Lombok is always described as Bali’s little tourism brother, quieter and less developed. This suits us perfectly and after visiting it briefly in 2016 we were keen to see more.

Initially we had planned to visit the central highlands, similar to Munduk in Bali. However in light of the high degree of James moaning from our Munduk trip we sacrificed waterfalls and rice paddy’s for the surf. We’d heard cool things about Kuta (the Lombok version not the party Bali version), described as a laid back surfing paradise and so diverted for a few more days on the beach.

We were excited for pristine sandy beaches and good surf, however, I’m sorry to say that Kuta disappointed ☹️. Like Ubud it was traffic crazy, but this time lacking the charm of the Bali towns. When you visit a place it can be hard to articulate the reasons why the love somewhere, we find this is often even harder when the vibe is a little off. For sure the people on Lombok are different, customer service is lower down their priority order, which when then combined with a more pushy approach to tourists felt a little abrasive. This is no different than lots of other parts of the world, much of Africa for example, but compared the the Balinese who are so laid back, it was a stark comparison.

This was also the first time in the holiday that I had been so acutely aware of poverty and I felt uncomfortable about the living conditions for some families. Squatting by the side of a fume filled road in a sewerage drain, mothers and children sold jewellery to tourists and later slept on the floor in plywood single room homes by the side of the same road.

The final stark difference was the rubbish and trash everywhere. Some areas looked filthy, plastic accumulating outside of buildings, in dry river beds and on many beaches.

Bali and Lombok struggle with overwhelmed local landfills given high tourist numbers. But Bali also has stricter bans on single use plastics and tourist hubs invest more in clean up activities. I think the reality is that these struggles are more visible on Lombok than Bali but they exist on both.

So should we even be visiting? If we are putting obvious strain on the environment is it better for tourists to stay away? Our response is to travel carefully – avoiding plastics, utilising our own refillable water bottles (we have our own water filter just in case), and spending money directly with local people as much as possible so money flows into the community avoiding the agencies.

This part of the trip was an important reminder that fortunes for people are mainly set when they are born and there is a shitty unfairness in the reality that a person born in Indonesia faces different life opportunities to someone born in the U.K. A positive attitude can only get you so far in life!

When we travel with James we talk about these differences so he can increase his empathy and understanding of the world. We’re hoping this information is sinking in, evidence right now suggests empathy is much higher for animals and the planet as a whole than humans!!

We did make the most of our time in Kuta. A fun family surfing lesson gave James the chance to practice the skills he developed in Panama nearly 7 years ago. He did fabulous, although I think he still prefers to be in the waves rather than on them.

Tampah beach is looked after and cleaned by locals, giving us a beautiful morning on pristine sand (except for a rogue washed up baby Portuguese Man O War 😬).

And the ‘highlight’ of the Kuta trip was a visit to Gua Sanur the local bat cave which defies words and pictures, but let me try my best.

You descend a set of rickety metal steps into a wide opening of the cave. At this point the floor is already covered in hundreds of cockroaches, who have the good grace not to crawl up your legs – for that I am thankful. Walk 20 metres further and you have greater numbers of cockroaches, thousands of fruit bats hanging and swarming above with the not so gentle buzz of both filling the air. This noise is punctuated by the occasional plop of bat shit onto our colourful umbrellas thankfully provided by the guide! If this were not enough torchlight pin points reticulated pythons, hanging from and hiding in crevices waiting to pounce on the passing bats.

Oh, and then there’s the smell. It says a lot about the above that the smell was actually the least worse part of this adventure.

Encouraged by our guide we snuck under a low hanging cave ledge, carefully not touching the floor, to spot spider bats. If it weren’t for the fact that we’d had to leave our umbrellas behind (they wouldn’t fit under the gap) this was my favourite bit – cockroaches and pythons were gone and these more chilled bats eat my nemesis – mosquitoes!

Sadly we had to retrace our footsteps to get out of the place.

We had varying perspectives on this specific adventure – James was delighted (his hero Steve Backshall did something similar in Deadly 60). John was thrilled by the opportunity to be so close to nature.

I was horrified and I don’t think James could understand why I would come into the cave given how it made me feel. I didn’t want to miss out of course, but mainly I believe that as we grow older our world can easily get smaller and so pushing the boundaries on what we are willing to do is a good thing to do. That said, I don’t intend to repeat it. Ever!!!

Our driver for the day (the wonderful Morin), despite being terrified of snakes, had chosen to join us in his flip-flops (like the guide) for this part of the trip.

The Gili islands are hyped as being idyllic tropical paradise but after the disappointment of the also hyped Kuta we were slightly worried they would be a dud.

We’d been warned that the port of Bangsal on Lombok was a hornets nest of touts for the tourist speed boats. Thankfully, Morin, our trusty driver took us directly to the ticket shed for the public boat to our first stop, Gili Air. The boat was a simple wooden affair with bench seats and worrying only 2 life vests. We shared the ride mainly with locals with a smattering of backpackers.

Gili Air is small, maybe 30 mins walk from end to end, with a criss-cross of sandy and semi paved tracks. But most importantly, no noisy polluting motorbikes! The only transport on the island are horse carts, push bikes and electric scooters. Paradise? Not quite, but still pretty nice and a good place to relax.

A couple of months before heading to Indonesia we’d discovered that James was old enough to do a PADI Bubblemaker scuba diving course – a short theory session on the essentials, a pool dive to learn some basic skills then a shallow introductory 2m sea dive. James was keen to try, especially given his future career aspirations to become a marine biologist. But we have to admit that our motives were partially selfish. Since James was born our scuba diving has taken a back seat because one of us has to stay back with James. So the hope is that when he’s old enough (12) to do his PADI Open Water qualification we can dive as a family, so this would be a positive step in that direction.

His dive buddy was Mark, a gentle bearded giant from Perth and they made an unlikely pair. Alex the instructor was a legend and really looked after James, and was very patient, apparently even when James spent his time chasing fish rather than paying attention.

The theory and pool session went smoothly which was a relief as James is not known for his listening to instructions skills. We’d prepared ourselves for it being a 2m sea dive maybe 5m at the deepest. When his instructor told us he’d be going down to 12m on a full ‘try dive’ from a boat, James was super excited at the prospect, we were too but we were also secretly terrified. I wouldn’t call us helicopter parents but it was a pretty nerve wracking 40 minutes waiting for them to surface. Scuba gets a clear thumbs up from James and we are so proud of him for being so confident in the water and giving it a try at such a young age.

Lucy also took the opportunity to go out on a dive, her first in almost 10 years! She was rewarded with turtles and some white tip reef sharks. I had a head cold and didn’t want to risk not being able to equalise so stayed ashore to watch James do his pool lesson.

We spent the rest of our time exploring the island and Miss Daisy made a return. Lucy and James on an electric scooter and me following on a rusty single speed pedal bike. Turtle point was our favourite, a black sand beach with azure waters on the east coast, where green turtles come to graze on the seagrass a few metres from the shore. Hours were spent playing in the waves and following huge turtles as they lazily munched away. Having our own transport also enabled Lucy to be in her natural environment, exploring the islands boutique shops.

Next stop Gili Meno, a 10 minute boat ride away. Lucy’s liking of fancy-pants hotels was satiated as our villa was lush with a pool which stretched almost onto the beach. Gili Meno is known as the honeymoon island and is even quieter with far less tourist infrastructure (thankfully less shops) than Gili Air. So much so that all fresh water has to be boated in and apparently work on laying fresh water pipes from Lombok ground to a halt thanks to government corruption.

With nothing ‘to do’ other than cycle around the island, undertake pre-breakfast (high tide) DIY family paddle board/snorkelling trips to the outer reef, visit another turtle sanctuary, eat good food and drink sundowners it was a great way to spend the last couple of days of our travels. 

Next stop a couple of days in Singapore, via Jakarta.