So, around a month ago, I happen to went to Lombok for a company outing slash short getaway. I have always heard how good the place is, so I was really excited to see what beauty nature has to offer. Short spoiler for this post, I was not disappointed. The beaches were just so pretty and untouched.
To start, we went there from Bandung taking flight at 10.45 AM, WIB. It took around 2 hours to reach there, so we arrived at 13.30 PM, WITA.
So, the first destination the tour brought us, was to visit Desa Sukarare to see the creation process of ‘kain tenun’ (woven cloth), which is the main livelihood for the women in Lombok. In case you think it’s just a regular brown woven cloth, it’s not. This is what Indonesian woven clothes look like, it’s beautiful:
And, if you thought they might take us to a giant factory, you’re wrong. All the fabrics are handmade.
It took around one month to finish one cloth, which is why the price is quite expensive. For a more complicated pattern, it could double or triple the time to make & price. Guide says that a woman in Lombok could only marry once she can weave. So most of the girls there were trained ever since they were little, hence it becomes the main livelihood for women there.
Sadly, one of the women said that she actually hate the job, she was doing it because she cannot have it another way, and she’s too afraid to leave. I wish her the best.
And then, we went on to visit Taman Narmada. From the information board, I learnt that this was built by Raja Mataram Lombok Karang Asem for him to stay during dry season. This place was built as replica of Gunung Rinjani. So if people cannot afford to go to the mountain to do any ritual held, they could come here instead.
After that, we went to eat ‘ayam taliwang’ (spicy Indonesian ayam bakar dish from Lombok – Wikipedia). Sadly, nor the place or the food was good enough to be put here. But, bf said that when he visited Lombok, he stopped by this ayam taliwang restaurant that was in the middle of a rice field and the food was to die for. If only he remember the name of the resto, right? Well he forgot, so I googled this resto and actually could not find it. I will update this post once I find it. So after dinner, we went straight to our hotel, Kila Senggigi Beach Hotel.
The next morning, after taking a bath and getting ready, we still have the time before going beach hopping. So I took more photos of the hotel, which is nice, btw.
The first beach we visit in Lombok is Semeti beach, it took 2.5 hours to get there from Senggigi. It was a secluded beach, we went through hills and dries to get there. Nevertheless, the beach is beautiful. Sadly, there are a lot of rocks, so I think it will be hard to play in this beach. We can take beautiful photos, though.
During our way to have lunch, the guide told us that Lombok is famous as Kota Sejuta Masjid (The City of a Thousand Mosque) and Kota Sejuta Penculik (The City of a Thousand Snatcher). At first, I thought it’s because the city is not safe, as in there are a lot of pickpocket and thief. Apparently, what they mean by snatcher is women snatcher. How come? Well, it is a deep rotten tradition there that if a girl does not return home and she is together with a boy by curfew (around 10 PM), they have to get married. And you know how teenagers are with curfew, right? Aside from a lot of early-age marriage there, some people are nasty enough to exploit this tradition to just ‘snatch’ the girl they like and keep her until past curfew. Whether she likes him or not, they still have to get married. Yeah, nasty.
Anyway, let’s just continue. So for lunch, we went to Laut Biru Bar and Lounge. The place is relaxing and beautiful.
The food was so so, and I feel bad to go around taking pictures of everyone’s food, so sorry. But here’s mine 🙂
The big plus about this place is that it has its own private beach, which is veeery clean and beautiful.
Moving on to the third day, because after lunch in Laut Biru we decided to just stay there until afternoon, the plan was to go to Gili Trawangan and spent the night at Aston Hotel there. So we went to the harbor to go with private boat. Once we arrived in Gili Trawangan, the first thing I noticed about the island was the smell of horses. Apparently, the main transportation in Gili Trawangan island is what they call as ‘cidomo’, short for ‘cikar’, ‘dokar’, and ‘motor’. All three was traditional transportation utilising cart and/or horse.
And after checking in, we went to go snorkel. I was so excited to go because bf and my friends told me that the underwater view was pretty there. We went to the middle by a glass-bottom boat, which at first I thought it was kind of no use. Because it’s either the boat moves, or when it doesn’t move, the sea is already too deep and dark to see. And then, during one spot when we were snorkelling, this happened:
I was underwater taking this pic, but I think it should be pretty cool seeing these bunch from the boat. I was so excited trying to take picture of them closer that I don’t realise I went too deep and water went through my snorkelling glass breathing pipe into my mouth. I panicked, got to the surface trying to hold on to the boat but couldn’t held onto anything, until I reach the boat’s stairs. So I got up to the boat, which was the beginning of my stupid accident.
In the boat, I saw the guides brought us bread so we can just hold it under water and the fish would come to us. I thought, hey, that would be a good experience, and that would make a good video! After I re-set my Go Pro to be taking videos instead of photos, I took a slice, and get ready to go in the water again. I went to one side of the boat, ready to jump when I realise, this side of boat has no stairs. I was afraid I would panicked again like last time and could not hold onto something, so I decided to went down from the other side. As I was walking to the edge of the other side, the boat shook a bit, and I stood still. Then, I stepped to get to the edge of the boat, when I guess I slipped and freaking fell INSIDE the boat, so hard that I kind of couldn’t feel my little toe afterwards. So I pinched it and it hurts, to my relief. But that became the end of my snorkel that day, sadly. And I went back to the hotel with two bruises on left hand, one big big bruise on my left thigh and one on my right knee. These are the photos that I took before all of that happen:
Alright, my bruises healed, so, no regret. After that we went to have lunch at Gili Air island. The food was so so, the toilet was bad, but at least the place is pretty :
Then we went back to Gili Trawangan, and to our discomfort apparently we were not checked in. And then they checked us in, but my room was not ready, so we had to crash in another room first. We called the office to ask for towel since there were four of us in the room, but we never got them till my room is ready. And then we went to our room, showered, complaining within ourselves how the towel provided is sooo small. Not until after we left and have a chat later with the others we know that, apparently, they did provide bigger towels in the other room :S
The service was a disappointment, but the room and its bathroom were nice, and the restaurant’s view was breathtaking. This, is our view for dinner.
This, is the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen.
And then we went back to our room, packed up our things and went home the next morning.
Final thought, Lombok was pretty and Gili Trawangan was lovely. Bf said there is some more in Gili Trawangan that we could go visit. So, I’d really like to go back to Gili Trawangan, for the view and the fact that there are no cars there, and the very tropical holiday feelings. And I really should not fall at all next time 🙂
Here’s to Lombok & Gili Trawangan, for another trip another time 🙂
Cheers,
Grc
You must be logged in to post a comment.