LOMBOK- GILI AIR : 5 DAYS (HONEYMOON) ITINERARY

Assalamualaikum and hi!

Alhamdulillah. I've been super busy for the past months because of the wedding preparation haha! Okay trust me, the workload at the office is already killing and then I must handle the wedding preparation too, can you imagine?

Penat tahap pantang letak kepala atas meja/ bantal terus lelap tau!

So, we choose Lombok for our Honeymoon destination for these reasons:
1. Budget -Indonesian currency is smaller than Malaysian, so yeah! Besides, Indonesia has a variety of islands!
2. Island- we just wanna chill & relax this time as we're super tired preparing the wedding + workload from the office haha

We use travel agent for some of our activities and transport as Lombok Airport is quite far from Gili Islands.

||     THE TRAVEL AGENT / SUPIR          

Our travel guide was mas Wira.

The package is negotiable. It depends on how many days are you planning to stay and do activities too. As for us, our budget is a bit tight and we (me hahaha!) didn't wanna hire any travel agent or supir at first because i'm afraid it would costs us too much.

But then we do some research and found out that there's not much difference between going for yourself  and hiring him (I can say, it's almost the same costs) and some more, we'll get more information on the places too.

He loves to take pictures too! He take most of amazing shots for us. You can deal and discuss everything with him, the package depends on which part of Lombok you wanna explore.

Here's his contact number for you guys to make deals and ask for his package:

Mas Wira +62 819-0711-3606

yes, private boat included in package!

||     THE ITINERARY          

Kindly note that the activity with "**" mark is included in the tour package. So, here's our Itinerary to Lombok & Gili Air

P/S : prices shown are for 2 paxs except for simcard. We just bought 1 simcard and use phone hotspot hehe

Day 1
Pickup @ Airport**
Simcard Axiata, Rp 45,000 for 8gb internet, free calls to any Indonesian numbers
Lunch @ Restaurant Nada Ayam Nyaman, Rp 170,000
Villa Hantu, FOC
Malaka / Bukit Malimbu, FOC**
To Gili Air by private Speedboat from Teluk Nara**
Check In
Free activities @ night:
     - Dinner @ Warung Banyuwangi Rp 32,000
     - Snacks @ Cocomart Rp 55,000

Day 2 
Private tour @ Gili Trawangan**
Private snorkelling @ 3 Gili**
Lunch @ Gili Meno Rp 220,000
Free activities at night:
     - Dinner @ Warung Banyuwangi Rp 20,000
     - Snacks @ Convenience store Rp15,000

Day 3
Own free activities:
     - Cyle around the island (2/3 of the island)
     - Rest (purpose of the trip kekeke~)
     - Dinner @ Warung Nusantara Rp 80,000 (THE LALAPANS ARE TOTALLY RECOMMENDED!)
     - Snacks @ convenience store Rp10,000

Day 4
Own free activities:
     - Rest, again (purpose of the trip kekeke~), plus it's raining that day
     - Continue cycle around the island
     - Gili Gelato Rp 80,000
     - Bakso Rp 20,000
     - Dinner @ Waroeng Alam Damai Rp 75,000
Day 5 (all activities included in package)  
8 am @ Jetty, Back to mainland by speedboat**
Gandrung, Ud Amelia - place for souvenir & snacks, shop at your own discretion haha
Sukarara- Songket making, need to donate some money
Mawun Beach
Tanjung An
Kuta Beach
Sasak Village Entry Rp20,000 per person, not included in tour
Late lunch Rp 170,000
To Airport

view from Villa Hantu

View from Bukit Malimbu

clear water near Gili Trawangan

snorkeling time!

Jetty @ Gili Air

Sasak Village

Mawun Beach

||     TOTAL COSTS          

Travel Agent
     - Rp 3,000,000, includes transport to/from Airport via Car, to/from Gili Air via Private boat
     - Includes 1 full day private snorkeling

Sim card
     - Axiata Rp 45,000 for 8gb internet, free calls to all Indonesian numbers

Food
     - Rp 890,000 for 2 of us, including snacks
     - can save more if you bring food from home. we forgot =.='''

Entrance fee & donations
     - Sasak Village Rp 40,000 for 2 paxs
     - total entrance fee include donations to Sukarara & Sasak Village : Rp 137,000

Accommodation
     - Private pool vila HERE for 5D4N RM 1,554.53 after RM 120 discount on Airbnb
     - Click HERE to register and get RM 120 discount!

Total expenses = RM 2,694.69 / 2 = RM 1,347.35 per person 
**exclude flights & souvenir

There are places we didn't go due to our budget. I really wanna go to the pink beach but need to add 1 more day (and of course moneyyy) since it's quite far from the place we were staying.

it's okay. There's a pink beach in Philippines too, kena simpan duit lagi je haha!

Cows on the hill, by the beach. How cool is that?

Tanjung An 

||     HERE'S SOME ADVICE          

Food
You can save a lot if your Accommodation includes breakfast and as for us, we can order as much breakfast we wanted. so yeah, we did that and skip buying lunch hehe. But if you want something else for lunch but still wanna save, please, bring your own food. Cemanalah sistur boleh lupa habis bab tu. megi sebungkus pon tak bawak jemah oi. hahaha!

Flights
For flight tickets, you can survey and buy at promo time. We went via Airasia, obviously because it was cheaper than the other airlines haha. use skyscanner and always be aware of flight ticket promotions.

They say you need to clean your browser history & cookies if you wanna purchase the flight ticket. We're not really sure about that (we did it, the price was that. We didn't do it, the price was still that. So we're not sure hehe) but you can try. Don't forget to Google "tricks to buy cheap flight tickets"!

We just share the luggage, and buy 20kgs to Lombok and 25kgs back. and it's more than enough because each of us carry a backpack too. And, because we didn't shop a lot. hehe.

We exchanged RM700 per person, and this is the money we used to pay our travel agent, food, souvenir, and some shopping. We didn't do much shopping then, and as souvenir, buy them at Gandrung or in the Sasak Village. Sukarara is expensive, but if you love quality handmade items, and have money to spend, then you can shop here.

||     THE DOWNSIDE           

Okay so we experienced something really new on the last day.

Mawun Beach, Tanjung An and Kuta Beach is at the South part of Lombok. They are so, so beautiful but the culture of each part of Lombok is different, and we are a bit uneasy with the sellers here. Okay, at Gili Air and other parts of Lombok, seller will say, "come sir, have a look. we have cheap souvenirs here", or so. And if you just smile/ ignore them, it ends there.

But not here at South part of Lombok.

They will chase you (read : CHASE). The moment we got off the car, the seller already follow us and trynna sell whatever they are selling. It's actually more to forcing you to buy, instead of selling it the normal way. I hate that. When we first arrive at Tanjung An, kids approach us and trynna sell some bracelet. And when we refused to, they say that they need money for school, and it's okay if we didn't buy but please give them money.

And another kid came. And they say the same thing together. Beg us for money together. The rule here: If you give/buy to/from one, you must give/buy to/from everyone.  =.=

I forgot about that, and stopped and bought something for mom at Tanjung An since the other place we went before (Sukarara) was expensive and I regret it. When I purchase from one seller, the other seller rush to me and sell the same items, cheaper (desperate price), and of course you don't buy from every seller right? That's when they'll say bad things about you. They even said Malaysians are the worst, stingy bla bla bla. And they won't stop mocking & say bad things about you, ever! 😠😠😠

Mas Wira said, if you don't want to buy, please say you don't want, CLEARLY. Don't say "it's okay" or "later" because they won't stop chasing you. I mean, even when we said we don't want, they still chase us. Imagine when we said "later". hahah! Aku rasa macam Hollywood stars kena kejar ngn fanatic fan. There were parts when Mas Wira stop and stare at the seller (with fierce face haha), then only the seller stop following us.

Mas Wira & our driver also said that this is the culture here, even them as locals, feel uneasy about this. You need to pay entrance fee to each of these beaches too (included in package). It might be because these are the only ways for them to earn money because the area is not well developed yet. So they're trynna make money with any ways possible. Even sitting on the couches on the beach costs you money there. Toilet using nak masuk kena bayar. nasib baik surau kat Mawun beach tu takyah bayar =.=

If you're not fierce enough, or brave enough- get yourself a travel agent. At least to this part of Lombok. But if you are brave, and don't wanna hire a travel agent, please be safe okay!

You can just google, bad reviews on Kuta, Lombok. You'll get what I mean

     
We love, love Gili Island! Definitely will come back to Gili Air, especially.

But as for the South parts- Mawun Beach, Kuta and Tanjung An, no thanks. It's not the place, it's the attitude of them sellers that makes me feel "I'm done" about those place.


Till then,
Thank you for reading this entry!
hn