The Many Sides Of Gili Trawangan: Bicycling Around

Spending some time bumming out on the beach on Gili T is a great escape from the fast-paced lifestyle of Bali, but if you’re like me, laying around every single day can become a bit boring. Thankfully, you can rent bikes on the island for next to nothing – we paid about $3 CDN to have our bikes for the entire day and there are bike racks in front of most shops on the main strip to park your bike for a few hours while you enjoy a refreshing beverage. Or two.

You can easily ride around the entire island in 30 minutes. There is a pathway cut out for bicyclists, though at some parts (especially on the west side of the island) the path disintegrates into sand that you need to trudge through. There are tonnes of spots where you can get off and wander around to enjoy the scenery and the beauty of Gili. Since you’re now on island-time, take it easy when biking around. After all, you do have that bike for a lot longer than needed to explore the island.

Though riding around the island is great and you can see a lot, you won’t get to see what local life is like unless you head inland. Navigating through the roads (and lack thereof) was a journey in and of itself, but what I was able to see along the way was worth getting lost a few times. Thankfully Gili T isn’t large and we were out of the brush in no time. We biked through homes, small shops, farms, rows and rows of palm trees, and so much more. One unfortunate thing we did see was tonnes of construction and garbage piles everywhere. Always sad to see such an isolated treasure being commercialized and not cared about like it should be.

When travelling, I always try to make a point to get away from the touristy part of the city or town I’m in to get a sense for what happens on a day-to-day basis. It’s through these experiences that I come to appreciate and fall in love with a place so much more. I have found that I usually have two different perspectives on a destination; what there is to experience and take in as a traveler and what locals experience every day.

We ended a great day of bicycling throughout Gili Trawangan with a beautiful sunset on the west side of the island and an extremely attractive sunburn.