Travel Day 669 – Nusa Lembongan to Mataram on Lombok, INDONESIA
After three lovely days on tranquil Nusa Lembongan, it seemed about time to move on while trying to reach Mataram on Lombok…
Boat from Nusa Lembongan to Bali
Mataram was the capital and the biggest town on Lombok, leaving me to hope that it would be possible to get a visa extension there. The time on my one month visa was ticking away rather quickly and the extensions on Bali had been much too expensive. Unfortunately it was impossible to get reliable information about the visa service of Mataram and the guide book proved to be the least helpful. But before we could actually worry about the visa, getting to Lombok was the first and biggest challenge of our travel day…
So after our final breakfast at the little local warung, we were off in a chartered fishing boat to reach Padangbai on Bali. The chartered boat seemed to be the best option in this case as it was bringing us north towards Padangbai instead of west, back to Sanur. The only problem was that our little fishing boat was cramped with 10 passengers and their luggage . While we were all praying not to sink in the middle of the open sea, first we realized that the boat was not even going to Padangbai and then one Dutch passenger fell overboard during the rocky, unstable ride in the little boat…
Reaching Lombok by Ferry from Bali
Luckily not much happened to the Dutch guy and nobody else seemed to be too concerned that he ended his trip soaking wet. We arrived at least dry in Kusamba and were then continuing our travel day in a mini bus, followed by a big ferry when finally in Padangbai. While this ferry was definitely the cheapest way to reach Lombok, it also took over 4 hours for the ride. The result was that by the time we actually left the ferry in Lembar, it was for some strange reason already too late in the afternoon to catch any public transport up to Mataram…
Obviously there was still private transport in Lembar and the many touts did a whole lot to try and force us to use their service for 10 times the regular price, but after walking off a few times, it was finally possible to hitch a ride on the street. While giving all pushy touts a big smile when driving by on the back of a pick-up truck, we finally managed to reach Mataram by the time the sun was already setting. But it wasn’t until one hour later that we finally found a vacant hotel, could put our backpacks down and enjoy some dinner on the open night market. Wow, it really was a long, exhausting travel day, and even if this probably wasn’t the best day in Indonesia, we still saw a lot and even learned a few things along the way…
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