Last Christmas/New Years break. I went to Lombok with my dad and brother. It was a sweet trip. Here is some info about what we did / how we got around which might be helpful to folks.
Lombok is great. In my opinion it was a more beautiful and less-touristy Bali. Bali is sort of a bule bubble; Cancun for Aussies. Lombok seems to have Bali’s beauty with less of its sort of obnoxious touristy stuff. We had plenty of fun finding activities on the island and lazing on the beach.
Fun Stuff we did:
- Sasak Weaving Village – We visited a traditional Sasak (Lombok’s main ethnic group) weaving village. It was near Kediri (a district/kecamatan) though I forget the desa. Worth visiting. Catered to tourists, but still wasn’t too touristy. Sasak villages are noticeably poorer than Javanese villages I’ve seen. Was interesting and fun to see women weaving blankets and clothing. Impressive craftsmanship. The prices at the store were a bit high, but negotiable.
§ Tanjungan – Probably my favorite place on the island. Tanjungan means “cape” and it’s on the southern coast of Lombok. Warm warm water. Practically deserted beach—looked more like a nature reserve than a tourist spot. We hiked up a hill with water buffalo scattered around and saw one of the best views of the ocean and hills that I’ve seen in Indonesia.
§ Gili Islands – We snorkeled around Gili Air (one of the three Gili islands off Lombok’s northern coast). Good, although by no means spectacular snorkeling. We drank a beer at a beach bar on the island afterwards. These islands are pretty much tailored to partying Westerners but still looked nice.
§ Cock-fight – Our driver took us to a cock-fight. Because there are many Balinese Hindu people that work on the islands, there is also a fair amount of cock-fights. These are sad, but interesting. They're illegal but they take place right out in the open and it seems like police have no incentive (suap! bribe!) to break them up. If you want to check one out, you might try asking a Hindu guide. Although Muslim guides might take you to one, since gambling is forbidden in Islam and asking about cock-fights could be offensive.
We flew to Lombok by plane. There are flights from Surabaya and Bali. I flew from Bali. It was one of the shortest plane rides I’ve had, and I probably would’ve taken a ferry if my dad hadn’t been treating for the plane ticket. I heard that the express ferry from Bali is just as expensive as a plane ticket though. There are probably cheap ferries available.
Once there, we took taxis everywhere. There isn’t much in the way of busses / trains. I did see a bunch of bimos / dokars (mini-buses, horse-carriages) though in case you’re trying not to spend much money. My family hired a driver for a couple day trips. I’d recommend this as it’s the fastest and easiest way to get around. We were able to go to lots of places, and our guide took us to places we otherwise wouldn’t have known to visit (tanjungan, a cock-fight, a palm-wine house, dll).
Our driver's name was Swanda and his phone number is 081805228117. We got him through Sasak Lombok Tours: info@sasaktour.com but I think he wants to be hired directly.
Final thang:
Lombok was definitely worth going to. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it over Bali. I would love to go back there and climb Mount Rinjani. I hear that an international airport is under construction so in the next few years Lombok will probably turn into a Bali replica.
