An Island Retreat – Gili Meno

Next up we were heading to Gili Meno, the quietest of the three Gili’s by Lombok in Indonesia, planning a month of writing, relaxing, diving and snorkelling.

We’re a bit rubbish with early morning starts but we made it to our eight forty am departure on time and the three hour Air Asia flight passed quickly enough with the sixty plus year old lady next to JHubz taking selfies and watching loud videos about eggs. In no time at all we were landing in Lombok to be surrounded by sunshine and blue skies, divine!

Thereafter followed a ninety minute drive around the breathtaking coastline with Zanna, our informative and friendly driver. First impressions were of a lovely island and some stunning views, so stunning we’ve already decided to change our plans and spend a week on Lombok when we leave Gili Meno.

After much chatting and many winding roads and beautiful vistas we arrived at a strip of beach with countless boats moored just offshore and waited for ours to arrive. A heads up that we would need to climb into it from the sea and get totally soaked on the crossing would have been awesome but as there wasn’t any we arrived after a relatively calm twenty minutes, laughing and sodden. Disembarking in metre swells was interesting and I’m already thankful Ma arrives in the evening when it seems a bit calmer.

Bags unloaded we were pointed down a dirt pathway and told our accommodation was two hundred metres that way. Hmmn, ok, sodden, shoes in my bag as I didn’t want to ruin them with wet dirty feet we trudged along, my soaking dress sticking grossly to my legs. It was not the best of starts. But you know, it’s sunny, brilliantly so, and I can forgive many things to the sun and this slightly unfortunate start was one of them.

JHubz mentioned that something smelled lovely and we looked up to see our welcoming resort. Our bungalow is standard, neither luxurious nor overly basic, on a lot with nine others, some lovely foliage, a pool, bar and restaurant and perfect for our needs with a huge super king bed. Not reading the fine print (no surprise there) meant we didn’t know there is no fresh water, only salt water in the shower and sink but this is fairly common on little islands where everything has to be transported from elsewhere and we’ve already bought a five gallon bottle to splash ourselves down with.

There are no cars or motorbikes on the island (we have spied more than one electic moped) transport being by foot, bicycle and pony cart, and it is delightfully peaceful, if you discount the countless cocks crowing of course. We haven’t seen any dogs but plenty of cats, a few goats, geese and the odd cow.

A ten minute walk across the island is Sasuk, a laid back beach front restaurant and the perfect place to watch the sun set over our party neighbour Gili Trawangen. You can hear the music pumping across the sea making us happy with our choice of  island. We’ve really not explored much, we gave up on finding the yoga place when half way down the path to it, our legs and feet were so covered in dirt it was ridiculous, we would have needed a shower before and after each class. We have signed up to do our PADI advanced open water certification, which we will start next week, enjoyed a wonderful evening with Swee and Dominic before they headed back to KL and we’ve lounged by and in the pool. I’ve actually had the best massage in four months – at our resort, woohoo! It’s only been two days. Tomorrow we’ll be more adventurous, as adventurous as you can be on an island you can walk around in ninety minutes anyway Xx