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Tourism Malaysia

Star fish spotted along the beach on our way back from Gili Nanggu and Sudak

A lot of fun activities at Gili Nanggu, satisfied lunch at Gili Sudak…while on the way back to the jetty, another surprised! Star fish spotted! (S8.74618 E116.01814)

It was low tide while we were back, and we had to stop at the other site of the jetty and walking back to the jetty where we parked our party van. There were many star fishes along the beach, every 5 steps…you will see one star fish laying on the beach…
Everyone couldn’t resist to taking photos with the colourful star fish!

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This was also my first time holding the wild star fish in my hand! Not from the aquarium but from the ocean…
We were curiously hold, touch it and having photo with it then put all of them back to the beach…

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Beside the star fish, there were also mudskipper, sea urchin were found along the beach. I really like to stroll along the beach, too bad we had no enough time…

We were going on the long journey again to Mataram – the capital of Lombok for our dinner.

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Related post for Lombok island trip :-
Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island – Indonesia on July 2014

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Tourism Malaysia

Kila Senggigi Beach Hotel at Senggigi beach, Lombok island

Kila Senggigi Beach Resort (S8.49782, E116.04846) is located at the northwest of Lombok island. The resort just situated next to the beautiful beach as the name of it.

The check-in process was smooth and everyone got their keys in less than 15 minutes.

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There are many water features at the lobby and beautiful garden surrounding…with beautiful lush tropical gardens and a magnificent view.

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The friendly staffs of the hotel were welcome us, the lobby area was nice with a open concept and well ventilated. Decorated with the Lombok culture design…

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Kila Senggigi Beach Hotel is actually a resort type of hotel, located in Senggigi town, on a 12 acres land along the beach, beautiful.

Most of the rooms are chalet type, basically 8 rooms in one chalet…situated in spacious manicured gardens with plenty of shade trees. The grounds are absolutely immaculate.

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We had a double beds room, and let me show you around the room…

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The room albeit dated, size-wise was adequate with necessary furnishing, satisfied with it especially the cleanness. Every room has its own verandah with comfort sitting area, we were enjoying our beer and chatting session on the first night.
It’s advise to choose the 2nd floor if you going for the sea view room, brilliant views from the room and Mt Agung over in Bali is visible.
Remember :-
Don’t leave your room door open after six p.m., unless you don’t mind a generous spray of insecticide in your room which the hotel graciously offers each evening.

Kila Senggigi beach hotel is an old hotel, first in Lombok, surrounded by greeneries and right at the seafront. Wi-Fi service is available throughout the whole resort with good bandwidth. The Italian restaurant is just sitting on the beach front and you can enjoy the spectacular sunset of Lombok accompany with the house’s live band. The SPA also available but too bad we don’t have enough time to enjoy it. The breakfast was good, so was the ala carte food served by the friendly and helpful staffs and good service.

If you are photography enthusiast, you can have a chance to take the milky way during the midnight at the dark beach area.

All-in-all, Kila Senggigi beach hotel is a nice and comfortable place to stay with, recommended.

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island – Indonesia on July 2014

Categories
Tourism Malaysia

Seafood dinner along the Senggigi beach at Lombok island

Traveling almost about 1 hour 30 minutes (approx. 60km) from Sade Village, passed by Mataram City (Capitol of Lombok)…we finally reached the Senggigi beach of Lombok. All of us agree to have our seafood dinner at Warung Menega (S8.52497 E116.06554) before check in to the resort.

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The first scene that caught our attention was the smoky roof of the kitchen…

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Everyone was curious about what happening in the kitchen…then, we discovered the grilling method is using charcoal and coir which resulted the smoky environment…

Let’s have a tour in the kitchen before the dining area…

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The ‘warung’ (common word as a restaurant) had a simple setting, where you have a options of indoor dining area or the outdoor area on the beach. For us, we definitely choose the beach area…

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As usual, everyone was busy photographing the surrounding of the restaurant before the foods serve on table…

Next to the restaurant, there were many fishing boats parking around…felt excited because we will going to experience the boat ride tomorrow for island hoping, looking forward about it…

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The seafood served on table pretty fast, most of us had the same package which were the fish, prawns, clams and squids. Some of us chose only fish and some don’t take prawns… flexible package.
But all of us had one plate of kang-kong (water spinach) with the local recipe sambal chili, and unlimited rice…

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I like the local sambal very much! It was aromatic and hot!
Believe all the seafood grilled with the same sauce and recipe, the prawns, fish and squids were finger-linking good! And the clams taste the best among all…
All the seafood were perfectly succulent, sweet and spicy. Impressed by the local recipes. But the magical part was the yummy sauces…dark sweet soy sauce, garlic, local sambal and chili with onions. Every sauce provided different taste with the seafood, I love the chili onions and the sambal very much!

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It was a total different experience having our dinner here, while enjoying the seafood in our hands and watching the beautiful sunset…

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The outdoor dining area was full after the night fall…

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Beside the seafood delights and the sunset, I like to concentrate on those fishing boats back to the shores…

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We were satisfied with the seafood dinner in Warung Menega. As I look into the menu, prices are reasonable too…I guess I’ll be back again on my next visit to Lombok.

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island – Indonesia on July 2014

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Tourism Malaysia

Kuta beach of Lombok island

Less than 5km (10 minutes journey) from Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge, we visited the nearby beach – Kuta beach (S8.89492 E116.28319) of south Lombok island (there’s another Kuta beach in Bali which is different).
According to Pak Uji, meaning ‘Kuta’ is gateway at the south, therefore there’s another gateway in Bali too.

But we arrived at Kuta beach in poor timing, it was cloudy and low tide…

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Despite the weather, all of us just simply shoot surrounding to satisfied our cameras…:)

The beach is full of volcano rocks, and the major different from the others beaches we visited was the sands…it’s not actually ‘sands’, there were formation of round tiny stones! This was really special!

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Along the Kuta bay, the area is full of hotels and resorts, there’s also many activities area like cafe, restaurant and shops. I believe the night activities hear must be happening too, but I’m yet to experience it.

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Beside taking photos of the beach, one of our tour mate – Noelle who was enjoying playing with the children around and taking nice photos.

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Noticed there were children and women walking along the beach selling souvenirs and hand weaved cloths…I didn’t ask for the price…

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Before we leave the beach, I found this nature beauty standing alone on the volcano rock…it’s the only outstanding rock along the beach…

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There was nothing much, we left the beach after 30 minutes and continue our journey to the next destination…

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island – Indonesia on July 2014

Categories
Tourism Malaysia

Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island

Lombok island is located at Nusa Tenggara Barat of Indonesia. It is a island
with full of nature, unspoiled beach and friendly peoples. The island is
different with its neighbor – Bali island, which is less commercial and
more original…the island is suitable for nature lover and for those
who like relax holiday. The Lombok Tourism is doing their best to
attract more visitors to the island, they strongly promote the beautiful
nature of the island like Mount Rinjani and the rest…
If you like to know more of Lombok island, please click here.

Weather and climate in Lombok
Lombok is dry and less rain compare with Bali, the dry season run from May through September and the wet season is from October to April. Most of the tourists visit Lombok during the dry season, but the wet season is less humid and the rainfall is not overly high. The average year-round temperatures is 26°C to 29°C. I would prefer the month from August to October, because of the hot, humid, sunny and beautiful weather that perfect for photography.

The Airasia FAM trip to Lombok Island was on July, 2014, this trip was hosted by Airasia and Lombok Tourism Board. I was invited for the 4 days 3 nights trip together with a group of travel bloggers from North Penang, Johor Bahru and Singapore.

It was also the maiden direct flight from Senai to Lombok island, a day to remember 12th July 2014. There are 3 routes a week which is Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Airasia had launched 3 new flights from Senai International Airport to 1) Lombok island, 2) Jogjakarta and 3) Ho Chi Minh City.
‘Free’ sky shuttle bus provided from Singapore to Senai, it’s actually a hassle free traveling to Senai airport for Singapore passengers. The pickup points are : Kranji MRT station / Queen Street bus station / Newton Circus. For more information, please visit the Airasia website here.

There were 12 of us in the group…a lovely couple from Penang, 2 lovely ladies of Airasia from Kuala Lumpur, 4 popular bloggers from Singapore, 1 cute girl represent Airasia from Singapore and 3 bloggers from Johor Bahru included myself. We all met at Senai International Airport around 6.50am, and our journey to Lombok started…

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Our flight was filled with joyfulness! Some of the passengers were excited because they be able a ride on this AK486 direct flight from Senai to Lombok, they were going back home town!

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I noticed there was a male flight attendant had attracted most of the women on board, his name is Eddy who was the handsome guy on the AK486. 🙂

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There was an entertainment during the flight to Lombok. Some singing and souvenirs giveaway…everyone was so happy.

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We had our breakfast on board by this simple ‘nasi lemak’. Surprisingly, the sambal was yummy and we all like it. You can enjoy the tasty meals for 20% off by pre-book online (in the official website).

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The flight took 2 hours and 40 minutes. Once we touched down Lombok International Airport, we had a warm welcome from the Lombok Tourism…

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The Lombok International Airport was just started operation on 1st October 2011, the main purpose of the airport is to promote the beautiful island to the World. It located at the south west of Mataram (Capital of Lombok Island), and the airport deploys in 551.8 hectares with cost Rp.945.8 billion. The Lombok International Airport area has the second largest area after Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

The airport clearance was smooth and all of us were greeted by Pak Uji – The Lombok Tourism’s Public Relations Director at the airport. He was also our super tour guide for the 4 days 3 nights trip in Lombok island.

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Because of the airport location, we were not check into the resort immediately, but to cover the south part of the island before heading to our resort at Senggiri Beach.

Our itinerary in Lombok – 4 days 3 nights :-
Day 1
*  The first stop before the beach of Selong Belanak for photo taking.
*  Selong Belanak beach (through Sempiak Villas)
*  Mawun beach
*  Lunch at Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge
*  Kuta beach of Lombok
*  The Sade Village for Sasak villagers – the native of Lombok
*  Dinner at Warong Menega, Senggiri beach
*  Check-in to Kila Senggiri Beach Resort.
*  Free and easy.

Day 2
*  Grilled fish stall spotted before the Tawun jetty to Gili Nanggu.
*  Snorkeling and islands hoping – Gili Nanggu.
*  Lunch at Nirvana Beach Restaurant, Gili Sudak (another island next to Gili Nanggu)
*  Starfish spotted at the return trip from Gili Sudak.
*  Enjoyed Arabian Cuisine for dinner and Al-Hamra Restaurant, Mataram.
*  Enjoy and relax at Happy Cafe, Senggiri beach.

Day 3
*  Visited Pasar Gunungsari (local wet market)
*  Lunch at Senaru Village
*  Sendang Gile Waterfall – Mount Rinjani national park’s best known attraction
*  Tuna sate stall at Tanjung
*  Autore pearl farm
*  Cape Malimbu for sunset photo taking
*  Farewell dinner with Pak Taufan and the Lombok Tourism at Kila Senggiri Resort

Day 4
*  Breakfast at Kila Senggiri Resort
*  Bye-bye to Lombok and depart for Lombok International Airport.

The places that we missed :-
Sukarare village – renowned for its traditional hand weaving of brightly patterned songket, ikat and sarong cloth.
Taman Narmada built in 1727 by King Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Karang Asem as the kingly garden as well as the place to worship. Its spring water is believed to grant the eternal youth for the believers.
Lingsar temple (built in 1714) – famous as the only Hindhu temple in the world, which also happily accept their Moslem brothers to worship together. This temple symbolizes the harmony and unity of both religions.
Banyumulek Village which famous for its pottery
Pusuk Pass
Autore pearl farm

I was really impressed by this magical island from the unspoiled nature, it won’t be bore for me to travel as many times as I can. Because of the places we missed due to limited time on our trip, that will be a good reason for me to go back to Lombok.
It was a blissful holiday for us!

Beside the island, I would like to say thousand of thanks to Pak Uji, who was the perfect host and very knowledgeable during the trip. He can answer all our questions immediately without checking his tourism bible. Pak Uji is a friendly, humble and talented guy. Our trip was well arranged by him and the responsible driver – Pak Zaki (he speak Indonesian and limited English)
This 2 guys made our Pleasant Vacation in Lombok!

Contact information :-
*  Pak Uji
    Cell phone – +62 817-5704-926
    Email – ujigaffar@yahoo.com

*  Pak Zaki
    Cell phone – +62-878-6356-4900

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*  The detail blog post of every places we visited will be coming soon, stay tune!