Getting Lost in Lombok, Indonesia

Before this trip, I was only vaguely familiar with Asia’s geography. I knew what freshman year World Geography had taught me and that was where my knowledge ended. Planning this Southeast Asia trip introduced me to islands, cities, and popular tourist destinations that I’d never heard of before. So after we spent a day in Ubud, Bali, we left by boat for an island I didn’t know existed a month ago.

Lombok is an island about two hours off the coastline of Bali by speedboat. It’s large — bigger than Maui, Hawaii — and it’s much less developed. The lack of infrastructure surprised me after what I’d seen in Ubud. It’s not as frequented as Bali is and I can’t say I’m surprised. The two hour boat ride isn’t smooth, and I doubt I would have ventured all the way out there if I only had a week off. Once our boat docked on the island, we had an hour car ride to our first hotel just outside of Senggigi Beach. We had booked three days there expecting a main tourist strip, but were surprised to find relatively little to do. There was trash lining the beach near our hotel so we didn’t actually go in the ocean. I also got a stomach bug during our time there so we mostly kept to the hotel grounds. Black Mirror’s new season drop kept us going during this time.

Disappointed by what we’d seen so far, we decided to book our remaining two days in Kuta, a surf town about another hour south, which proved much more scenic and developed. Matt took this opportunity to smugly remind me that it was his idea to not book hotels in advance so that we could adjust and pivot as we went. I’d originally been against this travel style when we were in the planning stages — I hated the idea of traveling without all my accommodations booked. I begrudgingly acknowledged he had been right (a rare occurrence.)

On our first day in Kuta, we rented a small battery-powered moped to head to a beach about 15 minutes away. We quickly learned it was a mistake to not take a fuel bike as we had to push the scooter up every hill on the freeway. We were the laughing stock of the locals zooming by us so I put my sunglasses on to remain incognito. On our way back, things got even more interesting.

Matt tried to avoid the same situation by going off-map and taking random dirt paths along the cliff toward the resort we’d picked for dinner. They were clearly only used by locals. We did surprisingly okay until we made it to our final turn. Google Maps assured us that the only way across the river was in fact on a tiny bamboo bridge that was definitely not built for scooters. We pushed it across as the pitiful tourists we were. Confronted by stairs at the end, some kind but confused locals helped us carry it down. At this point, I desperately needed a piña colada.

We then snuck into the resort pool and took full advantage of their two-for-one happy hour as we watched sunset. The hotel restaurant, Aer, made the best pasta I’d had all trip. Matt laughed at me for getting Italian food in Asia, but it was that or mie goreng for all three meals a day. I am a pasta fiend though, so I can’t claim full innocence.

The next day, we went to Selong Belanak Beach, known for eight-feet-plus waves. We hired a private driver for the day instead of motorbiking and I was shocked at how cheap it was, especially considering they wait for you at every stop. My fear of drowning meant I hung out on a lounge chair and read on my Kindle while Matt took a small boat out to the waves and surfed for a couple hours. I did jump in the water later on and finally got my first taste of Indonesian ocean.

That night, we played pool and I beat Matt (he will deny this if you ask him.) I’m actually not very good at pool, but Matt has a fatal flaw of hitting the eight ball in whenever he plays me. We were also distracted by the dozens of mosquitos flying around us as we played. Mosquitos love me and I’m fairly positive I’m allergic to them. There’s no way to prove an allergy, but my bites swell up, are feverish to the touch, and can leave bruises behind. I was quickly discovering that the most difficult part of adjusting to Asia would be the endless swarm of mosquitos (and the difference in toilet standards.)

The next day, I wasn’t too sad to leave Lombok. I enjoyed the views and experiences but outside of beaches with massive waves, there wasn’t much else for us to do on the island. There were some hikes that we missed out on that are compelling reasons for tourists to visit: the many waterfalls (Tiu Kelep is the most famous) and the two-day Mount Rinjani volcano hike. We had planned on seeing the waterfalls but skipped the day trip since I was sick for half the week. The Mount Rinjani hike, however, I was not interested in. I am not a camper in the slightest and this hike is apparently quite challenging. You need proper camping gear and you sleep overnight on the mountainside. Matt is the more adventurous of the two of us by far, but even he admitted that he didn’t have the right gear to do the hike (neither of us even brought pants in our backpacks.) We left Kuta early in the morning to head back to the port. Our next destination: the Gili islands right next to Lombok, starting with Gili Trawangan.