How to get there
Lombok is the island to the East of Bali. We landed in Denpensar, grabbed a pre-booked taxi and headed 2 hours north to the port village of Pendang Bai. This is where we would be catching the fast boat the next day that would take us to Bangsal via the Gilli's.
Once in Bangsal, we had the tricky tasked of moving through the crowds and multiple scooter dealers that with all due credit would do their best to convince you they had the best deal on the island. But being the type of people that we are which is the type of people that really don't enjoy crowds or loud noises (I know what your thinking but you can't have the tism if you refuse to be tested) we pushed through and B-lined straight out of there walking with no real purpose but just to get out of the crowds. We found ourselves taking shelter from a sudden squoll in a quiet Warong on a backstreet and that gave us the time think and to do some research. After a delicious spicy dish with what we assumed was chicken and a few WhatsApp messages later we had secured some scooters for a much more reasonable price and now all we had to do was navigate the streets to try and find the guys house and get the keys.
Not Bali
The first thing to note about Lombok is it's not like Bali. If your after a party holiday to remember maybe get off the fast boat at Gilli T because Lombok aint it. It is much slower and feels a lot more personal. The first thing we were surprised by was the dramatic lack of other Australians compared to Bali. I mean you still run into Aussies over there, that's inevitable, we're like flies on Christmas Day; you will never truly be rid of us, but outside of the popular towns like Sengiggi or Kuta Lombok, the Aussie twang couldn't be heard amongst the white noise.
The main religion in Lombok is Muslim so the access to alcohol is limited. It still exists for the tourists but if you're planning on having more than 2 beers at lunch, don't expect the Bintangs to be frosty and don't expect there to be anything other than Bintang on the menu.
This leads to the next point, by no means feel as though you have to cover up entirely, we had chats with locals about how to dress and they all said its not a big deal, but as a cultural courtesy we just played it by ear and sensed what the vibe in each town was and dressed accordingly. Which really just involved wearing t shirts instead of singlets and to the boys jealously a long skirt for me. Not at all a big deal and to be honest was a godsend to the chaff and sunburn.
2 wheels is better than 4 in Lombok
scooter hire: ayzam rental motorbike - bangsal
The choice to hire scooters instead of making our way around the island via bus or car was the best choice we could have made. It allowed us to take in everything, stop whenever we wanted and even though we reached top speed at a solid 80km per hour for all of about 10mins in the 10 days we were there; it was still a much faster mode of transport than the larger vehicles because when they got stuck in traffic, they were quite literally stuck.
Gunung Tunak
Accomodation: Tunak cottage
where to eat: warung cafe sunset
Our aim for the second night was to stay at Kuta Lombok, but after arriving and seeing how incredibly busy this tourist town was, we decided after a couple of warm bintangs and a pretty delicious curry later, it wasn't the place for us. Don't get me wrong it was a beautiful little town but it just wasn't our vibe. So we jumped back on the scooters and headed towards some incredibly cheap accommodation near Gunung Tunak Nature Park, that according to booking.com had an insane view. We were not disappointed, it was a steep ascent for the little scooters but they were up for the challenge and when we arrived we had a 180 degree view of the whole bay and an infinity pool all to ourselves.
On the road to the hotel we drove past a little warung by the beach and told ourselves that's where we would be spending our afternoon. Cafe sunset is owned by a young couple Ramdan and Ita and it has some of the best views of any warung we have been to. With lounge chairs and grass umbrellas out the front on the sand and by far the cleanest beach we had been to on our trip so far. We really felt like we had come across a secret hidden gem and the sunset swim and cold beers was the best way to finish off a day being on a scooter.
The accommodation we stayed at was conveniently positioned right next to the gates of the Eco Nature Park and unlike us, if you pay attention to the directions given to you by the hotel staff you may actually find the hike that allows you to watch the sunrise over the bay. Our hike got us to the wrong side of the mountain and may or may not have actually been a legit path. Either way, the views that we managed to see through the scramble were still stunning.
Ekas
accomodation: satu hati
where to eat: panorama restaurant & a warung right at the end of the waterfront
From Gunung Tunak, we headed to the surf town of Ekas. We loved this place so much we stayed for an extra night. Chill coastal surf vibes with again hardly any tourists in sight. We were lucky enough to run into a fellow Aussie who owned the accommodation we stayed at. We told him we wanted to learn to surf and he kindly took us down to the beach and became our translator between all the instructors. Now there may have been a little bit lost in translation when we said we had never surfed before but we won't hold that against anyone and I can safely say it was an extremely humbling experience on my end. The boys however had a much better run than me and came off with the confidence of Hawaiin ocean gods and thankfully only a short-lived new found surf lingo to match.
Tetebatu
accommodation: alam bungalow and restaurant
where to eat: alam bungalow & warung sangkareang & coffee shop
We swapped the sun, surf and sand of Ekas for the green, rain and waterfalls of Tetebatu. We stayed in a treehouse style accommodation looking over rice paddies owned and run by another extremely nice and accommodating family. We got lost trying to find it and by sheer luck or the fact our body language screamed lost and confused tourist "please help us", we were stopped by a teenage girl and her baby sister on a scooter who guided us to our rainforest paradise.
The bungalows are in walking distance to a waterfall via the rice fields and only a short scooter ride to the black monkey forest, where we spotted multiple black monkeys. As far as tourist checklist goes, done and done in one afternoon. Good job, go home, cya later.
Once we emerged from the monkey forest gleaming with the happiness you only get from staring at monkeys for 40mins we were grounded pretty quickly by the owner of the warung /coffee shop across the road who had found one of the boys phones still attached to his scooter and had kindly brought in in out of the rain. If it was a tactic to get us to come in and buy a coffee, Im not mad about it.
In the morning we were woken with views of Mt Rijani in the distance and a delicious breakfast before the next leg of the trip.
The road to Sembulan
accomodation: hk villas
where to eat: mahakala rinjani
coffee roastery: bale coffee sembahulun
where to shop: rinjanica sembalun
The road to Sembulan was one of the the prettiest rides we had, winding up and down valleys, through the mountains, passing multiple road side monkeys and stopping at mysterious little food stalls, all to end up in a village at the base of what felt like a crater. Sembulan is a starting off point for a lot of the treks and hikes that lead up Mt Rijani and even though this trip we didn't have the time to tackle any of them, its definitely put itself on the list to come back to conquer.
A word of warning for anyone wanting to travel and stay in Sembulan, it is definitely worth the visit, its an incredibly stunning town with some surprising hidden gems but be prepared its not really made for western tourists. It's a major holiday attraction for locals with a strong religious community. You won't find alcohol anywhere and prayer time is played throughout multiple speakers through town, which we didn't mind too much until it came time to sleep. (heads up prayer time is more than once a day)
With that in mind, we stumbled across a lot of cool things. There is a cafe on the way into town which had incredible food and coffee and the best view of any cafe I have visited. There is also a small micro coffee roaster which having a coffee background I was pretty excited to check out. We spent the afternoon walking through a random somewhat questionable theme park, and on our way out the next day we found quite possibly the best outdoor hiking / adventure clothing store we've ever been to; which if no other reason, that alone is worth another trip back to Lombok.
Tanjung
accomodation: mina tanjung hotel
drinks: warung sunset (right next door) & Mina tanjung restaurant
Our final stop on our scooter circumnavigation of Lombok ended in Tanjung. After being a passenger princess for the last 10 days I thought I would let the boys return the scooters on their own while I gave myself the tough job of getting laundry sorted and lounging by the pool and then exploring the near by beach.
Tanjung was our last night in Lombok but it wasn't the last night of our trip. From here we would get a taxi the next day back to Sengiggi where we would jump on a bus that would blow a tyre half way back across the island to catch a boat to start a 4 day sailing trip to Komodo Island. But that adventure is worth its own blog, so for now I will leave it here.
Final thoughts...
As someone who had avoided even going to Bali before because of the stigma it gets, I was extremely surprised by how much I loved Lombok. It was peaceful, beautiful and cruising around on scooters really felt like we were exploring somewhere new. We had kids constantly running out to the road when they saw us from their front yards to wave and say hello and taxi drivers and business owners thanking us for visiting and spending time in their island instead of some more popular places. Lombok has by far been the most welcoming place I have visited so far and Im so excited to check out what else Indonesia has to offer. Sumba watch out, cos you are very high on the list now.
