There were three things that I really wanted to do in Lombok. The first one was climbing Mount Rinjani, the second one was coming to see Sendang Gile water falls, and the third one was snorkeling in Gili Islands. Even, I made the near-perfect itinerary long before my departure to Lombok. I just wanted to make sure that there is no destination I skip.

I planned to enjoy Lombok with one of my friends. Unfortunately,  she canceled her trip. It made me felt upset at the first time. Then I saw my father became excited to go Lombok. He said, “Let’s do it!” Then here I was….. going to Lombok with my family. Dad, Mom, Brother, and I. Perfect!

From three destinations that I really wish to go, only two of them that already accomplished: coming to see Sendang Gile, and snorkeling in Gili Islands. No worry, surely I will keep the first one, climbing Mount Rinjani, for another time 😀

In this post, I talk about snorkeling around Gili Air. It was a tiny island near Lombok, located in a group of island consis of Gili Air, Gili Trawangan, and Gili Meno. All of those islands well known as Gili Islands. I have chosen Gili Air for snorkeling simply because Gili Air was more quite and nearest to Lombok. So it gonna be the best way to enjoy other side of Lombok, either it didnt take too many times reaching the island. 

I reached Gili Air through Bangsal port. There were two options to reach here, we can ride a charter boat (IDR 200,000 fixed price, one way ticket), or joint with a regular boat run by local people (of course the price will be much much cheaper than the other one!). In this time, I got special price: round trip ticket + snorkeling trainer and equipment rental for IDR 500,000. It took 30-45 minutes to get here.

Gili Air was a really “wow” island. The circumstance was only two and a half hours walk around by foot. The population was about a thousand people. It was a good place for those who really want to escape from the hustle-bustle daily life. Gili Air had some places to hang out, such as club and cafe, but the number was not as many as in Gili Trawangan. It also had some good restaurants and various range of accommodation.

There were various activities that we can do in Gili Air (besides chill out in bungalow of course :D). We can did swimming, snorkeling, or scuba diving. Since I didn’t have diving license, so snorkeling was the perfect option to do! 🙂

Gili Air had really wonderful sea garden. I saw many fish, sea turtle, and colorful seaweed. After all, I had a really great time and it was one of the best experience in my life.