Get me to Lombok

I am in Senggigi on Lombok, which marks the end of a multiple day spanning trip from Java to Lombok.

Three days ago, I boarded the airplane ✈️ from Lionair for my flight to Denpasar (Bali). The flight was delayed by two hours due to „operational difficulties“. Given that the ticket had cost below 50,- EUR per person although we booked just the day before there was not too much to complain about. Later in the hostel where we spent the night, we met another traveller who’s flight had even 3 hours delay which makes me think this is the norm here. 😅

Once we arrived in Denpasar, we needed to somehow go to our hostel on turtle island 🐢 to spend the night. It was already quite late due to the delayed flight and nobody of us felt like taking the public bus. So we called a „Grab“. Grab 🚕 is the equivalent of Uber (and Uber Eats) or similar transportation and delivery services here in Indonesia 🇮🇩 Like in every other country it is one of the most convenient ways to get around for small money. 💰 And when you can even share the price among 3 people (like us) it becomes super affordable. For example, we drove with a „Grab“ 🚕 on the next day for 2 hours from Denpasar to Padangbai which is approximately a distance of 45 km. We paid not more than 280.000 IDR in total (around 6,- EUR per person). But I am getting ahead of myself here. 🫢

On turtle island 🐢, we went to dinner and found lots of places with Seafood 🦞 which I found great. However, Klara is allergic to Seafood. In addition, the whole island smelled like Seafood - poor Klara. 😅 So we had a hard time finding a suitable restaurant which also served vegetarian options. Just before we wanted to give up and head back to the hostel to „enjoy“ some instant noodles 🍜, we found a nice local restaurant which even offered Nasi and Mei Goreng. Unfortunately, both dishes were not available 😬
So, Paula and I shared an entire fish 🐠 and Klara simply ordered rice and vegetables 🥦 We also ordered Bintang (local beer) and because they were out of it, the waitress even went on her motorcycle to the next shop to buy a whole bunch for us. That’s what I call customer service 😁
Meanwhile, the chef(s) prepared the fish for us. They made a quite spicy soup 🍲 out of the front part and grilled the remaining parts. It was delicious! 🤤

As I wrote earlier, we took a „Grab“ 🚕 to Padangbai the next morning. Padangbai is a pretty laid back diving place on the east coast of Bali. In fact, there is not much besides snorkelling in the Blue Lagoon and diving in some more remote spots. Nevertheless, we had a good time and enjoyed our evening in some local restaurants close by the beach 🏖️

On the next morning we took the ferry to Bangsal (one of the ports to arrive on Lombok). Although we were promised a 1,5 hours journey as well as Air Condition, neither of both was true. 😂 It was boiling hot in the ferry 🔥 and since it took some time until we could depart, we were all sweating like hell. 🥵 at least, during the trip the air flow provided some cooling but when we arrived at the Gili Islands and waited for most of the passengers to get off the ferry ⛴️ , the sweating started again. 🥵 Luckily, we found a free spot on the upper deck of the ferry ⛴️ for the remainder of the trip to Bangsal. All in all it took until approx. 1 pm to arrive at our destination. A refreshing iced latte🥛later, we boarded another „Grab“ to Senggigi where we checked in into our hotel. 🏨 When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by our host. She even told us that we were her first guests as she reopened the hotel after Corona and some personal matters that required her attention. The afternoon/evening we spent at the beach watching the sunset 🌅 and contemplating the next days. Tomorrow we will probably try to rent scooters 🛴 and drive around in the local area here where traffic is much more calm and predictable. It seems to be the ideal spot for getting a feeling for driving a scooter 🛴 in South-East Asia. So, wish me luck 🍀 😊Read more