Lombok and Gili Trawangan - Lombok Trip Part 1

Lombok!

The famous Gili Trawangan  swings

Where is Lombok.. thats the typical question. I actually would've asked the same question had it not been for the fact that my mom just came back from the said island a few months before.

Anyhow, as usual with trips, my story usually starts with a friend going " Hey we should go on a trip!" and as they say, history happened. 

So, following that suggestion,  we all decided on an island getaway, and being in Kuala Lumpur we were spoilt for choice and had the options for the numerous number of islands to go to. My friend Cheryl insisted on Lombok and I was quite hesitant about it as my mom's review of the place was quite dismal from the sites, the food and otherwise.

So I didnt hope for much but we made our bookings and arrangements and the usual research on things. As the date for departure got closer, the excitement grew stronger.

Accomodations!

When we made our bookings, this excitement was compounded by our booking of our accomodations. The booking process was semi-scientific in nature and racist too (Really!). This is because instead of stars, we relied on user reviews and instead  of general user reviews we discarded the Ang Moh's (Westerner's) reviews and relied on our countrymen and singaporeans to give a more honest review from an asian perspective. This is mainly due to the fact that we know our countrymen will have higher standards and not be wow-ed simply by a view and if we say the food is good, you can trust us, THE FOOD IS GOOD.

So I made several  vlogs for our entire trip there. I will be sharing the videos of the trip and I will be splitting this post into several posts due to the numerous amounts of things happening a the same time there. 

Lombok Trip 1- Going on Flight to Lombok and Lombok Jetty.
Lombok Trip 2- Using horsecart for transport and Aston Sunset Beach Resort Gili Trawangan
Lombok Trip 3- Snorkelling in Gili Trawangan
Lombok Trip 4- Pizza time in Gili Trawangan
Lombok Trip 5- The Swings In Gili Trawangan
Lombok Trip 6- The waterfalls in Lombok Island. 


Getting There! 

We booked our flight through Air Asia and the good part about this trip was the direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Lombok without any connections. The flight was great as usual.

We had some McD before the flight and headed off to the departure halls. The one thing that peeves me about Air Asia though, it seems like ALL my flights are departing from the gates allll the way at the end of the terminal. If you have never been to KLIA 2, you guys should know that its A HUGE airport with long terminals. Right now they are trying to rectify that with walkalators but for now theres still a huge pain in the leg if you are rushing.

Now arriving in Lombok, the airport is not too small but still, when you disembark it is just mere footsteps to the immigration counter and then you are effectively out of the airport. So when we got out of the airport, we bought simcards for each of us and called our driver.

Driver

I digress a bit here. For places like Lombok and Bali, unless you are really familiar with the roads there, I don't recommend for you to drive yourself as the roads are of the obscure kind and provides little in terms of familiarity to point you to get to where you want to. So unless you are good at navigation, I recommend to get a driver to do the leg work for you. Plus, they will be of great help when you plan and negotiate.


Sim Card.  
Upon arrival at the airport and upon exiting the arrival hall there were some vendors selling us sim cards. Depending on the service provide you have back in your home country, it might be cheaper to pick up sim cards upon arrival or pick up a wifi transmitter rental from home. So go do your checking beforehand.

Anyhow upon arrival we found the vendors and each of us bought one sim card which gave us around 4 GB for 7 days for about IDR60,000 (RM 20 at that time). This was great as we used it to liase and talk to each other since some of us had different rooms and another group arrived separately.

So since we got our simcards and almost immediately had internet connection (yeay civilization!) we proceeded to call our driver and arranged the pickup.

From Airport to the Barn (aka Bangsal)

At the airport the security was pretty tight. The security looked like soldiers and they put up a barrier about 5 meters from the door and only those who worked at the airport or were flying off were allowed in. There also had a crowd that had assembled consisting of other drivers, touts and taxi drivers I think. If they ask, just say politely that you have a driver or negotiate with them.

So once we met up with our driver, we headed off towards the ferry terminal and first thing we all thought about was FOOD.........

So our driver graciously brought us to go eat at a restaurant named Taliwang Raya.  For those who are not acquainted, Taliwang is the famous dish common in Lombok made by the Sasak people. It consists of chicken thats grilled halfway and then added the chillies and then fried which seals the flavour on the chicken.
 

Lunch

So the restaurant was placed in the middle of a paddyfield and is simply gorgeous. Blue skies all around simply picturesque.
 

The restaurant

Lunch

 

One thing I must say though, the paddyfields in Lombok is slightly different. it tends to have more trees surrounding the paddy field.
 

Paddy fields in Lombok

After we ate we got back on the car and drove off to Bangsal. The overall drive took us about 2-3 hrs so be prepared to sleep see the sights along the way.

Now I did plenty of research before heading there. So I was informed that at bangsal there will be a few different types of boats available. One was the public boat, another was the fast boat and the last was fast boat.

Now for the Public Boat, it costs VERY CHEAP but you are subjected to riding with other locals together with their wares that they carry to the island. This means that you are in it together with the veggies and the groceries. 

The next one is fast boat and speed boat. When you reach bangsal you should head to the white building. Inside there you can get tickets and then be on your merry way. We bought tickets for the public boat which costs about RM 6 if I am not wrong but they tried to push us towards the speedboat and fast boat. Further they lied to us saying the next boat was at 6 pm (it was around 2-3pm then). 

What happens is that the public boat needs to get 30 people and then you can go. You will be able to tell whether that will be awhile or not by the number on the ticket. When we got ours it was number 20-ish and so we didnt have a long wait.

Traveller Tip : 

• Wear flip flops
• Wear shorts
• Prepare to get wet to get on and off the public boat. (There is no jetty and you get off the boat at the beach).

 Now I end my post here but you can watch the video above for more vlogs on the trip. Should you have any comments or questions, please feel free to comment and should you want more videos, please subscribe for more.  

Honesty is the best policy

Today I enlisted the services of an air conditioning servicing company. Its a general job that was mainly for cleaning and to see whether anything was loose as I heard some vibrations coming from the compressor unit.

At the end of the service, the serviceman passed me the service record which included the speed of the blower, the voltage, the gas pressure etc to show the difference between before and after the service. Fair enough I thought. But then he said you can use that for future service if you wish, you don't have to take with me but then if you want to you can use that as a reference.

I was slightly taken aback, I know in all honesty you might think I might take someone else just cause I want to try something else. But why? Why would you denigrate your service to immediately think that I might not take your service? You were honest, you did great service and you do more than most service men I know. Why would I not use your service? Anyhow.. Musings... What do you guys think?

I.C.E

Was watching Sirens just now and they were on about ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts. I guess I am lucky to have my mom around that makes it easier. But who would be next? Friends, family or loved one? Would I want to trouble the family or have a loyal friend or someone who loves me to have in contact. Would they contact my friends or family or would I be left alone... something to ponder on.

Videos

Videos! Videooo! Video!

I keep on hearing that. Video is the new form of media, the second largest search engine is Youtube and as such everyone should move towards video. I have embraced that and made my own. But I feel that its actually waaaay harder to make videos as the general downtime is very time consuming and tedious. A general video for me would be like this :

a) Number of hours or recorded content = Number of hours spent watching and reviewing the feel of the videos.
b) Cutting videos to keep the good parts of the content = A + (1-2 hours of editing)
c) Adding on transitions and songs and effects and re-reviewing shot and cutting down shots to make it shorter ) = 1- 2 hours
d) Rendering the videos = 20-45 minutes
e) Publishing = 20 minutes

So basically it takes a lot of your time to do 1 video. I have up to now uploaded about 52 videos on youtube and some have gotten alot of views and some havent. I am still trying to learn the finer science of it all but it can get sad seeing little to no views on the videos you spent hours to make.

Anyhow, I plan to expand my videos. I have been doing vlogs and travel recordings and its all great but I think I miss out on the opportunity to tell the whole story, the ins and outs. The things to be aware, the nitty gritty of it which if I included it all (and remember to re-state it) would make the video 2 hours long. Lol

Anyhow I am trying to figure out how long best to edit my videos. I am thinking 8 minutes would be best with a spillover to 10. Anything beyond that is boring to other people. What do you guys think?

Welcome!

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my blog. I am resurrecting my blogging abilities to try and capture more of my works on the literal world and to allow a further expansion on my creative skills.

I used to blog at immymumbles.blogspot.com and that has not been updated for years. I hope to be able to regularly and continuously blog and share with you my experiences and happenings in my life and onwards!

I am also now trying my hands at video editing and  will time to time post my vlogs here to share with everyone. So lets get on it!