Travel Day 671 – Senggigi to Mataram on Lombok, INDONESIA
Since the efforts of getting a visa extension in Mataram yesterday were quite fruitless, the overall plan became to spend the day in Senggigi and then try the immigration office again tomorrow morning…
Empty Resort Beach in Senggigi on Lombok, Indonesia
But besides getting the visa extension, we also wanted to explore Lombok a little bit and so the resulting idea became to rent a scooter and dive around. The rational was that when we would get a scooter at the end of the day and drive down to Mataram in the evening, we could spend the night, go to the immigration office early and possibly carry on driving in the afternoon. So in the end, this day really started by checking out of the hotel and comparing scooter prices, before we could finally spend some time at the beach…
While the sun and the beach looked nice, unfortunately it was Sunday and the entire sand was packed with local families. It was almost quite surprising that so little foreign tourists could be seen, but soon we realized that they all spent time in their fancy resorts or at a private part of the beach. But luckily the only separation to the private beaches were signs asking to remain quiet and behave appropriately…
Busy Local Beach of Senggigi on Lombok, Indonesia
Since we obviously felt quiet and appropriate, we decided to spend the entire morning right in front of one of the resorts and in the sand of a nicely deserted beach. It still felt a bit strange that we were the only people lying on our own towels while other guests were using umbrellas and beach chairs belonging to the resort, but nobody seemed to be really bothered. And after having spent a nice relaxing day in the sun, it was finally time to walk back to the busy beach area to see the sun set behind the big volcano of Bali…
It was actually really great to see the change of atmosphere, while watching all the local people enjoy their day at the beach. Everyone was super friendly and when we were sitting down to have a local snack, someone here or there decided to come up to us and say hello or ask for a photo. And so our day ended not only with a late drive down to Mataram, but also with the memory of Senggigi as an interesting place to visit, not so much for the resorts, but because of the many friendly local people…
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