Rebuilding an island

The Gilis are three small islands off the coast of Lombok,a few hours east of Bali. All three were badly hit by a magnitude-7.2 earthquake seven months ago. All cement structures collapsed, no building on the beach survived, and all three islands had to be completely evacuated.

But now you can barely tell. There are still a few collapsed buildings, and not all the rubble has been removed, but the Gilis are definitely back in business. There's still no motor traffic, but the largest of the three - Gili Trawangan, also known as the party island Gili Tralala or simply Gili T - has not improved. The beach promenade is now paved, and packed with shops back to back. The old mellow vibe is completely gone, although you'll still find rasta guys offering 'shrooms and marijuana. 

But a bit back from the beach the hustle is gone, and small guesthouses with a few traditional huts around a pool and bar dominate. The downside is poor connectivity and no hot showers... 

Unspoiled

Nusa Penida is another island near Bali, easily reachable from Lembongan. But the infrastructure is virtually nonexistent. A few villages, a few deeply rutted roads running up and down steep hills, and almost no people. Motorcycles are the best way to get around.

The views down from the limestone cliffs and and a deep lake connected to the sea under a huge stone bridge are absolutely spectacular - or as my moto driver said, pure Instagram. Well, fortunately Nusa Penida doesn't seem to have been discovered by the Instagram crowd much, it's just too hard to move around here, and there's no Internet to blast boring selfies into the net. 

Maybe I'll be back here in ten years and then I'll tell everyone how unspoiled and beautiful it was before the developers moved in and built resorts everywhere and escalators down the cliffs. You read it here first. 

Mantas

Plenty of dive centers on Lembongan. The highlight is Manta Point, a place some 15 meters under water where mantas come for cleaning. It's essentially a big manta car wash where mantas wait in line, slowly circling, for their turn to be cleaned by several types of small fish.

So you hove there and watch these huge mantas gliding through the water, slowly waving their long wings, and fanning water into their big gaping mouths to extract krill. Impressive! 

Not Bali

Off the south-eastern coast of Bali are three small islands, Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan, and Nusa Penida, that are said to be like Bali was 20 years ago / will be the next Bali. Quiet villages, white beaches, people who have time, no traffic, and no concrete resorts anywhere.

From Bali's Sanur harbor, Lembongan is only 30 minutes by speedboat. This is what Indonesian boat travel is supposed to be like: the boat runs up to the beach, you wade through the water onto the beach, and pick a place to stay. I followed the advice of some surfer dudes and got myself a bungalow up on the hill with a fantastic view over the beach and village, with Bali's Agung volcano at a distance. I'll stay here for a while. 

Bali

The trouble with revisiting places, years later, is that they invariably have "improved" - more traffic, more noise, more concrete resorts at the beach, and more plastic garbage in the sand and the water. Some hotels have sewer pipes that color the water greenish brown.

But people are still as friendly as always, and away from the town centers with their shops and bars and American fast food chains there's still village life to be found. Bali is also quite large, and only the southern tip is seriously developed. In any case, Bali has a major international airport, making it a good starting point for traveling. 

Finally, back in a tropical climate, let's go island hopping! 

Unfortunately it's apparently no longer possible to post pictures, Google thought it would be a good idea to change the API.