The Travelonians

The Travelonians We are Johanne and Ed, a retired couple writing about our travels and adventures.

Well, we are, after a few days, getting back to normal. Ed picked up a nasty leg infection and was in rough shape for ab...
02/03/2025

Well, we are, after a few days, getting back to normal. Ed picked up a nasty leg infection and was in rough shape for about 5 days but is getting better. As a travel tip, we always travel with general antibiotics and again they saved the day.

So anyway, here are some random pictures taken during our ramblings around this idyllic little island. Mainly just stuff we found interesting and photogenic. Hope you enjoy.

We spend a lot of time walking around the island meeting people, trying different foods, and taking pictures. We’ll pos...
01/28/2025

We spend a lot of time walking around the island meeting people, trying different foods, and taking pictures. We’ll post some of the pictures over the next few days. Pics are all shot with iPhones, we didn’t take the big Nikon this trip.

Where ever we go in our travels, we always seem to make a lot of friends with local people. A ready smile and a friendly...
01/25/2025

Where ever we go in our travels, we always seem to make a lot of friends with local people. A ready smile and a friendly hello goes a long way, and easier still when we have extended stays in places. Gili Air is no exception. Around the corner from us is a row of a dozen or so vendors selling tourist souvenirs, carvings, bracelets, shirts etc. All nice stuff but we don’t buy much so our catch phrase is always “maybe later”. After a while it becomes a big joke to the point where the vendors all call Ed “Mr Maybe Later” or just “Mr Later”. A group of these vendors is expanding by building a new shop and Ed is now the project manager, quality control expert, safety consultant and everything else except worker. All in good fun and we always stop and have a laugh. Such warm people here.

As we have mentioned, we are here in the middle of rainy season and even though it is mostly nice in the Gilis, we do ge...
01/23/2025

As we have mentioned, we are here in the middle of rainy season and even though it is mostly nice in the Gilis, we do get some serious storms, but not as bad Java and Bali and some other nearby islands recently.

The rain can come down unbelievably hard at times but we still go out. We usually take our raincoats and hope for the best. These storms often cause power outages but not usually for too long, and most restaurants cook with propane so no big problem.

Experiencing a major thunderstorm on a small island is definitely memorable, the lightning can be very intense and the thunder unbelievably loud and sudden. It’s easy to feel isolated and vulnerable but still, all part of the travel experience!

01/23/2025

A short video of the rain storm last Monday. It rained like this all day and caused serious flooding in Bali and Java but no real problems here.

As we mentioned in our last post, we are riding out the worst of the rainy season here in Gili Air. We get our share of ...
01/14/2025

As we mentioned in our last post, we are riding out the worst of the rainy season here in Gili Air. We get our share of heavy rain here but it usually falls at night. Plus, the island is flat so we don’t seem to have the flooding problems we see in Bali and elsewhere in the area. We have everything we need here; beaches, lots of local restaurants, and nice people. A great place to spend a month.

The people here lead simple lives, permanent residents are usually the ones with boats, shops, restaurants, and small villas and guesthouses for rent and the labour often comes from the big island of Lombok. These workers usually have a few days a month off to go back to their families.

Most houses are pieced together with salvaged materials, woven bamboo, corrugated metal sheets and floors are hand mixed concrete tiles . No security is needed because there is almost no crime and really, no reason to steal. Electrical hookups are often a single small cable and we don’t know about sewage and water. But at the same time, it seems, very little tax of any sort is paid or collected.

Most people have electric or pedal bikes and either way, nowhere far to go. You can walk around the island in about 1 1/2 hour. The lack of cars alone is a huge saving in infrastructure (in a place like this, it is easy to see the negative effect cars can have). All in all, it is possible for local people to live here for very little money. Easy living.

It is rainy season here and man, do we get some heavy rains and storms. So, we decided to head back to Gili Air for a mo...
01/10/2025

It is rainy season here and man, do we get some heavy rains and storms. So, we decided to head back to Gili Air for a month or so to hopefully ride out the worst of the season. The Gili Islands have a bit of a micro climate so the weather seems better.

We made our way back up to Bangsal Harbour to take the ferry across to Air. The last time we did this, we took the public boat but not this time. The public boat is open and crowded like an Indian commuter train at times so we paid a total of $15CAD for a ferry ride in the “fast boat”. We’ll repost a couple of public boat pics to show comparison. Even though the ferry crossing is short, it was worth the extra money.

Indonesia is around 90% Muslim (Bali is not, it’s Hindu). We have travelled to Java and Lombok and both are almost entir...
01/08/2025

Indonesia is around 90% Muslim (Bali is not, it’s Hindu). We have travelled to Java and Lombok and both are almost entirely Muslim. Where ever you go here, there will be many mosques around, and most of them have a loudspeaker system. Call to prayer is broadcast 5 times a day starting at around 4:30am and the last one starting around 8:00pm. They all broadcast at the same time and the broadcasts are not the same. We often hear many at the same time and it can be noisy and overwhelming. On top of that, we also often hear announcements and sermons so it can be quite a bit of speaker activity.

After a while, you get used to it as it is the way of life here.

One of the truly great things about travelling is eating food from different countries and cultures. The ingredients and...
01/05/2025

One of the truly great things about travelling is eating food from different countries and cultures. The ingredients and cooking methods are so different from region to region or even town to town. Available ingredients are often not the same and meat or protein comes from different sources and the most common are chicken, soy (tempeh or tofu), and fish if near the coast. The food is most often served with rice or noodles but it is the spices that really add the flavour, and Asians love spice.
The sights and smells of everyday cooking is amazing. Local people most often eat what we would call street food, usually from small open air stands with one specialty like soup or fried noodles or dumplings etc. Cheap and nourishing.
We eat the same food but usually from small local restaurants called warungs where we can sit a bit more comfortably, and not on plastic stools like at the food stands. We took a few pictures while walking at night when they are most busy. We hope you enjoy.

Here are a few pictures of the public beach in Sengiggi. These beaches are surrounded by beautiful high-end resorts but ...
01/04/2025

Here are a few pictures of the public beach in Sengiggi. These beaches are surrounded by beautiful high-end resorts but for people not staying at these resorts, and local people, this is the place to go to enjoy the water. The big ferry boat stops here, and there are many small fishing boats pulled up on the beach for safety. It is colourful and interesting, and like many beaches, a cool place to hang out.

01/03/2025

We’ve mentioned our good friend Conrad from Colorado a number of times. He is a photographer and often uses his trusty drone to take amazing videos. Here is one of his outstanding vids mostly done in Gili Air where we met him for a couple of days. The rice fields are on Bali close to Ubud and called Tagallalang.The Travelonians make a guest appearance towards the end. Thanks to Meyer Photography.

After a quiet and very relaxing three days at the Anggrek Cooking homestay, we are moving about 20 minutes up the coast ...
01/01/2025

After a quiet and very relaxing three days at the Anggrek Cooking homestay, we are moving about 20 minutes up the coast to Sengiggi. This part of the coast was at one time, a series of small communities but now it’s basically one continuous town. Sengiggi is one of the bigger of these towns and has lots of places to eat as well as a local beach. Just about anything one might need is available here. We will be here for about a week and we’re not sure where we will be headed after that.

Anyway, we are just posting some random left over pictures.

We decided to go out for dinner last night. We are in a sort of big residential area but there are very few warungs (loc...
12/30/2024

We decided to go out for dinner last night. We are in a sort of big residential area but there are very few warungs (local usually family owned small restaurants). We did some google searching and found a “top rated” warung not too far away. We checked reviews and pictures and it looked like something out of a Heineken Beer commercial (except, like many places here, no beer or alcohol served).

Well, it wasn’t that. When we arrived after walking through mostly empty streets, a couple of women suddenly appeared to es**rt us into the empty property, which was sparse and had only a small brick kitchen and an open dining area. And a big old goose that wandered around like he owned the property. Next appeared the owner and a young fellow on a bicycle. The owner took our order-a big plate of bbq prawns and a beef rendang. The fellow on the bike was then sent off to gather missing ingredients. This something we see a lot of, placing an order and then someone hurrying off to gather supplies. All this to say, the shrimp were delicious and the rendang very spicy, and the people cooking and serving were delightful. Sorry, we forgot to take pics of the food.

Travel is having experiences and this was certainly another.

We really enjoy Indonesian food so we decided to take a cooking class together (yes BOTH of us lol). We checked into a w...
12/30/2024

We really enjoy Indonesian food so we decided to take a cooking class together (yes BOTH of us lol). We checked into a well known cooking class/homestay called Angreek Putih Cooking Class. The property is large and the gardens provide almost every spice and chili used in Indonesian cooking along with fruit trees and vegetables. Everything is grown on site. This homestay is a little oasis in what can be a chaotic and noisy part of the world. It was a terrific experience. Also, our hosts took pictures so we’ll post more pics when we receive them, things move slowly here 🐌

We are now in Mangsit, Lombok, a small community on the NW coast of Lombok. We are in a very nice 5 unit complex set bac...
12/26/2024

We are now in Mangsit, Lombok, a small community on the NW coast of Lombok. We are in a very nice 5 unit complex set back in the jungle. We will be moving on tomorrow because it seems large luxury resorts have blocked out most access to the water for more than a km-except for a few openings in the wall between resorts to access a sliver of beach. For people like us, it restricts us to walking along the main road, or taking a taxi to another beach. Other than day-shuttles to nearby beaches, the resort people don’t seem to venture far. This is a beautiful area but we really wonder how much value is added by the resorts. Just a few metres across the road and hidden in the dense jungle, many people still seem to live with very few amenities. Just our personal POV.

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Videos

A short video of the rain storm last Monday. It rained like this all day and caused serious flooding in Bali and Java but no real problems here.

We’ve mentioned our good friend Conrad from Colorado a number of times. He is a photographer and often uses his trusty drone to take amazing videos. Here is one of his outstanding vids mostly done in Gili Air where we met him for a couple of days. The rice fields are on Bali close to Ubud and called Tagallalang.The Travelonians make a guest appearance towards the end. Thanks to @Conrad Meyer Photography.

So, we went to visit our young friend Conrad, we met him on an overnight bus to Mandalay, Myanmar a few years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. He and his friend Danie were staying at a popular hostel for young backpackers called the Tipsea Turtle. Ed decided to put on a pool jumping clinic. The launch was perfect, technic flawless (he performed the classic flailing arms jump), and he nailed the landing with hardly a ripple. (At least that’s how he remembers it lol). Fun times.

On the barge with our luggage on our way to the pier in Gili Meno.

Arriving at the pier in Gili Meno. Very cool. Crystal clear water.

We are on the barge with our luggage leaving the fast boat and heading to the pier.

An interesting local band and dancer.

The kids jumped in the water and they were asking for paper money. As you can see the ferry was moving to dock.

At the Tirta Empul Temple

Buddhist celebration
Buddhist celebration

Walking down a road by our hotel and we hear this music from a house around the corner. Don’t hear this music every day. Someone said maybe a funeral but that’s a guess.

On the way we stopped at a temple in Matara and we were able to see and touch this elephant.

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