I took a trip to Gili Trawangen after a few days in Ubud. Anxious for a beach, some good scuba diving, and a reprieve from the heat, I booked a trip through a local company to take me. It was a muggy hot day and I waited in the shade in front of my hotel, sitting on my bags. After a half hour wondering if I'd been forgotten, a rickety old van pulled up, tourists sticking arms out windows wiping sweaty brows. A skinny older Indonesian man with a long white pony tail and a dirt smudged wife beater jumped out of the drivers' seat and grabbed my bags, throwing them on top of a mountain of luggage piled to the top of the van's back ceiling. He grunted towards me "Sit" and pointed to the front passenger door. I jumped up next to a pretty smiling, young bohemian woman with short bangs, long blonde hair, and a bag with takeout food on her lap. "Hi," she said smiling. "I'm Katie." I introduced myself and squished in next to her.
"Cozy," I joked. "Looks like we're going to become good friends real quick." She smiled and we both eased into casual conversation for the hour and a half drive to the boat. An American from California, we talked about our travels, mutual love for Indonesia, and what we planned to do once we got to the island. I liked Katie right away and we made plans to meet up again on the island for a drink.
When we finally arrived to the boat we were ushered to a booth to get boarding passes and then to a dock where we waited in the shade amongst a 100+ other people. Balinese women sat peppered amongst the crowd selling sarongs, sunglasses, cold beers, waters, Pringles, and spiced nuts. American, Canadian, Asian, and European tourists fanned themselves in the humid heat with weak smiles, straddling bags and backpacks. A friendly young Korean girl named Mindy sat next to me on the ground and we chatted about her last year living in Australia. A tuba player in her local orchestra, she had taken some time to travel and spoke near perfect English. This was also her first trip to the Gili Islands and she looked around asking a lot of questions I had no answers for. "How long do you think this will take? Are all these people on one boat?" I told her I hoped not, having a brief flashback to news reports of ferries sinking from overcrowding and poor maintenance.
After what seemed like a long wait, we finally started boarding the 80 foot "fast boat," as its called here. The deckhands grabbed our bags and tossed them on the top as we were ushered onto the main deck where rows of seats lined next to each other began to fill up. I sat next to a Malaysian couple that offered me the empty seat on the aisle. A young Indonesian man tried selling me a cold Bintang beer and I declined knowing a possibility of regret if the seas got rough. Groups of loud, young Australians down to party ordered a bunch and opted to sit up top with the luggage in the sunshine. I considered going up there as well but decided against it and kept my seat. It wasn't until we were underway for 10 minutes that the staff informed us that the air conditioning was broken. A hundred hot and miserable tourists groaned, fanning themselves, tried to open windows, complaining some more. The further offshore we traveled, the more clouds gathered, the wind picked up, and the rougher the seas began to get. I passed the time listening to podcasts and chatting to a little Swedish girl who kept popping up over her seat to talk to me and feed me Pez candies. I hadn't seen Katie in a while and I hoped she was okay as the waves seemed to get bigger and the boat tipped from side to side. Having been in rough seas before I assured myself this was normal but after about an hour of gradually higher seas and high winds, I knew we were in a bad situation. Waves crashed up over the sides of the boat and the windows that we were open had water spraying through, causing the staff to come and close them. The heat became stifling and unbearable, the passengers bracing themselves, eyes closed, hands gripping those next to them in fear. A man across the aisle got a sick bag for his girlfriend and held one out for me. I declined and said, "Im ok, I work on a boat so I am used to this." I looked at her and lied, "This is normal, don't worry. We'll be fine." Honestly, I had started to worry. This was not normal and not being able to see out didn't help as the boat crashed into the waves, throwing me from side to side. I gripped my jade necklace Luke had given me for protection and thought to myself, "I really hope this thing works." Unable to stand the heat anymore, one passenger foolishly opened the side door we had boarded through and a wave crashed into it, filling the boat with water. The staff rushed to close it as passengers screamed. A couple feet of water slashed around the bottom of the boat and the deckhands grabbed buckets and cups. The man next to me turned to me and said, "You need to get up now." I jumped out of my seat as he threw up all over the floor. I moved quickly to an open seat across the aisle. I have never seen a human throw up as much or as loudly as this man threw up, continuing for a good 3 minutes. It was as if he didn't know how to do it and though the staff handed him a bucket, he could not hit it to save his life. For what seemed like an eternity he continued to loudly throw up spicy, smelly food all over the floor. I sat next to a French father with his young daughter on his lap and they held their hands over their ears as he shouted, "How much did this man have to eat!?" As if it wasn't bad enough, then the sick man's wife began to throw up as well. This was more than passengers could handle and the lady sitting behind me threw up. Person after person grabbed bags from ahead of us as the smell began to waft through the damp and hot boat, no windows open to help with the escape of smell or sound. One lady threw up all over herself. It was like a scene out of a ridiculous movie, so unbelievable and insane. At least a dozen people were sick and the sounds and smells mixed with the pitching of the boat and crashing of the waves was overwhelming. An Australian man in front of me turned and looked at me yelling, "Fuckin A!" and we both just started laughing. I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity and I felt terrible but it was all I could do. As the waves continued to get worse, I could hear screaming from the top of the boat and bottles rolling around, grateful I didn't go up there. Finally, after what should have been an hour and a half trip, our 3 hour trip ended at a nearby island. The people who had sat on top came down drenched, some of them with vomit all over their clothes. Their ride had been one of terror, as wave after wave crashed on them as they clung to the sides of the boat. As passengers began to get off the boat, I moved over to a seat by the window to look out and decide what to do. A young man that had been a passenger looked in at me through the glass and motioned for me to come with him. I grabbed my backpack and darted out the door.
"They aren't going any further. You have to figure out your transportation from here," the Englishman said. "I've got a speedboat with the Swedish couple and their kids. There's only room for one more and there aren't that many boats. If you want to come, you can come with us but we have to go now." I nodded and thanked him. I climbed up the boat ladder to get my bag instead of waiting with the rest of the passengers for it to be handed down. Seeing that the dock was full of stranded tourists and that it was a matter of time before options would diminish, I knew I needed to grab this opportunity. The Swedish couple smiled at me, introduced themselves, and I greeted the little girl again that had been feeding me candy during the trip as she reached up for me. Our boat driver hurried us through the crowd and we piled our bags on his small speed boat and jumped on. Other people tried to jump on but the boat driver stopped them as the dock helpers untied the boat explaining he could only safely take the 6 of us. We pulled away quickly and I looked back to see my Korean friend standing there wide-eyed and scared. I felt terrible wishing I could go back and get her but I knew that I couldn't and I felt selfish as I turned away. Meandering through waves, speeding up then slowing down, speeding up and darting forward, I held on and smiled at the little girl sitting on her mother's lap next to me looking scared. Shaking our heads with disbelief, we all looked at each other with incredulousness at what we had just experienced as we approached the island of Gili Trawangan. We passed sunken boats and docks floating off into the ocean as we approached a beach with hundreds of people standing on the waters' edge. I think this was the first moment I truly realized how bad the storm had been. After a short struggle to dock, we finally got to shore, bags in hand. I said goodbye to the Swedish couple and kids and thanked them for their help. Simon, the Englishman, offered for me to come to his hotel to get sorted out and I gladly accepted. The streets were rainy, muddy, trees strewn everywhere. When we finally reached his hotel, I found out that the hotel I had booked had misprinted their location. They were on a different island and now I was on this island with no place to stay. What was worse was all the people who were supposed to leave couldn't because of the storm and so there were no rooms available. Could this get any worse? Simon offered me to stay at his hotel for the night and I thanked him, accepting a place to sit for a bit while I figured out my next step. We sat on his balcony, drank a beer, and watched as locals and tourists struggled to move trees out of the road and the passengers from our boat ride slowly began to make it into town. I saw Katie walking down the street and yelled out to her in relief. She had thankfully caught a boat over and we agreed to meet up later after she found her hotel. The hotel owner helped me find a room at his friends' villa nearby for the night. After 2 days of no electricity or wifi and trying to navigate through drunken tourists down dark sketchy streets at night, I cut my trip short on Gilly. My friend Paul in Bali, knowing about my situation, had a room in a villa in Sanur just near the marina on the mainland and offered me to come rest after the insanity of those three days. I happily joined him, recounting my crazy tale to him over dinner as he shook his head in disbelief. I had found out later that over 30 boats had sunk in that storm. No one on the island could believe we had been out at sea during the worst of it and we were lucky it wasn't any worse and no one died or was badly hurt. I can only look back at that whole situation and think to myself how lucky I was to have had the Swedish people move quickly and get the speed boat. I was lucky to have Simon pull me out of the madness, take care of me, and help me find a hotel. I was lucky that the hotel owner went out of his way to help me find a place to sleep. I was lucky to have Paul to offer me a night of quiet, calm, and safety once I returned to the mainland. This was definitely one of the craziest experiences I've had in a while. It could have been a lot worse. I am so grateful it wasn't and that I can now write about this from my safe and beautiful villa in Canggu where I am peacefully enjoying my last few days in Bali with my new friends.
P.S.
I must warn to anyone that is thinking to go to Gili Trawangan…don't go. The rest of the story is so long and detailed but its extremely unsafe, fairly lawless, drugs everywhere, theft, and dangerous. I got followed home in the dark by drugged up locals wanting money, saw some pretty sketchy things happen, heard some really bad stories that thankfully didn't happen to me. Save your money and enjoy the monkey forest in Ubud or go surfing in Canggu.
