Place : Lombok 3 - 6 Nov 2005
(Indonesia)
Casts : Pei-Pei, Lina and Me

Facts and figures
Flying time from Singapore : 2 hours 40 mins
(no time difference with Singapore)
Flight : Silk air at S$329/pax
Flight timing : To Lombok, departure 3.20pm
To Singapore, departure 11.10am
Current Exchange Rate : S$1 = Rp 5,800
Area : 4,725 sq km
Population : 2.4 million

LOMBOK is an island to the right of Bali. The people from Lombok say one can find Bali in Lombok, but not Lombok in Bali. Located in the province of West Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia, Lombok still benefits from untainted beaches and mountains, thanks to having a lower profile amongst tourists than its more famous neighbour, Bali. The northern part of ths island is mountainous and its south is covered by savanna grasslands.

Arriving at Selaparang Airport in Lombok, we were greeted with not so great weather. We took a taxi from there. Ticket has to be bought from airport counter. To our destination, hotel Jayakarta, it costs Rp 48,000 (S$8.30). To our surprise, after deducting commission for airport, fees to the taxi operator, the driver only earns 20% of total fare (ie a measly S$1.65!!). We chatted a bit and this is what we got: Mr Aim, mobile +62 81 7576 9798 in case you want to hire him. He charges Rp 300,000 (S$51.70) for whole day charter. Be prepared though for saggy seats and no air conditioner.

By the time we reached Lombok, checked in, its already night time. We will be staying 3 nights in Hotel Jayakarta. US$47/night. The hotel has its own beach. Bed is quite squeezy actually, considering there are 3 of us. Room is frequented with milipedes and lizards. One lizard even went into one of our plastic bag and make a lot of noise. Hot water only operates from 10 am to 6 pm. Even during operating hours, water is only not cold. But its not warm. Breakfast is bad. So out of 3 nights, I skipped 2 breakfasts. All that factored in, the hotel is still a decent place with clean (but not firm) bed. After all we are only in the room to sleep. At least its convenient to go Senggigi from here.

Time for dinner. Called for another taxi. Operator is LK Taxi, white in colour. Usually these taxis are in better condition. And yes, with aircon too. This time it is Mr Mr Dayat +62 81 8052 30965. His rate after fierce negotiation is Rp 325,000 (S$56.03). Decent looking and soft spoken guy with quite a good general knowledge of Lombok. Deal closed. We hired him for our land tour around Lombok for the next day. After 8pm, he will start charging us according to the meter fare. A check from a tour agent revealed that our deal is Rp50,000 (S$8.60) cheaper. Nevertheless, it still gave us max satisfaction knowing that our rate is still cheaper :-)

For dinner that night, Dayat brought us to this quite famous Chinese Seafood Restaurant called "Aroma". The restaurants is half packed. Mostly locals except for a table of 5 guys whom we suspect are either Singaporeans or Malaysians. What is one's reaction when you bump into your countryman in a foreign land? Very surprised and would start chatting right? On the contrary! They didn't even say Hi eventhough they can obviously hear that we all speak the unmistakable SINGLISH. We had to thick-skinly borrow their Lonely Planet which they gave quite reluctantly. Still no small talk coming from them. Again we took the initiative. This is the little info we got from them. They chartered a boat with equipment for Rp 570,000 (S$98.30) for the whole day (Should be just snorkeling equipment). Only 1 of them bothered to answer. The rest chomping their food busily chatting only among themselves. Their boat picked them up from behind their hotel (So we suspect they stay at Sheraton Hotel at Senggigi Bay). Still no smiles and no interest of continuing any conversation. We gave up! Such a bunch of boors! What a way to treat 3 ladies from their country. Lonely Planet was returned without any acknowledgement from them. Actually we would have forgiven them if only they looked a little better than ugly.

Service in Aroma Restaurant is quite bad though. After the whole trip, we concluded that Lombok restaurants simply can't serve the drinks before the food. We asked at least 4x for the drinks to be served first. It didn't come. Then we were blamed by the grandmother boss for not writing our orders properly. She said we should have written the full name of each dish instead of just the numbers. Gee, but that's how it works in Cafe Cartel. Well, not for Lombok. We diligently write the full names for our dishes (sometimes even complete with the ingredients) for all our subsequent meals. One of the 2 waitresses showed a long face throughout the night. We suspect she is feeling sour for having to work during Hari Raya. Anyway, Pei's and Lina's favourite dish is the fried chicken. Not for me. One more thing, the restaurants tend to replace your dish with something else at their own fancy when it is sold out. Without telling us!

Day 2. Dayat gave us a morning call at 9.00 am, no its 8.55 am! eventhough we are scheduled only to meet at 10.00 am. With no deposits made and no handphone (international roaming would be too expensive) given, I guess he had to play it safe. Our programme for the day is to head south towards Kuta Beach. We will be taking the normal tourists route for an island tour of Lombok.

First stop is Ima Mulia Souvenir Shop. They sell specialty food of Lombok which includes Dodol (soft and jelly-like) made of sea weed, honey, deep-fried chicket feet and wild horse milk! The milk besides being good for general well being is supposed to make men "very strong"!

Next was BOUTIQUE pearl shop. Yawnz yawnz... We spent less than a minute there.

Pottery shop and factory. Shopowner wasn't too keen on much bargaining especially for those who buy only 1 or 2 pieces. Due to pride, I bought only 1 piece which I regretted after going to the gift shop in Novotel. Novotel was selling it at 5x the price!

Sarong and handicraft shop. We had a taste of weaving here. The shop also sells wooden handicrafts. There is a cabinet selling wood carving of couples copulating in every unimagineable positions! Didn't buy anything here. Pei suspects Dayat doesn't understand that we are not interested in touristy stuff. Then again where else could he bring us to. We make full use of him though. He is our driver, photographer and tour guide. By the way, the weather for today has been great. Perfect for photo taking.

Roads were mostly vacant during this Hari Raya period. We can even lie down in the middle of the road if we want. After the handicraft shop, we chanced upon an empty horse carriage. We looked at each other and hmmm... "Why not?". Dayat flagged off the carriage and a price was agreed. Rp 5,000 (S$0.85) for a short ride while Dayat followed us with his taxi from behind. Carriage driver was quite funny. After taking rounds and round of pictures, he was ready to go off. But without us! So we reminded him that besides taking pictures of the carriage, we are keen to ride it too. It was a nice ride. We hopped back into our taxi.

Next on the programme is visit to Sasak Village - the traditional clan of Lombok. For a small donation, tourists can visit their village to look at the Sasak houses and basically, how they live. The villagers are all related to one another. Marriage is usually among fellow cousins. They practice an interesting marriage tradition. When 2 people fall in love, the man will "steal" the lady. They would then leave together, with the lady living in the innermost chamber for fear of being discovered. A proper proposal and wedding ceremony would then follow once parents of both sides have agreed to their marriage. We also watched the traditional Sasak dance/fight. 2 men would fight with a long piece of stick and a shield. They are topless with sarong bottom. Then they will try to hit each other at the same time protecting themselves with their shields. It's not child's play. You can see their skin reddened at once when they didn't manage to shield themselves.

Finally, our final destination Kuta Beach. Its pronounced as "Kute" by the locals. Lombok's Kuta doesn't have the buzz and millions of tourists of Bali's, but there are big plans to develop a large stretch of the south coast with luxury hotels, so it's probably better to visit now rather than later. Still, outside of the main tourist season, Kuta is quiet and very laid back. The highlight of the beach is the pepper-like sand. The sand is not powdered but looks like little balls of unground pepper. Really cool!

Our lunch is at this restaurant called "Murah Meriah" meaning Cheap and Good. Restaurant setting is traditional and cozy with sea view. The food however is far from Cheap and Good. Coconuts cost around S$2! More than what it costs in some food centre in Singapore. We had to pack the tofu and fish for the driver. Can't agree with the taste. Restaurant owner who also owned a stall selling beach wear tried to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. She only got 1 bird.

We hardly see any tourists here. Strange. Where did the whole lot of passengers we saw on board SilkAir went to? Instead we see many local boys and girls wondering and playing around the beach. Eagerly trying to sell their little souvenirs or even offering their service to collect the pepper sand for Rp1,000 (S$0.15)/bottle. Slowly their numbers increase and soon we are so swarmed by these kids. If you buy 1, you have to buy from the other 19! They keep saying they need the money for going to school... for buying books. We quickly ran back to our taxi. They followed! Spotted a half eaten pack of snacks in the taxi and they banged our doors and windows asking for it. If you give 1, what about the other 29 kids? We decided against it. It's quite a sad sight. We thought if we ever come back, we would bring along our unused clothes and books. We drove off to another more civilized side of Kuta.

Novotel. The best hotel in Lombok, Dayat said. Boy it's packed! So here are all the tourists! Very nice hotel indeed. The resort building and interior has been designed to reflect the Sasak architecture and to fit naturally into the unique understated landscape. Complete with an elevated swimming pool offering a great view of the sea. We caught the sunset here. Room rates start from only US$43/night! It's actually cheaper than our hotel. But of course Kuta is quite isolated. Going places may be rather inconvenient from here.

Dinner for the night was at Restaurant Dua M (double M). They serve traditional Lombok food. It could be because they are good, or could be because they are closed the night before, the place is jam packed! With both tourists and locals. Food must be great here. Indeed it was. And cheap too. Even cheaper than our meal at "Cheap and Good Restaurant". My favourite dish is fried gurame fish.

Day 3. Island hopping day. This time we booked through the tour agent from our hotel. Trip includes a personal transport to jetty at Senggigi bay and personal boat to cover 2 Gilis (meaning small islands) and full snorkeling gear for 3 people. Not exactly full though since lifejacket is not provided. On the north western part of mainland Lombok, there are 3 Gilis lines up next to each other. They are Gili Air (nearest to mainland but not too popular), Gili Meno (least crowded) and Gili Trawangan (the most crowded and commercialized) Total cost Rp530,000 (S$91.30). These small coral-fringed islands have become enormously popular with visitors who come for the very simple pleasures of sun, snorkelling and socialising. It's cheap, and the absence of cars, motorbikes and hawkers adds greatly to the pleasure of staying on the Gilis. Sky is cloudy at the mainland. But we are so blessed to have the reverse at the Gilis!

1 hour later, we reached our first Gili - Gili Trawangan. Cool and lean boatman we have. Didn't get his name. He charters his boat for Rp300,000 (S$51.70) for whole day. When we are near the shore, poor boatman has to push the boat all the way up the beach! This way, passengers can get down without getting too wet. No wonder he has such great 6-packs! Nice beach with some little stalls selling sarong and pineapples. Lady owner is very honest with her prices. So no bargaining is needed. While we are tanning, we were constantly approached by pearl sellers. We relented and bought some. Price ranges from S$6 to S$20. Time flies. By 1pm we had to leave for the next Gili.

Boatman brought us to the rear side of Gili Meno. This is a coral beach. Lombok offers 4 kinds of beaches: black sand, white sand, pepper sand and coral. Here, there is hardly any sand, only pieces of white dead corals. Hurts to walk barefooted on the beach. Nothing here except 2 suntanning europeans and 1 solitary restaurant. Not our cup of tea. We left in 3 minutes. Boatman brought us to the front end of the Gili instead. This place is great! White sand beach with nice elevated pavilions for luncheon. Each pavillion is carpetted and decorated with giant cushions. Perfect view of the gorgeous sea. Best thing to do is just sit and do nothing. We also bought freshly cut pineapples for just S$0.50 per fruit.

At 4 pm, we finally left the place. Boatman said the waves may bit a little bit choppy and asked us to put all our belongings in a big plastic bag. And little did he say? The waves were so crazy we were soaked to the skin!!! Nowhere to hide since the boat is open from all sides. It was literally like a crazy roller coaster ride. Boatman still could smoke with all the splashes. Maybe his cigarette is water proof. We reached the mainland 1.5 hours later. We had a great time.

Back at the mainland, our tour agent is already waiting for us. Did you wait long, we asked. No, only 2 hours, she answered. And she didn't mean it sarcastically! She patiently waited further for us to go to the washroom and wash up. We told her we would like to eat the famous Senggigi grilled corn and that we would go back to hotel ourselves so she didn't have to wait. She insisted that she will wait and it is no problem at all. So there we are. Enjoying our yummilicious grilled corn with butter and chili, taking in the spectacular view of the Senggigi beach and the sunset. Driver is called Mr Harto, tel no +62 81 9331 43891. He charges Rp 400,000 (S$69). More expensive but he drives a 7 seater. He even can arrange for trip to Komodo island (Flores) to see the giant komodo (monitor lizard). It is a 3 day drive!!

Tonight we go cheap for dinner. A roadside stall called "Tenda Tanjung" at Senggigi Square. Oh my god, they serve the best fried chicken I have ever tasted!! Its called Taliwang Chicken. Its wild young chicken that is deep-fried. Very small. I think I can eat 3 portions at one go. We ordered one. Then we ordered another one. Not enough. We made our 3rd order. Bad news, sold out! Then Pei2 tried her first Baso (beef balls soup with vermicelli).

From there we proceeded nextdoor to "Cafe Tropicana". Nice bar with great live band. Ambience is really nice too. But their drinks are not nice. Their Sex on the Beach is yellow in colour and with milk! Perhaps next time we will stick to the safe concoctions.

Back to hotel to our squeezy bed.

Day 4. Rise and shine. We reached the airport just in time. Half an hour before departure time. Checking in was done in less than 5 minutes. The rest of the time was spent yelling and arguing at the fiskal (travelling tax for all Indonesians leaving Indonesia) officers. Everyone were looking at us. We figured they wanted bribes. They didn't get it. We were released only 10 minutes before departure! It was a great trip except for that little stint at the airport. Even after being seated, Lina and I are still emitting hot angry air.

...... the one who has no more leave for the rest of the year :(