To celebrate the completion of Jeff's dissertation, and because my parents decided to come visit us for Christmas, we decided to do our first traveling adventure in Indonesia and explore Gili Air, a small island off of Lombok. (Let's be honest, we would not have attempted this journey with two small children without my parent's help!). I'd done some research on places to visit in Indonesia, and everywhere I read that Gili Air was the place to go. It was quiet, family friendly, and beautiful. I booked us a place at Manta Dive based on some friends' recommendations, got us fairly cheap airline tickets on Batik Air and Garuda, and waited eagerly for the adventure.
The first question you have to sort through when traveling in Indonesia is which airline to choose from. There are a myriad of options, and you can't help but wonder why some of them are so cheap. In the end, we made the leap of faith and purchased the tickets on Batik Air for the trip there, and Garuda for the return.
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| Dr. Spanogle has to bring his Elmo back pack with him wherever he goes |
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| Lydia was so excited to ride the airplane! |
My parents arrived and early the next morning at 7 AM we left for the airport. Everything went as planned, and we arrived in Lombok at about 1:30 PM Lombok time, eager to explore our new destination. Lombok is beautiful. It is mountainous, surrounded by beautiful ocean, covered in palm trees, and basically is a place where I could live, if given the choice. We had arranged for a driver, one of the few Christians on Lombok, to pick us up at the airport. We and our stuff piled into his van, and we began the drive up the coast to Gili. It is about a 2 hour drive through some beautiful scenery. Clouds were gathering as we went, and it wasn't long before the rain started. The first part of the drive was through a small city called Mataram. It reminded me of Laos, and I could imagine living there, getting to know the small shops and vendors, and feeling like I was really in Indonesia. Maybe ITC could relocate? But alas, only daydreaming!
After we made it through Mataram, we began what felt at times a perilous journey along a winding rode through pouring rain, with a steep cliff dropping off on one side and the mountain on the other. Our driver safely conveyed us along the mountainous road. We could see the ocean crashing on the shore below us. When we arrived at the port, the rain had slowed down, but the water was choppy and we were all feeling a little bit of apprehension about a boat ride in this weather. They loaded us up into a small speedboat with our suitcases, and we began the bumpy ride to Gili Air.
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| Calm on the surface, before Elias starts to cry. |
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| Lydia's face is how we all felt about the speed boat ride. |
It was probably only a 15 minute boat ride, tops, but it felt a lot longer as we bumped up and down along the swells of water. Lydia and Elias both started crying, and Jeff and I both couldn't help thinking about what we would do if the boat flipped over. Lydia loves the story of Jesus calming the storm and requests that we read it almost every night, along with the song, "With Jesus In the Boat You Can Smile in the Storm." So we tried singing that to her and reminding her that Jesus was with us as we went. Our drivers did not seem at all worried about the weather, and calmly had us flying over the swelling water. But at last we could see the dock nearing, and our next adventure was getting out of the boat onto the dock as both were rocking up and down. We made it onto the dock and were finally on solid ground again. It was still raining and we had no idea where our resort was.
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| Getting ready for an oxcart ride |
Gili Air has no motorized traffic, so the way to get around is by foot, bicycle, or oxcart. Oxcart sounded like a fun adventure and really the only option for us since we didn't know where we were going, it was raining, and we had so many things to bring with us. So we found one and paid a fairly expensive price (I tried to bargain but to no avail--they had us because of the rain and the kids) to take us to Manta Dive. An oxcart is pulled by one horse and the cart itself has only 2 wheels. So needless to say it was a bumpy ride, and we felt like we might get tossed out on the journey.
Things started calming down as we made it to our nice little bungalows and dropped off our things. I'm happy to report that the most adventurous part of our adventure was getting to our destination. Our time there was wonderful and the journey back wasn't as harrowing.
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| Lydia loved her swimming buddies! Grandma & Grandpa helped her adjust to using her new floaty in the "deep wa-wa" as she calls it. |
We were at Manta Dive for 3 full days and 4 nights, and most of our time was spent with Lydia happily playing in the pool with Grandma and Grandpa, playing on the sand, or one child or the other napping back at the bungalow with an adult on guard. I got to read A LOT during nap times, which was fun, and enjoyed swimming in the pool and the ocean.
We started each morning early thanks to the kids, with breakfast on the beach, provided through the resort. Across the bay we could see the mountains of Lombok rising into the sky, a beautiful way to start the day. Our favorite breakfast was the baguette, eggs, and bacon option with a plate of fruit, and a cup of tea. Bacon was such a treat! After breakfast, we'd usually get ready for the pool, and Lydia would swim while Elias took his first nap of the day.
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| This is the harbor of Gili Air looking across to Lombok, on our first stormy afternoon. |
We'd transition to the beach later in the morning, and come back to our resort for lunch. They had delicious Thai food and freshly made juices. The kids would take an afternoon nap and several of us adults would go out and explore. The first day in the afternoon we decided to take an oxcart ride around the island. It was truly amazing to glimpse the beauty of the beaches and the mountains together in one place! In the evenings we ate grilled fish and kabobs at restaurants along the beach.
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| Not the best picture because of the lighting, but this is us on Christmas morning at our beach front breakfast spot. |
It was funny being on a tropical island for Christmas. There was no church, no dignified choral Christmas music, no dressing up in our Christmas best. All over the island, they were getting ready for a party. They advertised all night discos and fireworks on Christmas eve, and each beach side restaurant was decked out in reds and greens, lights, and servers wearing special Christmas uniforms.
The 4 of us shared a room, so we were in bed early each night, and Christmas Eve all night we heard the fireworks going off (fireworks are my new least favorite thing with young children!). I've never associated fireworks with Christmas before! We brought along stockings for the kids and so Lydia opened her stocking on Christmas morning before our breakfast on the beach. That night after our day in the sand, we read the Christmas story, sang songs, and ate ice cream. Definitely not your typical Christmas, but a Christmas to remember!
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| Another Christmas picture, Elias & Lydia are both happy and looking at the camera! |
I felt that 3 full days was the perfect amount of time to spend there with young kids. We were able to relax and enjoy everything, but at the end of the time, we were all tired of sleeping in the same room (aka, not sleeping) and the kids were ready for a normal routine. I think that Gili Air would be a great place to go if you have kids a little older than ours--there's snorkeling, and biking to do on the island that would be a lot of fun. But for what we are able to do at this stage of life, 3 days was perfect. We enjoyed the views, enjoyed the sand and water, enjoyed the conversation, and enjoyed not having to cook!
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| The beautiful views from Gili Air looking over to Lombok. |
I'm glad my parents were brave enough to come on the adventure to Gili Air with us, and hope that we will have a chance to return to Lombok in the future. For now, we are enjoying sand-free beds, firework-free nights, and missing grandparents and swimming pools!
