It was very difficult to say goodbye to the Gilis. While it wasn’t the real rough-and-tumble Indonesia that I also love, I love the Gilis for the diving, eating and laid-back atmosphere.
I checked out about 1000 and got to the boat ticket office to find that I had just missed the last seat, so had to wait for nearly an hour for the next one to fill. I met Julian from Argentina and chatted heaps.
Once in Bangsal, we shared a taxi to Mataram The metered journey took an hour and was slightly costlier at around USD15 than the outbound journey few days back.
As my hotel has large comfy rooms, I offered Julian to stay for half the cost. I chilled for most of the day and ate both meals with Julian, giving him plenty of travel ideas and some assistance with booking his onward travel for tomorrow.