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This
is a personal Tours and Travel Advisor for
those who wish to explore the beauty of Indonesia.
Personal means that I personally would answer any question you might
ask regarding this country.
As a native
Indonesian living in a busy chaotic polluted metropolis capital city Jakarta
I hardly realized how beautiful and charming this country is, until I had
a chance to see the other parts of the archipelago.
Officially I am not a travel agent (yet). Why I created this website ?
Just read my story...
One day some computers at the
branch office of the company I worked with caught some nasty viruses,
"funlove" etc.
As an IT guy I had to fly to Mataram, a city in Lombok island,
about 2 hours flight from Jakarta, to fix the problem. I thought 3 to 4
days would be enough to clean the PCs...and I might as well bring my
family along, my wife Ami and my lovely daughter Syakira.
We stayed at a four star hotel, by the Senggigi beach. I left my
wife and my daughter at the hotel and worked until evenings without seeing
the daylight...not to mention the bright sandy beach of Senggigi...
When the job was done, on the 4th day, Thursday,...I just realized I
haven't re-confirmed my return ticket to Jakarta. Anyway...we checked-out
from the hotel and drove to the airport. We might be lucky, who knows...
Unfortunately or I'd rather say luckily, all the seats flights to Jakarta
were fully booked until Sunday. At first I was confused...didn't know what
to do....and then a very good friend of mine in Mataram branch office, I.B.M.
Wiradnyana, who accompanied me during my stay in Mataram suggested
that I take the company car
with me....so we drove back to the hotel. This time with a confirmed
ticket for Sunday flight.
Once we got there...the room rate was already different ...more expensive
than the voucher rate arranged by the Travel Agent in Jakarta, and it was barely hours since I checked out from this hotel. After arguing for
some time with the hotel manager, and not willing to give him any extra
money, we decided to find another hotel.....and that was when the holiday
began...we had a chance to explore some parts of Lombok island while waiting
until Sunday...
We drove north to find another affordable and yet a comfortable hotel.
Along the way (Senggigi coast) the sight of Senggigi beach was
breathtaking...
We stopped by the hill, took some pictures and drank coconut
milk...another tourist couple...looks and sounds Japanese...took some
pictures too..
At the end of the day we found a quite comfortable hotel by the Senggigi
beach. Believe me, hotels in Lombok are a lot cheaper than in Bali, not to
mention Jakarta.
The next day we drove to a village outside Mataram famous of
beautiful artistic potteries (terracotta). At first we stopped by some shops where they
sold those potteries. Out of curiosity, we explored further into the
village and stopped by a local family who invited us to their small house
(I'd prefer to call it a hut...). They served us tea and some cookies, my
daughter became friends with their little kids.
The father of the house, the mother, all their relatives made
potteries...even their grandmother was seen burning potteries...
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Of course we bought some potteries from them, and the grandmother gave us
extra two right from the fireplace when we parted.
The following days we drove around Senggigi or just sat by the beach. In
the afternoon watched the sunset. In the evening had some dinner or coffee
at the cozy restaurant at the Senggigi main street.
Since that day, I told myself I have to share the experience we've had, the
not so many places we've seen, the bright sky, blue sea and waves, white
warm sandy beach...the calm, quiet nights with sparkling stars above the
night sky .... the not-too-naive people but anyway ..... the primitive island
of Lombok ... and also the rest of Indonesia...
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