By public boat in Bangsal
The only reason to come to Bangsal is to travel to and from the Gilis, and that means you have to deal with the Koperasi Angkutan Laut (Sea Transport Co-operative), which monopolises transport to the islands. Try to get to Bangsal by 10AM or earlier as boats go in the morning. The public boat office in Bangsal may close at 4:30PM, make sure you have checked the departure times back to Bangsal from the Gillis. Public boats operated by the Koperasi run in the afternoons however the late afternoon services are operated by the Koperasi Shuttle boat at a slightly higher tariff. See the individual Gili articles for detailed information on this.
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Avoid interactions with touts and helpers
Many of the interactions between the local touts and people arriving at Bangsal to travel to the 3 Gili islands have highly unsatisfactory endings. They will try to mislead visitors into buying boat tickets from them, coerce them into buying overpriced mosquito repellent or chartering boats and will actively seek to deceive and mislead people regarding the services available at Bangsal. Some may concentrate on developing friendships involving attending parties, cultural events or invitations to their home. They can become intimidating when they are unsuccessful or their advances are rebuffed. Only a very small minority of them have anything other than malevolent deception in mind. Any arrangement or even paying them attention may lead to vigourous and coercive demands to assist them with imaginary expenses. Avoid any such engagement, do not buy anything from them and do not enter into any arrangements that may later lead to a claim of obligation promise or commitment.
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Departing to Gili Islands from Bangsal. In theory, it's very easy. Upon arrival at Bangsal beach buy a ticket for the Public boat; Rp 8,000 to Gili Air, Rp 9,000 to Gili Meno and Rp 10,000 to Gili Trawangan. These prices are per person/per trip. Buy your ticket and then wait until the maximum 20 people needed to fill up a boat show up. More may board and overload the boat. Early in the morning, this rarely takes over an hour. You will be told by the ticket sellers when it's time to go. Normally that information is broadcast over the Public Address system. Tickets are numbered and color-coded. If you arrive at Bangsal later in the day you may be in for a longer wait. If you aren't in the mood to sit around, you can charter an entire boat to Trawangan or the other two islands. This may present a reasonable alternative if you can share the cost with a few fellow travellers and the practice is quite common. The official Koperasi Charter boat price from Bangsal to Gili Trawangan is Rp 185,000. Negotiated private charters may be higher or lower than this figure depending upon both availability and your own negotiating skills. Don't talk to too many people as they may possibly all then seek a commission from the boat operator, hence driving the price up. Try to just pick one person to negotiate with, preferably the actual operator rather than a tout or helper and then negotiate slowly, calmly and with great patience.
Official prices and Koperasi operations. Details of the official Koperasi boat service prices and services are detailed in the the three articles covering Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air.
Bangsal Cowboys. Life is made harder by a bunch of guys hanging around the port who will seriously hassle you to buy boat tickets to the Gilis from them. They use various ruses including claiming that your ticket is no longer valid, that tickets have sold out, or are unavailable. They also work hard on people arriving in the afternoon trying to install a state of fear that there are no services running when in fact there are both Public boats and later supplementary Shuttle boats running. Do not believe them and do not give in to them as they are normally just trying to play a game of deception. Above all, do not let them lead you to any alternative 'ticket offices' or informal arrangements. Instead just head further toward the water and turn left at the end of the approach road where you will see a large sign, the ferry terminal and the real ticket office. The ticket desk is inside, in the north eastern corner of that building. There are also toilets in there for those who may require them. Also watch out for new 'friends' who will talk about mosquito borne illnesses as part of casual conversation. They may try to guide you toward nearby shops where mosquito repellent and coils are marked up excessively or sell to you directly at absurdly marked up prices. Don't waste your time haggling over the prices as there are fairly priced alternatives at the shops on the islands.
The way to sidestep this hassle is to book an organized tour with someone like Perama that will take you directly to the Gilis for around Rp 100,000 per person, bypassing Bangsal entirely. Another alternative is to Go to Teluk Nare 4-5 km south of Bangsal and charter a speedboat to your island. Many chose to pre-arrange their transfers with a hotel or dive operator. Such transfers normally depart from the much less frenetic Teluk Nare.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Bangsal
