Lombok

We’ve been on the move for over six months now and although you, dear reader, may think it’s all been one big vacation, I can tell you it gets very exhausting sometimes. We’ve had a few burnout moments already, and in the hopes of avoiding more, we planned to spend some of our time in Indonesia simply relaxing. The first place many people think of when envisioning a peaceful, beach vacation on an Indonesian island is typically Bali. Yet nowadays the southern end of the island is crowded with roaming hoards of Australian and European tourists, hell bent on finding the cheapest beer and biggest parties around. Although Bali does still have its quiet, serene places, they tend to now be more inland, away from the countless beach hotels and surfer hostels that have consumed towns like Kuta, Seminyak, and Canggu. Unfortunately for us, the remaining quiet spots, while beautiful, weren’t quite what we were looking for as we wanted to dig our toes into the sand, soak up the sun, and vegetate for a few blissful days. So instead of Bali we looked at other options in the Indonesian archipelago and discovered Bali’s lesser known nextdoor neighbor, Lombok. While different from Bali in that Lombok is predominantly Muslim, not Buddhist, and much less developed, it was exactly what we were hoping for.

We arrived in Praya after a frustratingly long travel day, and immediately rushed down to our first beach hotel on the island, just outside of Kuta, Lombok. We had used some of our Expedia points to book a stay at the Pullman Kuta Lombok hotel, a brand we had first enjoyed while staying in Melbourne and one we thought would be a great option here as well. Unfortunately, our trip started off on a bad note. Through a mix-up between Expedia and the Pullman we didn’t have the room or amenities we had been expecting, which no one was able to get to the bottom of or sort out. The hotel also wasn’t located quite where we expected, as a range of low hills meant we were cut off from the center of town, and had to walk about 40 minutes each way to get there. Normally in southeast Asia this wouldn’t be an issue, as it’s easy to call a Grab and take a quick, cheap ride into town. On Lombok though, this is not the case. Grab cars are rare and expensive, leaving us with our only options being to walk or to take the hotel’s complimentary shuttle service which only runs 4 times per day to town. Issues aside, our room was spacious and well-appointed with the beach and a pool only a few minutes walk away, exactly what we had been hoping for here. To finish our first night on Lombok we enjoyed dinner and relaxed by the pool at the hotel, eager to see more of Kuta in the morning and then spend the rest of our days doing absolutely nothing.

We awoke to the sound of race cars running around the Mandalika International Circuit, a race track just across the road from our hotel, another new surprise for us. Intending to only spend part of our day exploring outside of our hotel’s walls, we caught our hotel’s first shuttle of the day, which deposited us into the heart of Kuta Lombok. With our hearts set on our first coffee of the day, we made a beeline for Bush Radio. In the cafe we realized we’re clearly not the first people who were discouraged by the development of Bali, and had decided to branch out to Lombok instead. The space was filled with tech nomads, gap-year backpackers, surf lovers of all kinds, and a few locals who had ridden the early development wave. The look and feel of Bush Radio, and other restaurants here, also really reminds me of the types of cafes I saw in Bali almost six years ago. After the past several days of mediocre coffee on Borneo, we were thrilled by our first sips of cappuccinos, finally a strong cup of proper coffee. Our breakfast and coffee were so good, that when we left I was so content that I forgot to actually pay for our meal. I didn’t realize this for several blocks, until I was sitting in a boutique while Sarah was thumbing through some beautiful, hand-made dresses. Sprinting out of the boutique, I returned to the cafe to settle our bill. When I arrived, the cashier was a bit perplexed to see me, clearly they had quickly accepted that we had dined and dashed, but were happy to reopen the bill and take my cash when given the opportunity.

After spending some time wandering the main streets of Kuta Lombok, we walked the beach back to our hotel, through a more local side of town. Only a few steps away from the main street, a Bali-light environment, we were confronted by the stark contrast of how most people here actually live their lives. Most of the homes were small, fragile huts with plastic trash littering the ground surrounding them. The huts directly on the water all have a front fence made up of sandbags, to protect them from rising sea levels, and more intense tides that are now common. Indeed many seaside towns on Lombok have already disappeared, swallowed up by rising seas, with more forecast to disappear in the coming decades. Many of the residents here can no longer support their families with their traditional trades like fishing and growing seaweed, forcing many to leave. Clearly the money that has recently flowed into this part of the island has not made its way to every pocket. Yet even within the focus of this cruel financial disparity we passed a group of young kids playing a game of football in the sand, laughing, rough-housing, and having the best time of their lives. For us, it was yet another example of a surprisingly joyous life in rough conditions, like so many we’ve seen this year. Our walk back took us through several of these communities, and along a new, nearby park which has been built to both enhance the oceanfront area and act as a seawall against strong swells. At the end of Kuta Lombok’s Asad Beach, right before we crossed through the hills to our Mandalia Beach, we passed by the last mangrove forest here inhabited by a few monkeys and their canine predators.

Our only other venture outside of the Pullman resort was back to town that evening for dinner. As we had missed the last shuttle of the day, we had to walk back to town along the beach, but this time in the dark. As we rounded the bend towards the mangrove forest we heard dogs barking in the distance and saw the faint outline of a small pack of them making their way towards us. Seeing that our beach path was no longer an option, we decided to take our chances at low-tide and walk around the mangrove stand. We must have been a sight to see, Sarah in a dress, and me in a button up and nicer shorts, slowly plodding our way through soft sand banks surrounding shallow tidal pools. Contrast our look with the skillful movements of local fishermen walking near us on the hunt for baby squid and sea urchin, and we became even more ridiculous. With our sandals completely coated in sand, and our legs wet up to our knees, we finally made it to the streets on the outskirts of Kuta Lombok. In many places, our look would’ve prevented us from entering any decent establishment, but luckily for us in a beach town like this one, no one even batted an eye.

The next day we switched hotels to the Amber Lombok, a smaller beach hotel about an hour to the west of Kuta Lombok, really in the middle of nowhere. Arriving here, away from any crowds, surrounded only by dry fields and the odd water buffalo, we knew we would have no choice but to sit by the ocean, or pool, for the next several days. How miserable for us… The Amber Lombok was only really opened a couple of years ago, having originally opened just months before covid would wreak havoc on Indonesia’s tourism industry. With that rough launch in mind it would be understandable if the hotel had slipped, if the landscaping wasn’t quite perfect, or the food in the restaurant wasn’t very interesting. We were delighted to find that this is not the case. The main pool is surrounded by a variety of sunbeds, with a large Laurales tree arching over one corner, a perfect mix for an afternoon nap. The restaurant next door is an open door concept and would feel right at home on a Greek or Spanish island. It also comes with a great bar, a big plus for us having spent the past two weeks in mainly alcohol-free Malaysia. Our room was the highlight of our stay for me though. We had booked a Shared Poolside Suite, meaning in addition to the main pool we also had a smaller pool right outside our back door. It was shared between our room and the two next door but since this was the low season we only saw two other people using it in four days.

Over our final four days on Lombok we only left the confines of our hotel twice, once to wander the beach in search of what was around the next corner, and second on our way to the airport. This is very unlike us, we’re used to packing in a tight schedule to maximize the time we have in any one place but this just wasn’t the time for that. The Amber became our oasis, we allowed ourselves to sleep in and go to bed early, to sit by the pool all day and not be anxious about missing local activities, and to go for that massage even though we were already slightly over budget. In simpler terms, we treated this time like we were on vacation and it felt terrific. I won’t bore you here with an hour by hour breakdown of our vacation time, suffice it to say that the rhythm we fell into for those few days was food, swim, food, swim, food & drinks, and long late-night talks on the beach. It has already become one of my favorite memories of this trip, but after four days of recharging we were both ready to move on to our next adventure - seeing the world’s largest lizard!

Labuan Bajo // Komodo

We had made it a mission of ours to see Komodo Dragons up close and personal, but if we had known then what an endeavor it would be to get there we might have changed our minds. The most common way people, including us, see Komodo dragons is by taking a day trip from Labuan Bajo, a small town on the island of Flores, about 25 kilometers from Komodo Island itself. There are two options when trying to get to Labuan Bajo from Lombok, a 31-hour multi-stop ferry, or a short 75-mile west flight to Bali followed by another back east over Lombok to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores. I know, neither of those options made much sense to us either, but as we discovered during our trip, Indonesia can be a difficult country to move around. To reach Labuan Bajo we chose to take the two short flights, and were rewarded on our arrival with a beautiful sunset drive into the center of town. The sky was a kaleidoscope of bright pinks, rich purples, deep oranges, and vibrant reds, all above the dozens of nearby islands stretching to the horizon. Complementing the colors in the sky, were the brightly colored fish on display in the local fish market we walked through on our way to dinner. These snappers, runners, and parrot fish had bright green stripes, teal and green spots, or many other unique colors and patterns. Wrapping our day up, we had a meal of dishes traditional to the island of Flores at Artomoro, before our early bedtime to prepare for our full-day Komodo Island adventure.

For our day trip, we chose to book a fast-boat tour with several stops through the Komodo National Park, in addition to the main island itself. Our first destination was Pulau Padar, where we hiked up to the top of a relatively short hill for a 360º view of Komodo National Park. Standing on top of the hill, looking out at the undulating island mountains and long, pink beaches that make up the park, we realized how special a place this would be, even if it didn’t have the world’s largest lizards! Clambering back down the rocky trail, we rejoined our group and rode a quick 15 minutes over to one of Padar’s many rose-colored beaches. These beaches get their distinctive color from the fragile, red coral that lives offshore that breaks up in the waves once it dies and forms the pink sand. Interestingly, if you go swimming off the beaches you won’t actually see any red coral, as the coral animals that grow here are blue, green, or yellow, hiding the underlying red until the animal dies. Hopping back in our boat again we were sped across a narrow channel over to Komodo Island, the day’s main attraction. Getting onto the island itself can be a bit of a struggle in a boat like the one we were on. They’re slightly too large to go directly to the beach, but far too small to easily use the huge concrete pier that stretches out from Loh Liang, the park’s main entrance. Our captain decided our best bet was to try the pier, and once we were finally roped on (after several failed attempts) we had to take a meter high first step up to the pier’s concrete stairway. This maneuver proved difficult for some people on our boat, particularly those who were older, but thankfully the crew was ready to offer their support.

Moving on from our group's landing ordeal, we were greeted at the entrance to the park by two rangers who would guide our group on a 2.5 kilometer trek into the island. They warned us that since we had timed our visit during mating season, we may not have a chance to see any Komodo’s. Pro tip: the best time to see Komodo Dragons is April to May and September to October to avoid mating season, while still coming during Indonesia’s dry season. Happily, only two minutes into our walk, our guides were proved wrong when a huge male Komodo Dragon was spotted walking up the trail by another group. What followed can only be described as a circus, different groups and their respective rangers encircled the animal, vying for the best views and photo spots. We were all warned to give the Komodo at least three meters of room on any side, but once any of the rangers got closer than that, the hoard of tourists nearby would follow them to the new, assumed, safe distance. The only respite the Dragon got from all of this attention was anytime he decided to take a step or two, as suddenly all the rangers would push people back out of the danger zone. We had to constantly remember that even though the Komodo was moving slowly, its bite would immediately send us to the hospital or if we were really unlucky, to the morgue. One of the tourists in our group forgot this momentarily and got waaay too close for anyone’s comfort, definitely within chomping distance of the Komodo had he been interested! Once she was shoved back from the animal by one of the nearby rangers, the circus continued for another 30 minutes, until it slowly wandered too far into the forest for anyone to follow. From the high emotions and drama of seeing a Komodo up close, the rest of our trek felt a little blasé. Returning to the beach we had a quick lunch on our boat, then departed for the first of our three afternoon snorkeling spots.

We shortly arrived at Pulau Karangan, a small sandbar surrounded by shallow reefs, far too shallow for our boat to get close to the sandbar. It didn’t help that on the day we visited the winds were over 30 kph, whipping the ocean up, strengthening the already typically strong currents here. Dropping anchor outside of the reef our captain told us we had 45 minutes to explore nearby and see if we could swim through the waves to the sandbar. We quickly learned, however, that our greatest threat was not the strong waves or undercurrent, but rather the unpredictable movements of the anchored tourist vessels being pushed around by the waves. Boats were swinging from side to side on long anchor lines, and would easily clip us with their propellers if given the chance. With our heads on a swivel for incoming metal death threats, we briefly explored the reef, but after only 20 minutes our captain called us back, abandoning our first snorkeling spot. A similar story unfolded at our second planned stop, Manta Point. We had already been warned that the currents out here can be quite strong on a normal day, but when we arrived the waves were almost 2 meters tall! Adding to the difficult conditions, none of the swimmers in the water reported seeing any Mantas, so our captain quickly abandoned this snorkeling stop as well. Luckily for us, we had one more stop planned at Turtle Point, a protected reef on Pulau Siaba Besar. Jumping into the water here was a totally different experience to our previous stops. The water was clear, the currents were calm, and there was so much sealife it was hard to figure out which direction to swim or where to look first. We spent our first 30 minutes here swimming along the edge of the reef, trying to count all of the species of fish that were new to us, which was of course a futile exercise. Just as we were starting to get tired from swimming back and forth along the reef, we spotted the namesake for this point, a beautiful Green Sea Turtle. This particular turtle was so relaxed around us, almost ignoring the four or five of us who had discovered where she was. She just kept bobbing through the endless coral, seemingly so content with her peaceful life here in the national park. Realizing that our time here had already expired we said goodbye to our new friend and headed back to the boat, only to bump into a Hawksbill Turtle on our way. She was a little bit deeper than our last friend, but we stayed to watch her for a few moments, feeling so lucky that we had seen one of these critically endangered turtles. Climbing clumsily back into our boat for the final time, we headed back to the island of Flores after another amazing day on this trip.

To celebrate a successful day we ended our final evening at Alma Restaurant, a relatively new space overlooking Labuan Bajo’s harbor. From our table on their terrace we watched a stunning sunset with our meal, as it showed off new colors every few minutes. With full bellies and a serious case of the sleepies we headed back to our hotel for one last rest before our final stop in southeast Asia.

Jakarta

A number of people told us to skip Jakarta when learning that we were going to Indonesia…once we arrived we were so glad we hadn’t listened. On our first venture outside of our hotel, the Mercure Batavia in the old town, we immediately found ourselves drawn to the small, winding roads that emanated from Jalan Pejagalan Raya. These small alleyways were filled with all kinds of little shops in old, colonial-era buildings. There were mechanics, coffee shops, jewelry stores, and many other types of merchants all lined up next to each other with unique characters in front of each one. As we walked along the road each one stopped us to say hello, or ask Sarah to take their photo, all with the biggest smile on their face. In the first thirty minutes we spent walking around old town Jakarta we fell in love with the city and its people, but not the smell.

With only a couple of days in Jakarta our idea was to get as “real” a feel for the city as we could, away from the beaten path and the stops at the top of every tourist list. This idea led us to spend a lot of our time just walking, exploring as many of the little nooks and crannies as we could. Jakarta seems to have endless little corners like these to get lost in, and we spent the majority of each of our days wandering in and out of them. I can’t tell you the names of the shops we walked by, or even what part of town we were in exactly. All I know is that every time we turned a corner, there were more people smiling, saying hello, or wanting their picture taken with us. It really is a city full of beautiful people, even those with very little, go out of their way to try and make your day better. Beyond meeting the people of Jakarta, we wanted to learn a bit more about their history, specifically the period of Dutch colonization which lasted in one form or another for almost 350 years. Staying in the old part of Jakarta we were able to simply walk out our front door and be reminded of this colonial rule, with old Dutch buildings lining the canals around our hotel. Sadly though, unlike in many other southeast Asian countries, these buildings are not well-maintained and much of the oldest part of the city is crumbling. Moving away from the old city, but still on the hunt for more understanding, we found ourselves at yet another art gallery in the world, this time the National Gallery of Indonesia. Their spaces are quite small but when we visited they had a small exhibit made up of art from various communist artists, who had supported the losing side in the Maduin Affair. Their art reminded us of several of the pieces of Khmer Rouge art we had seen in Cambodia at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Not really the best group of people to be compared with, but still there seemed to be many people there who admired it.

To celebrate our final evening in Jakarta, and southeast Asia as a whole, we ate our final full meal at Cafe Batavia, a restaurant full of character inside old Dutch buildings, just off the main Taman Fatahillah colonial-style square. Walking into the restaurant immediately brings you back in time to what it must have been like near the end of Dutch colonial rule. Outside the restaurant you can hear the nightly call to prayer and hear Indonesian bands playing in the square, inside you’re face to face with an ornate bar and soft jazz fills each room. The restaurant is filled with framed pictures of Dutch celebrities, the rich and famous from the 40’s and 50’s and other photos that would not be considered acceptable by most in modern Indonesia. While the food is pretty tasty here, the main draw is the ambiance of the old building and the curiosity that arose in each of us, contemplating all of the stories that have been written here before.

Recommendations

Where We Stayed:

Some of Our Other Favorite Restaurants:

Kuta

Labuan Bajo

Jakarta

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