the gili islands are so worth going to — 3 years ago
but don’t be cheap and take the super long route – you’ll end up on a random ‘bus’ for an hour, sitting beside a chicken on an ancient coal burning ferry inhaling the fumes and then on a rickety boat for another hour. Basically an entire day lost on travelling to go a measley 100 miles. All to save literally, like 10 bucks US. At the time I was poor and backpacking and thought it to be a wise thing to do. Clearly my university education did not teach me about opportunity costs.
Take the speedy boat, its totally worth your time to actually spend that extra bit of day there.
The gilli islands are AMAZING. So quiet – no cars, not a whole lot of people.
oh but watch out for the donkey poo. that’s the transportation