Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
sauce, Rp30,000), chicken sate (Rp30,000) and burgers, plus cocktails made with imported
alcohol (from Rp45,000). From 8pm a band plays acoustic music.
Daily 8.30am-midnight.
DIRECTORY
Banks and exchange
There are a few ATMs on the island, and you can change money in
the harbour area, where Blue Marlin also does credit card cash advances.
Shopping
The shop at
Rust
(daily 8am-11pm) sells basic necessities, including a few over-
the-counter medicines; Sasak handicrafts and pots are sold at a stall between
Kontiki
and
Biru Meno
.
Gili Air
Closest to the Lombok mainland,
GILI AIR
stretches about 1.5km in each direction and has
the largest permanent population of the three islands (around 1800 people). Though tourism
is important here, and increasingly so, village life and homes dominate the heart of the island,
giving Gili Air a more Indonesian atmosphere than Gili Trawangan, while still being sociable
and livelier than Gili Meno. Accommodation is spread around most of the coast but is con-
centrated in the southeast, which has the most popular beach and excellent snorkelling; ask
locally about currents, which can be strong. Countless tracks, some of them paved, cross the
interior and allow you to explore beyond the tourist perimeter into the many coconut planta-
tions and
kampung
(villages) with their mosques, flower-filled gardens and grazing cows.
If you're coming to Air just for the day, a good place to head for is the lovely stretch of
beach
around
Scallywags
, less than ten minutes' walk from the harbour; the restaurants here
make enjoyable places to spend the day, with shaded lounging
berugaq
, fine views across to
Lombok and snorkels for rent.
The island is ringed by a partially paved track, shadeless and very soft in some places. It
takes a couple of hours to complete a circuit on foot, and doing it by
bicycle
is also a lot of
fun. As with the other Gilis, there's excellent
diving
within twenty minutes' boat ride.
