Off the beaten path in Lombok: 1 week of adventure
We went into this kinda blind, especially for the Mrs., because reviews online mostly mentioned how it’s not exactly easy to travel around unless you rent scooters. Other worries included not being able to use grab / Gojek because it’s not so common there. Given all these concerns, we booked the flight anyway!
Based on prior research, I’ve learnt that people mostly go to Lombok to surf and snorkel, and perhaps what’s most famously talked about are the three Gilis (Gilis meaning islands, so you don’t need to say Gili islands). They’re Gili Trawagan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. But us being us, we skipped those three to search out a less popular route. Asking around, some friends told us to check out the Southwest side of Lombok, nearer to Mataram and Lembar. On that side, there were a ton of areas to explore - we took that route and ended up with one of the best 4D3N experiences in our travels thus far.
Table of Contents
GILI ASAHAN ECO LODGE!
picture of the resort from the beach
Gili Asahan Eco Lodge was founded by someone who fell in love with the island and its surrounding beaches. She worked with a team to restore the island, open a school for the kids on the island and do many rounds of coral restoration. With all this in mind we were very excited to go there, as we often try to travel more sustainably and support local initiatives over large corporations as much as we can. Nearby are a couple of islands, Gili Gede, Gili Layar and Gili Rengit, among others. You can go there to snorkel and dive… and pick up as much rubbish from the ocean as you can!!
Getting there
Fly into Lombok international airport
Connect with a local driver, or you can ask the Lodge to arrange one for you.
They’ll pick you up and drop you on PANTAI KEPO.
Get on a speedboat and get dropped off at the island’s doorstep.
First impressions
It’s gorgeous. We took a while to savour the surroundings and take it all in. We arrived a little late on the first day as airport transfer was slightly delayed. It was still lovely though muted. As the days went on the sun came out more and we relished everyday we had.
Activities and attractions
Besides chilling at the beach which you can do literally everyday because why not? It’s beautiful and we would spend waaaaaaaay more time if we could.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of things to do:
Kayaking
Kayaks are available for rent, both single and double. Before you do that, head to the registration counter and sign an indemnity form as well as put down a deposit for the items. The deposit also covers any snorkeling gear and life jackets.
Do note that there aren’t life guards around and you’re expected to be responsible for your own safety. Make sure you can swim and don’t mind some waves as there are speedboats that constantly go past the area that you are kayaking in. You’re allowed to kayak to nearby Gili Goleng as it’s a 10-15 minute kayak ride away.
Snorkeling
If you snorkel, you can request for a boat trip out, $25 per pax to join an existing group or $60 per boat for a private trip. It’s around 3 hours and the boat men take you out to the islands. It was very fun to go out to the islands and clean the seas which we did!
The boatmen do go down and snorkel with you and they also take the time to clean and boat and the surrounding areas as you snorkel. We felt at home, like it wasn’t a tour trip out, just friends heading out for a boat ride. Definitely would keep doing it if we stayed there longer.
The snorkeling experience was great! From blue starfish to brightly coloured corals, you could explore the areas safely and they were quite shallow too. However given the traffic of boats in the area, many corals are still bleached. It’s therefore even more important to support coral replanting efforts like what the Lodge is doing!
Sunset Cruise
Around 5pm, the boat will take you out to the opposite direction from Gili Gede / Layar and coast around for an hour before heading to a sunset spot. Normally it would have been really nice, however given that we’re still at the tail end of the monsoon season, it was very cloudy that day and we faced rather rough waves, which we were told are uncommon.
Horse walk
The owner of the Lodge also has 4-5 horses which we saw as we walked around the area! They’re really well taken care of and no horse riding is allowed, only walks. You can sign up to join these walks.
Other activities also include playing board games on the beachfront and eating to your heart’s content!
Food and drinks at Nautilus Restaurant
The owner of the resto is Italian and was very passionate about bringing the cuisine here for Lodge visitors to enjoy. The wood-fired oven pizza was amazing, we had to have it twice in our stay! We also tried pancakes and juices which were always done well. Indonesian cuisine is also available though we were slightly disappointed after our experience eating it as it didn’t have the spice / kick normally found in Indonesian dishes. Do note that you can ask for chilli separately.
Service is always quite prompt except at dinner where it’s understandably slower due to the crowd. The staff are wonderfully kind and always attentive.
Accommodation
We chose the Jungalow which is 1/2 of the rooms which were fitted with air conditioners. Frankly it wasn’t warm and we could have done away with it and taken a cottage hut instead. However we were slightly bothered by the mosquitoes so I guess the ability to close the windows helped.
lovely bedroom setup
table and luggage area
outdoor area
The place was gorgeous, windy and equipped with areas for drying your clothes which were very useful. It’s divided into an indoor section for sleeping, an outdoor toilet and shower area and a balcony and couch to lounge on. Everything was cleaned daily.
The mattress was comfortable and clean and so were the outdoor areas. The entire Lodge is built with natural, reusable and sustainable material. This extends to the shampoo bottles, laundry baskets, and so much more. It was so refreshing and wonderful to be in a place where plastic wasn’t used as much as possible!
The Lodge is also solar-powered and activities requiring electronics are kept to a minimum so wifi connection is mostly available only at the restaurant and any bookings you want to make, you’ll go to the Reception in person to make them.
the balcony area to lounge at
Budget
Spent a total of $700 in 4D3N, accomodation, food and activities included
Final verdict and things to take note of
Wear slippers or water shoes when you’re getting into the island or transferring out, you’ll need to step into the water to get on the boat.
Be prepared to pack a sandal and a slipper amongst other shoes, as you’ll need time to dry them due to the constant use / rain / sand, etc
Anyone with mobility issues would probably struggle as you’ll need to walk around the island quite a bit, and there aren’t lights around when the sun goes down. You’ll also need to climb in and out of boats.
After we checked out, sadly and hoping to come back, we headed to our second location in the middle of Kuta, right into the tourist district. This was booked with the intention to get to know the more crowded areas and for a faster commute to the airport.
Kalea Villas
Accommodation
the bedroom
outdoor kitchen and eating area beside the pool
the pool
outdoor bathroom and wash area
What we liked about the place:
The outdoor areas are very clean, even though it’s an airbnb which means you don’t expect daily cleaning, the staff were on hand to help us clear the place every morning which was a nice touch.
The kitchen is fully equipped should you want to prepare your own meals and this really worked in our favour.
The bathroom is outdoors which means things dry very quickly, although the reverse is true that when it rains it pours so everything gets wet,
Challenges we faced:
It rained very heavily on our second day and we couldn’t really go anywhere so we were stuck ordering in! Something to note about Lombok is that they don’t have a Gojek/Grab system in place like other parts of Indonesia so you have to rent a scooter. This also means walking more to anywhere you want to go to!
Restaurants in the area abound, here are some we tried:
Nohi Restaurant
Bombay Bangkok
Cantina Mexicana
What else we did in Lombok
Benang Stokel Waterfall
when we got to the base of the waterfall
This, was one hell of a hike. It wasn’t the hike that was tough, but it was the end of the monsoon season so as one would expect, the rains were unpredictable and it came on really strong when we were reaching the place. We took some shelter in the lunch / rest area and had something to eat before going up.
There are two options to go up the hill - a 90 minute hike (that’s free, you’re paying in hiking currency), or a motorbike ride up, which speeds up the journey to 10 minutes and costs around Rp35000. For our safety, we opted for the bike ride. It was fun and vaguely terrifying as we watched the riders skillfully maneuver through the rough and slippery terrain.
Once you’re at the entrance of the waterfall you would still have to take a short hike down some flights of stairs. take note: THIS IS NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR ANYONE WITH MOBILITY ISSUES!
the steps were slippery!!
When we got to the place, we felt that everything was worth it! The view was amazing, pictures do not do it justice. Oddly, the rain made the entire place even more lush and beautiful. The person who drove us there told us that this season (Jan-March) has more rain but everything becomes more green as a result. No regrets and we will definitely try this again!
another view of the waterfall!
Sade Weaving Village
trying our hand at weaving
Do you know that it takes a month for one scarf to be weaved?
Our guide brought us to the weaving village (Panji Sari) where an all-women corporation runs the weaving business. They told us interesting stories and let us try our hand at weaving. We learnt that weaving is a rite of passage for young women and they have to be skilled at it as a step to get married. As this was low season, we were the only visitors to the location at that point so we got to spend more time! Of course, we picked up some beautiful scarfs on the way out.
Overall Notes for Lombokk
Cash / Card —
Carry cash on hand! Card is fine but some places want you to pay in cash, take note especially if you are used to carrying cards like Wise / Revolut / Youtrip.
Ordering food
Applications to use for food in Kuta: ASAP Food
You can get the WhatsApp contacts of the various restaurants off their instagram accounts or use ASAP Food to order, and you will pay in cash!
Driver
We were very fortunate to have a wonderful person to drive us around. He was very responsible and communicated with us all the way. He speaks English very well too. His name is Iskandar, do dm us on Instagram (@t3.home) to get his contact!
Transport
Gojek and Grab are not really used here so if you are planning on being in Lombok for a while, consider renting a scooter.
Lastly, while I’m sure many frequent fliers already know this, we learnt that:
if you don’t have a specific seat selected on a budget flight, the moment check-in opens online, CHECK IN IMMEDIATELY. When we flew there it was a full flight and we nearly missed getting on it. The flight attendant at the check in counter mentioned that the flight was overbooked and that if we hadn’t checked in early, we may not have had flown off that day! Given that Lombok flights from Singapore are once every 2 days, we were relieved.
Overall Cost
Budget for the whole trip: $1500
Flight tickets: $434
Accommodations, food and activities for the first 4D3N at Gili Asahan: $700
Accommodations at Kalea Villas 3D2N: $320
Food for the next 3D2N in Kuta area: $139
Transport costs: (Hiring a driver + Airport transfer): $100
Total spent: $1693 for 2 pax (not bad!!)
till next time
