Day 15: Goodbye Lombok, Hello Gili Air

We started the day with breakfast at the villa before our driver picked us up to begin our journey to Gili Air.

Rather than heading straight to the port, we made a few scenic stops along the way. First was a beautiful temple right beside the ocean, followed by a spectacular clifftop lookout, and then a gorgeous beach where we stopped for a swim.

While we were in the water, I spotted a turtle popping its head up a couple of times. The kids were out with their snorkels in record time, determined to find it... but the turtle clearly wasn't interested in making new friends. They did, however, spot plenty of fish.

Millie also spotted something much bigger—a sea snake!

Her reaction was immediate. There was lots of screaming, frantic splashing, and the fastest swim back to shore we've seen all holiday. Her ocean confidence took about a 3 minute holiday, before she was back out snorkeling again.

From there we headed to what we thought was the port...

Except it wasn't.

Instead, we arrived at a quiet little stretch of beach where a small, slightly rickety-looking boat was waiting on the sand. Apparently that was our private boat! We climbed aboard and before long were cruising across the crystal-clear water to Gili Air.

The boat pulled right up onto the beach outside our accommodation, which felt like a pretty cool way to arrive.

After checking in, we had lunch, cooled off with another swim in the pool, and then did what we love doing most—set off to explore.

Gili Air has such a lovely, relaxed feel. We wandered the sandy streets, watched the horses pulling little carts instead of cars, and chatted with lots of friendly locals. Jai, in particular, seems to have become everyone's best friend. He happily waves and says hello to anyone who walks past, and the locals absolutely adore him.

Dinner was right on the beachfront, watching the waves roll in and people slowly getting out of the water as they called it a day with the sun going down. It was almost perfect...

...except the kitchen seemed to be playing a lucky dip with our meals.

Two meals arrived.

Then, once those were almost finished, another three appeared.

Poor Millie's dinner never turned up at all.
After a few gentle reminders, it finally arrived just as the boys were completely ready for bed, so we packed it up to take home instead.

A Few Thoughts on Lombok

Looking back, Lombok was a bit of a mixed bag for us. The scenery was absolutely stunning, with beautiful beaches and lush green hills, but it was hard not to notice the amount of rubbish in many places.

We were also amazed to learn there are more than 8,000 mosques on the island, which certainly explained the regular calls to prayer throughout each day.

That said, Kuta had a really fun atmosphere. The main street was full of great little restaurants, cafés and live music, and we loved wandering around in the evenings.

We're really glad we visited—but if we had to choose a favourite so far, I'd say Gili Air has taken the top spot.

Trip Statistics

- Turtles successfully spotted: 1
- Turtles successfully caught on snorkel: 0
- Sea snakes that sent Millie into panic mode: 1
- Rickety beach boats boarded: 1
- New islands visited: 1
- Friendly locals won over by Jai: Pretty much all of them
- Forgotten dinners: 1 (Sorry, Millie!)
- Family memories made: CountlessRead more