chloedickensonLast Updated on 5th August 2023
This post about visiting Gili Trawangan may contain affiliate links.
Before visiting Gili Trawangan (or Gili T as it’s more affectionately known), I always envisioned a beautifully idyllic, paradisal island. While I do firmly believe that it is beautiful and idyllic, there were a lot of expectations that I had that weren’t quite true once we arrived…
I really want to enforce the fact that a lot of these “facts” about Gili T are my own opinion and from what I saw from my experience of travelling there. I definitely preferred it to Bali, but there were still a few things that I’m not 100% convinced I loved.
If you’re looking for a real, honest and down-to-earth recount of visiting Gili Trawangan, keep on reading! And please don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts and experience of Gili T if you’ve ever been!
1. It’s not quite as idyllic as you might think
Disclaimer: this point is actually a little unfair to say as in August 2018, the Gili Islands were hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left quite a destructive force behind.
For that reason, if you’re planning to visit Gili T in the next few months/years, you can expect it to not be quite as idyllic as you might have thought.
The earthquake has left masses of rubble, rubbish and debris everywhere and even more than a year later, the island is still clearing up the mess.
2. It’s not quite as cheap as you might think – visiting Gili T
While I’d still say it’s cheaper than Bali and Lombok, Gili T is still home to some places that are slightly more expensive than you might be anticipating.
You’ll never find Western prices in any of the bars and restaurants but there are a few places that can cost up to £10 each for a meal and drink, which for Indonesia is pretty steep.
However, there’s still an abundance of warungs where you can enjoy a traditional Indonesian meal (think Mie Goreng, Nasi Goreng or my favourite, Lalapan Ayam) for as little as £1.20.
3. The beaches look beautiful but they aren’t very practical
The beaches on Gili T are arguably one of the things that surprised me most about the island.
I always thought it was an island paradise perfect for swimming opportunities with lush oceans surrounding it and while it technically is that, the sea itself isn’t all that welcoming when accessing it from the beach.
The beach is beautiful and the water is beautiful but laying between them both is an almost layer of dead coral that’s been washed up and literally tears your feet apart as you walk into the water.
If you go out on a snorkelling trip or you can brave the sharp coral underneath your feet to get to the water, then it’s a beautiful place to swim and snorkel but we found that we just couldn’t get into the sea without tearing our feet to shreds!
4. Methanol poisoning is an actual thing
If you Google ‘Gili T methanol poisoning’, you’ll find hundreds of articles about incidents that have happened due to methanol poisoning, not just in Gili T, but all over Indonesia.
While I don’t think any cases have been reported recently, it’s still imperative to have your wits about you when visiting Gili Trawangan and stick to imported spirits as opposed to local spirits.
Many cases of the so-called poisoning have occurred due to spirits being laced with a popular Indonesian alcohol called Arak (something Matt and I didn’t realise until we’d drunk a whole bottle of it; thankfully we were fine but in hindsight, it was a silly thing to do!).
It’s never done in a malicious way; rather the businesses and bar owners want to cut down on their alcohol prices and make a bigger profit so they mix the likes of Smirnoff Vodka with their own brewed Arak mix.
I don’t want to scare you out of drinking at all while you’re in Gili T as we had some incredible night outs and enjoyed partying while we were there. However, I would just encourage you to make yourself aware of it and take caution when ordering drinks. You might be paying more for the imported spirits, but it’s worth it to know exactly what you’re drinking!
Travel tip: take caution when ordering spirits in Gili and if you’re worried, just stick to a trusty Bintang!
Read more: Gili Trawangan Nightlife Ultimate Guide – Gili T Pub Crawl & More
5. The night market definitely isn’t what I expected
I’m not sure if this has anything to do with the earthquake or not (if you know, please let me know in the comments!) but the Night Market just isn’t what I anticipated at all.
It used to reside along the seafront on the main strip of Gili T but it’s now been moved to what can only be described as a derelict area of rubble.
I found it such a dangerous place to host a market of any kind, never mind food! There’s rubble absolutely everywhere, broken shards of glass littering the ground, not to mention the masses of dust that get kicked up every time you walk!
The Night Market is often cited as one of the best things to do in Gili T and while it is a great way to try some authentic Indonesian food, the hygiene aspect of it just didn’t sit well with me.
The stalls are set up and food is brought out at about 6 pm every evening and there are food stalls there until around 1 am. That’s 7 hours of raw meat such as chicken, fish and beef as well as vegetables just sat outside in the blazing heat.
I’m British so of course, my food hygiene expectations are unnecessarily high and I do think that the UK overdoes it a lot when it comes to food hygiene and safety but there’s just something about the process of the night market that doesn’t sit too well with me!
Matt and I couldn’t really eat there anyway as Matt has a severe peanut allergy and many of the dishes and meat skewers contain satay so we were a bit screwed even if we did want to try something!
As I said before, I will never be in the position to tell you not to do something, but in my personal opinion and experience, I felt that the Night Market didn’t live up to my expectations…
Read more: The Best Restaurants In Gili Trawangan – Cheap Places To Eat
6. You’ll come across a few very scammy salespeople – visiting Gili T
This kind of thing happens everywhere in the world, especially in places where travel and tourism are huge industries, but I definitely noticed a lot of “scammy” salespeople when we were in Gili T.
In many cases, there are no set prices to things, whether that’s at food stalls, clothes shops or tour companies; the point is to haggle with the provider for the price you want to pay and the price they’re willing to accept.
A lot of the time, this is a great thing (and allowed us to get a 4-hour snorkelling trip for less than £6 each!), but there were incidents where I felt like we were just being conned.
One example, while we were visiting Gili T, was that we had the cheapest meal of our entire time in Indonesia so far which cost 50,000IDR for both our meals (£2.88 Lalapan Ayam for 2 people).
When we paid with a 100,000IDR note, however, the man didn’t give us our change until we’d asked twice (by which time we had eaten and were ready to leave), he then short-changed us and said that he’d given us the bigger bits of chicken so we had to pay more even though we hadn’t asked for it!
Of course, I said that we weren’t paying more for something that we didn’t even ask for, but the principle of the matter still stands!
It might not seem like a big deal but it happens all the time and people just try their luck to see what they can get out of you. I’m 110% all for the hustle and Indonesian people are some of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met, but I really don’t appreciate it when they’re blatantly trying to con you out of more money for no reason.
I mentioned this point in my Gili T guide but it happens a lot when you’re buying tours to go around the Gili Islands. We cottoned on pretty quickly which is how we managed to pay less than £6 for our snorkelling tour but there were some companies selling the EXACT same tour for four times the price!
Travel tip: have your wits about you when purchasing things in Gili, know your worth and be confident in the price you’re willing to pay!
7. The Mosques are unbelievably loud
There are two Mosques on Gili T, despite it being such a small island, and the majority of people who live there are Muslim.
One thing I’d never heard before visiting Gili T and one thing that I think you should absolutely know before travelling there is that the Mosques are so unbelievably loud.
On our first morning in Gili T, we were loudly awoken at 4.45 am by the sound of the call to prayer, then again at 6 am and the announcements continue up to 6 times a day…
I have no issue with this at all, and during the day it became like water off a duck’s back but when you get woken up before 5 am every single morning, it does start to take its toll a bit.
Unfortunately, regardless of where you stay on the island, you’ll be able to hear the roaring noise of the call to prayer so there’s not much you can do about the location of your accommodation. It’s incredibly loud and it was so unexpected as we hadn’t seen or heard anything like it while we were in Bali.
Travel tip: bring some good quality earplugs; you’re definitely going to need them!
8. Magic mushrooms will be pushed on you quite a bit
When visiting Gili Trawangan, you can expect to have magic mushroom sales pushed on you quite a bit.
Technically magic mushrooms aren’t legal in Indonesia but the rules don’t really seem to apply in the Gili Island as it’s not policed at all and they’re sold very openly in bars and on the side of the street.
I found it pretty weird that when you’d go into a bar, there’d be people openly offering you magic mushrooms, but each to their own I guess!
9. There are very few vehicles on the island (but they do use horses…)
Minus a few electric scooters and the odd pickup truck-style vehicle that locals use, there are no cars or scooters on the island of Gili T.
The best (and only) way to get around is by walking or cycling which I talked a lot more about in my Gili T travel itinerary, but the use of Cidomos (horse-drawn carts) is unfortunately a very popular means of getting around the island as well.
Not only that but these poor animals are also used to haul heavy loads of materials (see the horrific picture above) and it made me so sad to see that this is widely excepted. I always comment on the fact that it’s never my place to judge other cultures when I’m travelling but I have an opinion on this kind of behaviour and it’s not a good one.
Seeing the horses used for transport in person was shocking and I can’t believe that tourists are so willing to accept it and worse still, use them as a means of transport on the island! Gili T really isn’t that big at all so I personally disagree with the use of them as a means of getting around the island.
10. People will try and sell you literally anything – visiting Gili T
Following on from the discussion of the sale of magic mushrooms, people will likely try and sell you almost anything when you’re visiting Gili Trawangan.
Tour salespeople will not only try and sell you a snorkelling trip but you’ll also get offered a massage, a manicure, a trip to Bali and a bicycle hire while they’re at it too!
This kind of thing didn’t bother me too much as I really appreciate and admire their business ethic and hustle but it does get a little tiresome constantly saying “no” to everything all the time!
While the use of magic mushrooms seems to be swept under the rug somewhat, the use of hard drugs and narcotics is 110% illegal and some offences are even punishable by death. Unfortunately, a select few locals will still try and sell you drugs so just be aware of that before you travel to Gili T.
11. The electricity can cut out across the island at any second
We were incredibly ~lucky~ to experience not one, but two infamous island-wide electricity outages while we were visiting Gili T which is NOT FUN.
It first happened at about 6 am one morning and the power didn’t come back on until almost 4 pm; running an online business and working as a digital nomad is pretty difficult when there’s no electricity or internet access!
The second time it happened while we were there wasn’t as bad as it went off at about 10 pm and came back on at 3 am; it’s still not ideal though! The worst thing about the electricity going off for the whole island is that the air conditioning doesn’t work and when you’re on an island that’s as hot as 35° most days, it makes it a less-than-ideal place to be!
12. ATMs are renowned for swallowing credit cards
This was yet another ~amazing~ thing that happened to us the day before we left Gili T which again, was NOT FUN!
The ATM machines on Gili T are notorious for “swallowing” credit cards as they work slightly differently to the ones in the UK.
With ATMs in the UK, you usually get your card back first and then your cash, but it works the other way around in Gili. Your cash comes out and then most machines make you wait around 10-20 seconds before a notice comes up on the screen prompting you to press ‘exit’ in order to obtain your card. If you don’t press it within a certain amount of time, your card is swallowed by the machine…
In some ways, this is effective and useful at preventing theft and it stops other people from taking your card in case you forget to eject it, but it also makes it a huge inconvenience for dumbasses like us who just didn’t press “exit” in time!
Travel tip: when using an ATM in Gili T, make sure you pay attention at all times and ensure you always press ‘exit’ to get your card back!
13. There are way more European travellers than I thought – visiting Gili T
I’m not sure if this was just due to the time of year we visited Gili T (September) but there were way more European travellers on the island than I expected!
Bali gets a reputation for being a hub for Aussie and New Zealand travellers so I just assumed that Gili T would be the same but we met far more people from Europe than we did from Australia.
I think it is largely due to seasons and holidays for Europeans vs Australians but it was still surprising to see!
14. Getting there is an ~experience~ if you get seasick
One thing that I was very aware of before visiting Gili Trawangan was just how bad it can be to get there.
The fast boats really are fast; so much so that they literally jump out of the water and bounce energetically up and down on the waves; a very bad combination for people who get seasick!
I never used to get seasick but after taking numerous boats around the Gili Islands, I now have a firm case of seasickness and it’s not enjoyable in the slightest!
Some days can be really calm and almost enjoyable on the water, but a lot of the time, the water is so rocky and wavy (even though it looks remarkably calm from the shore!) and so many people throw up and get ill when island hopping around there!
15. There are SO many stray cats – visiting Gili Trawangan
As someone who has had a new-found adoration for cats in recent years, this wasn’t a bad thing for me at all, more of an observation of just how many stray cats there were around the island!
One thing I noticed a lot as well, was that almost every single animal had a broken or severely damaged tail. When in Bali, I presumed this was due to their tail being run over, but I’m not really sure how it happens in Gili T!
If you’re not a cat lover, then you’re definitely not going to be too pleased with the amount of them when visiting Gili Trawangan; they’re everywhere and will often come right up to you and beg while you’re eating!
16. People absolutely bloody love to sweep up
One thing that really started to grate on me as we came towards the end of our trip was how much everyone swept the streets all the time.
I know this seems like a ridiculous thing to say but it felt like they were doing it for no reason whatsoever as it seemed to cause way more mess than they were intending to clean up!
Not only that, but many businesses along the main strip of the island (and down back streets too) will just throw buckets of water into the street as people are walking passed. That, combined with all the dust from the sweeping, the sand that’s scattered across the path and the sheer amount of horse crap meant that it was just so sludgy and muddy everywhere.
Every single time we went outside when we were in Gili T, I had to arrive home and wash all my legs (right up to my thighs most of the time!) because the mess was constantly being kicked up and swept towards you! I’m sure that the locals do this to try and keep things clean and tidy, but it just seemed to make it worse most of the time!
These “facts” are only my own opinion and judgements from my experience of spending 10 days on the island. Overall, I really enjoyed our time in Gili T and I felt that it taught me an awful lot. I don’t think I’m ever in a rush to head back there but I wouldn’t ever discourage you from visiting. I just hope this post has provided you with some unique insight into my trip there and some of the things you can expect!
Pin for later – things to know before visiting Gili Trawangan
Have you ever been to Gili T? If so, what was your experience of visiting Gili Trawangan? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @imjustagirl_16.
