How To Spend 3 Weeks To Enjoy The Best Time In Your Life In Indonesia

Stop 4 – Lombok. Visited 6-9 December 2022.

After the big party in Bali and the hangover, I am now ready to move down a gear to Lombok. From Kuta, I shared a minibus with some Western tourists to Padang Bai Port, where we were whisked away by a fast boat for one and half hours to Gili Trawangan.

Gili Trawangan is a beautiful tropical island surrounded by crystal-clear, turquoise, and blue sea. The best thing to do is to cycle around the island, which I did for more than 2 hours, stopping by the beaches skirting the island. The beachfront is lined with sandy streets lined with shops and restaurants to indulge visitors’ whims and fancies. There was a lot of live music to make sure visitors were in the mood. Topless young men in their beach shorts and girls in bikinis and bikini tops hung around the beaches, the streets and cycled around. I would be woken up by the Muslim call to prayer very early in the morning, while I was still dreaming about beaches and the good times – this is a predominantly Islamic environment as opposed to the Hindu characteristic of Bali. Like Bali, the locals have laid down the welcome mat – this is very much an island dedicated to giving foreign tourists a good time.

Cycling and strolling around Gili Trawangan

Dining on the beach in the evening, Gili Trawangan — Cycling and strolling around Gili Trawangan

After less than 2 days in Gili Trawangan, I was on a public boat to Bangsal on the north of Lombok, then took a minibus to arrive in 3 hours in Kuta, Lombok (8th December). I quickly rented a motorbike, then headed straight to Pantai Aan. It is one of those selected beaches near the town that prefers to be left alone and does not crave admirers. It is refreshing – its tame beautiful water and decorative rocks look so pristine and unexplored. Next, I rode to Merese Beach, then to relax on the Merese Beach Lookout chilling with many others on the clifftop. Looking out to the vast, calm Indian Ocean to the end of the earth is liberating. We stayed on for the special moment the sun bowed out for the day in a royal golden exit, and it deserved a thunderous, grateful applause for gracing our time here with its majestic splendor.

The beaches kept coming, and the good times rolled on. The following day (9th December), I rode my bike to Kuta Beach, Areguling Beach, Tampah Beach and Mawun Beach, caressed by the beautiful water of the Indian Ocean at the bottom of Lombok Island. These Lombok beaches are how I like my beaches – to give of themselves to me and me alone.

I would often end the day having a candlelight dinner by the beach, alone but never lonely. I did not have wine for a romantic dinner, but I had fresh coconut. The day ended, the way I wanted it, on the beach.

Lombok is definitely less touristy, less crowded, less party-like than Bali. I like the blast I got in Bali, but a loner finds his world in Lombok. Both are my kind of worlds – the inner and the external me.