Lombok - relaxing days on beautiful beaches in the south of

In August, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 shook Lombok. Even on the nearby Gili Islands, which we visited for a few days, you can still see some debris, but most of the damage has been cleared - unlike on the main island of Lombok. The destruction caused by the earthquake, which happened only seven months ago, is immediately noticeable. The northern part of the island is in ruins. We see piles of stones where houses once stood, and many houses that are only partially standing or have long and deep cracks in the walls. A large part of the population lives in improvised bamboo hut settlements. In Switzerland, we heard about the earthquake on the news, but we didn't realize we would see any damage. It is painful to see the already poor population living among the rubble. Indonesia did not request international assistance. As we move further south on the island, which is not very large and the roads are almost empty, the extent of the earthquake becomes less apparent. However, everyone on the island has either lost people close to them or their own homes, or knows people who have.

Our journey takes us to the south of the island, to Kuta Lombok (not to be confused with Kuta in Bali). For the remaining four days of our trip to Indonesia, we treated ourselves to a super nice hotel and can really enjoy our time here. Lombok actually became our destination by chance, as we had to book a return flight for our trip to Indonesia and simply booked this flight without knowing if we really wanted to take it or not, but we decided to do so. And this decision was good, because the more we see of the surroundings, the more enchanted we are by Lombok. It is almost grotesque how well the tourism industry is developed on the neighboring island of Bali and how little on Lombok, because the island is just as beautiful, if not even more beautiful, and very close to Bali. As it turns out, there are dream beaches in the south of Lombok, with white sand and hilly landscapes in the background, and they are almost empty!

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< img src = '/uploads/876e1ca0-5517-11e9-ba79-0b6ed2e7ed5c.jpeg_large.jpg'alt />< figcaption > < br /> Because of the rainy season, the landscape is now really green. On our way to the beaches, we pass through this green landscape (finally in beautiful sunshine), with villages or even individual huts in between - here you can discover Indonesian village life wonderfully well. Every now and then there are herds of cows or buffaloes, goats and chickens crossing the road, rice and corn are grown and processed, and children play by the roadside. And almost no traffic. Wonderful. In many ways, Lombok is probably like Bali was decades ago, and we really like that. And as little as there is to report otherwise, we have enjoyed the relaxation and the atmosphere that you can only experience in reality, not just through pictures. Oh beautiful Lombok, maybe we will see you again in the future.
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