Gili Trawangan Island Archipelago Indonesia

We took a ferry over to the Gili Islands from Nusa Penida to explore the big island of Gili Trawangan for 4 days. Does Gili T stand out as part of the three-island archipelago? Take a look at the video and judge for yourself.

The Gili Islands (Indonesian: Tiga Gili [Three Gilis], Kepulauan Gili [Gili Islands]) are an archipelago of three small islands or Gili island triplets[1] — Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air — just off the northwest coast of Lombok, Indonesia.

The islands are tourist destinations. Each island has several resorts, usually consisting of a collection of huts for tourists, a small pool and a restaurant. The largest Indonesian settlement is located on Gili Air, however, due to the number of western expatriates who live on Trawangan together with the locals, it has become the more densely populated island, concentrated in a township stretching along its east side (this is also where the majority of tourist development has taken place). Automobiles and motorized traffic are prohibited on the islands by local ordinance, so the preferred method of transportation is by foot and bicycle or the horse-drawn carriage called a cidomo. Scuba diving and free diving in and around the Gilis is also common due to the abundance of marine life and coral formations. The most famous diving spots are Shark point, Manta point and Simon's reef.[2]

History
Due to their small size and population, and relatively recent settlement of the islands, published sources are limited. Where local knowledge has been used, those cited are elected local officials whose details are listed in the references section. For more detailed regional historical information, visit the Lombok article.

For a brief period during the Second World War, occupying Japanese forces used the islands as a lookout post and prisoner-of-war camp. Relics from this period include the remains of a bunker on the hill of Gili Trawangan, and the wreck of a patrol boat submerged at a depth of 45 m in the bay to the south of Gili Air (now a popular dive site). The permanent settlement only began in the 1970s, mainly due to the lack of fresh water sources before that time. Prior to human settlement, these islands remained pristine wildlife mangrove habitats.