Lombok island in indonesia. Indonesia, Lombok island: in search of "white-sand beaches" Main sights of Lombok


Climate and nature

Climatic conditions vary by region. In December-February, the maximum precipitation falls here, their average annual amount is 1600 mm. In general, the climate here is assessed as equatorial-monsoonal. But the temperature fluctuates slightly and averages + 26 ° C.

The relief of the island is quite complex - it rises sharply from south to north, where it rises high volcano. An interesting fact is that in the western part of the island the Wallace line passes - a conditional border between the flora and fauna of Asia and. Thanks to this, on Lombok you can see plants and animals typical of the Australian nature.


Population

The island is inhabited by more than 3 million people. These are the Sasaki people (80%), Balinese (10%), Javanese and Chinese. The vast majority of the population is Muslim, thanks to which about 1,000 mosques have been built on the territory of Lombok.

The largest city, the capital of the island is Mataram. He is also considered administrative center throughout the province of Western Minor sunda islands, or Nusa Tenggara Barat, to which Lombok belongs. The territory of the island itself is divided into 4 kabupatena - districts: Western, Central, Eastern and Northern. At the same time, the south and east of the island are more densely populated. The most touristic cities are Kuta (not to be confused with the Balinese of the same name) and.


Lombok - what to see?

The main islands of Lombok in Indonesia include:

  1. - the third highest point in the country. Its crater contains beautiful lake with blue waters, Segara Anak. This area has been since 1997.
  2. Narmada Park- a large landscape and architectural complex with a water park.
  3. Turtle Sanctuary on the Gili Islands.
  4. water palace Mayura(Mayura Water Palace).
  5. Hindu Pura Meru and Pura Kalasa.

Vacation on the island

Arriving in Lombok, you do not have to puzzle over what to do here. Although the island is not the most touristy, vacationers are offered quite wide range entertainment:

  1. Beach holidays on the beaches of Lombok. The most popular in Lombok are Sengjiji and Kuta. This area is considered the most developed in tourism plan: all the cafes, shops, entertainment of the island are concentrated here. To the north of Senggiji there are several more good secluded bays. Among other good beaches of the island, travelers call:
    • Pantai Putri Nyale;
    • Seger Beach;
    • Tanjung A'an;
    • AirGuling;
    • mawi;
    • mawun;
    • Pink Beach (the famous pink beach of Lombok).
  2. The best in Lombok- on the coast of Kuta. Here, nature itself has created excellent conditions for surfers of medium and high skill levels, there are many different interesting spots. But for those who have never “caught the wave” it will be difficult to study in Kut.
  3. on Lombok can be ordered from local travel agencies. Among the guests of the island, the most popular are climbing the Rinjani volcano and visiting Narmada Park. If you wish, you can travel around Lombok on your own by renting a transport and looking into all the interesting corners of the island.
  4. Study in local settlements. These are not ethnic villages where ostentatious shows are organized for tourists, but the most ordinary ones, where life has been going on as usual for hundreds of years. Here you can get acquainted with the local population, walk through rice fields and tobacco plantations, see the beautiful waterfalls of Lombok Sindang Gila and Tiu Kelep, look into the jungle where black monkeys live. And, of course, buy souvenirs.
  5. Nightlife. There are clubs and discos on the island, but only in the resort of Senggigi.

Where to stay?

Mostly active lovers, backpackers and unpretentious tourists who are not looking for comfort go to Lombok. However, if you wish, you can find good hotels. Among Lombok with good reviews vacationers worth noting:

  • Kila Senggigi Beach Hotel 4*;
  • Katamaran Resort 5*;
  • Pool Villa Club Lombok 5*;
  • Kaleydo Villas 4*;
  • Living Asia resort and Spa4*.

In addition to them, the island has many guesthouses and inexpensive hotels. by the most budget options are:

  • Sonya Home Stay;
  • Puri Rinjani Bungalows;
  • Indah Homestay;
  • Mina Tanjung Hotel.

Where to eat?

Traveling around the island, you can only eat. You can only find establishments serving Western food in Sengjiji and Kuta. Since Lombok is mostly Muslim, alcohol is not welcome here.


Shopping features

Tourists bring many interesting things from the island of Lombok:

  • pearls and products from it;
  • figurines made of rattan, bamboo, teak;
  • wicker baskets;
  • clay figurines and dishes;
  • wooden masks and boxes;
  • sarongs;
  • designer clothes and accessories.

The most popular places for shopping are big shopping mall Mataram Mall (the only one of its kind on the island) in Mataram, traditional Asian markets in the cities, the villages of Sukarara, Penujak and Banumelek, where you can buy handicrafts.


Transport

On the island of Lombok in Indonesia, there is the only one that has international status. Also here are two seaports: Lembar in the west and Labuan-Lombok in the east. They have ferry connections to Sumbawa and Bali.

Public buses run from the airport to Mataram and Senggiji Beach. For tourists there are taxis and minivans (quite expensive).

Unusual vehicle is a chimodo - a horse-drawn two-wheeled vehicle, which is used as a means for tourist walks.

And the most popular among tourists is renting a bike, on which you can comfortably explore the entire island and visit the most interesting places without reference to the public schedule. Rent costs from $3 to $3.5 per day.


How to get to the island?

There are no direct flights to Lombok from the CIS countries, you can fly here from or from the capital, ($ 30-50). But, as practice shows, it is easier for many tourists to get to Lombok from Bali. This can be done by air ($20.45 minutes) or by Bali-Lombok ferry ($4.5 hours).


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Solitude and Lombok are practically synonymous words. Tourist infrastructure is most developed in the western part of the island of Senggigi. There, tourists will be able to do nothing and shop with full dedication. The island is famous for its pottery, silk and fabrics with gold and silver thread, handmade by local craftsmen.

Excellent surfing can be found on the other side of the island, in the resort of Kuta (not to be confused with the resort of the same name in Bali).

How to get to Lombok

The island of Lombok can be reached in 2 and a half hours by comfortable express boats. By air, you can fly here in half an hour, on a daily flight Bali - Lombok - Bali. You can fly to Lombok and directly - from Singapore or Jakarta.

Search for flights to Denpasar (nearest airport to Lombok)

Rules of conduct and safety

If you are going to visit some remote rural areas on your own, it would be prudent to take care of finding a local guide. Often the inhabitants of such places do not know not only English, but also Indonesian, so it will be possible to communicate with them only in the Sasak language.

In addition, in some places on Lombok, morals are quite strict. If you're planning to visit the countryside, religious sites, or government offices, it's best to wear something more modest. Women on a trip would do well to have a pareo with you - you can put it on if you decide to leave the beach for a while in one swimsuit, besides, it perfectly protects from the sun and wind.

Be careful with local alcohol. On the island, things are not particularly favorable with him, so if it seems to you that you feel worse, it is better to consult a doctor just in case (however, in case of a slight ailment the next morning, it is probably not necessary to go to the hospital).

Be sure to bring insect repellant with you. It is unlikely that you will be bitten by malarial mosquitoes if you rest on one of popular resorts, but it's still pretty sad to itch until the very end of the trip because of one small mistake.

And, what about local traditions - in Lombok it is customary to take off your shoes when entering someone's house (and even to the reception rooms of some companies) and it is not customary to give your left hand or pass something with your left hand to someone with whom you are not too close. Failure to comply with these two rules is considered very rude here.

Holidays on the island of Lombok

Shopping: shops

Pottery, silk and woven products with gold and silver thread, handmade by local craftsmen, are the main souvenirs from Lombok.

beaches

The island's best beaches are in the Sengjiji area: they are wide, clean and with a blessedly low amount of frying and steaming. A distinctive feature of the Lombok coast is beaches with grains of sand the size of a pea of ​​black pepper in gray-beige color. A handful of such sand is another important souvenir that is taken away from Lombok.

Kitchen

The word "lombok" is translated from Indonesian as "chili pepper", however local kitchen basically not as sharp as one might think.

One of the island's most popular dishes is called ayam taliwang. The locals can't agree on exactly which recipe should be considered authentic, but the most common variation of the dish is chicken in a rather spicy tomato sauce with lots of spices. Its taste can be both mild and very spicy, so it's best to check when you order.

One of the things not to be missed when visiting Lombok is the local traditional massage.

The main food of the inhabitants of the island and an obligatory item on the menu of any cafe is rice with various additives. In terms of the amount of rice consumed, the islanders are hardly inferior to the Japanese, and the additives are quite diverse. In addition to vegetables (this is a mandatory part of the program), nuts, fish, chicken, meat or tofu can be added to rice, and as a condiment, you will probably be offered sambal sauce, which is based on ground red pepper.

Prices in restaurants and cafes in Lombok are highly dependent on their location. Lunch at a restaurant in one of the popular resorts will be quite expensive, and the dishes offered there will be adapted to European cuisine. In other places, you can find many small restaurants called warung, which are more focused on local residents. If you are interested traditional cuisine they are exactly what you need.

Alcoholic drinks can be bought almost everywhere, but since the majority of the population of Lombok is Muslim, in some areas (particularly in Praya) there is a ban on the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants. Also, alcohol is heavily taxed throughout Indonesia - it could very well be that a bottle of wine ends up being the most expensive meal on your order.

Popular hotels in Lombok

Entertainment and attractions of Lombok

Here are held interesting excursions to Rinjani volcano, Sendang-Gila waterfall and Danau-Segara-Anae lake. In the sea in the neighborhood are three coral islands Gili (Gili): Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan, with white sand beaches, bays with clear water and coral reefs. You can get to the nearest of them in 15 minutes by ferry - this is perfect place for picnics, diving and snorkelling. In addition, there are several villages-museums of Lombok Aboriginal Sasaks on the island.

One of the things not to be missed when visiting Lombok is the local traditional massage. You don’t even need to go anywhere for this, you can get a massage right on the beach, under the relaxing sound of the waves. In addition to the fact that this massage is extremely pleasant, it is believed that it has an excellent therapeutic effect. It is still one of the main methods of treating many diseases among Sasak healers and is very popular among all segments of the island's population.

Fishing is another traditional entertainment on the island. There are many places where you can rent a boat with all the necessary equipment and go fishing in the sea - for a day or longer. It's very relaxing, but be careful - you should keep an eye on the weather forecast and don't swim too far.

And if you want more active rest- on the island there are excellent bike tours for you, where you can stretch your muscles after lying on the beach under the guide's stories about local attractions.

... In the morning I had a quick breakfast with a cup of coffee and a pancake, scanned the documents at the hotel reception (two airlines canceled a couple of my flights in the Philippines in April and offered extremely clumsy replacements - as a result, I had to cancel the paid reservations and return the money to the card. And for a refund, they demanded a copy of the passport and the card used for payment) and uploaded Balinese music to a USB flash drive - I have a hobby of collecting music from the peoples of the world and their national instruments. Then there was a checkout, a road on a bike with a suitcase to the center of Seminyak to hand over the bike - this is where I once again mentioned the fact that my suitcase has not only wheels, but also backpack straps. The office where I bought the combined tour to the city of Senggigi on the island of Lombok is located next to the bike rental and I got to it in a few minutes. The bike owner complained me for some time, saying why I didn’t buy tickets to Senggigi from him, he’s like me with all my heart. and this transfer would have cost me 300 thousand local money without a ticket for a boat or ferry .. Still, they were spoiled a lot with free money here.

I didn’t have time to settle down to continue breakfast with pre-purchased yogurts, when the transfer minibus arrived - 40 minutes earlier than I expected. I was his first passenger, then we went to some pretentious hotel, where we waited another half hour for a couple of leisurely Germans to leave. At some point, I got tired of waiting and I went to the all-inclusive restaurant of this hotel for a coffee. Then I caught a local girl dressed in bright folk Balinese clothes (she is there at the reception like a live attraction for tourists) and took a picture with her on the iPad as a keepsake. I drove a bus, having learned that I was from Russia, the first thing I said was that “Russia is waging war against Ukraine in the Crimea” - he was told so on TV ...

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the speedboat set sail from Padang Bay in the direction of the Gili Islands and further to the island of Lombok. For some reason, Canadians dominated among the passengers, judging by the maple leaf patches on the bags. I wonder what is the reason that there are so many of them here? It is clear why there are a lot of them, for example, in Cuba - they are relatively close, the best beaches in the world (IMHO), inexpensive by their standards, Americans have not been allowed to go there for half a century (it seems now the situation has begun to change ..) - Canadians stand out there numerically. Or why there are a lot of Australians in Bali is also understandable - on a fine day and with some luck from Australia to Bali, you can sail by boat .. But the Canadian phenomenon is still unclear to me, especially when you consider that Canada has a sparse population (all of Canada is like two extra Moscow).

This fastboat sails really fast - but in my case, the advantages in speed were leveled by the route: first we sailed to Gili Travanan, one of the three heavenly islands of Gili, located almost off the coast of Lombok, and lost half an hour there to unload and load passengers and luggage; then history repeated itself on Gili Air, and at the very last turn the boat sailed to the island of Lombok, losing about an hour on these Gili. As a result, the sea part of the journey was about 3 hours on a “fastboat” against the declared 5 hours on the ferry - the gain in time is not as significant as it is painted by traders in travel agencies, motivating their desire to have a price from you of more than half a million local money. At least, in two different places they swore to me that it would take about an hour and a half to sail to Senggigi on a fastboat. Nae..t really didn’t..li, but they didn’t tell the truth in advance - I went to the shore of Lombok at 16:15, the total travel time was 3 hours and 15 minutes.

As usual, I was surrounded by taxi drivers on the pier, tormented by a burning desire to take me somewhere. The price they advertised for my Ressa Homestay hotel sounded like 120 thousand at first, but after a couple of minutes of bargaining, it dropped to 50 thousand. By the way, by local standards, I had to drive quite a bit - 6-7 kilometers towards the city of Mataram.

After checking into the hotel, I asked about renting a bike - they didn’t have bikes. I went on foot to the nearest cafe - after a diet breakfast in the morning in Bali, I really wanted to eat something. In a cafe, in addition to dinner, I agreed with a local lad that, after I sing, he would give me a lift on his bike to Senggigi for a symbolic 10 thousand (less than a dollar). In Senggigi, I rented a bike for 50 thousand a day without any problems and swam a couple of times near the pier.

The beaches of Lombok

I woke up at 8 am, had breakfast at the hotel with a cup of coffee and a sandwich and went for a drive around the island of Lombok. First, swimming and taking pictures in suitable places on the coast:

I drove in this way to the town of Bangsal and specified the price and time of departure of the boats to the Gili Islands - this info will come in handy for me tomorrow. Then from Bangsala I went inland through the Pusuk pass to Mataram.

Now impressions from Lombok:

firstly, the pros: firstly, the roads (at least the road along the coast from Mataram to the northern tip of the island) are simply of perfect quality, I would envy such a road.

Secondly, this road is very picturesque - the relief resembles a rollercoaster and almost every climb offers wonderful views of the surrounding beauty. Thirdly, the crystal clear sea. Fourthly, very welcoming and friendly people

Adults smile at you and willingly try to help if you turn to them, children along the roads wave their hands to you. On the Pusuk pass, a huge number of monkeys sit along the road, if you wish, you can apparently feed them.

Cons: firstly, almost all the beaches are densely littered with the local population (there are still not a lot of tourists on the island of Lombok, you should not sin on them). That is, on almost every beach, if it is located near some village or town, along the edge of the surf lies an even strip of empty bottles, pieces of paper, cigarette butts, etc.

Secondly, the sand on all beaches is either gray or almost black (volcanic). The color of the sand varies from this:

In itself, this is not so hot, what a minus - nature is nature, but I would like to ask the authors of Thomas Cook's guidebook "Bali and Lombok", who in their book repeatedly use the phrase "snow-white beaches" in relation to the island of Lombok - were they even on it? Or they wrote on the ball, like, and so it will do? I repeat, this is not a complaint against Lombok, this is a question for the authors of this guide. I was not particularly embarrassed by the black sand, I would have gone to Lombok anyway. Thirdly, the exchange rate of dollars for rupees on Lombok is worse than on: 11300 for 1 dollar against 11400 in Bali. So it makes sense to change money either before Lombok or after it, depending on the route.

Lombok Island is a place with a predominantly Muslim population, and after Hindu Bali this immediately catches the eye: firstly, there are many women in hijabs, mosques often come across along the roads, in the morning the muezzin woke me up .. As a result, the architecture on Lombok is noticeably more boring than on Bali is just houses with no frills and just functional mosques (and many of them give the impression of being unfinished) - white walls without any special decorations, a green dome, a couple of minarets with megaphones, and that's it. In this sense, the architecture of Bali is cooler than the Lombok one, just like the Bolshoi Theater is cooler than some regional philharmonic society.

Lombok photo:

Life hack: how I save on hotels and insurance

In addition to traditional and well-known tools such as Booking or Hotellook, new online services have recently appeared that make life much easier for the traveler and pleasantly protect the thickness of his wallet. One of them - roomguru I use it all the time and recommend it to all my friends and family. This service compares prices for an object in 30 booking systems at once, and offers you the most interesting options. In addition, it tracks discounts and special offers.

As for a good working travel insurance, it was not easy to find it before, but now it has become even more difficult due to the constant fluctuations of the ruble against world currencies. For the past few years, I have been taking out insurance for my travels through an online service - here you can compare the products of different insurers and choose what is best for you:

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Lombok Island is Bali's neighboring island, where people usually go for two reasons: surfing in Gerupuk Bay and a three-day climb to the Rinjani volcano. And also South coast Lombok is very beautiful (IMHO much more beautiful than Bali) and people go there for semi-wild tourism and picturesque tropical beaches. I even had it on my blog a few years ago, so I myself was a fan of this place and drove there to surf with friends almost every month.

IN last years my personal opinion about Lombok has changed a lot and I stopped going there. I can't even remember how many years ago I last visited Lombok. (The only exception would be the two trips to Sumbawa when we crossed Lombak just to get to the ferry to Sumbawa, but we did not stop at Lombawa itself).

I never blogged about my personal adventures in Lombok and my reasons for stopping going there: I didn’t want to spread panic and spread horror stories. (One was enough for the whole world to start thinking that Bali will soon be washed off the face of the earth :)))

But recently I received a letter from blog readers who told me about their terrible incident on Lombok. And since this is not the only story, I decided to raise this topic. So that every person going to Lombok knows what, hypothetically, awaits him in this place under an unfortunate set of circumstances. And ideally, people would stop going to this place in principle, so that the Lombok government would finally deal with this situation.

I also have my own horror story about Lombok and I will also tell it today. My story took place in 2012, but since then the situation in Lombok has not improved, although there have been an order of magnitude more tourists. And yes, I understand that it is a personal choice for everyone whether or not to go to Lombok, but I want to take the time and encourage everyone who reads these pages to “ban” Lombok from visiting. Because only when tourists start to avoid Lombok en masse, the local government will start to do something about the attacks and crimes that occur on this beautiful, but very cruel island. I do not want to support the economy of the island, where the government for so many years has not found a way to deal with the bandits, and just turns a blind eye to everything that happens for years. Lawlessness in one way or another, of course, is everywhere, even in Bali, but the form in which it flourishes in Lombok is a real tin. And although I miss this island terribly, and constantly try to go there again, it’s not in vain that I deliberately didn’t go there for many years. And I won't go. Not because I'm scared, but because it's my conscious choice to boycott Lombok. Now let's move on to scary stories from Lombok.

History first.

From a letter sent to me recently about the attack on Lombok.

"Good afternoon!

I don’t know where to turn, we had a problem on vacation. Today, my boyfriend and I were attacked right on the road by two local guys. We stopped in Kuta [Lombok also has Kuta, approx. from me], rented two scooters, the second day we drove around the neighborhood. After lunch at a local cafe in a small fishing village on the bay (Pelabuhan Ikan, Teluk Awang, Lombok Tengah) we drove back to Kuta.

A few minutes after leaving the village, a steep climb began, at the end of which two guys were standing. I rode in front, my boyfriend behind me. The speed on the rise was small 10-15 km/h. As soon as I caught up with the guys, one of them began to swing a big stick at me, the second had a machete in his hands. I did not immediately understand the intention, and when I realized it, I started screaming. The guy at that moment hit me on the back with a stick, I fell and started screaming.

My young man at that moment was just driving up the hill where everything was happening. He heard my cry, but saw everything when I was already lying on the ground. When I fell, I immediately jumped up and tried to run away from the attackers. My boyfriend rushed to save me and abandoned his bike. At that moment, the first attacker had already grabbed my scooter, and the second one ran to meet my friend with a stick and brandishing a machete. We ran back, the attacker got on my boyfriend's bike and both left on our bikes. We ran after them, shouted, called for help, but this did not lead to anything. Everything happened in 10 seconds. The road was empty, people appeared only after 30-60 seconds.

We had phones in the bikes in our pockets, my boyfriend had documents and money in his backpack, the robbers did not take him away. Everything was on a busy highway, we were just unlucky, and at that moment we were all alone there. After that, the locals took us to the nearest police station, and we spent another five hours with the police. First, we went to the crime scene, where there were pieces of the broken headlight of my bike and a stick that hit me. The police also took us to a local hospital, where they recorded wounds and bruises, which were many after the fall.

In the process, it became clear that they had not previously recorded such cases [which is not true, since attacks on Lombok happen regularly - another note from me], but in the same village, bikes were stolen from other tourists three days ago. They stole from the parking lot on the pier, the bikes still haven't found them. It is not known whether these are the same robbers or others, but the crime scene is the same. I would like to warn vacationers that a gang or even more than one criminal is operating close to the tourist area of ​​Kuta. It is not known how their attack will end next time, but they are unlikely to stop there. Our phones are obviously more expensive than bikes, but lives are priceless. Please warn people of this danger in Lombok! Such lawlessness, associated with a threat to life, should not go unnoticed.

Ekaterina K.

Even for me, a person who has been living in Indonesia for a long time and who has seen everything, this story is terrifying. And as I wrote above in the notes in square brackets, this is not the first attack on Lombok and attacks on tourists regularly occurred in the Lombok Kuta area. It’s hard for me to say how often, because most of them simply don’t come to the surface, and only news of the most severe cases, when people were hospitalized in a very serious condition after the attack, reach the surface.

By the way, the story described above did not end there, I learned its continuation from the second letter, which I also quote below.

“Stella, hi!

Continuation and end of the story

The manager of our villa, Amin, was very worried about the scooters, because they are not his. The next morning there was a conversation that the money for the scooters should be returned. We replied that the police should deal with this matter, let them look for scooters, we did not lose them, but we were actually attacked, our losses are also no one in his beautiful country does not compensate. We didn't sign any lease documents. He only replied that all the tourists in our place would pay. And left like the owner of the bikes.

The owner of the bikes, who looked like a bouncer, announced that he needed 15 million rupees per bike, which corresponds to $ 1,150. Naturally, we didn’t have that kind of money, and it’s just a robbery. Of course, we refused, and the owner of the bikes just smiled. He said that until we pay, we will not leave here. Around the same time, we read that in Lombok, among the incidents with tourists, robbery is a common occurrence, after which there is extortion from the owners of stolen scooters. It turns out that the police deceived us when they said that this does not happen to them, only the theft of parked scooters.

At that moment, we were really scared for our lives, because not one person came to deal with us, but two or three, and also some other people were sitting at the exit from the villa, in general, we were surrounded. We did not want to talk to the owner of the scooters, because he did not care about our problems, he was going to fully compensate for his losses at our expense. We called the villa manager Amin for negotiations, we were ready to pay everything we have, just to let us out of this hell. Amin said that his owner, although we thought that he was the owner, is ready to compensate 10 million, and we will only have to give 15 million. But the owner of bikes said that he did not agree to 25 million, and he needed all 30. At the same time, the owner of bikes called some kind of boss of his own to agree on a price reduction, but he refused.

Thus, we had to give 20 million, and we only had 15. We said that we did not have so much money, and we could not give it all away, otherwise we would be completely without money, but they did not want to listen to us. They said that the last price is 15 million for two scooters. We changed the money, gave it to Amin (and not like the owner of scooters), at that time there were already seven people at the entrance to the villa. We were happy to get our feet out of there. We believe that they are all just swindlers and deceivers.

Naturally, the owner of the villa (I think that the owner was invented) Amin will not compensate anything, this performance was only for us, we were deceived, intimidated and our last money was taken away. These people were not embarrassed at all, they did not care at all that we were left without money in their beautiful country.

Later, we learned from the locals that the market value of such old scooters is less than 7 million, and the new ones really cost 15 million. On one of the stolen scooters, the speedometer did not work, which generally prohibits the operation of this scooter, but it was rented out, and even earned. I don't know if it was possible to get out of this situation with less losses.

We had thoughts of contacting the police to help us there, they judged somehow, and 30 million is generally some kind of space. But then we changed our minds, the local police are at the same time with them, we would only have lost time, and the ending would have been the same. Now I understand Amin's words that everyone in our place would pay. There is no other way here...

Catherine"

The second story.

My personal, although already a little old, but very indicative, it is also about an unpleasant adventure on Lombok.

Horror stories about Lombok have been around for a long time. And if someone, after reading the story above, suddenly thought that, well, he would definitely “wouldn’t let himself be bred like that” or “would have defended himself in front of the bandits,” then I will tell you my story. How did we defend ourselves?

Our story took place in 2012. My friends and I went by car to travel around Sumbawa and Lombok. We ended up on Lombok in the late afternoon, it was August and high season, so we could not find accommodation for a long time, in Kuta (on Lombok) then there were still very few guesthouses and everything was booked everywhere. We traveled around the evening Kuta and got into a small accident with a scooter.

My version of the accident: two scooters were driving towards us, one suddenly crossed the road diagonally and ended up on the oncoming lane, we couldn’t pass without a collision, the car swerved to the side so as not to knock down the one on the opposite side, and at that time the second scooter, did not look at the road, but looked somewhere to the side, so he could not avoid our car. What is important, as a result of an accident, the second scooter tangentially passed our bumper, on which scratches remained and the headlight slightly cracked. All. That is, it was not a hellish accident, it was an accident at low speeds (I think about 40 km / h) with mutual damage to the plastic. No harm done. In any other situation in the same Indonesia, everyone would just leave (there is no OSAGO insurance) or they would exchange a small amount of money and go on business.

But we, like the guys from the story above, were at the wrong time in the wrong place. It was Independence Day, which was celebrated by the whole country, there were crowds of drunken local men on the streets. So literally in a minute a crowd surrounded our car and began to threaten us.

Since I then thought that “we are in the know and they won’t divorce us,” I followed the old advice that if something goes wrong, you just lock yourself in the car and don’t get out of it under any circumstances. So they did. Our car was beaten, we were showered with curses and threats, they tried to open the windows, break down the doors. I don't even want to go into details right now. The main thing is that there were a lot of them and we understood that we had nowhere to go. And most importantly, the crowd grew and became more violent. And all this was in Kuta. No one tried to stand up for us, everyone just joined the crowd.

Of course, I don’t even want to remember all the details of that evening and that night, because even now, when I write these lines, fear for my life, hatred for such savagery and an understanding of complete impotence in front of this crowd again seethe inside me. I’ll just say that all of us sitting in the car then (and they were mostly girls) were scared because 20 adult angry screaming men were rocking our car and pounding on the windows, demanding that we urgently get out of the car, “to talk."

This hell lasted several hours, I think. At some point, there was a “helper” outside who spoke more or less tolerable English and promised that he would help us resolve the situation. The settlement was understood as a translation from Bahasa into English, that we only have to pay for the “repair” of the bike only five million rupees (at that time it was $ 500). It was about an old antediluvian moped, not even an automatic machine, which, in principle, cost at that time half the price requested for repairs. Given that we had a scratched bumper and a cracked headlight, the scale of the repair on that scooter was clearly not worth the money. Therefore, we stood our ground and replied that we were ready to cover the real cost of repairs, discuss everything in a calm manner with the owner of the bike, and not with the crowd, and that extortion and threats would not work with us.

And now to the question of the police. In the story above, Ekaterina correctly writes that there is no point in contacting the police. It's a waste of time, and in most cases, the police will just get their share, so they'll be even more interested in extorting something from you. Welcome to Indonesia.

At some point, we reported to the locals rocking our car that we would not get out of the car. They began to scare us with the police, to which we (naive back then) said yes. Let's go to the police, that's exactly what we would like to see now. The police arrived. We were all forced to get out of the car, put into a police car, and taken to the station. At that moment, the girls and I exhaled, anticipating the speedy deliverance from all this hell. Naive.

The same crowd that rocked the car burst into the station with us. Now only between us and them there was no car body. They yelled and yelled all over the precinct, they shouted curses at us, something about the fact that we are “don't respect the country” and that they will deal with us now. And although we demanded order from the police and that all leftists be expelled from the precinct, the police didn’t give a shit. They continued to extort money from us, and we realized that the police were not only not going to “understand” our story, but it was also not clear which side they were on.

This madhouse continued for several more hours. For which we were rapidly losing nerve cells and faith that we would get out of this area. But we didn't give up. At the same time, we tried to find out emergency numbers of our embassy, ​​the telephones of the tourist police and reported on the Internet, in case someone else knew where we were and what was happening to us.

Since the police at this station realized that it was not easy to withdraw money from us, they decided to scare us by sending us to the main police station of this region, to the city of Praya. We agreed because it didn't seem to us that anything could be worse than a small police station in the village, chock-full of locals yelling and threatening us.

It takes about an hour to get to Praia. There we were handed over to another station, where we spent time until late in the morning. Until the damn morning. Because it was a holiday and there was no one to deal with us. During the 12 hours that we spent in this station, no one took any formal testimony from us, no one drew up a protocol and we did not write any explanatory notes, no one went to the scene of an accident to check something. They just talked to us, convincing us that we owe respect to the country and therefore we must pay money, then they will let us go.

Another interesting point: from the moment of the accident, we did not see the driver of the moped until the next morning. And even then, he arrived only when we asked a reasonable question, where is the other side of the accident and why is she not participating in the conversations. He arrived, but was silent all the time. The policemen and the remnants of that yesterday's crowd, who had arrived in the morning to take part in our lynching again, spoke for him.

All the time we were in the police, we had endless negotiations with the police and with the “helpers” from the locals, who smiled sweetly and sentenced “dont warr ai help yu”. But all their help was expressed in the fact that they simply voiced the amount that we had to pay in order to let us go.

By the way, we were eventually able to contact our Russian embassy in Jakarta. Do you know what they told us? “Oh, well, how many of you are there? Four? Well, don’t worry, chip in a hundred and they will let you go.” I love the officials of our country!

In general, our “negotiations” with the police lasted for hours, there is no other way to call it. They extorted money from us, poured on us with talk in the spirit of “wei yu dont respect my country” and just stupidly kept us in the police. In the end, we did pay money, but our “fortitude” brought the amount to 20 or 30 dollars, I don’t remember now. True, it cost us 12 hours in the police and several hours of meaningless conversations and defending our rights.

I'm not sure that I was able to convey with colors, all the horror that we experienced all this time, not understanding how long they would keep us in the police. Guys, it was really terrible. I do not want my short story to show you that we are so cool and we have defended ourselves. Yes, we defended, but at the same time we were shaking like I don’t know who, fearing for our lives and for our belongings. After all, boards, photographic equipment, laptops were traveling with us in the car. It was scary. From lawlessness and lawlessness and from the fact that your life for these people has no value at all. They'll do anything to get their $500.

I was lucky that I had my brave and cheerful girls with me, whom you can’t just take with threats, so we stood for 12 hours and were able to negotiate the real cost of repairs. (By the way, for our bumper and headlight, we later gave $ 100 to the car rental from our money, although I still think that the fault in the accident was at least mutual. to the side, he would have seen the car and the accident could have been avoided. About the second comrade, who abruptly changed lanes to the oncoming lane (= our lane) and who initially helped provoke the accident, no one ever remembered the police, of course. Yes, who cares about him when there are foreigners from whom you can withdraw money from scratch.)

Summarizing this story, I want to remind you that it was 2012 and in general, locals in Indonesia have not yet been so greyhounds towards tourists. To meet a divorce and an aggressive attitude was rather a rarity. Now it is, to put it mildly, much more common. So if our story happened now, I'm not at all sure that I could defend my money in the same way.

Well, and most importantly, I would definitely not want to be a tourist in the same situation and thus “diversify my vacation”.

Therefore, the choice about Lombok is yours. I made my choice. I won't go there until the local police and government have put things in order on the island. If they treat tourists like that, then in principle tourists can stop visiting them, and Lomboks can return to their old life in the form of fishing and agriculture. There are many other places in the world that are no less beautiful than Lombok. And as for surfing, I'd rather spend a couple of hours on a flight and ride somewhere else.

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