text & photos by James Carys

Horizontal

Still standing tall (betraying its rather relaxed namesake) is downtown Trawangan's only real upmarket bar-come-club come-restaurant still going strong with the more 'well-heeled' visitors to the island.

The menu carries the usual favourites but does an exceptionally mean steak and if you're lucky the odd Sunday roast might hover into view.

The menu rotates once a week to accommodate a variety of cuisines from around the world from Indonesia to Thailand and so on but the real reason you're likely to visit Horizontal are for the wild parties that kick off on almost a nightly basis.

Expect to see a bevy of tanned European beauties table dancing til dawn with the music policy a straight-up house/garage vibe.

It's all good fun until the morning after where you'll most likely bump into some of the culprits from the previous night's activities and be on the potently spicy bloody marys in no time.

Wikipedia says it best, 'it's the only place in the Gilis that wouldn't look out of place in Seminyak.' And who are we to argue?

Scallywags

Tapas is really proving itself popular of late both on Bali and now on Trawangan where one can tuck into olives, calamari, sardines and all manner of marinated goodness to the north and south of the island.

If you're not in the north of the island around the Karma Kayak restaurant then head south to the brand spanking new Scallywags restaurant to indulge in chef Asier's classic combinations of Mediterranean fare.

Asier was the man behind the original La Sal plan in Bali so you can bet that the menu at Scallywags will be top notch, and it is.

We sat down to a late dinner after a couple of cocktails at the bar and got stuck straight into an excellent selection of Tapas dishes before moving onto a healthy serving of pork chops and spicy apple blue cheese before sampling the lightly pan-seared fillet of coral trout and chorizo puffs with aoili and sesame seeds.

A very relaxing environment with proper comfy chairs, great drinks, a fresh Spanish-inspired menu at discreet prices and not a scally in sight. Also open for light lunches.

Buen provecho!