NEWS

ISSUE 103

FESTIVE BREAKS IN LOMBOK!

With less than four weeks until Christmas, Lombok is preparing for another busy holiday season. The best hotels on Lombok and the popular Gili Islands are already reporting heavy bookings and, with special packages and celebrations for Christmas, many are sure to be fully booked over the coming weeks.

To find out more, pick up a copy of The Lombok Guide from the locations listed on http://www.thelombokguide.com/deadline_publishing.html or visit www.thelombokguide.com and discover the magic of Lombok for yourself… like thousands of others, you’ll be enchanted!

Back | Top

HOW TO GET FROM THE NEW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO SENGGIGI

As with any new airport, procedures at the new Lombok International Airport are still taking shape. Each week, services such as airport taxis and travel agencies are becoming better organised, but it can still be confusing for a first-time traveller landing in Lombok.

To help make your airport experience more pleasant, we’ve put together a guide to arriving at LIA and where to go from there. Special thanks to David Clegg and Iain Kent for their contributions.

Disembarking from your aircraft, walk across the tarmac and enter the terminal building through the glass doors on the ground floor. International arrivals will be directed to customs clearance and Visa on Arrival counters. Baggage carousels are clearly signposted, as is the terminal exit.

Pass through the exit doors and turn left to avoid the crowd of people waiting for passengers who are being met by friends or hotel staff. If you have booked an airport transfer with your accommodation, look for a person holding a small sign with your name written on it. If not, veer left around the crowd and then head to the front of the terminal.

As you walk out of the arrivals terminal, you may be met by a barrage of touts who will offer (among other things) transport or taxi services. These services are often overpriced and can cause unnecessary hassles. Licenced airport taxis are available and are the safest and most economical.

It is best to ignore these touts and continue walking as if you know exactly where you are going. If they are very persistent, say “No, thank you” or “Tidak, terima kasih”, avoid any eye contact with them and keep walking.

Some may attempt to pick up your bags and head off without your consent. Keep your luggage intact and under your control, and head out towards the front of the terminal. 

If you want a taxi to Senggigi (or anywhere else), turn left after leaving the arrivals hall and you will see a row of 5 desks.  Go to the last desk in the row, which now has a sign “Taxi Service”.  Buy a ticket there for Rp 17,500. The ticket is a service charge from the airport authority (Angkasa Pura I).

Take the ticket to the first taxi in the queue, give it the driver and tell him where you want to go. Taxis are metered and should cost between Rp 140,000 to 170,000, depending on your exact destination. Deal directly with the taxi driver and be sure that he turns the meter on when you get in the car. Generally, a fare to Ampenan will be around Rp 120 000. To central Senggigi, it should cost around Rp 150 000.

If you are able to give the taxi driver a precise address of where you are staying this will help. Your booked hotel or villa will be able to supply this information and the average cost of the taxi. 

For your safety, request that the taxi driver locks all doors when you are inside during the journey.  If you are stopped for any reason during your journey, ensure the doors stay locked at all times, even if this may mean that the taxi driver has to communicate with anyone outside the vehicle through a partially open window. 

If you have any doubts about the driver, as a precaution write down his name and number from the identification card displayed on the vehicle’s dashboard.

The journey time from Bandara Internasional Lombok (BIL) or Lombok International Airport (LIA, as it is now becoming known), to Senggigi is approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes by taxi. 

This is likely to reduce to around one hour when the new 21 km dual carriageway, currently under construction, is completed (this is 60% complete as of November 2011). If you are travelling at night, check out the amazing new solar-powered street lights along the new road.

Another alternative to taxis is to take the new air-conditioned DAMRI airport shuttle bus. Look for the large white bus with the “DAMRI” logo, normally parked to the right on the entrance road directly in front of the arrivals hall.

There is no ticket office for this service. The fixed fare of Rp 25,000 per person is collected by uniformed DAMRI staff, who will issue you with a ticket once you have boarded the bus. Just head straight out of the arrivals terminal to the bus and the driver or his helper will assist you. Baggage is stored under the bus in the luggage compartment.

Officially, the scheduled departure times are every hour for shuttle buses to Sweta Bus Terminal (near the city of Mataram) and every 1 and 1/2 hours to Senggigi, from 3am until 8pm. However, you may find yourself on a bus that combines both routes, stopping first near Mataram and continuing on to Senggigi.

The DAMRI shuttle uses modern Mercedes buses which seat 40 passengers and are air conditioned and reasonably comfortable, although they can get a bit cramped if it is a combined city/Senggigi service. Some drivers also have the unfortunate habit of playing Indonesian pop music very loud to entertain passengers!

The helpful drivers tend to stop at other popular points along the route, including dropping off passengers at the roundabout in Gerung (useful if you are heading to Sekotong or Lembar), several points near the city, and outside the old Selaparang Airport on the way to Ampenan.

The trip terminates outside the Galleria shops on the main street in Senggigi (diagonally opposite Asmara Restaurant). If you need to stop beforehand, let the driver know and he will usually accommodate your request. The trip to Senggigi takes around 90 minutes. At the shuttle stop in Senggigi, flag down a metered Blue Bird taxi to take you to your hotel or villa (or even the nearest bar!) 
This airport shuttle service is also available for transfers from Senggigi to the airport. Board the bus at the Galleria stop (you will see the DAMRI buses parked on the roadside) and pay Rp 25,000 for your ticket on board.

Back | Top

• Gilibookings.com is a new service that makes booking accommodation and fast boats easy! The one-stop service offers good rates on hotels and villas in Bali, Gili Trawangan and Lombok, as well as fast boat tickets between Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands… all available online, with immediate confirmation and e-ticketing.

The innovative site also offers special deals and discount rates for some of the best diving in Lombok, the Gilis, Bali and Nusa Lembongan when you make your booking. Now you can check availability, book a full range of holiday accommodation on these paradise islands, and arrange speedy transfers between locations with the best and safest of the fast boat operators – all with the click of a mouse. How easy is that?! www.gilibookings.com

• The Beach House on Gili Trawangan, already well-known for serving excellent meals, has just released its new “healthy” menus, with an emphasis on fresh and healthy food, with a gourmet twist. Breakfast includes exotic choices, with an emphasis on home-made produce from the resort’s own kitchen such as “Fruit toast or organic gluten free pumpkin bread with butter and preserve”, “Thick cut toasted banana bread with ricotta and berry compote”, “House goji berry granola, apple puree, vanilla yoghurt and soy or regular milk”, “Buttermilk beetroot pancakes, fresh orange, caramelised macadamias and goats curd”, “Spinach and ricotta hotcakes, smoked salmon, crème fraiche, watercress and confit tomato”, and more.

For the less health conscious, there are “Eggs benedict, toasted English muffin, kassler, poached eggs and Hollandaise” and a Full Australian Breakfast: “Eggs your way, bacon, sausage, baked beans and toasted sourdough with Vegemite”!

The lunch menu is equally varied and delicious with a big range of salads, such as “Rucola Salad with Pears, Walnuts, Parmesan and White Balsamic & Extra Virgin Olive Oil Dressing”, “Pumpkin & Goats Cheese Salad with Fried Chick Peas, Mixed Lettuce & Sun Dried Tomatoes with a Lemon Mustard Dressing”. There are also burgers, wraps and baguettes in a variety of mouth-watering combinations, including a Caesar Salad Style Baguette of “Poached Chicken, Cos Lettuce, Crispy Bacon, Parmesan & Caesar Dressing”, or “Grilled Focaccia with Honey Smoked Ham, Mozzarella, Tomato Rucola & Mustard, Parsley Butter”. More substantial fare at lunch includes Home-made Lobster Ravioli, Beef Carpaccio of Australian Tenderloin, Peking Duck Stack with Fried Wontons, steaks, chicken dishes and more.

At night, the menu gets even more gourmet with “Seared Canadian Scallops with a Mango Chilli Salsa”, “Imported Oyster Plate”, “Chicken Saltimbocca”, “Sashimi Tuna Steak”, “Duck, Curry with Rambutan”, “Grilled Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon served with Lime Aioli” and more.

This is only a small sampling of the new and innovative menu put together by newly appointed Executive Chef, Josh Job, from Daydream Island in far north Queensland, Australia… you might need more than a few days there to try it all! www.beachhousegilit.com

• In order to improve overall security in Indonesia and eliminate the widespread illegal practice of duplicate identity cards, the government introduced new electronic identity cards (e-KTP) starting in August 2011.
The law requires that all Indonesian nationals must be in possession of a valid KTP issued by their home province.

The replacement of the old KTP (Kartu Tanda Penduduk) identity cards with the modern electronic versions is part of a national program aimed at eliminating the prevalence of cases where an individual holds a KTP from more than one province.

A major headache for electoral staff in previous elections is expected to be at least partially resolved through the introduction of the e-KTP cards. During the 2009 national legislative and presidential elections, ghost voters, unregistered voters and people using multiple IDs confounded election organisers.

The new smart cards are equipped with an electronic chip that contains both the signature and the fingerprints of the cardholder and more data than recorded previously, such as information on land ownership and tax status. The cards will also include a permanent Single Identity Number (SIN), which can also be used for banking purposes.

Back | Top

MAGNIFICENT, MAGICAL… MENTIGI!

Something magical is happening on the hillside overlooking magnificent Mentigi Bay on Lombok’s northwest coast. The face of the hill is being terraced to make way for a new way of living, using earth-friendly dome constructions.

There is nothing new about dome constructions, but they are making a come-back as architects and builders re-think modern home construction in consideration of environmental impact, extreme weather changes, natural disasters, and the need for energy efficiency in the 21st century.

The earliest form of domes can be seen in the igloo, while the classic shape is found in ancient Middle Eastern and Roman architecture, including the awe-inspiring Pantheon in Rome, which dates from the 2nd century.

The curved shape of an igloo exhibits the best qualities of dome structures: great strength and good insulation. The strength is created by the arched shape of the building – just as an egg is considered the strongest form in nature, with forces spread equally across the arched surface.

A properly constructed dome is earthquake, tornado and hurricane resistant (the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, rates them as “near-absolute protection" from F5 tornadoes and Category 5 Hurricanes).

In addition, domes are very economical to build and use less building materials than conventional houses… making them an ideal solution for housing in Indonesia.

These qualities – combined with the graceful curved beauty of dome buildings – have inspired PT Greenland, the owners of Mentigi Bay, to introduce dome construction to Lombok.

The project is being developed on the hillside overlooking a beautiful stretch of beach at Mentigi Bay, just a few minutes south of Teluk Nara harbour – one of the main transfer points for the Gili islands.

18 building blocks are spread out over 5 hectares of green hillside, with six of those already sold. The views from all blocks are magnificent – with panoramic views of the west coast beaches, across to the three Gili Islands just a short distance away, and over the Lombok Strait to Bali. The sunsets with Mt Agung silhouetted on the horizon are breathtaking.

Reluctant to mar the natural beauty of the area, PT Greenland decided to develop only 30% of the land; reserving the rest for green spaces and trees native to the region.

“I first saw the land from the ocean, as we were sailing around the northern tip of Lombok,” said co-owner, Britta Slippens, who also operates Blue Water Cruises boat charter in Bali and Lombok. “It was such a magnificent piece of land I knew we had to protect the integrity by keeping it natural, full of plants and flowers, with buildings of organic shapes that blend with the environment.”

Many of the domes are designed by a German artist and architect who once studied under Salvatore Dali and who has been building domes in Indonesia for many years. His designs are visionary and extraordinary, while still incorporating practical and functional living spaces.

The domes come in different styles and sizes, depending on personal preferences, with the configuration of domes being virtually endless. The domes currently under construction use bamboo for the frame, as it is readily available locally, extremely flexible with a high tensile strength, and will not rust or corrode in Lombok’s coastal environment. The domes are then constructed from concrete or clay; again avoiding problems common to the island, such as corrosion and attack by termites.

The dome, for a number of reasons, is very energy efficient. The spherical shape of the dome offers minimal surface area for the volume they contain, so there is less surface exposed to the sun and less heat transfer. The one piece construction of the dome also eliminates many of the joins through which air can leak; though this is mitigated to some degree in residential domes by the addition of multiple doors and windows. As a dome has a much more open volume than a box shape building because of the lack of corners, this also gives a dome better air circulation.

Heating and cooling a dome typically costs 1/4 to 1/2 less than a conventional building of the same size… which makes a lot of sense in the tropics.

Low maintenance is also a quality of domes. Wind, rain and tropical storms inflict relatively little stress on the exterior of a dome and its shape sheds water quickly.

Naturally, domes need to be constructed properly and this is where the skills and experience of the architect are important.

“I spend 90% of my time in the planning and architecture; 10% in the building,” he said. “Usually it is the other way around. It doesn’t take so long to build if you have a properly executed design.”

The Mentigi Bay project has also bought life to the local communities, who have been involved with the development from the beginning. Working with Britta and the Mentigi Bay staff, local children have been learning about conservation and rubbish management. This waste management project has been so successful that the local village constructed and paid for their own rubbish bins to be placed along the roadside. Local mothers and fathers are employed at Mentigi Bay’s beachfront property and the small café there.

Working alongside the chief architect, local men and women are now learning how to construct domes and have embraced the concept with enthusiasm.

“We want to share this expertise with local people,” he said, “as an alternative to traditional construction and as a new skill for the future. They are now a really good team; hardworking and eager to learn.”

With the curved domes echoing the domed roofs of the mosques in the villages, it may not be long before we see local people building domes to live in… as is the case in New Ngelepen village in Jogjakarta, East Java; an area devastated by earthquakes in 2006.

Back | Top

LION AIR IS ROARING TO GO

During his recent visit to Bali, US President Barack Obama happily presided over a contract signing ceremony between Indonesia’s Lion Air and Boeing Corporation for the purchase of 230 aircraft worth US $21.7 billion.

Sweetening the deal, Lion Air has also taken an option on the purchase of an additional 150 planes worth a further US $14 billion. The purchase of the initial 230 planes will be funded by a 12 year bank loan from US Ex-Im Bank.

Lion Air, an established and important customer of Boeing, currently operates 178 Boeing Next Generation B-737s.

At the signing ceremony between Boeing and Lion Air at the Grand Hyatt Resort in Bali, President Obama lauded the historic importance of the deal for the Chicago-based aircraft maker that employs more than 100,000 people in the United States and called the agreement signed in Bali “the biggest commercial transaction in the history of Boeing Aircraft.”

Lion Air CEO, Rusdi Kirana – a travel agent before he and his brother, Kusnan, pooled $850,000 – started operating Lion Air with a single aircraft in 1999.

Since then, Lion Air has become Indonesia’s largest air carrier, controlling 38% of the passenger market and carrying 20.5 million passengers in 2010. In comparison, the national flag carrier, Garuda, carried only 12.3 million passengers in 2010.

With plans for an open-sky arrangement in Asia by 2015, a massive Boeing purchase sets the airline up for further expansion into the Asian market but for now the biggest market is Indonesia, with the number of domestic air passengers jumping 22 percent, from 43 million in 2009 to 53 million in 2010, according to Indonesia’s statistics agency.  That trend has continued in 2011.

Back | Top

BALI DECLARATION SIGNED AT ASEAN SUMMIT

ASEAN leaders at the recent Summit meeting in Bali have jointly signed the “Bali Concord III”, committing to take an active role in facing a variety of global challenges.

The State News Agency, Antara, reports that the “Bali Concord III,” also known as the “Bali Declaration,” was signed at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center on Thursday, 17 November 2011.

The ten heads of government from ASEAN members signing the declaration were: The Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen; Sultan Hasanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam; the Prime Minister of Laos, Thongsing Thammavong; the President of Myanmar, Thein Sein; the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak; Philippine President, Benigno Aquino III; Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong; the Prime Minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra; the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dun; and Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Reflecting the three pillars of ASEAN, namely “political security, economic welfare and culture”, the declaration encompassed joint action and shared perceptions on:

• Conflict resolution, battling transnational crime, piracy, ending corruption and nuclear disarmament.
• Participation in the global economy, increasing economic capacity within ASEAN, the adoption of production standards, commodity distribution, improving economic access and technological advancement, increasing investment in agriculture, and energy diversification. 
• Natural disaster relief and prevention, climate change, health, education and culture.

Back | Top

LOCAL SCENE

CRUISING THE SW GILIS

With 13 stunningly beautiful islands just off the coast, there's never enough time to explore all the amazing Southwest Gilis! Using Gili Asahan as our base, we visit just a few...

Back | Top

MR FIXER (Tongue-in-cheek answers to your personal and building problems)

QUESTION: My wife and I have retired to the holiday island of Lombok and have bought a nice 2 bedroom retirement villa with a pool and a small garden with nice valley views. We are both dog lovers and seem to have adopted a local stray dog, who is always happy to see us and acts as our security guard. He sleeps outside our gate and is always there, day or night. He doesn’t ask for much. When we arrive home he is always there to greet us. In between scratching and licking his privates, he does doggy laughs and doggy smiles; he is so pleased to see us with his tail wagging so hard, he nearly falls over! 

To begin with, we started feeding him with leftover food scraps but have since started buying Barkalot dog biscuits for him. Sometimes I go for a walk and he follows like a faithful servant. Just to keep him happy on our journeys together into the local forest, I always have a pocket full of Barkalot biscuits, which I hand to him every now and again. One day, I went for a walk and my contortionist four-legged friend was nowhere to be seen. I felt a bit peckish and decided to try one of the doggy biscuits. To my surprise, they were very tasty, especially the round green ones which taste of fish! I have since become addicted to Barkalot biscuits and am thinking of trying Friskies cat biscuits for a change. Do you think my addiction is harmful?

MR FIXER: Doggy biscuits are full of essential minerals and vitamins necessary for strong teeth and a glossy coat. You should be okay, as long as you don’t get a sudden urge to cross the street to smell someone’s bottom!  

QUESTION:  I hope you can help me. The other day I set off to go shopping, leaving my husband in the house watching TV. The car stalled and then it broke down about a kilometer up the road, so I had to walk back to get my husband’s help. When I got home I couldn’t believe my eyes: he was in the bedroom with our pembantu!

I am 32 years old, my husband is 34 and our pembantu is 18! My husband and I have been married for ten years. When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted he had been having an affair with the pembantu for the past six months. He won’t go to counseling, and I’m afraid I am a wreck and need advice urgently. Can you please help?

MR FIXER: A car stalling after being driven for only a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults in the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these solves the problem, the fault could be in the fuel pump itself, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors. I hope this helps. (Thanks, Nigel – Ed)

QUESTION: Just before I married my wife, Wendy, I had her name tattooed on my penis to show her how much I loved her. When erect, my wife’s name was fully visible, but when deflated reads “WY”. My wife was thrilled with this symbol of my devotion. 

We have decided to spend our honeymoon on the idyllic tropical holiday island of Lombok with its many beaches, restaurants and nightlife. We especially enjoy our evenings at the ever popular Happy Café, where the live bands are always excellent. It was on such a night that, whilst sharing the toilet with another customer, I couldn’t help but notice that he had the same tattoo on the same part of his anatomy. How is it possible that my wife’s name was tattooed on someone else’s penis? Can you explain this anomaly?

Back | Top

LOMBI HAS A HEART FOR LOMBOK

Senggigi café and bakery, Café Lombi, donated two potentially lifesaving defibrillator units to Lombok businesses on Saturday, 5 November 2011.

The first of the units was donated to the clinic at the Senggigi Beach Hotel.

“We choose the clinic at SBH as it has a clinic where a doctor is on-call 24 hours a day and also because there are many local people who come to the beach in front of the hotel every weekend, making it the nearest easily reachable location for potentially the highest number of people,” said Café Lombi manager, Martin.

The second defibrillator unit was presented at the Dream Divers office in Senggigi. General Manager, Andy, will take the device to Gili Trawangan where it will be accessible to the general public and visitors to the island.

Dream Divers on Gili T will also offer training to people who are interested in learning this lifesaving skill.

Café Lombi technicians have checked both defibrillators on voltage output and will service the units every 6 – 12 months to ensure they are in good condition and have a stable output.

Back | Top

GILI AIR

In the most recent edition of the Lonely Planet guide for Bali and Lombok, the Gili Islands are very well covered. Whoever came to visit these lovely islands clearly had an excellent time here!

The two biggest things that struck me from what they had written were how fast the Gili Islands were changing and how many people miss out on the delights of Gili Air because reviews constantly tell the world that Gili T is where the parties happen.

On the first point, the guide book mentions that Gili Air has five dive shops. This book was printed at the start of 2011 and now, near the end of the year, there are eight dive shops with two more planned by the year end. Karang Divers was number seven and newly- opened 3W is number eight.

Some believe this is too many. I think it is important to look at this expansion from other angles:

• Physically, 3W is located in the main tourist part of Gili Air – Tourist Town – (turn right at the dock) and is between other established businesses so it doesn’t encroach on new land; and Karang Divers is inside Villa Karang (the hotel to the left of the dock), so again no building on new land.
• From a business point of view, both these new dive shops are small and personal and are looking to work closely with customers. They are not on the scale of the larger dive shops dotted around the island and offer a different kind of service.
• From a wider viewpoint, each of these new shops casts an increasingly wide net to attract new customers to the islands. The diving here is excellent and new shops need to be pro-active in bringing in new customers if they are going to survive in a competitive market. This means using new media more inventively: websites, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and Trip Advisor profiles, to name but a few. All of these activities help spread the word about Gili Air and its impressive diving and this can only be a good thing.

Overall, I think that the expansion is a good thing and can only benefit the island as a whole.

Being a newbie to the island and hearing about the great work of the Gili Eco Trust, I was keen to speak to the manager there. Unfortunately, this could only be done by email, which isn’t the best medium for a friendly chat. However, I did find out that the Trust is continuing to do great work that benefits the ecology of all three Gili Islands, like paying the fisherman not to fish so as to allow the ecosystem time to grow, and constructing Biorock artificial reefs to help with reef rehabilitation.

I believe that there is a lot that can be done to benefit both tourists and locals alike on this island and over the next few months I’m going to see how I can help.  In my pre-diving instructor days, I managed large charities back in the UK and I would like to be more involved in my new local community.  Please drop me a line if you are also interested in doing more.

On a quick side note: in my last column I mentioned the excellent, and perhaps even best, local food on the island sold by Tandra. I couldn’t find a name for the place but I clearly wasn’t looking hard enough (there is a huge sign!) Walk five minutes inland from the dock, turn right and it’s the first local café on your right. I’ve included a picture this time of Tandra outside her lovely “Warung Kampung”.

A walk around Gili Air shows you the change of pace that’s coming to island. Nearly every accommodation on the island is adding to their premises; whether it’s new bungalows, rooms or even an entire resort, as in the case of The Beach House which is building shiny new bungalows in Tourist Town.

I have yet to be on the island for peak season but I have been told that there is a drastic shortage in accommodation, so perhaps this isn’t a bad thing. Again, most of the building appears to be on pre-existing plots which has little impact on the surrounding land. The building also appears in keeping with the serenity of the island, no concrete towers like you find in Thailand… thankfully!

I would imagine that if you visit now and then come back again in two years’ time, you’d be visiting an entirely different island. The new international airport on Lombok will certainly bring in hordes of new visitors to Lombok and the Gilis.

While many tourists stay on Trawangan for the parties, Gili Air is not without entertaining nightlife.  The parties here are excellent! Mirage Bar and Legend have regular weekly parties attracting enough people to make them fun. Plus, a new bar has just opened at the bungalows called Wanderer. Recently, they put up posters all around the islands saying they were having a grand opening, but they forgot to give directions to where they were! I, like many others, missed the opening night. Still, this does make three beachfront places offering the opportunity to party well into the night.
 

Back | Top