We hopped over to Gili Air today. It happened that the first person to approach us off the boat had the best-valued lodging, but we didn’t know it yet. Ani showed us his room available. It was good. And we put our bags there. We said we’d probably take it, but wanted to walk around first (read: price other rooms).
The island’s tourism is located entirely on the south and east coast of the island. We started at the south (Ani’s lodging) and walked northward along the east coast.
Some touts approached us. “You want cheap room? I have cheap room.”
“No. No.” I ignored them, but they persisted. “I want expensive room!” That shut them up.
We saw every single accomodation on that island (about 10) over the course of a 2-mile (3km) round-trip walk on a hot, sunny day. We ended up sticking with Ani and Adi. They were friendly and offered the best-value. I felt good knowing that I got the best value. Although, it would have been fine to make a decision after viewing three.
I studied Indonesian words in my guidebook–especially numbers and greetings. It was high time that I learned. Indonesians expect you to bargain with them. And it’s easier to get a lower price when you bargain in their own language.
The restaraunt we ate at had a collection of DVD movies. We searched through the bin and picked Harry Potter. The audio was in English and it had non-native broken English subtitles. What’s the point of watching a movie with terrible, almost untelligible English subtitles, when the movie’s audio is in English? Fail!
We tried another movie–the most recent Rocky. It sucked bad. But we watched it anyway. And it suffered the same problem of broken English subtitles. Again–fail!
