Lombok, another Bali of Indonesia

Snorkeling at Gili Air

Too Much to Forget

Going back to daily routine just doesn't feel right. Especially after a long break. Coz the feeling of being free is still there, free of work routine, free of traffic, free of city's air pollution. Things are getting so lame, and a lot of burdens going back to our shoulders. I don't mean to complain about my life but this is what happen to everyone.

I love traveling too much, more to backpacker actually. But sometimes I do traveling in group, whether it's a hangout group or in a group of workmates. Coz when we do traveling in group, we can get the comforts way of traveling in affordable cost. We share cost, that's the main point, mainly about the food and rent car and hotels. 

Lombok Island

Just like few months ago, me and my office mates went to Lombok Island. For those who didn't know, Lombok is the island next to Bali, some say that it is the sister of Bali Island. Lombok has many natural beauties just like her sister, Bali. The different is that Lombok has less tourist crowd. So that the tourist destinations are tourist crowd free, except for some places like The Senggigi Beach or Gili Trawangan, one of three small Islands nearby.

Enjoy Gili Trawangan

Nowadays, Lombok is earning its fame and becomes more and more touristic. The government is already aware of its true potentials as the next Bali. The government is developing many infrastructures and facilities that could help tourists to travel comfortably. For example, the new airport called Lombok International Airport. Since it has the word International in its name, therefore there are International flights direct to Lombok from the neighbouring countries like Malaysia or Singapore.

At LIA, Lombok International Airport

The question is, what do we have in Lombok? I'd say it has everything. Every natural wonders you can mention. Except for Desert and Snowy place of course. It has one of Indonesia's most beautiful volcanoes, Mt.Rinjani. The beaches, the Islands nearby, the waterfalls, the underwater beauty and many more. Not to mention the preservation of its indigenous people culture like Suku Sasak or the Sasak Tribe.

The Mataram City is a developing city in Lombok. It's the biggest city on the Island and play as the Business District Center. Here we can find the delicious Ayam Taliwang, an exquisite local cuisine, a Chicken Grill with some local spices as its ingredients. It taste mostly spicy.

Since it was our (except for my boss) first journey to Lombok, the destinations we went to are the most famous one such as the three gili Islands. We first went to the dock where a lot of boat are going to the Gili Islands. They provide rent boat to explore the Islands, the common route are first snorkeling to Gili Air then Gili Meno and ended at Gili Trawangan, where the Crowd of Bules are everywhere. Here at the Gili Trawangan you can find many restaurants and hotels, in all variant, from the cheap budget hotels to the five star hotels.

On the boat to Gili Islands

The Underwater beauty in Gili Air and Gili Meno are amazing. We can find many colorful coral reefs and beautiful fishes that live around the coral reef. The sky was not really clear, it even rain that day that make the underwater visibility decreased. But that didn't stop us enjoying the view. We took a lot of underwater photos and videos. Luckily I got my Bpro-5 camera that I just bought from my boss.

Gili Air Underwater

Having enough with snorkeling, we went to Gili Trawangan as the last destination. Here is like at the Kuta Beach in Bali, a lot of Bules everywhere. We ate here, and enjoying the typical tropical Island view like the white sand beach with its clean blue water. The feeling of true holiday was there. I felt like I wasn't in Indonesia, coz I saw more Bules than the locals.

Snorkeling at Gili Air

We stopped by the ice cream shop and having a nice Ice Cream with many flavors. My friends were having a hidden agenda that I didn't know about. They were going to the wooden made swing that is on the beach to hunt a nice sunset photo shots. Unfortunately the water level reached their hips and there were no sunset at the time of their arrival to that point. I just waited for them on the boat since it was raining.

Enough playing around on the Islands, we went back to the mainland Lombok. Next destination is Malimbu Peninsula. Here we could see beautiful remaining sunset with the Bali Island as on the background. Of course photo session was a must to do.

At Malimbu Sunset View

Next is getting back to hotel to refresh our body and enjoy another Taliwang Chicken at Mataram city as our dinner. Our boss took us to enjoy Durians somewhere in the city, but before that we went shopping for pearls at Mutiara Indah Pearl Shop. It was getting late and most of us were already exhausted. Yet our boss proposed to enjoy some other time at the hilltop to eat some Jagung Bakar or Grilled Corn.

The next day, we went back to Surabaya. There were a lot more to explore in Lombok. But, due to our limited time, we could only enjoy some interesting places on the Island. It's quite enough though for such short holiday. I would come again to explore more.

Thinking of Next Destination