The Gili Islands

I brushed away the flies and continued to wait for the boat. Other passengers dozed on the nearby benches. Farm women waited outside with woven baskets brimming with food. This food was destined for island restaurants - short juicy bananas, spiky bunches of pineapples, unknown greens, buckets of fish, and one lady held a chicken by its feet. From where I sat, melting into a bench in the Indonesian noontime heat, I could clearly see brown naked boys laughing and jumping off docked boats into the clear blue water of the sea. This is the tiny port of Bangsal, a departure point for the Gili islands – Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan – off the Northeast shore of Lombok. To reach the Gilis one can either go the slow and cheap way, a public boat from Bangsal, or the fast and expensive way, a speed boat from Bali (well, relatively expensive- $20 versus .50 cents).

The Gilis look like a slice of paradise with their impressively blue clear water, bamboo huts, horse drawn wagons (no motor vehicles are allowed on the islands). Located in the waters off the NW corner of Lombok, the Gili islands remained uninhabited until fisherman from nearby islands started setting up homes, and starting coconut plantations. Rumor has it that a German travel writer visited during the 1980s, and this is what led to the development of tourism on the island. Originally guests would just stay in the homes of villagers, but tourism has since grown and all the islands offer hotels, guest houses, and restaurants.

The first place I visit is Gili Trawangan. Many of the bamboo huts on this island have been replaced with more solid and posh establishments, but there is still a relaxed beach vibe – at least during the day, during the nighttime Gili T. is known for its party reputation. Walking around the island there was a fair amount of building going on, and places planned for hotels – like “Eden Edge,” though when I walked past it didn’t look particularly Eden-ish. This island is also supposed to be the smallest island in the world with its own Irish pub.

(Eden's Edge - said completion "2008"?!?)

While the other two islands have remained more rustic and less “spoiled”, Gili Trawangan’s popularity has led it to become the most developed and pricey of the three islands. The island is home to several foreign owned dive schools and up market hotels established by international business interests. Gili Trawangan has also become the subject of several case studies discussing sustainable tourism. In particular, I found an excellent 4pg article discussing “What Hinders the Path to Sustainability?” The paper discussed several of the barriers the island faces and what actions have been taken.

In brief, the dive schools organized the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust and started charging divers a tax of about $3. The collected money then went to projects to repair damaged coral by using metal rods to create artificial reef, paying fisherman not to fish using explosives and other environmentally dangerous methods, organizing beach cleanups, and running a waste management disposal program. However, from the theory stage to implementation the projects hit snags due to various barriers like lack of resources, education, and motivation. I did witness the rods still in place helping to re-grow reef, but many fisherman continue using explosives and damaging the marine environment. The beach cleanups had organizational problems and ended up fizzling out, and the waste management system without the proper knowledge ended up being just a large dumping pit. The walls put up around the pit were stolen, and the big open pit ended up breeding rodents and disease. However, this took place on the interior island, where most tourists don’t venture.