A Pre-Pandemic Long Weekend In Lombok
16th September 2020
Back in March before the pandemic, we decided to go away for my birthday, which is a bit of a tradition for me! I absolutely love Indonesia and love Bali, but for personal reasons it didn’t feel right to return there for a while. I’d always heard wonderful things about Lombok but for some reason thought it was a bit inaccessible, which is partly true - it’s only Singapore Airlines that fly there directly from Singapore 3 times a week and they aren’t the cheapest airline. Luckily we were flush with points and managed to get redemption flights for just 15,000 points return (the same as to Bali). The flights are perfectly timed for a long weekend, flying out early in the morning on Friday and returning late on Monday.
When it came to choosing a location, I scoured the Singapore Facebook groups for inspiration. Two resorts had countless recommendations and after some brief Googling and reading reviews, we decided on Jeeva Klui.
Flying into Lombok was a dream. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit Hawaii, you’ll appreciate the rolling green mountainous landscape of Lombok. The airport is rather small, so it was a breeze to flick through and into our hotel transport. It was about an hour and a half to Jeeva Klui, and it was then we realised that Lombok is probably akin to Bali about 25 years ago. Not built up at all, but decent enough roads to cruise down.
Jeeva Klui is located on the western coast of the island and on a clear day, you can see Bali and Mount Agung from the resort! As we pulled up, I knew I was going to love it. The whole area reminded me of northern Bali, which is an area I fell in love with a few years ago. The resort is right on the beach but has an infinity pool overlooking the Agung view and depending on which room you book, your own private plunge pool. Jeeva Klui is a classic Indonesian resort with a thoughtfully designed interior - some reviews say it’s looking a bit dated now but to me it was classic Indonesia, lovely stone paving, big solid wooden villas and wonderful friendly service.
We chose a pool villa for our stay which was ample sized, with a large outdoor living area, massive walk in wardrobe and refreshing outdoor shower. I knew it would be the perfect place to relax!
When you visit Lombok, you have the chance to visit the Gili Islands extremely easily. Even better, we were able to organize a day trip right from our hotel - if the tide is right they will pick you up on the beach at your hotel. The Gili Islands was about a 30-40 minute ride away by fishing boat, during which we planned our itinerary. As we were the only guests, we decided we’d start with snorkeling and explore some of the islands a bit later on. We went in the first week of March and things were already beginning to quieten down thanks to COVID-19, and we were lucky enough to spend a relatively peaceful day snorkeling with sea turtles, relaxing on the beach and snacking in some of the Gili Island bars.
It’s only on the return trip to Lombok did I realise how absolutely breathtaking the scenery is. There is something so incredibly stunning about the thick jungle vegetation atop hill after hill. For some reason, it makes me feel very much at home.
Lombok is a huge island with plenty to discover, so the next day we hired a driver to take us down to some of the southern beaches which I’d seen hundreds of photos of online. There are no fancy beach bars down south, you’ll be relaxing directly on the beach with plenty of local warungs to supply you with food and drink to keep you entertained during the day. It is exactly the type of exploring I love doing, relaxed, laid back and totally natural.
The saddest thing about the southern part of the island is that it is currently under massive redevelopment to be a new tourism hub for an upcoming moto GP. There were giant machines rolling around flattened land, it honestly looked like a scene out of Avatar. This had a direct impact on some of the warungs we encountered, who were so desperate for tourism they fought with each other over who got to serve us. We promised to come back, hopefully before it all changes and next time renting our own car so we can explore in our own time. I have this vision of me living somewhere in Indonesia, driving a beaten up Suzuki Jimny and I think Lombok could serve me this dream!
It’s about a 2 hour drive down south from Jeeva Klui, so when we returned we dined at the restaurant which served an excellent tuna sambal matah, one of my very favourite things to eat. So good in fact that I ate it for dinner two days in a row.
We spent the rest of the time lying by the pool or reading on the beach. Lombok is not like Bali so you will be hard pressed to stay in area that’s walking distance to many shops or restaurants. As we just wanted to relax, we didn’t bother charging around besides our two expeditions, which is actually more than enough exploring for a 4 day itinerary.
I didn’t want to leave our little Indonesian home. The service at Jeeva Klui was extremely personable and the next time I get to go back, I’ll stay for a week.
We feel so lucky to have gotten one last trip in this year before the pandemic. Just one week after we returned, Singapore implemented a mandatory quarantine for anyone flying into the country. We all know what happened after that - full lockdown for 2 months!
It’ll be some time before we can all travel again with such ease, but I am hoping the resort and staff will all still be there, ready to welcome us back.
