However part of the trip getting here was not so pleasant. Thankfully Febi organised the bemo to bring us to Bangsal, however the bemo was stopped about 100 meters from the dock by a police man so as to force us to get a cidomo for the remainder of the trip at a further cost of Rp50,000 for 2 cidomo. The cidomo then stopped on the way at a 'ticket office' where the fellow tried to convince me to charter a boat to Gili Air for Rp350,000 which he promised could leave immediately otherwise we'd have to wait at least 2 hours for the public boat which would he reluctantly informed me would cost us only Rp8,000 per person. By this point it felt like it was one more scam targeting tourists who didn't know any better. Annie agreed with me that we should be skeptical and that we should chance going by public boat They were not impressed that we didn't buy their spiel and waved us on dismissively to the dock!
We continued on to the dock where i was dropped off at another office and easily bought 5 tickets for the public boat which luckily enough was able to leave straight away with our group of 5. However the next issue was getting our luggage from the dock down to the boat which was moored by the waters edge. I was so fed up by this point as it had seemed that ever since we had been forced to leave the bemo, it had been a steady stream of people insisting on payment for this and that. However it would have been very difficult to get our luggage down to the boat by ourselves before the boat left. I was so relieved they only wanted Rp5000 per piece that i gladly accepted.
The trip on the boat over was lovely and cool however there was yet another fellow in another cidomo waiting at the dock hoping to relieve us of yet more money. He asked for Rp100,000 to take us to our hotel and and the lowest he would drop to was Rp60,000. On principle, i refused his greedy claim that it was the going rate and that there is a limit of 2 people allowed per cidomo. We grabbed our suitcases and struggled pulling through the sand for a while and then tried carrying them. We didn't get far before we ran out of steam. Thankfully another cidomo arrived and we gratefully agreed to his offer of Rp50,000 without haggling. This is the point from which the truly unpleasant part of our journey here finished.
It was just lovely in the cidomo; having
a chance to sit back and truly look at Gili Air, letting the horse do all the work. It was actually quite a distance to our hotel, so in retrospect there was no way we could have lugged our luggage all the way ourselves.
Our arrival at Sejuks was fantastic. We were taken straight to our room and then given an iced coffee slushy. It so hit the spot.
After filling in the check in log, we jumped into their beautiful pool. So good.
I am now lying in a hammock on our verandah with a very placid tabby cat for company while the girls cool off again in the pool. We had lunch at a nearby warung run by a European lady who i remember from last time. (annie/marg - next to where the fish were brought in that morning!) Then while the girls checked out the shops, i headed back with Ann & Tom to see where their place was. They are staying in a place called unzip (surely not!) which is also in the same style as our place here at Sejuks and back on Lombok at Santai. Small chalet styled off the ground with thin woven bamboo walls and an enclosed bathroom out the back.
While out i put a deposit on a snorkeling trip heading out tomorrow morning on a glass bottomed boat. I just hope the girls don't get too sunburnt. Encouraging them to cover up their beautiful bathers has fallen on deaf ears so far.
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