A Week on Lombok and Gili Meno

We arrived in Lombok flying with Lyon Air. The flight’s only about 30 minutes so I doubt that we even got high off the ground. After collecting our luggage we found a man displaying a sign on which was written my name, that then proceeded to take us to our hire car. After an exchange of formalities and some rupiah, we were off in search of Kuta and the south coast.

It was a relatively short trip on good roads, and with minimal difficulties we found Shu Villa in Kuta. Turn right just past the hospital was our instruction. The only indication of a hospital turned out to be a large red cross.

The traffic was incredibly quiet compared to Bali. Everyone says that Lombok is like Bali used to be like. But in what way, exactly? My early observation was that Lombok is still a rural economy, with just a little exposure to tourism. That’s how Bali was when I first went in 1975 but it now seems that Bali is 90% tourism. There’s also a lot of litter in Lombok. It enabled me to realise just how much Bali has progressed in this regard.

We found Kuta in Lombok to be a relatively quiet village, clearly catering to tourists. Plenty of accommodation and eating places. The district is very dry and there seems to be a shortage of water as indicated by an absence of rice fields. The area is quite hilly. Flat spots seem to be used for agriculture at every opportunity.

We were advised that the best beach was at Belong Blanak, followed by Mawun. We visited these beaches and others on our second day. The beach at Belong Blanak  was fabulous. Truly beautiful, unspoilt beaches.

Day 2 we also visited a local market at Sengkol. We had driven through here to get to Kuta on day 1. At the market they sold fruit, vegetables, hardware, cakes, meat, fish and clothes. And not a fridge in site. Hopefully the photos do it justice! It was great fun buying fruit and cakes, and seeing the ladies laugh after they’d ripped us off. The amount was so small it wasn’t worth bargaining.

On day 3 we departed Kuta in search of Senggigi, apparently the centre of Lombok’s tourism industry situated on the west coast. Probably only about 100km from Kuta but travelling speeds were slow. And it involved going through the busy capital of Mataram.

Along the way we stopped at Sukarara where they do weaving and we visited a cooperative. When we pulled up in the carpark we were eagerly greeted by a guide who showed us the weaving taking place and then took us to the shop! Surprise! Heather bought a sarong.

We also wanted to visit a historic Hindu temple but couldn’t find it. Pura Meru is Lombok’s largest and holiest Hindu Temple and was built in 1720.

With no accommodation pre-booked at Senggigi we kept travelling north along the coast road. We passed numerous beaches, each separated by a high headland. The beaches were mostly deserted and the sand is much darker than that of the south coast. Running parallel to the coast is some quite tall hills.

It was about 100km from Kuta to Senggigi and another 25km further north we found Bangsal and its harbour. From here we would be catching a boat to Gili Meno on November 2. Here we met a young Canadian who had just arrived on the Lombok mainland from Gili T and was looking for a ride to Senggigi. After finding out the boat timetable we headed back to Senggigi with the Canadian in tow.

Senggigi is the main tourist area on Lombok. It was very quiet and very hot. It seems that Lombok has had its hottest year on record. The landscape was very different to the south coast. On the way to Senggigi we noticed the landscape change from very dry, to green with rice paddies, indicating the availability of irrigation water.

We had a lazy 1.5 days in Senggigi, mostly hanging at the hotel pool, wandering the shops or sitting in a bar/restaurant.

On November 2 we met the hire car people at Senggigi where it was arranged that they would drive us to the harbour for the public ferry to Gili Meno. We got there 2.5 hours early and watched the boats travelling to and from Gili T and Gili Air. The cost of the ticket was Rp25,000 each ($2.50) and it didn’t turn out to be as bad as Heather had feared. About a 30 minute journey.

We stayed at Ana Warung and Bungalows www.anawarung.com.

No great shock to find that we weren’t booked in so we got the last remaining room. It was like an upmarket tree house! Other than sharing a toilet and a salt water shower with staff, it was great. The breeze ventilated the room. An air-conditioned room with en-suite was available the next day so Heather insisted on leaving the room with a view.

Our time was spent very lazily at Gili Meno. There was little opportunity to swim as the water is mostly shallow with lots of coral reefs. It’s a snorkelers or divers paradise. We did walk around the island, taking about 90 minutes. The views are extremely beautiful. Mostly out to sea or to one of the other Gilis. The island is very dry with virtually no fresh water. Fresh water is mostly brought in from Lombok so a lot is done with salt water. At Ana Warung they water the garden with grey water. It smells like untreated grey water, fortunately they only watered the garden once during our three night stay.

The trip back to Bali was meant to be direct to Padang Bai, so we were told. In actual fact it went to Gili Air and Lombok before going direct to Padang Bai. All up was about 2 hours. The trip was $30 each and included the road trip from Padang Bai to Legian.

Photos will be loaded shortly.