Airasia Flight 101

I am a frequent flyer of Airasia (QZ and AK). I fly with Airasia at least twice a month. So far I am satisfied with their service, although some cabin crews may not be friendly nor service oriented (once I saw a rude cabin crew in an AK flights-operated by Malaysia Airasia). But mostly the crews are fine. I once saw how the  cabin crews were so patiently handling a very annoying passenger, and could still manage to serve the passengers nicely afterward (thumbs up for these two QZ cabin crews-I forgot their names).  

They don’t delay often (sometimes they do but not for long. The longest delay time I experienced was 90 minutes because the previous flight was not permitted to landing due to weather reason, and they gave snacks after 1 hour delay while we were at the waiting room).

Based on my personal experiences, here are several tips to fly comfortably with Airasia:

1. Check the websites frequently to get best price, they have special price at unexpected times. If for the dates you need to travel Aisasia no longer have promo price, you might want to check other airlines. Sometimes non low cost airlines can offer lower price than regular price ticket of a low cost airline. Sometimes, annoyingly, the ticket fare can be more expensive if you buy months in advanced than if you buy only a few days in advanced.
   
2. Apply for BigshotID. The application process is simple, only by filling a form. By applying for BigshotID, for every purchase you make, you will get points which can be redeemed with flight ticket.
   
3. If you don’t plan to bring a lot of baggage, you don’t have to pay for a check-in baggage. Cabin baggage is restricted to maximum 7kg of a bag (dimension around 56 cm x 45 cm x 25 cm ) plus one laptop bag/handbag.
   
4. Unless you need more space, it is not quite necessarily needed to choose your seat. Seat number 1 to 5, 12 and 14 are hot seats. When you are on board after takeoff, you can move to other empty seat from your regular seat if you find it more comfortable, except those hot seats. Seats on row 11 (and maybe 12) cannot be reclined due to the emergency exit location.
   
5. If the travel time is more than two hours, maybe you want to consider buying a prebook meal. It is cheaper (up to 20%) than buying on board, has more variety, and comes with a cup of mineral water (about 100ml only). My favourite meal is Nasi Padang Combo (only available in QZ flights operated by Indonesia Air Asia). My other favourite menus are Chicken Satay and Asian Fried Rice (served with chicken satay). Nasi lemak Pak Nasser is so so, if you like nasi lemak you can try it. For non-rice menu, Blackpepper chicken is also a fine selection. The pizza is too small, and the pancake’s texture is too crumbled so I don’t recommend those two. If you order a prebook meal, place your boarding pass in your pocket or in places that are easy to reach, because the crew will need to stamp your boarding pass before hand over the meal to you.
   
6. If you don’t have check-in baggage, use web check-in facility or self check-in machine at the airport to avoid long queue of the check-in counter. You can check-in at the airport or using your smartphone and then use the check-in machine to scan the barcode sent to your phone and have your boarding pass printed.
   
7. On board before takeoff, always pay full attention to the aircrew when they are showing the safety procedure. Ask for infant life-vest if you travel with an infant. Remember that all the electronic devices are supposed to be off (not on flight mode) when takeoff and landing. If you are planning to use your mobile phone after takeoff, switch it to flight mode before turning the phone off.
   
8. Read ‘travel 3sixty’ magazine to kill time if you find it difficult to sleep on board. It is located on your seat pocket. They have new edition every month. My favourite article is ‘Pilot’s Perspective’ by Captain Lim Khoy Hing.

LCCT Kuala Lumpur International Airport 101

First time travelling abroad with Airasia to/from Kuala Lumpur? Know what to expect here!

If you’re travelling to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia using low cost airplane, such as Airasia, you will be landing in LCC Terminal (low cost carrier terminal) KLIA. It is located about 15-20 minutes from the main KLIA terminal building. To transfer from/to main terminal to LCCT, there are buses every 20 or 30 minutes, the bus fare is 1.5 RM. From LCCT, the bus departs from in front of domestic arrival. From main terminal KLIA, the bus departs from bottom level (bus terminal). 

International Arrival

Until further notice, international tourists coming to Malaysia don’t need to fill any immigration form. Once disembark from the aircraft, just follow the aircrew (or just follow the crowd) to the terminal building. If you just transit in Malaysia and will continue your flight elsewhere, just turn left once you’re inside the terminal building. But if you’re going to enter Malaysia or need to get your baggage first, you will need to pass the immigration on the second floor. The escalator up is right in front of the terminal building’s door.

After the immigration, turn right and take the escalator down. You will see several  kiosks offering SIM card. Turn right if you have check-in baggage, go straight ahead if you only bring your cabin luggage with you. The officers randomly ask to scan the passengers’ baggage. If they don’t ask and you don’t have anything to declare, just walk on. Then you will see the kiosks to buy taxi ticket or to rent cars. If you want to take taxi from the airport, you need to buy the ticket here. They have fix rate for each destination zone. They offer different types of taxi: the budget/regular one (for up to 3-4 persons), premium taxi (up to 4-5 persons), and van (up to 8 persons). The budget taxi fare is ranging from 60-150RM, depending of the destination zone. On the left side, there are kiosks selling bus ticket. Actually the ticket can also be bought inside the bus, so it’s not necessary to buy it there. The cheapest way to reach Kuala Lumpur is by using bus to KL Sentral. KL Sentral is a terminal hub where you can continue your journey using MRT, LRT, monorail, bus, taxi, etc.

Outside the departure hall, if you are using taxi, go left to the front of domestic departure hall to find the taxi queue. Budget taxi is the red-white color, premium is black or blue. Give your ticket to the officer and he will show you which taxi you will use. If you want to use bus, you will find the busses a few steps after the passing the domestic arrival. Find the bus that goes to KL sentral. The red bus (skybus) is owned by Airasia, the bus fare is 9RM to KL Sentral. You can ask the driver about the payment. Usually he will let all the passengers have a seat first and then he will approach the passengers one by one to collect the money. The yellow bus (aerobus) is usually parked in front of Skybus. The rate is 10RM to go to KL Sentral. IMO, this yellow bus is more spacious. But either bus is comfortable.

If someone is supposed to pick you up on the airport but he/she is not arrived yet, there are a lot of chairs in the international arrival hall. If you’re hungry, there are a lot of food stall (kopi tiam, McDonalds, Marrybrown, Dunkin Donuts, vegetarian Indian food, etc). Toilets and praying room is located near Starbucks. Phone booths are also available there if you need to make phone calls.

International Departure

To get to LCC Terminal, you can use bus from KL Sentral. Skybus fare to LCCT is 10 RM. The journey takes about 75 minutes. It is recommended to take the bus 4 hours before departure time. If you prefer to take taxi, the fare is about 75RM from KL. If you are close to Nilai, you can take KTM to Nilai station and continue to the airport using a feeder bus, this probably is the cheapest way to get to the airport.

In the airport, if you want to eat before you go, there are several choices such as Nasi Lemak (in Taste of Asia) or fastfood (McDonald’s or Marybrown). I prefer Marybrown because its menu is similar with McDonalds with cheaper price and sometimes less queue.

In the international departure hall, there are a lot of Airasia Machines if you need to do self check-in or print your boarding pass. There is Airasia sales counter as well if you need any assistant. You can find several weight scale if you need to measure you baggage weight before check-in. If you have check-in baggage, you need to pass the scanner to get to the check-in counters. If you only have cabin baggage, just walk to the left and you will find document check counter, after that you can continue to immigration on second floor (Make sure your flight is from gate T. I found that some flights to Singapore are from gate Y which is in the domestic departure area). Some officers will check your ticket and passport before letting you take the escalator up to the immigration.

After the immigration, there are several duty free shopping stalls. You can also use massage chairs for 1RM/3 minutes. The departure gate is on the ground floor so you need to take escalator down. The toilets and praying room are located between chocolate and perfume shop. The recommended cheap halal meals in the area are Hot n Roll (3-6RM for roti pita/paratha/crispy wrap), bread in Baker’s Cottage(3-5 RM for bread, 9RM for tuna/chicken croissant), or instant noodles in Pusrawi minimarket behind the Baker’s Cottage (only 3RM, add hot water, and voila!), or Chicken Pao. All the food stalls are selling mineral water above 2RM per bottle (500mL), except 2 places which sells it for ‘only’ 1,5RM: Pusrawi minimarket (behind Baker’s Cottage) and Pau/dimsum stall (next to Baker’s Cottage).

While waiting, you can also find place for charging your phone/laptop, ATM, money changer, bookstore, etc.

Travel 101

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" - Ben Franklin

Some people think it's more interesting just to go and improvise their trip. I'm not that kind of person. I always plan before going anywhere, because I only have limited time to travel in each place and may not have another chance to revisit the place. It would be a pity if I missed anything interesting. So far I never travel with tour agent because it's usually more expensive.

I'm not always the one making the itinerary for our trip, but when I do,  I plan in detail. I have to choose a comfortable (good value-for-money) place to stay, know which places are worth visiting and which can be skipped, what famous local culinary I can try, etc.

More or less, this is what I do. Homework before travelling:

1. Google things to do and where to go in that city. Make selection of the places you will be visiting, since you might not have time to visit all. Read people’s blogs to get more objective insights. Know what to expect in each area and what to bring, wear, or prepare.
2. Choose a place to stay nearby the most visited area, or in location with easy public transportation access. Trip advisor or booking.com and many other websites provide other travellers’ reviews about the hotels/hostels/motels. These reviews are very useful since you won’t be able to look for yourself before booking. Changing hotel each day may not be a good idea considering the check-in/check-out time and your luggage, especially when it will only be a short trip. Since you are planning to enjoy the city and not the hotel, the room size might not be a huge matter, but cleanliness, location, and price should be your top priority checklist. Wrong lodging choice can ruin your mood. Free wireless internet is an advantage, especially when you’re travelling abroad.
   Read also for the reviews of surrounding area, you don’t want to end up in an unsafe place such as drug trafficking or prostitution area. You may also want to find out the nightlife condition of the area, some travellers look for a lively night live, while others prefer a quiet surrounding at night.
   If you want to book through a third party company (travel agent or agoda or booking.com, etc.), you better check out the hotel’s official website as well, for sometimes they have special offering which is more advantageous for you.
3. Search for nearby restaurant/fast-food/convenient store, especially if you look for special dietary meals (such as halal food), in all area that you’ll be visiting. For muslims, make sure you have a general overview of the nearest mesjid location or a comfortable place to sholat.
4. Make travel itinerary so that your trip can be efficient.  Google maps can be very useful in making this itinerary, along with local public transportation website if you prefer not to use taxi everywhere. Buses and subways are usually the cheapest and easiest. If necessary, print the detail transport route that you’re going to take. If you will travel abroad to a non English speaking country, you may want to print out the name of your destination place in local language to make it easier to ask, just in case.
   Plan carefully! After shopping, if you buy a lot, usually you have to plan to go back to your hotel to put all your shopping bags before going anywhere else.
5. Consider the things you will bring with you when you are travelling. If it’s going to be a long walk, sneakers, t shirt, jeans, and backpack are the most comfortable combination for most times. In your backpack, you can bring your jacket/umbrella (depending on the weather forecast), bottled drink, wet and dry tissue (not all the toilets in public areas are clean), snacks, camera, sunglass, etc. For Indonesian, don’t forget to bring jamu ‘tolak angin’ and sambal ABC sachet ;)
6. Make sure you bring enough clothes and undies (or know where to buy cheap clothes at your destination), appropriate shoes/sandals, bathroom amenities, personal medicines, travel adaptor if your destination place use different plug/socket, instant foods/snacks if necessary, etc.
7. Calculate everything in detail and estimate you budget: flight ticket (if any), hotel, accommodation, transportation (bus/subway fares), average meal (such as fast-food price), bottled mineral water price, tourist attraction ticket price, souvenir prices, etc. Prepare for unexpected costs. Some places take only cash in local currency, some only use USD instead of local currency except for small changes, some don't take credit card payment, some don't even have any ATM nearby.
8. If people of your destination place speak in a language you don’t understand, write down several important words in local language such as your hotel address, tourist attraction places you want to visit, “where is the nearest subway?”, “how to go to ….”, etc. You may have your smartphone with you, but not all places are signal friendly and you may run out of battery. In some countries, the price of new SIM card is expensive. Sometimes the local public transportation is not google-able, so you will have to ask the locals.
9. You’re good to go!

Lombok, Indonesia

Travel on: Early January 2014, five days-four nights
How: by flight
Type: beach tourism
With: my husband
Total spent: 8780k IDR for two persons, including:
   -  transport (flight, airport taxis, rent car, fuel, etc.) 3800k IDR;
   -  meals-snacks-drinks 700k IDR;
   -  hotel 2800k IDR;
   -  souvenir n others 1500k IDR
1 USD is about 12,250IDR when I write this.

Lombok tourism map

My travel to Lombok was planned for months, ever since we got promo price for flight tickets. So I had plenty of time to do my homework: find out all about Lombok and what to expect there. I made all the itinerary for this trip, and made notes about several places that we can skip if we spend too much time in other places.

Day one:
We arrived in Lombok International Airport (BIL) at noon, around 12, on Sunday. This airport was first operated in October 2011. It is located in Praya, Lombok Tengah (mid-to-south of Lombok). The first impression of the airport when we just walked out of the plane was that it was nice, new, modern. But right when we entered the terminal building, it became huge dissapointment. There were only two immigration officer working at that time so the queue was very very long. The building was new and clean, the toilet was also clean.
After we passed immigration and customs, when we went outside, the situation was very crowded. Many people sat everywhere, waiting for their families maybe. There were also people moving around selling food/beverages, offering car rental or transfer service to other parts of Lombok (to Senggigi, or Pelabuhan Bangsal-port to Gili islands, or Mataram, etc.), Very untidy for an international airport.

Right in front of the building we can see airport taxi stand and airport public bus (Damri). I read from blogs that taxi to Senggigi takes about 200k IDR or 150k IDR to Mataram, transfer service from car rental takes about 250k-300k IDR to senggigi. I only came with my husband, each of us only carrying a backpack, so to be efficient we took Damri bus. It takes only 20k IDR/person to Mataram and 30k IDR/person to Senggigi. Most people taking this public bus are locals (all locals when I took it), and most of them alight in Mataram (only 1 person was going to Senggigi at that time other than my husband and I). The travel from airport to hotel took about 80 minutes.

We stayed at Sunsethouse Lombok (http://sunsethouse-lombok.com/) because it has a good review on Tripadvisor, affordable price with special price for early book, located on beach side in Senggigi, n beautiful (based on other travelllers photos and pro photos on their web). The damri bus route to its Senggigi terminal is passing by this hotel, so when I asked the bus driver about this hotel, he put us down right in front of the hotel. The hotel turned out to be as good as expected. My husband loves the place so much that he said that all of our trip to Lombok that time wouldn't be as great if we had stayed in another hotel. We will definitely stay here again if we go back to Lombok someday. We stayed here for three nights, in its deluxe pool access room. The hotel only has three deluxe pool access room, which shares one private pool. The bed was very comfortable, clean, cool AC, many selection of TV channels, nice sofa, fridge, has spacious bathroom with hotwater shower and bathtub, big mirror, etc. The overall design of the room was romantic. This room is perfect for couple. Another room they have are superior garden view, deluxe seaview (also a good deal, showing view of the hotel's main swimming pool and the sea), and standard room (I wouldn't recommend this room because it is located across the street of the hotel's main building). Our three nights there was about 1,800k IDR.

Right when we entered the room and my husband saw the private swimming pool, he suddenly took of his clothes, changed to his swimsuit, and swam. The weather was good, sunny but cool at 3 p.m. when we got there. After that we realized that there were two or three flies in our bathroom so we called the cleaning service. The response was fast and efficient, the cleaning service sprayed insect repellent and mop the bathroom floor. We didn't find any other issue after that. When we asked the staff about the closest minimarket, he offered to take us there. This was an exceptional service for me. All the hotel staffs were friendly.

We found out later that the hotel location was very good, on less crowded Senggigi beach area but only about 1.7m from the main Senggigi area (taxi ride 10-15k IDR) where there are lots of cafes, minimarket, ATM, art market, etc. Taxi pool is only about 100m from the hotel, or just wait outside the hotel, there's a lot of taxis passing by. Across the street there is a fastfood fried chicken if you need a low cost meal, there's a famous seafood restaurant located only about 1 km from the hotel, or simply have meal in the hotel's restaurant. It offers range selection of delicious menus (local, seafood, western) with affordable price (65k IDR for ayam taliwang package, 130k IDR for NZ steak, 15k IDR for juices, etc). The food in the restaurant are truly delicious. For breakfast (which is included in the room rate), they serve nasi (rice) with one dish of meat/chicken/fish/squid/shrimp, two dishes of vegetables, kerupuk, fruits, toast, made-to-order eggs and pancakes, salad, tea/coffee, and juices. The restaurant is located on the beachside so we can enjoy sunset while having dinner, or watching the shores while having breakfast. The hotel provides many bale (hut) with beach chair so the guests can lay back while enjoying the beach.

We spent first day enjoying the hotel and Senggigi beach.

View of Pura Batu Bolong from our hotel

View while having dinner at Sunset-house's restaurant

View of Mt. Agung (Bali) from Senggigi

Day two:
We had breakfast at 8 a.m. then at 8.40 a.m took a taxi to Bangsal Port. The taxi driver used to work in Malaysia, so other than Indonesian and local Lombok language, he could speak Malay and English well. His name is Marzuki +628175701880. During our one hour ++ journey, we chatted about beautiful places in Lombok, we stopped a few minutes at Bukit Malimbu I and II (Malimbu Hill) to take pictures (from here we could see the three Gilis - Trawangan, Air, Menu), stopped at minimarket to buy bottled water (he said it would be very expensive in Gili, so better be prepared) and at an ATM. The taxi cost was 100k IDR.

View from Malimbu

View from Malimbu

From the car parking area to Pelabuhan Bangsal (the jetty port), we need to walk about 500m. We could just walk but we decided to alight the taxi about 1km from the port and took cidomo (horse cart). It cost 15-20k. Some people think that it's expensive for less than 1km ride, but I didn't mind. It's not much, but it makes the locals happy because it is one of the source of their daily income.


We went to the official ticket counter, paid each 13.5k IDR for public boat to Gili Trawangan, and wait for a while. There's announcement each time the tickets were sold, the boat departed after 30 tickets per boat were sold. There's also option to rent a whole boat if you don't want to wait or share boat, but it was expensive. Besides, we didn't have to wait long. The public boats are filled not only with tourists, but also locals who brought supplies to be sold at Gili.

The boat took around 20 minutes to arrive at Gili Trawangan. It is the most crowded Gili among the three. There, I was amazed by the color of the sea. We can see dark blue sea at the distance, followed by blue, blue turqoise, and light sky blue, then touches the white sand beach. Perfect!

Near the port in Gili Trawangan was crowded with bike rental, cafes, and lodging. Fyi, the only transportation allowed there are bike and cidomo. The cost of taking cidomo around the island is 125k IDR. The cost of bike rent is 15k/hour (not linear, could be 25k/two hours or 50k/day as well, negotiable). We rented a tandem bike for 50k IDR/2 hours and rode it around the island. It took 1.5 hours, including several stops to take pictures. In some places, we could not ride the bike because of the sandy road. We passed by several expensice resort on the beachside, a lot of expensive cafes n restaurants (expensive for Indonesian standard). Cheaper lodgings (50-150k IDR per night) are also available if you walk into the alleys. In some places, there were small stalls selling nasi bungkus, these might be the only cheap foods in the islands. Most of the time, foreign tourists are all over Gili Trawangan while there are only some domestic tourist.

Other interesting activity you can do in Gili Trawangan are snorkeling (there's also snorkeling package around the three gilis for 100k per person, started at 10 or 11 a.m for around 4-5 hours), diving, island hopping with glass bottom boat, etc.

We did not plan to spend night in Gili Trawangan, so at 2 p.m. we took a boat back to Pelabuhan Bangsal (another 13k per person). The last boat back to Bangsal is at 4 or 5 p.m.

In bangsal, we walked about 500m to parking area and took taxi from there. To get back to our hotel, there are two alternatives. First one is alongside Senggigi beach (our route to Bangsal), the second one is through the Pusuk pass (where we can see cute monkeys on the side of the road). We chose to go back taking the second route. It was a winding road. The taxi using this route was also cost us about 100k IDR.

Monkeys at Pusuk Pass

It was about 4 p.m. when we arrived at the hotel. We actually could use the time to travel around Mataram city, but we decided to swim and play on the beach.

Day three:
Before we arrived in Lombok, I had arranged a car rental via email (lomboktransport.com) to deliver a car to our hotel at 10 a.m. this day. We rent an estillo for two days (from our third day to fifth day in Lombok) and would give back the car at the airport. Total rent cost (self drive, no fuel) was 700k IDR (250k IDR/day x 2 days+200k extra charge for pick up the car in the airport). We paid as we received the car. The car was delivered on time, with half full fuel, and in a good condition (just a bit scratch here and there, the interior was not too clean, but overall was fine, no big issue). For these two days, we add 200k IDR for the fuel, and later gave back the rented car with more than half full fuel. I estimated total about 150k IDR fuel was actually enough.

Our plan today was going to waterfall in north Lombok (mount Rinjani area). The road to Rinjani area was similar with the one heading to Bangsal port with additional one hour drive (total about 2 hours drive from Senggigi). The sign was okay and basically there was only one main road so you won't get lost even if it's you first time driving in Lombok. Besides, you can always ask someone for directions.

There is an indigenous village near Mt. Rinjani called desa Senaru. The people from Senaru has religion of Wetu Telu (three times sholat per day, unlike most Muslims who sholat for five times a day), and some other unique local traditions which I can't speak much of because I didn't go to the village. If you want to go hiking in Mt. Rinjani, this village is usually the starting point. Mount Rinjani is the second highest volcano in Indonesia (3,726m high). It took at least 2 nights-3 days if you want to hike Rinjani (including one night stay on the foot of Mt. Rinjani before hiking).

We came to see the waterfall, but our car missed the main entrance. So we park at another entrance which is not yet operated by the government official. Some local guides in the area convinced us to just use that entrance (they said the main entrance path was steeper than this one, that they were also official staff but not yet given uniform because the entrance was new, etc.) We knew they were not telling the truth about being official because later on they gave us used tickets for foreigner tourists. But anyway, we paid 100k IDR for a guide and go seeing the waterfall.

The pathway to the first waterfall (air terjun Sendang Gile, about 35m high) was already cement flooring, made like a stair and has handrail, it took us only about 15 minutes downhill. It was only us there when we came. The waterfall was beautiful. We only took pictures here because there was still another waterfall to see. The journey to the second waterfall (air terjun Tiu Kelep, about 42m high) was a bit more difficult, it took about 20-25 minutes from the first waterfall. You might need a guide if it was your first time here. About 10 minutes before arriving at the second waterfall, you will have to pass some rocky small river. The water was very clear that we can see the bottom of the river. We saw an elderly foreign tourist decided not to continue her journey to the second waterfall because of this, which was too bad.

It was not a long journey at all and the waterfall was even more beautiful than the first one. Here there were several other tourists swimming. My husband also swam here, I only sat on a rock playing with water and enjoying the scenery. The waterfall was high and the water pressure was very high that if you go anywhere near it, you will feel the water smashing.We spent some time here and then go back to where we parked the car. The journey back to the car was exhausting for me (who never do any kind of sports for such a looong time) because it was climbing up the stairs.

Air terjun Sendang Gile

Air terjun Tiu Kelep

On our way back to Senggigi, we saw a bakso Solo (meatball) stall and stopped over to eat. It is actually not a Lombok culinary specialty (Solo is a place in Java), but bakso has always been my husband's favourite. After that, in an area named Tanjung, we pass several places selling satay. We stop over and tried some. It was fish satay (sate ikan pusut), also known as Sate Tanjung. It was delicious and cheap (only 10k IDR per 10 skewers). We also tried pepes ikan pusut (10k IDR per 7pcs), but we didn't like it.

Sate Tanjung

Pepes ikan pusut

Upon arrival in the hotel, we took some rest and went out again. This time was to Mataram city, the capital of  Nusa Tenggara Barat province. It was only 30 minutes (16km) from our hotel. We used waze (some android GPS app) to navigate us around the city. If we had more time in Lombok, maybe we would check out Pura Lingsar, Pura Suranadi, Taman Narmada, etc. in Mataram. But since it was already dark, we just drive around the city, and stopped by a pearl store to check the price.

Day four:
We had to check out from Sunset house because we planned to see south Lombok beaches on day four. The plan was to go straight to south Lombok after we check out in the morning (around 9 a.m. after breakfast), but we had to change our plan.

We went to Mataram first to buy some souvenirs. The souvenirs from Lombok are usually kain tenun songket Sasak (woven cloth, usually can be found in Sukarere area or in traditional village Sade), pottery, rotan, or bamboo handycraft, seaweed dodol, sea pearl, etc. One of the local market which sells souvenirs of Lombok is Pasar Cakranegara, Mataram. Actually in Senggigi and around Mataram city there are also a lot of souvenir shops, but I found them expensive. We decided to buy pearls as souvenir. Indonesia is the world's biggest sea pearl supplier, and Lombok is the biggest seapearl producer in Indonesia. The best place to buy pearls in Lombok is in Sekarbela area (Jalan Sultan Kaharuddin). The pearl price in shops in Sultan Kaharuddin street is much cheaper (could be 5 times cheaper, or more) than those in gem shops/boutiques in Senggigi. The shops are not only selling sea pearls (because these are expensive), but also freshwater pearls (more affordable ones). The pearls are made jewelry, combined with gold or silver or stainless/rhodium. Even in Sekarbela you should walk around first to find the best price.We finally decided to buy pearls in IKHLAS jewelery shop (toko emas dan mutiara "Ikhlas"). The price varied from 10-30k IDR (freshwater pearls-rhodium brooch), 50k IDR (freshwater pearls, rhodium set of earrings n necklace), 60k IDR (freswater pearls-silver bracelet), 350k IDR (seawater pearl, silver bracelet), to million rupiahs for gold+grade AA seawater pearls jeweleries.

After buying souvenirs, we had lunch rice with ayam taliwang, plecing kangkung, tahu goreng, and sate sumsum. Total spent was128k IDR for this lunch. There are a lot of ayam taliwang restaurants in Mataram, just pick any. Actually I wanted to try nasi balap puyung, sate bulayak, and sate rembiga, which are also famous in Lombok. Too bad I didn't make it, maybe on our next Lombok trip.

After lunch, about 1 p.m., we went south. On our way to Novotel Lombok, our hotel for the fourth night, we passed by Desa Sade (traditional village of Sasak people), but we did not stop over because we were already behind schedule. Thanks to waze, it is not difficult to find Novotel Lombok. I got promo room rate 40% discount when I booked the hotel weeks earlier, so the room rate for this one night stay was around 1,000k IDR including breakfast for two persons. The hotel was designed beautifully and has its own beach named pantai putri Nyale (also known as Mandalika)- which has round white sands like pepper. The service and facilities were Novotel standard, which is good, so no complaints. The food was expensive, and the hotel is located quite far from everything else. I'm a bit dissapointed because the have pork on their menu (I expected halal food since local people of Lombok are mostly Muslim, and the island is well known as Pulau Seribu Mesjid-island of 1000 mosques).

We arrived at the hotel at 2 p.m. so it was already too late to go to other beaches. The beach on Senggigi has blach sands, the beaches on south Lombok (Kuta or Selong Belanak beach) have white sands, on pantai Mandalika and Tanjung Aan have white pepper sands, and in east Lombok (Pantai Tangsi (also known as Pink beach), near Tanjung Ringgit) has pink sands. We thought we would still have time to see Pantai Tangsi, but the hotel staff said that it took 2.5 hours to go there. I read in some blogs that the road to Pantai Tangsi is not too good (in undeveloped area) so it's better to leave the area at 4 p.m. at most. Since we did not have enough time, we decided to just enjoying the resort. It is a beautiful resort anyway. But due to its price and location, I would not stay here again if I go back to Lombok.

Beach on this area are called Pantai Mandalika or Pantai Putri Nyale because of a local myth/legend. Long long time ago, lived a beautiful princess named Mandalika. Because of her beauty, all of the neighbourhood princes intended to marry her. She was worried, because if she ever chose one of them, it would cause chaos and even war in Lombok area. So he invited all the princes and their people on a specific date to a beach in south Lombok. She arrived, said that she chose everyone of them, and jumped off a cliff. No one could find her. After a while, in the water around the area appeared some colorful worms (cacing nyale) which were believed to be her incarnation (some said it was her hairs). The locals celebrate this event every year on Festival Bau Nyale, where they perform drama about this story, and then catch, cook, and eat  those nyale.

Legend of beautiful Putri Mandalika

Day five:
We had breakfast at 8 a.m. The menu selection was quite varried (including some non halal food too). When we had breakfast, we can see a man guiding two cows (or buffalos?) pulling a plow for levelling the sand. On the cows' necks there's a small plate saying "good morning". It was a nice show for the hotels' guest, some (including me) took pictures of it.

We check out from the hotel at about 8.50 a.m. and go straight to the airport. The airport is actually not far from this hotel (the day before we also passed by the airport, it took less than 30 minutes). But in this morning, we took around 40 minutes to the airport because of the morning traditional market. We arrived around 9.30 a.m at the airport, and the rental agent had already waited there. We actually planned to meet at 10 a.m, but he waited for us since 8 a.m. because he did not want us to wait for him in case we arrived early to the airport. How nice of him.

To go to on our next Lombok trip:
- Mataram city: Pura Lingsar, Taman Narmada, etc.
- Traditional village: Senaru (in north Lombok) and Sade (in south Lombok)
- explore all the south Lombok beaches and especially pink beach (Tangsi) on East Lombok
- other Gilis (Gili Nanggu etc. in West Lombok, Gili Air and Gili Meno near Gili Trawangan)
- waterfall, Senggigi, and Gili Trawangan
- Sekarbela and Cakranegara for shopping
- etc.

To do on our next Lombok trip:
- enjoying all the beautiful beaches
- taking hundreds beautiful pictures
- tandem biking in Gili Trawangan
- snorkeling and island hopping
- trying all famous local food: ayam taliwang, nasi balap puyung, sate tanjung, sate bulayak, sate rembiga.
- etc.

Royal Belum Rainforest, Perak

Travel on: Mid January, 2014 for 3 days-2 nights
How: by private car
With: husband and his friends (total 13 people)

Type: ecotourism
Total cost: 1000 MYR for 2 persons, including permit, boat rental, chatel, food (self cooking), car fuel n highway, guide to waterfall & rafflesia and visiting indigenous people.
When I write this, 1 USD is about 3.32 MYR.

Royal Belum Rainforest is said to be one of the oldest rainforests in the world, even older than the amazon. It is located in state Perak, north Malaysia.

To enter Royal Belum, we need to obtain permit first. My friend arranged this for us a week before, so I don't know exactly the details to obtain this permit, but as foreigner, my husband and I only provided a copy of our passport.

We left Klang around 3.30 a.m., stopped several times to refuel and sholat subuh, arrived in Gerik around 8.00 a.m for breakfast. We arrived in Pulau Banding jetty in around 9.30 a.m. Then we waited for our friends there.

The car is left in Pulau Banding port, parking fee is 10RM. Then we took jetty to Sungai Tiang, which took less than half an hour. We used Belum Temenggor Adventure Crew as guide for this trip (package include rental boat, chalets, tour).We stayed in Sungai Tiang campsite, which has five chalets (each has one king bed, attached bathroom), two single chalets (two single beds only), public toilet and bathroom (separated for male n female), public kitchen (you have to cook and even bring your own cooking amenities), hall, and a lot of huts. No restaurant, no network coverage, no TV, no hot water shower, electricity from generator only for evening which are fine for me since it was only three days and I came with my husband anyway.

There is alternatif other than campsite, we can rent a house boat. But the price does not make sense for me (4k MYR per night plus 1K per night for two boats). For price like that, I would expect to get a luxurious yacht, not a bamboo/wooden house boat.

When we arrived in Sungai Tiang campsite, the ranger has not come yet so we could not enter our chalets. So we cooked and had our lunch first. When the ranger came about four hours later (around four in the afternoon), I finally see inside the chalet. My first impression was: it was dirty. The floor was very dusty, the bedsheet n pillowsheet had stains here and there, the toilet seats was dirty, the bathroom floor was dirty. The place had just been renovated about three months before, so everything can still be considered new. But I was not happy to have to mop the floor first (and even swop it with lots of my wet tissues) and brush the toilet before using it. I covered the pillow with my clothes when I sleep. Okay may be the others did not do these, but I am very sensitive with cleanliness. Things like those can ruin my mood.

Each has two single beds

Each has king bed and bathroom with shower

This place is fantastic for people who like lake fishing. The lake is artificial lake, made by damming up the river. But it is a very huuuuge lake. For those who don't like fishing, like me, there's not much to do here. Fortunately I bring my book. I just read the book, sitting on the bench on the lakeside. My husband's male friends went fishing all the time, leaving their wives behind just to cook and chat. Again, fortunately, my husband doesn't like fishing, so he spent time with me chatting and reading side by side.

The second day after breakfast we took our boat to the trekking area to see the waterfall and rafflesia flower. The trekking was light, took only 20 minutes (maybe less). But I got stressed because on our way there, there are soo many small bloodsuckers ready to jump on you and suck your blood. Some were sticking on my feet but I realised it and cleaned them off before they suck anything. My husband did not realised them sticking on between his toes, and ended up surprised by blood on his feet. The baby leeches have some kind of anti coagulation agent so even when they stop sucking blood, the blood keeps on dripping. It did not hurt, but I think it was disgusting. The waterfall was okay, and seeing rafflesia on its nature habitat was nice.

After that we visit a village of indigenous people. They already use modern clothes, sing modern songs, use boat to travel to the city, and some can speak Malay and English. The house was still using thatched roof and bamboo/rotan floor. They use net for fishing and blow pipe for bird hunting.

The next day after breakfast and preparing lunch, we cleaned up everything, put everything on the boat, and went to another waterfall to swim there. We had lunch on the rocks beside the waterfall, cleaned up everything, and got back to the boat, back to Pulau Banding port. The journey back to our home near KL took about 6 hours driving, including one stop for refueling and one stop for sholat.

The place is nice for two days-one night trip only (if you don't like fishing), nice for retreating from daily routines, and the scenery was amazing. The weather was nice, cold at night. But overall, I rate this trip as 'just to know only' because of the leeches and dirty room. Nice experience, but once is enough. Well, I'm not a spoiled city girl. I have been undergound caving, waterfall rapling, rafting, body rafting in the river, etc. But I just can't stand leeches, and dirty room/bedsheet/bathroom.