The Beautiful Lombok

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ABOUT LOMBOK
Timezone : UTC+08:00
Currency: Indonesian Rupiah (IDR)
Visa: Not required for Malaysian
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GETTING THERE
Took Air Asia from KLIA2 to Lombok International Airport. Previously planned to stay in Lombok for 6 days 5 nights but 1 day after booking the ticket, Lombok was hit by a strong earthquake (and it keep on happening!). Received an email from Air Asia that they are cancelling few flights (previously was 2 or 3 flights per day but they change to 1 per day) and that we can change the flight date if we want to. We decided to cut the trip short to 3 days 2 nights (basically just to attend my brother in law’s wedding). We regretted that decision and we should have stayed there longer as there are a lot of places we didn’t manage to visit! Including the famous Gili! *cry*. By the way, at the immigration check point (once you have entered Lombok), they will ask for your return ticket. We didn’t print ours so we just show our Lombok-KL passes on Air Asia mobile app.
GETTING AROUND
There are few ways you can get around Lombok: taxi (recommend to use Blue Bird), Grab, rent a car/motorbike or hire a supir (driver). Since we went there in group with my husband’s family, my brother in law hired an agency to pick us up at the airport, drive us to and from the wedding location and also 2 days tour for the rest of the family members. For the next day (since our flight was at 8.30pm) we hired a supir (driver) to drive us around and send us to the airport. Here’s the detail of the supir we hired:
Name: Suhendra Contact No: +62 857 3783 6580 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/msuhendra1 ACCOMMODATION
Since we went there for my brother in law’s wedding, he booked a house for us via Airbnb (you can also book a room there via Agoda). We stayed at Sweet Peach House, which was a nice place to stay in, very cute house, big and clean, and close to convenient stores (I loveeee buying local stuff at the convenient store!). However it is not close to the beach area (around 7km to Senggigi Beach), which is fine as based on our initial plan (to stay there for 6 days), we plan to stay at the house for 3 days and then move to Holiday Resort Lombok, which to our surprise was where the wedding was being held! The house consists of 5 rooms, where 2 rooms act as a dorm which have 3 bunk beds (there’s blind in between the beds for your privacy). So basically the house can fit our group of 16 adults and 2 kids. The owner of the house are Muslims, so there are rules that you need to follow for example only Halal food can be kept in the fridge and cooked using the cookware & utensils provided.
Image source: Sweet Peach House
INTERESTING PLACES
Senggigi Beach – the main tourist strip of the Indonesian island of Lombok, stretched out along several kilometers of the beachfront just to the north of the capital, Mataram Pura Batu Bolong – Oceanside temple known for its rocky surrounds, numerous pagodas & statues & sunset views. Image source: http://www.balitourism.nl/bolongeng.htm
Pottery Making – you can purchase a pottery or learn to make one. I made a turtle!
Traditional weaving (tenun) – learn how to weave cloth or you can also purchase those colourful handmade cloth called kain tenun
and here are more (and there’s a lot more if you Google) beautiful places you can visit, which we didn’t manage to *cry*
Gili Islands – Gili islands are a group of 3 small island, Gili Trawangan (the most famous Gili), Gili Meno and Gili Air Villa Hantu – Hantu means ghost but its not really haunted. It’s an old house which overlook the Senggigi beach and its a nice photo spot Bukit Malimbu – a nice spot to take photos with green (grass) and blue (sky & ocean) background Mangku Sakti Waterfall Benang Kelambu Waterfall Semeti Beach Pink Beach – pink sandy beach Kuta Beach – yes, there’s also Kuta Beach in Lombok Pantai Tebing Pantai Tanjung Bloam Gunung Rinjani – entrance to Mount Rinjani is close until now ever since the earthquake Gua Bangkang SHOPPING
Sasaku – Souvenir shopping! There’s few Sasaku branches and we went to 2 Sasaku branches. The one in Senggigi was better in terms of choices. Senggigi Art Market – Didn’t manage to visit the market as our supir brought us to different art market in Mataram (if I’m not mistaken) which was not as expected. Epicentrum Mall – went to the mall for lunch and visit the toy store. Bought few Tomica cars, since it is cheaper in Indonesia compared to Malaysia. Mataram Mall FOOD
Sate Bulayak – the sate is similar to the one in Malaysia however the gravy is spicier and instead of nasi impit, there’s bulayak which is a bit similar to lemang
Ayam taliwang – spicy roast chicken Nasi Balap Puyung

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