Nothing could make me happier when Arifin and I just spontaneously decided to have a weekend getaway in Lombok.
We just having a relax Saturday in Virgin Beach, Karangasem-Bali when the idea popped in our head. I directly called mba Eva (she lives in Lombok). One thing that I knew for sure that she will be happy having us visiting her lil family and asking us out to have fun in Lombok.
After a cheerful convo with Eva, Arifin and I got on the vespa and off to the port at Padang Bai - Karangasem.
We got ferry ticket for 7pm and it cost IDR 112.000,- per motorbike. It took 4 hours to get Lombok and I spent my precious 4 hour sleeping in the couch.
We arrived at 11 pm then directly heading to Mataram-the city centre. Eva sent me her location and we thank Google for not letting us get lost in the middle of the night.
Arriving to Eva’s home, we are welcomed with warm hugs from her and warm smile from Mas Alta (Eva’s hubby), her lil bro, Ardi and her friends. Eva served us with delicious foods and we were so exciting that we could meet after plenty of plans on meeting each other.
I’ts 4 a.m and I hoammmm fell asleep…zZZzzzzZZZZZZzzzz
Sunday, 6th July
Yuhuuuu. Welcome sunny Sunday!!! We’re planning to explore Selong Belanak and Semeti Beach at the south part of Lombok.
We are so exciting!! Due to fasting time, we bring our own lunch box and snacks, just in case nobody sells lunch. It’s only three of us, Arifin, Eva and me. We drove motorbike to reach the location; it’s the cheapest and easiest way to travel.
After 2 hours of driving through the corn field, green-yellow hills with palm trees along side of the road, we finally arrive at Selong Belanak Beach.. I can’t stand for its beauty. The crystal blue water, the sun, the hills and the landscape is soo perfect. I just can’t find the right word to express.
We spent 3 hours at Selong Belanak and at 4 pm we continued to Semeti Beach. Semeti Beach is located 15 minutes from Selong Belanak Beach. It offers scenic panorama along the way to the beach. Once we arrived, I felt peace and happy. For me Semeti Beach has two souls, because when I stood in the middle of the beach, in my right side I could see the beach of everyone’s dream and on my left side I could travel back many years ago. It’s because of the stone which look similar like what I’ve seen in the Flintstone movie. And also, it looks like kryptonite but its black and brown. You could find plenty of them unite and become stunning stone hills.
Me and Mba Eva
I thank God for this wonderful experience and I hope whoever reads this article will soon go to Lombok and find these two paradises.
There so much more hidden paradises to be explored in Lombok, but times run out quickly and I need to go back to Bali to work and saving for another trip and adventures.
See you in the other thousand words….
PS:
Special thanks to Mba Eva and Mas Altha. Hope to see you guys soon!
For my Holland sister, Doris: I wish you were here, enjoying the journey. But I believe sooner or later will be travelling together and I hope Milly would like to join J Kuss kuss
It's 4.49 in the morning. I am sitting down on my caught listening to ABBA songs covered by mamma mia players. In 5 minutes ahead i will take a bath and prepare for GET LOST IN LOMBOK!!!
This is one of my crazy trips. I'm traveling with my brother yet besties Jovan and Benni. Our goal is to reach the peak of Mt. Rinjani. We're gonna backpacking around the district and build our own tent that we bought in Ace Hardware. We're planning to traveling for 4-5 days by using motorcycle, so here's the routeplan:
Nusa Dua-----Padang Bai------Lembar------Sekotong-------Mataram------Senggigi------Gillis------Senaru/Sembalun-------Rinjani-----Backhome. I believe it will be the most delusional trip of mine :D
We're bikepackers!!!! Jovan, Guteri,Benni
08.42 a.m.
Jovan, Benni and I are on the boat (Ferry). We continue our trip from Padang Bali to Lembar Bay Lombok. It's very hot up here (we are in the top of the boat), we are sitting in the 3rd deck near the crew's cabin. Its gonna take 4 hours to cross the ocean. We pay IDR 101.000 per motor bike use the service of Ferry. Our first plan arriving in Lombok is having lunch. We are all FUNGRY, then we gonna take a walk to the nearest city for buying some food (we aren't let ourselves run out of food). After all, we are planning to go to Sekotong where the beautiful beaches and the exotic panorama is settled. It will be great. I wanna snorkel and swim. Lombok!!! Here We Are!!!
Sekotong. Its nice but scary
08.05 p.m
Somewhere, nowhere in Lombok
We just arrived in the land full of
grass and cows. We start to build a tent. I’m so happy that we find the perfect
place to rest. We passed through Senggigi and the Gilis. We bought coconut and
bakso and its funny how a monkey stole Jovan’s coconut. Hahahah. We’re laughing
and laughing. Tomorrow we’ll going to Senaru and starting hike the Mt.
Rinjani!!! Yeyeyeyeyeyeye. By the way, we went to Sekotong and we got nothing
but fear. The community told us about the the thief near the hills. We went
along the road and became scared so we decided to turn around and went to the
north.
somewhere in lombok
Senaru, Lombok. July 4th
2011
Happy Independence Day for
American!!!!
06.21
Here I am, in the front of my
homestay’s terrace. Yesterday we’ve just back from hiking Mt.Rinjani. We hked
Rinjadi on Friday, 1st of 2011. It was a long long story. When we
arrived at Senaru (the starting point for hiking and also the information
centre) we bought a map of trekking Mt RInjani which is cost IDR 20.000. We
were in the wrong place, because if we wanted to hike to the peak of Mt.Rinjani
we have to start our trip from Sembalun, because it’s hard to get the peak from
Senaru. At first, we all keep wanting Peak of Rinjani as our main goal, so we
paid IDR 10.000 for entry and conservation cost then we starting hike.
First of all, we all got tired because
of our heavy carrier. We continuously took a rest after 5 minutes walk because
of the paths are sheer and climb. The atmosphere was nice and fresh. The fog
was covered the forest. It’s very breathtaking moment. We clearly hear the bird’s
tweets. We didn’t hire a porter neither a guide. We did the hike by our own. It’s
fun and easy to hike Rinjani because you’ll meet plenty of hikers and you can
ask them about the routes. After 30-60 minutes’ walk, we arrived at the Gate to
Rinjani National Park. We thought it was the first post, but as always we’re
wrong and again we’re starting to laugh at each other.
Next we went to trough the forest
and we arrive at the 1st post. We’re so excited because we could
take some rest. The porter that we met was very strong and kind. They could
reach the 3rd post in 3 hours, and what was happening with us??? We need
6 hours to reacher the 3rd post. Poor us!! But, FYI this is the
first time we hike a mountain and people said that Rinjani is very hard to
reach especially for newbie. Heheheh. So it counts!!!! Finally we arrived at 3rd
post. At first we want to build our tent at Cemara tiga, but because of one of
us (Benni) got cramp, so we couldn’t reach the Cemara Tiga. Its close to dark
when we arrive at 3rd Post. We built our tent and prepare our dinner
which was instant noodles and SUKRO (named of peanuts). The night was so damn
cold. We tried to get the best sleep position to get warm but the damn cold air
kept beating our bones.
Break Time = Photo Shoot
Early in the morning we woke up
and starting packing. We had a bread and
milk for breakfast. We continue our trek to Plawangan 1 where you can see the beautiful
Segara anak Lake and the peak of Rinjani and Mt.Baru. The view was so AMAZING. The
savanna covered the land and edelweiss was everywhere. We spent more time to take some pictures. We didn’t
want to waste the precious moment that we got. I really love the moment. After an
exhausted hiked we finally could see one of the most amazing creatures of
God!!! This is one of my best holyday with my best guys. That was the sweetest
escape for me. After 3-4 hours climbing, we finally reach The 1st Plawangan. That
was rocky path and slippery. So we have to be careful to take every step. When I
arrived, I was speechless. That was a breathtaking moment. I could see the
beautiful stunning of Mt Rinjani and the Segara anak lake. I didn’t even think
about my tiredness. The edelweiss made the view greater than we ever seen. After
saw the magnificent panorama we decided to continue our way down the Lake. We wanted to build our tent close to the
lake.
The Famous Segara Anak Lake with Mt Baru and Mt Rinjani
After 3 hours walking down the
dusty, rocky and slippery hills we finally arrived at the Lake bank. We felt so sad because of the vandalism in
the beautiful volcanic stone and rubbish everywhere. The trekkers could bring
the negative impact for the sustainable of the environment. Its dirty!!!! The lake
was even worse, there were hundreds of rubbish and pup everywhere. The government
should take it seriously. We set up the tent and went to hot spring. FYI we never
took a bath and brushed our teeth during the hike. Hahahah. Kinda disgusting
moment, but we made it fun. Hahaha. We went to hot spring and we met a lot of
trekkers. They also enjoyed the hot spring like we did. We spent 2 hours warm up and relaxed our
muscles in the hot spring until our hands and legs got wrinkles. After that, we
back to tent and sleep. The night became colder than night before. Thank God we
don’t need to hike to the top. We didn’t bring any sleeping bag and we didn’t want
to got hypothermic. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
-->We prayed
so that the morning came quick.
We just reached the Plawangan 1!!! YEY
The Savana......
The Hot Spring
Its a long way down
At 5 a.m. in the morning, we
packed our rucksack and clear up the tent. Its very cold in the morning, our lips became
purple yet dry and our hands could feel nothing. We lit the fire but it didn’t work.
Our blood was frozen. It was the most froze moment I ever been. But we kept
fighting against the cold and start climb. The way back to Senaru was fun and quick.
We met our new friend, Arif. He’s from Madiun and he’s a teacher. We shared a
lot about hike a mountain. At the end of our trekking we decided to live in
homestay. Finally I got bed for my back. Hehehe. Opps I got
some edelweiss on my backpack. I broke the rules. Hehehehe.
Froze!!!
At 5 a.m. in the morning, we
packed our rucksack and clear up the tent. Its very cold in the morning, our lips became
purple yet dry and our hands could feel nothing. We lit the fire but it didn’t work.
Our blood was frozen. It was the most froze moment I ever been. But we kept
fighting against the cold and start climbing. The way back to Senaru was fun and quick.
We met our new friend, Arif. He’s from Madiun and he’s a teacher. We shared a
lot about hike a mountain. At the end of our trekking we decided to live in
homestay. Finally I got bed for my back. Hehehe. Opps I got
some edelweiss on my backpack. I broke the rules. Hehehehe.
unknown beach
On our way back to Bali, we dropped
Mas Arif at the Gillis, the we found the pristine beach which is we don’t know
the name. its unknown. Haha. We bought some coconut from the local, each costed
IDR 2000, we swam and took some pictures. After had fun, we took bath at well
with the cows. Ahahah. We took the water and washed ourselves. Its nice and traditionally
fun!!!!!
