Slow Ride into the Unknown

The Gili Island group is a three-Island archipelago just off Lombok Island. The only means of getting there are boats from Bali and Lombok. Gili Air is the smallest, easternmost of the three Islands and the 90 minute crossing from Bali landed us at the southern port early in the tropical afternoon.

The Island is small, and though our accommodation was on the opposite shore from our arrival port, Aside from some electric scooters and bicycles, the Island’s only transportation on the narrow paths and roads, mostly dirt and sand, are horse-drawn carts. However, Google said it was just a  20 minute walk. So we eschewed the ride offers from several horse cart operators.

What we didn’t count on was all but a few minutes of that walk was shadeless, while the sun was just off vertical and pounding directly on our chests just about the whole way. Add a wrong turn which added a couple hundred meters on a sandy path and, well, the result was the hottest, sweatiest and most unpleasant 25-minute walk I’ve ever had. My travel partner feared she would pass out, so I dragged both our wheeled luggage through the sand.

We booked the horse cart back to the port the night before our early departure, just to be absolutely sure we didn’t repeat the experience.