dec 23/backpacker borju

okay, it's supposed to be a hush hush trip... so hush!!!! :)

ever since i knew i was going to have the seminar in the mystical land, i've been eyeing pilas for a trip to dreamland. and of course we have to drag tikki along with us... :D and if it wasn't for dewi, the trip would never happened anyway, because all three of us are procrastinator :p

she handled our itineraries if she didn't do that, we might never took this trip :)

so backpacking we go... and dreamland is the destination

but before we even took this hush hush trip to the dreamland, we found out that our flight is kinda back to back with our bosses' flight. okay, if you're trying to skip a day of work from the office to enjoy a day in a sun, that is not a good idea. especially for me, who just found out that the whole staff from my division is in that flight. small airport ngurah rai is... so the chance of us running into each other is about lessay.... 65% :)

well, a couple of glitch... i met the guy that sat right behind me... but hey, he's cool and we're off to go to dreamland!!!

we only have a day in dreamland, so we decided to tour around the gilis. there are three gilis in dreamland, gili trawangan, gili meno, and gili air. ow, but before i continue with the story, there is someone in the trip, no need to mention names, who didn't want to snorkel @ first, because she didn't have the right gear with her. after pilas talked her down, that made me laughed my ass off in the plane, she agreed to snorkel, and turned out to be the mermaid that didn't want to surface. whatevs :)

when we touched down in dreamland, we were famished, after meeting pilas' good friend roni (he's a dear, really is) we rode a taxi to sate rembige, which is the best beef sate in town... so i've told. it's so frickin' spicy it's not even funny, but it's good as heck!!! :)

off we go in the morning, the four girls, in the dreamland. and pilas said that the port/dock is nearby, so we were going to walk up there. yeah, pilas didn't get her info right :) so after a phone call to roni, we took the cab to the dock. so if you are going to the gilis, just take the boat from 'bangsal' it cost around 10 thousand for the public boat. but there has to be @ least 20 - 25 people on board before the boat leave the dock. how you get to bangsal, the best way i can suggest you is by taking the cab, blue bird, not the other cab. it'll cost you around 80 thousand rupiah, but if you get cool cab driver, he could be really useful, ours was pak zakirin (081933155282) call him up when you're going to dreamland, he's really informative.

if you didn't want to take the public boat like we did, just rent the boat for the whole day, the prices ranged from 500 thousand rupiah to 900 thousand, depending on what you want to do. so we rented the boat for 600 thousand rupiah, and we would take trips to 3 gilis, and snorkel.

our first stop, gili trawangan...

my first impression of this island was, everlasting spring break. the villas are designed for a spring break party. with people hanging out in the pool, and sipping their bears, i'm getting a frat house feelings :)

ow yeah, in gili trawangan, they do not allow any cars or motorbike. so all they have for transportation in 6 square km island is cidomo, a horsedrawn carriage. but you can just walk around the island, the vibes and the atmosphere of the island just sinked in on you, and you'll love it! so we walked from the dock to the cafe where we put our stuff in.

on the way we stop for some gelato... by the by it's good and it's cheap :) we loved it!!!

so off to the cafe, and getting our gear for snorkeling, and for the first snorkel-time, i actually had a life-vest on. mind you, i can't swim :p i can, but not that good... i'm sorry, i'm THAT pathetic :) so off we go to snorkel. my god, it's beautiful. and the crazy thing is, we do not need to go off shore to enjoy the beautiful corals, all we have to do is swim a little bit, and then we would see the wonder that it has.

it was a lot of fun (ow i forgot, tikki requested me not to praise lombok too much, so not many people would come there... but i can't lie) the place is beautiful!!!!!

after the crowded and spring-break-ish gili trawangan, off to gili meno. well it turns out to be an empty island with bird park inside it. but we were not in a bird-park mood. so we got off the boat just to snaps some pics (available on my flickr page =) )

we were again... famished, but our guide, eddy (the cool guide with a mullet =P) told us we better reserve some space in our stomach for gili air. so we told him to get us there immediately :)

off to gili air we go. it is the last gili, and lemme tell you, this gilli i fell for =)

i mean, gili trawangan is fun, and if you like crowds and parties, gili trawangan is the best place (with cheap drinks and everything) but if you want to contemplate, and just be... gili air is a place you should go. it's quiet, and it's family friendly.

and yes, the coral is prettier than the ones in gili trawangan.

it's definitely a place to visit again in this life time. that's why i'm putting it down on the trip i am going to take (preferably with my family... my future family)

so because of the short time, we didn't have the time to check out other beaches... but dreamland, all in all, is a must-see place :)