Phi Phi Island

Phi-phi island which also known as Leonardo DiCaprio Island is the star of Thailand for tourism. It wasn't the love at first sight for me, i was hoping for more. It was raining like a thunderstorm, all of our bags were wet and we got to wear a plastic coat inside the cruise, gosh!! The sea color change to dark, and sandy, lost its glory shinny blue. Most activities was canceled due to bad weather, ooohh really i needed the sun to say hello, I didn't care if I got my skin burned.

snorkeling in Koh Phi Phi Lay

Canoeing with my best friend, Frans

Phi Phi Harbor

Finally when the rain stopped, we went for snorkeling and canoeing. Then the cruise stop in Phi-phi Harbor and we immediately had our lunch. We decided to have our own visit to Maya Bay by renting a river boat and maybe we could also explore other islands around Phi-Phi. it was raining again after lunch, so we just sat in the cafe and came with an idea to extend our stay in Phi-Phi. Then we set up a river boat to go to Maya Bay and other beaches tomorrow morning. So there we met Mr. Potato who was very nice yet crazy, he offered us with several drugs (omg :)) like ecstasy, buddha stick and ice, wow wow wow, easy... better we skip this part :)

view from our hotel in Banyan Resort

That evening we actually wanna saw the Tsunami Village but on the way there we didn't find anything interested in the village so going up to the View Point was another great option. two of my dear friend, Tisa & Puri gave up not even quater journey to reach the View Point 1, but that time we were free to make own decision anyway. It might be a good decision to save more energy, BUT not the right decision hehehe. 

View Point 2!!!!

here we are :)

So only Didit, Frans and Me left, I gotta do it and keep moving up. Finally, not only View Point 1 but we reached out the View Point 2, amazing view. We were blown away by the beauty of two beach that separated by a line of sandy dazzling land and from where we were standing, we can also saw two huge mountains and the sun was peeking behind the mountain ready to fall and change the day into night, wonderful moment.

Loh Dalam Bay (on the way to view point)

The next morning went directly to Maya Bay and we were the first visitor to that Island. The Maya Bay is a famously known as the place that The Beach movie where taken. It was heavenly blast, a very quiet morning, the sand are so white and soft, the water is so calm and blue aaarrggghhh lovely beach, exactly like what I have in mind. We spend over three hours; joking, making a short video, swimming and laughing like we owned the place until the time that other groups of May Bay tour came and packed this beautiful beach with people looking the same excitement faces like us. But we were just so lucky to own that beach on only us for couple of hours.

Bile Island

Maya Bay the paradise!

swimming in the huge Lagoon of Maya Bay

After Maya Bay got packed, we continued exploring other beaches to Loh Moo Dee Beach, Virgin Beach, Phi-Phi Lay, and Monkey Beach. It was very fun getaway with a very cool friends and rows of moments we spent together; silly, funny, drank, whoohooo. I will definitely be back here someday. 

Loh Moo Dee Beach

Virgin Beach

Phi Phi Lay

Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, Gili Meno

Not far away from the northwest corner of Lombok are three idyllic islands, Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, and Gili Meno. They are the beautiful and well known islands near Bali.

Gili Harbour

My friends and I decided to visit those islands on our trip to Bali last March 2011. I just love the idea that I could also experienced the diving as I just got my Open Water License Early Jan 2011. For me Gili Islands are wonderful, exotic and paradise where the sand are still powdery white, the water is such a crystal clear – sparkling in turquoise and the sunsets over Bali’s volcano Mt. Agung was spectacularly stunning.

Gili Harbour

Gili Meno

Gili Air

For food there’s no doubt that you can find various type of restaurants from Irish, Italian, Asian to Japanese, anything you just name it. My recommendation is that you should have dinner or try Scallywags Lobster or reef prawns, hhmmm mamamia.

Scallywags Restaurant in Gili Air

waiting for Sunset Paradise Bar (taken by: Tania M)

amazing sunset moment at Paradise Bar

Great food, great parties, great life and freedom; are soul recuperation that absolutely you can taste for living in these islands.

We’re very lucky that we're also experienced the Full Moon Party, they usually organized the party once a month. The crowds was enthusiastic and been issued for the whole week before it’s began.  

Getting there is so easy and whichever you choose, you will surely get to see a lot beautiful scenery of Bali and Lombok. Very stunning!

You can fly to Lombok, then from Airport Mataram - Teluk Nara (40 min driving) – Speedboat to Gili (15 min), or if you are from Bali you can go by speedboat or ferri. We were taking speed boat from Bali, just around 1 hour and 30 min. The price was IDR 600.000 returned ticket. 

Fast Boat

+6281805305632

+62361753241

info@gili-fastboat.com

Activities are same old same, like we used to do in the beach: snorkeling, diving, sea kayak, trekking to Mount. Rinjani and cycling around the islands, Islands Hopping (Inc. snorkeling) IDR 75.000 and for people like my friends who long to get tanned skin, you’re in the right place.

Rent a bicycle for 1 day (24 hours) around IDR 50.000

Private trip to Gili Air (only for if you stay in Scallywags Resort) + including the lunch is IDR 100.000/person.

Diving in Gili, you can contact:

Manta Dive Gili Air

+62370643649

+6281337789047

info@manta-dive.com

Several choices for hotels, from budget hotels to one luxuries place to stay. We were selected several hotels like The Beach House, Buddha Dives, Villa Ombak, Scallywags and Villa Unggul but then our choice felt for the great Scallywags! It was very very nice staying there.

faces of happiness of four lucky girls

outdoor toilet

outdoor shower

Scallywags swimming pool

Scallywags Restaurant

dinner view heading to the magnificent Mount Rinjani

Scallywags Resort, Gili Trawangan

+62370645301

Calculate My Budget (3D/2N)

Accommodation = -/+ IDR 600.000
Meal = -/+ IDR 350.000 (Inc. lunch in Gili Air organized by Scallywags)
Speedboat Bali - Gili - Bali = IDR 600.000
Island Hopping = IDR 75.000
Rent a Bicycle = IDR 50.000 (1 Day)
Diving (2 spot diving) =  IDR 700.000
Others =  IDR 200.000
TOTAL = -/+ IDR 2.575.000 / -/+ USD 280