LOMBOK TRIP

Lombok Trip 13-17 June 2022

This trip is a very special trip, for the first time in my life, I arranged a solo trip for my birthday, well I don’t really care for the birthday, but I least I go some beautiful places. Ok, let’s begin. After I arrived at the international Airport Lombok or Zainuddin Abdul Madjid Lombok International airport, my driver     (Mr. Riyan) was ready to pick me up.

The good things about this trip, all places are near, it only takes 15-30 minutes or maybe less from one place to another. Here is the list of my first day’s trip :

DAY 1 : MATARAM CITY

1. Cape Aan Beach

White sand, rocky beach, blue and green water, perfect horizon and small boats on the sea, everything is in here, this is a heavenly gorgeous beach. I spent hours enjoying the view and playing with the water on this beach, totally forgot that I haven’t had my breakfast. 

Me, scratching my head at the beach while strolling.

My feet on white sands.

2. Kuta Mandalika Beach

I didn’t stop at this beach, only took a pic and continue to the next destination. Kuta is the name of the village, and Mandalika is the name of a princess. There is a legend about this princess, she was very beautiful and to stop the disputes among the men who fought for her, she committed suicide by jumping to the sea, and every year in February the body of the princess comes to the shore in the form of colorful worms. This was based on the last words of Mandalika Princess, “My body shall be enjoyed by many people”. And local people in Lombok eat the worms.

3. Ende Traditional Village

There are 2 traditional villages in Mataram City, Sade and Ende, Ende Village is more traditional than Sade, both located close to each other and opened for tourist. People who live in those village is Sasak Tribe. They still hold many traditional ways of living. I visited Ende Village, and my guide is Mr Anto, he is also Sasak people.

Mr Anto at the front village of Sasak Ende Village.

The village has 30 families. The traditional house of Sasak is Bale Tani, “Bale” means house, “Tani” means farmer. The roof of Sasak traditional house is very low, the purpose is to make people bow their head in order to respect the host.

The roof is made from dried reeds and has to be changed every 6-7 years. 

The floor is made from clay and covered with cow’s dung. They mop the floor with cow’s dung once a week and let it air dry.

The house is consisted of 2 rooms, one is family room, the other is bedroom only for woman and girls. Man sleeps outside, this is for guarding the house. And for the boys when they reach the age of 7, they join their father to sleep outside. (left pic)

The kitchen is separated from the main house, so is the bathroom. They use wood to cook the food. (right pic)

This is the barn. The small square at the front is the entrance. On the bottom, you can see the round wood, it is to prevent rat from climbing to the barn.

There are many traditional rules that still running today, one of them is the rule to marry. The man has to kidnap the girl. He only has to kidnap the girl for one night, and this is hard because the girl sleeps with the mother in the same room. If no one know the girl is missing until the next morning, he already succeeded and her parents will let them marry, but if he gets caught or someone interrupts it, they can’t get married. 

A man is playing traditional instrument, Genggong, made from palm tree.  When a guy wanted to confess his feelings, he would play Genggong in front of the girl’s house. But they never used it anymore, nowadays there are many easier ways to confess, just use your phone.

Beside planting crops and raising cattle (cows and chicken), Sasak people also weaving and making batik. Each motif has their own story and meaning. The picture shows Songket clothes. (left pic)

This one is telling about the men stay outside guarding the house while the women stay inside the house and to predict the time, they use a rooster. (right pic)

4. Sukarara Weaving Village

In this village, only females are allowed to weave, they believe that man who learn to weave will lose his masculinity. This already been proven. The girls learn weaving from 10 years old. And they must be able to weave before married, it is for let them become independent from their husband. There are many types of weaving clothes. The most famous one is Songket from Lombok, usually is for wedding or traditional ceremony. It takes 1-2 months to finish one Songket clothes (length 5 m, width 60 cm). And before they begin to weave, they need one more week to set the pattern. they can only weaves 15 cm for 8 hours everyday, this is why Songket clothes is very expensive, it spends so much time and effort just for one piece of clothes.

The most prestigious pattern of Songket is Subhanale pattern, only for noble wedding, the pattern uses gold thread, very expensive.

I visited this shop in weaving village, the manager is Mr. Kadri Belo, he shared the weaving story and helped me to dress in traditional clothes.

Actually I chose the wrong Songket, the dark one is for male, the brighter one is for female. The top is traditional clothes of Sasak Tribe, black symbolize harmony. That’s the end of day one  😉

DAY 2 :SEMBALUN VILLAGE

From Mataram City to Sembalun takes at least 2 hours and 30 minutes. My guide is Mr Lalu Habibie (or Mr Habib) and the driver Mr Heru. We will stay in Sembalun Village for 2 days. Sembalun derived from “semba” means respect and “ulun” is head, Sembalun means respect the head of village. All destinations in day 2 and 3 are in Sembalun Village.

1. Sindang Gile and Tiup Kelep Waterfalls

These 2 waterfalls located at the same place and opened for tourism. Each place has their own guide, my guide in here is Mr Ogut. After less than 30 minutes hiking, you will see the stream. Along the road to the waterfall, you need to cross the stream a few times, prepare the comfort shoes for hiking, preferred the one that easier to take it off and a set of changing clothes. Beware of the water current, quite strong, almost made me tripped. We met a little tiny green snake, unfortunately I didn’t take the picture, watch out for any small bugs or animal, you might step on it. 

Tiup Kelep Waterfall, me and Mr Habib. The view is fascinating, the weather is cool and everything is wet from waterfall splash. 

Me and the view along the way to the waterfall.

Sindang Gile Waterfall, you can go down to the waterfall. 

Me and Mr.Ogut (bottom right).

2. Mangku Kode and Mangku Sakti Waterfalls

These waterfalls also located at the same spot. After lunch we went to there. From the entrance it takes 45 minutes to reach the waterfalls.

This view can only be seen via hidden route, not the normal entrance. Special thanks to Mr Heru who showed us this route and the cute little guide. The view is so nice. Unfortunately, it was late afternoon, we didn’t have much time to enjoy the view. 

Mangku Sakti Waterfall and me. The water contain sulfur, not for drink. So far this is the best waterfall that I ever visited, less people come here, no garbage, and better visit it on weekdays, no people. 

The water current creates the beautiful rocks along the stream. 

We reached Mangku Kode Waterfall from some distance. It is a small waterfall behind this giant tree. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t show the waterfall, I had to squat under the tree to see the waterfall. Actually both waterfalls come from the same spring and create the same stream.

The view is soooo beautiful, I can’t describe it, you have to see it by yourselves. If it is possible, I want to sit there listening for the water and enjoy the view. Unfortunately, this is the end of second day trip, one day I will visit this place again.

DAY 3

1. Pergasingan Hill ( 1806 masl)

My legs felt a little sore from yesterday’s hike, so we decided to hike a shorter track. We headed to the Pergasingan Hill from hotel at 3 am, it was a full moon night. And thanks to the howling and crying dog beside my room, I couldn’t even close my eyes for a second. Today, Gina will join our trip. Four of us, me, Mr. Habib, Gina and the mountain guide will conquer Pergasingan Hill, yeah!

The first 45 minutes is a tough hike, 45 degree elevation. The ground was wet and slippery. I felt bad for Gina and Mr Habib who had a tough time because of wearing the wrong shoes. For your advice, strongly recommended wearing trail shoes or hiking shoes, bring enough water (no spring along the track), a good headlamp (very important in foggy night) and wind breaker jacket ( the wind is very strong).

We followed the cow’s track and along the road there were many cow’s dung (dried ones, fresh ones, just chose whatever you like), this was where a good headlamp played the important part. Sometimes I couldn’t recognize them, the color was blended with the soil, all dark brown. My best record, I only stepped on it once and fortunately it was a dried one, Gina stepped 5-6 times on them, haha sorry Gina, I felt bad for you especially when I heard you behind me. I wonder why there were no cow along the track. 

I was a little obsessed with the cow’s dung, the shape is unique just like a stack of dark biscuit (had to fight the urge to touch it!). But we only met this kind of cow’s dung half way to the summit. For the first half track, we only see the round and usual cow’s dung, I wonder why and how do they create this shape?

After 45 minutes of tough hike, the next 2 hours was easier, less elevation. We can see the beautiful view of Sembalun Village at night. 30 minutes before the summit, the wind was very strong. 

Before we reached the camping ground, it was very foggy, we had to stop. But after the fog was gone, everything looks amazing. The view is Sembalun Village, and the city is surrounded by mountains, one of them is the famous Mount Rinjani.

The Sun reflected on the sea. Very amazing view.

Gina and me at the summit.

We spent around 2 hours there and went down. We took different path to go down, but also cow’s track, a little bit easier.  At this point I begin to think the cow in here is smarter than me, even I need to hire a professional guide to reach the summit but the cows don’t. Maybe i should hire a cow, far cheaper 😏

One the right side, I could see the path that we used for going up. Going down is much easier. We finished around 10 am and went back to the hotel to rest.

2. Strawberry Farm

Before we ended today’s trip, we tried picking strawberry activity, you can eat as much as you want for 15,000-20,000 rupiah, if you want to bring it home, you have to pay more. There are many strawberry farms in Sembalun, the strawberry is sweet, less sour. The best time to do this activity is in the morning before the farmers pick the strawberries.

DAY 4

1. Selong Hill

In the morning we visited this place just for taking a few pics. If you want to see the Sembalun Village without hiking, this is the place for you. The colorful pieces of land are the rice fields, some of them already been harvest (yellow ones), others still growing (green ones) or haven’t been planted (the water ones).

2. Pusuk Sembalun

The view is stunning, as if I am somewhere in foreign country, 

well … I am still in Lombok.

3. Gili Bidara, Gili Kondo, Gili Kapal.

The next is water activity, there are many small islands around Lombok and they are called Gili. All of these Gili that I visited located in East Lombok. Compare to West Lombok, East Lombok has less people and the coral reefs are still beautiful, the water is clear, not polluted. I tried to open my eyes swimming in Gili Kapal, not hurt at all. Unfortunately, I am not good with swimming. For you who likes to swim and can dive, try to explore East Lombok. 

Before we reached Gili Bidara, we needed to go through the Mangrove forest.

Snorkeling in Gili Bidara, the boat man will provide the equipment for snorkeling.

Me, running to catch the ship that left me alone in this tiny island (Gili Kapal), nah just kidding.

Gili Kapal is an “emerging sand”, it only appears when the sea recedes and vanishes during high tide. You need to ask the boat man the exact time to see Gili Kapal.

DAY 5

After the snorkeling yesterday, we went back to Mataram City, I stayed there one night and the next morning I took a flight back to Jakarta.

It was an unforgettable trip, the beautiful waterfall, the challenging hike, wonderful beach, beautiful fishes and coral reefs under the sea and the best was listening to Gina singing happy birthday to me in the mountain, thank you for the song. 

And had a simple yet delicious birthday cake, thank you very much for the surprise Mr Habib and Mr Heru.

And also Mr Riyan (+62  819 3600 5788), the driver on the first day, sorry for your wet shoes, I wandered too much on the beach and you had to followed me.

Mr Habib, my guide on second to fifth day (+62 81999 6446 631, fb: Lalu Habibi Lombok)  and Mr Heru, this duo is one of the best guide that I ever hired. My review : ★★★★★.  Recommended and trustable. They can arrange what kind of trip do you want, a family trip, honeymoon trip, leisure trip, mountain trip, water trip etc. A good guide will make your trip more meaningful and also save your time. I hope this article will help your trip in Lombok, see you again, bye.