The flight to Lombok was on a sunny afternoon. We usually take night flights to our destination, very hardly one in the day. But for this trip we were left with no choice as the only flights to Mataram was via Silk Air and they only have certain schedules. So, half day leave from work, we made our way to the airport and took off to a destination both myself and my traveling mate had absolutely no clues about, other than a nice seaside township. The flight was a rather bumpy one, almost 2.5 hours.
We landed in Mataram in the evening at 6 O'clockish at the Mataram Airport. Our transfer was very efficient as we were shuffled into a nice MPV, with drinks and towels. We had no idea where the car would take us to and what would be expecting us in time to come.
The car journey was one of adventure, going up a mountain region, then swirling on single lane mountainous road. We were told by the driver, it was called Monkey Forest and true enough, there were monkeys everywhere along the road. After an hour, we arrived at a very quiet jetty. It was already into the 7 O'clock and the whole place was very dark, illuminated by a full moon. The driver said we were at Teluk Kodek Jetty. The driver took our minimal traveling bags and passed on to another young local, who greeted us with a wide smile.
After which he led us to our next mode of transport - a speedboat parked by the side of the jetty. What entailed was a speedboat ride towards an island dimly seen in the moonlight. The speedboat ride took about 20 mins and when we arrived at the island, we were told to jump off the speedboat into the shallow waters. We took off our shoes and hopped into the water - for a cold night, the waters are so warm and soothing.
After alighting the boat we headed towards our dive centre - Manta Dive, who arranged our everything for us onb board Gili Trawangan island. We were brought to our accommodation, the Gili Villas - these individual villas were spectacular. From the doorway, the first thing that caught our eyes was the personal plunge pool and the bamboo pavilion. The glittering lights under the night sky, and the aroma of lemongrass sprawled around the whole villa. We settled in quickly, and then headed for a nice dinner at a restaurant by the beach and then settled in nicely for the night.
The next morning we had a delightful local breakfast at a small cafe before heading for some snorkeling. The snorkeling reef was fantastic - we saw all kinds of marine life and followed the drift. We even saw resident turtles. It was probably the best snorkeling reef we had ever been to.
After the snorkel, we ordered delivery lunch back to the villa, and on the way back, took a peep at a baby turtle sanctuary with many baby green and hawksbill turtles reared in tanks.
We had an in-house swim after lunch and napped till the evening before we went to the same restaurant for dinner, a night walk along Gili Trawangan main street. Back at the villa, we had another dip in the plunge pool before resting for the night.
Day three saw us diving at Shark Point and Halik Dive Site. Plenty of marine life to see, from cuttlefish to huge Parrot Fish. We also saw many turtles and black-tip sharks. The diving stint took almost the whole day.
We went back to the beach for a swim after we returned to the island before returning back to the villa for a shower and dinner. We saw a lovely moon-rise - first time in my life, and did a water painting before sunset. It was a very nice evening after an equally great dive day.
The next day was another dive day - we dropped in at Manta Point and Good Heart Dive Site after a nice breakfast. Again, plenty of marine life, turtles and sharks abound including some dazzling cuttlefish and eels. We spent some time wandering along the main street before heading back to the villa and swim at the plunge pool before ordering dine-in dinner and resting for the night.
The last day was quite a reluctant one because it was going home. We had our last pool splash at the villa pool and after we checked out, we had some last minute cocktails at Manta dive centre, enjoying the galloping horse carriages before the speedboat came by and sent us back to Lombok main island. Our car came by, took us back to Mataram Airport via Monkey Forest again. On the way we saw a local wedding - so many colours and the villages congregated to shower the couple with flowers and blessing. It was a very joyous site.
It wasn't before long that we board the plane for a 2.5 hours journey home. It was a fantastic trip and we promised to return to the island in the near future.
Read: Gili Trawangan
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