Brief layover in port of Sengiggi

  Sengiggi, Lombok, Indonesia
Saturday, May 23, 2009

So we finally leave the islands, looking for some more action and a bit of culture.  Vegging is nice, but I get too fidgety and Worzel wanted to wash and condition her hair.  Visa restrictions mean we either do a visa-run or head back via a layover in Lombok and onwards to Bali.  So as everyone else avoids Sengiggi we offer it a day to show us what it had.  Very little is the answer.  If you're a surfer, great.  If you're a culture vulture, not so...

Nonetheless we took the boat from the islands onto mainland Lombok, listened to the taxi man say we need to take a taxi upto our bus as it's waiting for us and we're late.  We agree yes we probably are late, but as the bus doesn't leave for 45mins and the station is in front of us we may walk...

View from our place

The 45min journey around the cliffs is quite scenic through the villages and drops off every passenger for their boat back to Bali.  Except us who are deposited in town, slap bang opposite our recommended (Swedish recommended) hostel.  Lena Cottages is set on the beach with dirt cheap rooms and FRESH WATER & AIR-CON.  What luxuries we have.

Mmmmmm.......Bintang

So we promptly have a wander through the nice little port town and realise there is very little here.  Chatting to the vendors later, we find out it used to be a fairly busy place, but since some troubles there a few years ago and post Bali-bombings it never really picked up again whereas Bali did.  A shame as it is genuinely a nice town, just not a great deal around.  Empty accommodation gives it a little rough around the edges feel.  But there are a load of restaurants with high-class food for cheap prices.  Now as we think it's Sunday we arrange bar action for the evening (last day of the prem).  Loaded with happy hour beers and both a bit drunk, we wait for 11pm kick-offs and chat with the barmen at Marina Bar (great place!)  At this point my phone alerts me to a text message informing me of days/times.  Yes it's Saturday and yes we're loaded with beers to take us through to 2am.  As we have a boat departure at 8am we grab some food and start on all our drinks, with the barman helping us after we persuade him to.  It's past midnight when we use each other as crutches and wander home.  That's Cath's blowout done for the journey.

An earlyish start and thankfully the office for our boat is opposite Lena and we clear our heads and mosy on over for the 4 hour cruise back...breakfast on board luckily!