Blogs from Sengigi, Lombok, Indonesia, Asia - page 3

Getting from Gili Air to Sengigi on Lombok was another pretty straight forward local boat. At the other end we were supposed to be getting on a bus to Sengigi when someone looked at our ticket and said to follow him. He then told us to put our stuff in a horse carriage and tried to take us to the bus, Now we are becoming wiser travelers we busted him on this, got our bags back and walked the 1km to the bus! On arrival in Sengigi we were dropped at a tourist info point and for once we just went along with them and let them book us a hotel. It was ok and served a purpose as we were only staying one night before we plan to climb up mount Rinjani the day after.After ... read more

Yesterday, Tyler and I had to leave Nusa Lembongan to move on to our next destination, the island of Lombok. I'm going to give you the most accurate description I can of the looooooong day we just had. There are so many amazing things you get to do when you travel, but I wanted to tell you about this experience to show you that our trip isn't all beaches and sunny days. Some days aren't the most pleasant... First I will tell you our plan – boat from Lembongan to Sanur, bus from Sanur to Padangbai, ferry from Padangbai to Senggigi, find a place to stay. Busy but doable!! For days we had been watching people leave Lembongan thinking “those poor suckers” but that day had now dreadfully come for us :( we said goodbye to ... read more

Arrived in Lombok after a very long ferry journey. like 4 hours or something. it's only 23km! i can cycle that in i don't 30mins!!! anyway, sengiggi is a lazy town but lovely. beaches are lush here. much quiter and cheap. staying in a homestay with breaky for a fiver a night. very lovely family and endless supply of kopi (coffee). Martin one of the fam, is teaching me indonesian. he keeps laughing. i want to tell him how comedy his accent is when he speaks english lol. met some brits. first ones i've met so far! they knew things like where York is. and i could speak at a normal pace again. broke a few rules though - went on back of motorbike with random lone local male twice. i trusted my gut instinct. one ... read more

Western Lombok is where Islam meets Hinduism, on an island dominated by the former. A large Hindu procession took place on the streets of Mataram, under the light of the full moon. Locals, dressed in white shirts and hats, with colourful sarongs and sashes, walked the long road up to Cakranegara. Drums and xylophones play the traditional ‘gamelan’ music – strangely discordant to the unaccustomed on first hearing. Our two young Muslim chaperones are stopped and questioned by the police regarding their presence at the Hindu event. This seems ridiculous, as it’s a public street. No matter – they gesture to us, and the police are satisfied. We chat to locals, including one who, improbably, lived in Norway for eight years, and has two sons there, from a past marriage. There is more than a small ... read more

After our quick trip through Java, we flew back to Bali and headed straight to Padangbai on the eastern side of the island. Its a small town which is known mostly for being the jump off point to Lombok and the Gili Islands. We spent a few days here getting prepared to spend the last month of our trip ensconced in beach and snorkeling - this involved going to beach and buying snorkels. We then boarded the public ferry to Lombok and after 4 hours on the boat and another 2 hour van ride, we arrived at our hotel in Sengiggi. Here we spent a night in a normal traveler style hotel, watched the royal wedding at a bar in town, and anxiously awaited our move to the fanciest and most luxurious hotel of the whole ... read more