Monday, June 6, 2016

11 Days Trip to West Sumbawa & Lombok



The trip started  when for the 1st time our company gave us almost 2 weeks new year holiday. Me and my other 2 coworkers decided to go to Lombok, and before i did it i posted about that trip on Couchsurfing.com to find some travelmates. Well it kinda worked, so ended up with 3 of us (me and 2 coworkers) and a friend from Finland, also a friend from Germany, 5 of us.

1st day started by going to West Sumbawa and met other Couchsurfers there, also my sister wo lives in Seteluk District - West Sumbawa and a friend who actually invited us to visit his village which was a traditional village on top of mountain, Mantar village. To reach the village we had to wait for the Ranger to pick us up on the street near my sister’s place, we paid about Rp. 20.000 for round trip. The road to the village was pretty bad and scary, Ranger was full with us (9 of us) and other villagers. It took about an hour till we arrived there and we stayed at my friend’s house. Still many traditional houses there and it was pretty cold, women wore sarong and my friend’s family were so nice to us. They gave us chicken that we cooked by ourselves and took us to a nice spot to see seaview from Mantar, that we could see amazing West Sumbawa view from up there.



We only stayed there for a night and the next morning on our 2nd day we (only 5 of us, coworkers, and 2 other friends) continued our trip to Lombok. We arrived in Montong, Central Lombok around evening and we stayed at a Couchsurfing place. Next morning they took us to see Benang Stokel & Benang Kelambu Waterfalls which was not that far from their place, like 30 minutes driving. But too bad i didn’t take picture of Benang Kelambu cause i left my camera in West Sumbawa -_- But both waterfalls are nice and it’s close to each other. 



After Montong then we went to Senggigi only visting some beaches a lil bit then we stayed in Mataram in my brother’s place. Next day we drove to west area, we we meant to go directly to Bangko-Bangko but then on the way we found out about some islands in west and then decided to go to one of it which was  Gili Sundak, we chose that one cause it was the closest and actually if i could swim i would swim to reach the island and no need boat but we had to use the boat and paid for Rp. 20.000/person for that 5 minutes boat ride. In Gili Sundak i didn’t even do much, just walking around and swim a lil bit, not exacty swimming but just getting into water and play with it.



Done with Gili Sudak then we continued our trip to Bangko-Bangko. So i found out about Bangko-Bangko from tourism map and it says it’s a surfing spot and pearl producer, i was interested to go and it was pretty late already and we went to the wrong direction, instead of the surfing spot we went to the fisherman village. Luckily we met the village mayor who offered us to stay in his house, it was 1 simple beach house for 5 of us while he and his family stayed in his main house. They were very nice family with friendly neighborhood, it wasn’t our plan to go there but it was one of the best moment during that trip, for me. Laying on sands starring at the sky and some young people played guitar and sang together. And fyi, no electricity in Bangko-Bangko.
 
The next day we went to the other Bangko-Bangko we meant to go at 1st. We found it and took a rest a lil bit there. I can’t surf and i didn’t even know why i wanted to go there but one of our friends went surfing while the others taking a rest. Stayed there till noon then we went back to Mataram and stayed in my aun’t house for a night. Next day we drove to the south and already contacted a couchsurfing friend who lived near Kuta beach to host us. On the way to Kuta we stopped at Sade Traditional Village and walked around there a li bit. Then when we arrived in Kuta our host suddenly said he couldn’t host us so we continued driving to Kopang, Central Lombok and stayed with my coworker’s family. They were so nice and tried to give us the best they had and made us feel so comfortable staying there.


 
After staying there for a night we continue driving to north Lombok, we 1st went to Sembalun to see Rinjani Mountain and met some monkey buddies. Then we drove to Bayan, a village under Rinjani mountain. My coworker’s family live there so we stayed with them, the neighborhood there was also amazing. Everyone really tried to make us enjoy our stay, they also cooked delicious food. Well almost in all places we visited they always cooked for us, lucky us....God bless those kind people.....well then next day we went to Senaru to see waterfalls. We went to Sendang Gila and Tiu Kelep. Both waterfalls are close to each other, we could walk from one to another. I like Tiu Kelep more, it was one of the most beautiful waterfalls i’ve ever seen. Even tho so many visitors there we really enjoyed those waterfalls. On the way back to my coworker’s house from waterfalls we stopped to see the oldest mosque, it was the 1st mosque in Lombok Island, small and simple.

After staying one more night in coworker’s house we drove to Pemenang. Pemenang is still in North Lombok and it’s where the harbor to go to Gili is. We meant to spend new year eve in Gili so we had to be in Pemenang a day before. We stopped at the monkey forest, Pusuk and met our buddies then stayed in my coworker’s friend’s house which was very close to the harbor. The house was so big, i never met her before but luckily she and her family wanted to host us and even cooked for us, another kind people we met during our trip.
 
The next morning we went to harbor, bought ticker and from 3 gilis we chose to go to Gili Air. Gili Trawangan is the most famous and we thought it would be so many people there on new year eve so we chose Gili Air that we thought would be less people, and it was pretty true. In Gili Air we stayed with other coworker’s relatives’s house. Yeah we always stayed at friends, or family’s houses, i was so lucky during that trip, many people helped us. Btw we walked around the island and at night when we meant to go back home we didn’t find the house so we stayed at Mosque. It wasn’t even midnight yet, people were so noisy singing, dancing, kissing, hugging, holding hands and i was like Zzzzzzzzz.....



And just for additional info, those 2 coworkers, guy and girl, because of that trip they started to like each other after working 4 years together in the company they fell in love then got married 3 years after that trip and have twin babies \\(^o^)// while i’m still single as always -_-
 
Btw after Gili Air, then i went back to Sumbawa and luckily the Finnish friend took me home till Sumbawa with his motorbike. It was one of the amazing trips i ever had, 11 days we kept moving from one place to another, visited those places i never thought i would see. And those beautiful sould people who helped us during the trip, i would never forget what they did for us and wish to visit all of them again one day on the next trip.

1 comment: