Relaxing on the beach in a small island would be the holiday dream for most travelers. like watching the Sunset in Gili Meno Island. Far from crowded, noisy and polluted of the city. You can warm your tired feet in the hot sun, baked sand, swimming on coral reefs and relaxing on a bale bengong (stilted open air wooden hut) reading a good book, while feeling the sensation of the sea breeze against the skin. Instead of a beautiful skies during the day or the stars shining in the night.



Sunset in Gili Meno is definitely my kind of holiday. So, when I had the chance to escape the capital, I grabbed it and without hesitation I headed Lombok’s Gili Meno.

Some 30 kilometers east of the tourist island of Bali, Gili Meno Lombok is the smallest of the three small sand islands northwest of Lombok, in West Nusa Tenggara.

The bigger Gili Trawangan Lombok is more famous and has been dubbed the party island by visitors for its lively night life. Gili Air Lombok is the biggest and most populated.

All three islands have no motor vehicles roaming the streets. Horse drawn carts called Cidomo and bicycles are the only means of transportation around.

My companion and I took the night flight from Jakarta to Bali on a Friday night and continued to Trawangan on a fast boat, Saturday morning. From there, we hopped on a chartered boat and arrived at Meno around 11 a.m.

>When we arrived, we know so little that apart from the expected relaxation time in that spot, we were inspired by the environment.

Based on the recommendation of a friend, we searched for a place called Sunset Gecko. Our boatman pointed out the resort, which had no signboard but a big, wooden gecko on the wall of the dining area.

The hotel is located on the beach, the place has a number of small cottages and a main building with a dining room and kitchen. It has a beautiful garden with flower, trees and banana plants. Four comfy bale bengong search over the sea and Gili Trawangan with high telecommunications tower.

A Japanese man in his early 40s Hiro Tanaka, who we later found out was the owner of the place, greeted us. After we checked in, we made ourselves comfortable in the shady huts looking out to the sea.

Always intrigued by cool Japanese people, we speculated about Tanaka’s story. Looking at the beautiful and tidy resort, I guessed he had a degree in hotel management. My travel partner disagreed, guessing that Tanaka was a well-traveled and highly educated person, who for one reason or another decided to open a resort in a small island in Indonesia.

The latter guess was closer to the truth. In one conversation, I found out that he was one of the few idealists who wanted to save the earth, but was obstructed by the politics of the world.

Tanaka is a businessman who set up an alternative energy conversion company with his business partner in Canada. Their product was a patented pyrolysis machine that can transform plastic waste into its former form: oil.

After two years of lobbying city administrations to use the technology without giving money under table, he decided to quit and start making change on a smaller scale.

He grew up in the arid desert of Quwait, while his father worked for a Japanese oil company, Tanaka says that he always dreamed of having a place to share with people. Three years ago, with friends from different parts of the world, he opened Sunset Gecko, which adheres to eco-friendly practices.

More than often, tourists looking for unspoiled nature to escape the city’s pollution end up damaging the environment of their holiday destination. Beautiful spots in Bali have become testament of this, with overdevelopment resulting in beach erosion.

A guess witnessed environmental degradation in Northern Thailand, when six years ago he visited a pristine beach with only two hotels. Three years later, 30 new ones have mushroomed, with mounting piles of garbage.

He says that as he got older he realized that he was part of the problem as he too created garbage. “We always say ‘this shouldn’t be like this. Oh, you shouldn’t burn the plastics’ dadadada. “But when you become an adult, you start to think ‘Hey, whose responsibility is this?’. It’s easy to say (for an example), *This is the Balinese government’s problem’. But then the government doesn’t do (anything) and we just keep doing the same troublesome things,” he says.

“We just keep messing, creating more garbage, buying chocolate (and throwing away the wrappers), smoking cigarettes and throwing the ash on the street. No, it shouldn’t be like this,” he says. So, he opened Sunset Gecko with the hope that he can make a difference.

The resort recycles the water from the dish washing, laundry, and showers to water the plants. Hiro says that they used a three-step filtration system he learned from reading books and internet sites. He mixed the organic solid residue and organic waste from the kitchen to make compost.

Sunset gecko also makes natural soap in the kitchen. This too he learned from books and the internet. He uses palm and coconut oils for the soap and leaves it to harden as soap bars for six weeks. The soap was one of the highlights of the resort for me. It didn’t leave the skin dry and was even great when I used it to wash my hair.

Apparently, the news of the natural soap from Sunset Gecko has traveled around. Two Japanese women that stayed at Gili Trawangan traveled to Gili Meno Island to purchase the soap.

Tanaka says that it was not for sale as it was for guests to use. Eventually, the women left with two soap bars each.

Another impressive part of Gecko was the beautiful garden, with various plants. Hiro says that once local island residents came to the resort and marveled at the banana trees.

“They were really surprised. *A banana tree on the beach? How come?’ they asked. I told them that we make compost for the soil and villagers have started to copy that,” Tanaka says.

In Gili Meno Island, where fresh water is shipped from Lombok, eco-friendly practices are not an option. It is a necessity.

While Sunset Gecko is alive and kicking, walking around Gili Meno Island I found a number of accommodations seemed to be out of business. I passed an abandoned desolate place with an overturned table which seemed to had been a restaurant. Another resort looked closed an empty. Sunset in Gili Meno is definitely beautiful!

Sunset Gecko has a pleasant atmosphere with the other guests to be welcomed and sharing their experiences in the water. Only the quality of bathing water in the area in front the beach of the hotel will lead you to the beautiful coral reefs and the observation of nice sea creatures.

Swimming with the turtles on his side, One guests says that he went snorkeling and saw a Manta ray. When the sunset, the sky is turn into a purple color. Guests would hang around the open air dining room with drinks chatting, while sounds of geckos joining the chat.

As the night grew slowly, the sight of Gili Trawangan its colorful lights looked like a big ship. A staff commented that it looked like the Titanic ship.

The best part was in a wooden beach chair, watching the sky and the sea, the stars shine, and I started to fall asleep

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Gili Meno Lombok is in the middle and the smallest of the three of Gili Islands. It is the quietest with fewer tourists. A great escape for honeymooners or someone who wants to get away from it all. A special feature of the island is the salt lake and spectacular dive sites such as, Meno Wall, Sea Turtle Point, and Blue Coral Point. The beach on eastern part of the island is very nice and there’s snorkeling just offshore and further north. In the past Meno was known to have lots of mosquitoes but steps have been taken to control it. Still the best time to visit the island is during dry season.



Gili Meno is the middle of Gili Islands Lombok. It has population of about 300 people, mainly concentrated on the center of the island. The main income of the population comes from tourism, coconut plantation and fishing. On the west side of the island there is a small shallow lake that produces salt in the dry season. Until a few years ago there was also a small production of seaweed on the reef at the north end of the island. It has swimming beaches all around the island, as well as an impressive bird sanctuary.

There are regular shuttle services from Bangsal on the main island of Lombok, stopping at all islands. The trip takes about 15 minutes to Air, 30 min to Meno and 45 min to Trawangan. Around 30,000 to 40,000 Rp one-way, or 70,000 Rp if including land transfer from Senggigi Beach. Avoid traveling to Bangsal as captains will wait until the boat is full of passengers before setting off. Book a trip with Parama instead, which will travel to and from the islands no matter how many people they have.

Alternatively, the Gili Islands can be visited on a day trip from Senggigi, in which case you’ll get your own little boat and crew to take you around. The trip across take 1-2 hours each way and is quite scenic, if a little bumpy when the waves are high. Available from any travel agent, figure on 400,000 Rp for a tour for two.

Note that the sea is calmest in the morning and all transport stops running in the afternoon, well before dark.

Get Around Gili Meno
In a rare display of foresight, all forms of motorized transport are banned from the islands: your only choice is horse-drawn carts, known as cidomo, which are used even to shuttle around diving gear. However, as the islands are only a few km in diameter, it’s entirely possible to just walk instead.

Sea and Do
There are no sights as such on the islands themselves, but the excellent snorkeling and diving all around is a major draw. Sea turtles are also common, especially around Turtle Point just north of Gili Meno Island. You can rent masks and fins off the beach, or contact any of the numerous dive shops to arrange snorkeling or diving.

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More about Lombok Island:

• Lombok Island
• Lombok Attractions
• Gili Islands Lombok
• Gili Trawangan Island
• Gili Meno Lombok
• Gili Meno Island
• Gili Air Lombok
• Gili Nanggu Lombok
• Komodo Nasional Park Indonesia
• Biking in Lombok
• Lombok Surf
• Lombok Diving
• Gondola Bamboe Rafting Tour
• Kuta Beach Lombok
• Mangsit Beach Lombok
• Senggigi Beach Lombok
• Batu Bolong Beach
• Moyo Island Lombok
• Mount Rinjani Lombok