July, 2017 | Passport and Pants

Uluwatu, Bali

July 19, 2017 Dan Leave a comment

We travelled back from Gili Meno the long way, but again for more comfortable than we assume the fast boats are, and definitely cheaper. We got the public boat from Gili Meno to Bangsal port in Lombok at 8am, for about £1 each, it did feel a little like we might die on it, but like the locals, we’re getting used to that feeling now.

Then it was a 1.5 hour taxi to Lembar to take the public ferry back to Bali, we managed to negotiate this down to about £12, the same price as the shuttle bus would have cost for two people and much quicker and more comfortable. The public ferry was similar, but a little older and busier than the previous one, there were no seats left inside so we sat in the shaded part of the top deck and just chatted for the five hours back to Bali (again, a large chunk of that was within sight of the dock, but being unable to get off, and again, something we were now more used to).

Gili Islands; Gili Air & Gili Meno

July 18, 2017July 15, 2017 Dan Leave a comment

We arrived at Bangsal port in Lombok to take the public boat over to Gili Air, the public boats are only about £1 each for the short crossing, the boat is only small, seating about 30, but of course more than that got on, we clambered on from the beach and set off to the legendary Gili Islands.

Gili Air is the Gili closest to Lombok, the medium-sized one about 2km across, Gili Meno is the next island over, a little smaller at 1km across, and Gili Trawangan is the biggest and furthest away, the island for partying. We decided we’d only go to the quieter islands, but Gili Air was still fairly busy.

Kuta, Lombok

July 16, 2017July 15, 2017 Dan Leave a comment

We took an Uber from Ubud back to Padangbai port to take the public ferry to Lombok, we would be going to the south of Lombok, to a town called Kuta (very different from Kuta, Bali) for a few days before going to the famous Gili Islands further north.

All went smoothly, we got to the port, bought our boat tickets for £2.50 each for a four-hour ferry, boarded and went straight up to the top-deck. When I say this boat was a ferry, it was more like a mini-ship, it transported trucks, cars, people, live-stock, petrol, basically anything that needed to go from Bali to Lombok could go on this boat, it was big.

We sat down on the top deck and a couple of the locals gave us some funny looks before one said to us that we might want to go downstairs where there’s more seats, we looked a little confused because we had a seat on a bench up here. But, I went for a walk to see what was in the downstairs section we hadn’t been in.

Ubud, Bali

July 15, 2017July 19, 2017 Dan Leave a comment

It was time to move on from the Nusa Islands, we had plans to go to Lombok and the famous Gili Islands from there, but first we would go back to Bali by public ferry and go to Ubud. Ubud is famous for being used as a setting in the book and subsequent film; Eat, Pray, Love.

We set off from Nusa Penida early morning, rode the bike down to the harbour and the owner of the bungalows came with us again to carry our bags and bring the bike back afterwards. The local boat was a big ferry and would only take an hour to get to Padangbai in Bali, we were on our way.

We got chatting to some locals and the boat was good, decent seats on an outside covered deck area, and it did only take an hour to get there. Plus an extra two and a half hours sat on the boat just outside the port waiting to dock up in a queue of other ferries.