Oh how we loved visiting the Gili Islands, and Komodo National Park (Indonesia Part 3)
- Ilene
- Jun 21
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 20
After two weeks in Bali we made our way to visit some lesser known areas of Indonesia. Komodo National Park, Gili Asahan (secret gili islands) and Gili Air - what an amazing couple of weeks. Indonesia seems to keep giving us more to enjoy.
Komodo is a popular tourist destination for those wanting to see the Komodo dragons up close and personal. The home base for most visiting this area is Labuan Bajo on Flores Island. Visiting Komodo National Park on a day long boat trip or even overnight is how most people see the area. You can’t stay on Komodo Island with the dragons as they are endangered and carefully protected. There are some other sights to see in the area, we opted to enjoy the hotel pool and beach after spending a day on a boat - surprised?
The day long boat tours make a handful of stops in the National Park including some for snorkeling and hiking along the way. It is a beautiful island area with some truly stunning views and great snorkeling. We were fortunate to swim with manta rays, a sea turtle and some beautiful fish and coral reefs. There are also some unique beaches like Pink Beach where the red corals have ground down into the sand creating a pink hue. These pink beaches add to the colorful beauty of the area.
From Komodo we made our way by plane to Lombok Island (you can take a boat but you know us well enough by now). Lombok is a pretty big island and there are some places to stay and volcanos to hike on the mainland but our destinations were the smaller remote islands. We were fortunate to find a truly unique HomeExchange on a lesser known island called Gili Asahan; part of the Secret Gilis. The HomeExchange was one of the villa rooms at Amahelia resort. We lucked out with this lovely beachfront location, private plunge pool and hotel pool, and wonderful staff and restaurant. Asahan is so remote that there are no roads, electricity is generator or solar powered and really the only thing on the island are a handful of hotels and a small local village. You can make your way around the island at low tide along the beach though! It was so calm and relaxing (minus the roosters in the morning), we enjoyed just truly hanging out, reading our books, napping, and eating. The vacation part of this year of adventure was just beginning!
From Gili Asahan we made our way by private car (again, you can take a boat) to the north part of Lombok where the more well-known gilis are (Gili means small island). Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Tarwagan are pretty well known, each with their own stereotyped personalities. We stayed on Gili Air in an Airbnb and LOVED it. There are a lot of great options on Gili Air, staying close to the beachfront brings a nice breeze with it too.
I hate to use the word authentic because if it were truly authentic, tourists just wouldn’t even be there. This island however felt like a blend of locals and tourists. Yes, most of the locals supported tourism, and yet in the evenings, as we walked or rode our bikes to dinner, we observed kids playing, adults hanging out playing guitar or singing some tunes, and people grabbing a quick bite from the local warung or street cart.
So why did we love this place? First off there are no motorized vehicles. People walk along the small alley ways / roads, ride old school bicycles or use horse drawn carts (!). There are now some e-scooters around, but thankfully they are quiet and don’t contribute to any noise pollution. You can walk around this island in less than two hours, or ride your bike around most of it - some of the roads have deep sand making it hard to ride let alone push your bike through it. There are wonderful restaurants, with more than enough catering to vegan, vegetarian and gluten free needs as well as local dishes. All this and I haven’t even gotten to the beaches. Most of the beachfronts have restaurants, bars or cafes with loungers or tables/chairs that you can just park yourself at and hang. Only one seemed to have a minimum spend, at least that we came across. Find a spot in the shade, order a coconut, maybe a light lunch, later a cocktail and enjoy snorkeling, reading your book, even taking a nap - pure and utter vacation bliss.
Oh, and the sunsets! The sunset side of the island is where the action is each evening. Beach front beanbags, loungers and tables set up for the perfect view, as the tides recede, the horses trot up and down the beach and the cocktails are delicious, strong and on happy hour special ($5/cocktail, BOGO).
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