Short get away to Lombok!

One of my most favourite islands ever is Lombok with its capital city, Mataram. Lombok belongs to the province of West Nusa Tenggara, and in my opinion, well, that counts as part of East Indonesia. So the other day I departed for Lombok from Yogya, still part of the #TripOfWonders journey with @indtravel.

 

I’ve got many personal favourite spots in Lombok including Gili Trawangan (Gili is the native word of Lombok which means island). But I want to give you some recommendations if you’re planning to go to Lombok. For one, they’ve got a Garuda Indonesia direct flight from Jakarta to Lombok which means you’re not gonna get exhausted on the way if you’re flying in a nice plane.

There are many places to visit in Lombok like the islands or the waterfalls but I’d like to share my recent experience to Lombok with #TripOfWonders. A few highlights including the places and activities on our travel are:

Tiu Kelep Waterfall

Melissa in frame

1. Desa Sasak Sade

Desa Sasak Sade (Sasak Sade Village) is not located that far from Mataram City, still in the outskirts, yeah. Here you can see authentic traditional homes of the indigenous people of Lombok, highly entertaining dances but what I like most about this village is that there are loads of people selling fabrics. You know how much I like Indonesian fabrics, right? I’m telling you, Desa Sasak Sade is a paradise for those who are into weavings and fabrics but it’s important to bargain smartly okay? If you go to Lombok you must visit this village, all right!

2. Gili Trawangan

You could say Gili Trawangan is insanely popular because it’s very close to Mataram. Well, it’s about 10-15 minutes by speedboat, actually if you’d like to save money, you could go there with a regular public boat but it takes a long time, around 1 hour’s ride. The lodgings here are also varied from super expensive to free if you don’t mind pitching a tent and camping out hahaha! There are many activities you can do in Gili Trawangan, you can chill at a beach club or go snorkeling in Gili Meno and Gili Air (usually a 1-day trip, leave in the morning and return in the late afternoon).

 If you’re lucky when you’re snorkeling you can see turtles so I’ve been quite lucky cos a friend of mine goes to Gili often but he’s never seen one single turtle haha.

Leya in action

WHAT TO BRING

My advice is to bring airy clothes because Lombok is freaking hot! Well, almost like Bali but it’s nowhere near as crowded as Bali. Flip flop is a must and say no to jackets (unless you want to go to Lombok and climb Mount Rinjani, yeah).

Personally, I just wear swimming trunks and sleeveless tees. Wash, dry, wear and repeat. As long as it’s breezy and nice to look at haha! Don’t forget your sunnies, personal snorkeling equipment and most importantly is sunblock, spf50 should be more than enough as Indonesia’s sunshine with spf30 should be enough (according to my doctor friend so blame her if this is way off).

Aileen, Camie, Serica and Melissa

So, do you know roughly when you’re going to Lombok? Time to prepare yourself by having the mindset of getting burned by the sun and getting skin as dark as mine (but it’s cool, right? Haha). But believe me, as fair as your skin is right now it’s nothing compared to the white sandy beaches in Lombok, wooo! Check out @explorelombok on Instagram, guaranteed you’ll want to go to Lombok even more.

 

Happy traveling, I hope we cross paths!

Cheers,

Febrian

Translated by Achmad Sirman