Lombok is a small island in East Indonesia, next to Bali. Unlike Bali, it only became popular as a tourist destination around 5 years ago, mainly because of the much-talked-about Gilis. Yep, a lot of people mainly associate Lombok with the three Gilis – Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, and Gili Meno. But you know what, there are just so many pretty things in Lombok island other than those three Gilis!
I went to Lombok last week in a group of four, my friends from work. We booked a private tour with a local instagrammer, Ingga – widely known as @debucung. He does private tours for a living and let me just say it straightforward… he will take you to AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL places! No joke. So what places did I went to? read along and follow my journey! 🙂
Day one
We flew Batik Air from Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta to Lombok international Airport. I remember it was rather hard to fly to Lombok, around 5 years ago when my friends first went to the Gilis – they had to transit in Bali first. But worry not, nowadays it’s getting easier to fly to Lombok from Jakarta (and I believe from other cities too?).
We arrived around noon and met Ingga – our trip planner straightaway. He then took us for lunch and went straight to our first destination. It was beach day today! First stop was Mawun beach in south of Lombok.

It was love at first sight. Though it is not too big, but it has white sands, clear sea, plus amazing hills in its surroundings. Yes, we went there during dry season, so the hills were not green… but imagine if we came around April, it must be even more beautiful! It’s not crowded too, there were only several foreigners and although there are some food stalls/vendors but I still found it serene. Too bad I did not jump into the water because I haven’t got my swimsuit and all that ready since I just arrived from the airport. Hmph. Lesson learned, always keep your beach wear handy for places like these!
Second stop was nearby Selong Belanak beach.

Selong Belanak is as pretty as Mawun, but less crowded. There were barely anyone except us and few locals there. We did not stay long there, but I surely spent enough time to capture some images, and just enjoyed the stellar view. It was such a refreshment for my eyes!
From Selong Belanak we went to Semeti Beach and Mawi Beach in Central Lombok, which happens to be located next to each other. Semeti beach is not as famous as the first two, there is no Trip Advisor page about it yet! It took us over 30 minutes drive from Selong Belanak to get to the area,which was rather deserted and it made me feel like we were in the middle of nowhere! The road was not smooth either, but the view was really pretty ..

Compared to the first two beaches, Semeti to me was more of an ‘adventure’ beach rather than a leisure one. why? because we climbed these rocks!

The rocks were hard for me to climb because, well, it has been awhile since I last been outdoor! 😦 I haven’t been very active nowadays and to be honest I didn’t expect that kind of “trail” to climb. But seeing that my friends started to climb already motivated me… until I managed to make it to the top! YEAH! I got a wee bit emotional up there because the view was spectacular!


After Semeti, we went to its neighbour – Mawi, which was also our last destination for the day. Similar to Semeti, Mawi beach also does not have sandy beach, instead the beach is full of rocks. During broad daylight it may not look as pretty as the other beaches I’ve been that day…

But it’s a complete different story during sunset! It was rather cloudy so we did not get that spectacular orange, but still.. the view was quite something :’)

So that concludes my first day in Lombok. Afterwards we went for dinner and then to our hotel in Mataram area.
I actually wanted to write all of my stories in one post but here I am just finishing day one with over 700 word count already.. hahaha. So I guess I’m going to separate the stories in several posts. I think day two will need a separate post for sure as we went up north to the villages underneath Mt.Rinjani!
So for now, here’s a sneak peek of my day two adventure.. until then! x
