information

Rp25,000), plus Illy coffee and great breakfast and lunch

options. There's a/c and BBC World too. Daily 7am-7pm.

★

on the mainland. Dive companies offer advances on Visa

and MasterCard - useful in an emergency but you will

pay ten percent for this.

Books Several places sell and exchange secondhand

books, including Wiliam Bookshop (daily 8am-8pm)

behind the market.

Bus tickets Perama (daily 7am-10pm) is near the jetty

and many other companies also have stalls by the harbour.

Health There are several clinics, including at the Villa Ombak

hotel. The nearest hospital is in Mataram (see p.282).

Internet Most hotels, restaurants and bars provide free

wi-fi. There are also numerous internet cafés on the

main strip.

Post There's a postal agent in the Pasar Seni area on the

east coast.

Yoga Gili Yoga offers a morning and evening class in hatha

and vinyasa flow (east coast; T 0871 471 8710, W giliyoga

.com; Rp100,000).

Scallywags Southeast coast W scallywagsresort.com.

Several restaurants at the southern end of the strip have

seafood barbecues (from Rp60,000, including jacket potato/

rice and salad bar), but Scallywags is the best. The creative

menu also features Basque-style tapas, hearty sandwiches,

tempting desserts (such as blueberry cheesecake), and even

draught Kilkenny (Rp70,000/pint). Daily 8am-10/11pm.

NIGHTLIFE

Gili Trawangan is renowned for its high-season parties,

which alternate between venues depending on the day,

and full-moon parties in the low season. All get going at

about 11pm. Expect to pay around Rp20,000-25,000 for

a small Bintang at any of the bars below.

Blue Marlin East coast W bluemarlindive.com. Rather

incongruously the Monday-night party venue, at the dive

shop of the same name, also serves tasty barbecued sea-

food and hosts regular yoga sessions.

Pesona Southeast coast. One of the most laidback places

on Gili T, with a sea of multicoloured beanbags and shisha

pipes (Rp100,000), plus decent north Indian food. Daily

noon-late.

Sama Sama East coast. One of the liveliest bars on the

island, with parties most nights, often featuring reggae

acts (check the posters and flyers around Gili T to see

what's on). Daily noon-late.

Tír Na Nóg Southeast coast W tirnanoggili.com. Rocking

Irish bar - the Wednesday-night party venue - with beer,

darts, movies and huge screens for sports events plus

comfort food such as cottage pie, bangers and mash and

a full Irish breakfast. The drinks list includes bottled

Guinness and Irish whiskey. Daily 7am-late.

Gili Meno

A similar oval shape to Gili Trawangan,

GILI MENO is much smaller, about 2km

long and just over 1km wide. his is the

most tranquil island of the three, with a

small local population, no nightlife and

arguably the best beaches, as less space is

taken up by fishing boats and hawkers

(although unfortunately the few hawkers

there are here are even more persistent

than most). It takes a couple of hours to

stroll around the island. here's a bird

park in the middle of the island (Taman

Burung; daily 9am-5pm; Rp50,000)

that's worth a visit; it houses three

hundred tropical birds.

he snorkelling is good along the east

coast; start at Royal Reef and drift down

to Kontiki in the south. Take care - boats

come in and out to the harbour along

here. he other option is to start at the

yellow light beacon in the north of the

island; swim left and the current will take

you round to the west coast over the

Meno Wall and you can get out at the old

Bounty jetty, part of the way down the

west coast. Keep your fins on until you're

in very shallow water, as there can often

be quite an undertow (see box, p.295).

You can venture further afield by boat:

ask on the beach (about Rp250,000 per

person for a minimum of two people off

Gili Meno; around Rp400,000 for all

three islands). Equipment is available on

the island but a lot has seen (far) better

4