Senggigi Lombok

We've moved to a different island today - to Lombok - only a short flight over the Lombok Strait - but a world away from beautiful, hectic, crazy, dreamy Bali.

Lombok is much poorer, much drier, far less developed and far less beautiful than Bali in so many ways. But Senggigi Beach has always had a certain charm for us even though it has obviously retained its wild, (often ugly) frontier character. It's essential to stay in a nice hotel in Lombok and have that as a refuge when things get too much outside that space. What Lombok has that Bali doesn't is far fewer tourists, quiet accessible beaches and much less traffic.  

We decided to stay at the Sheraton Senggigi this visit, instead of the much smaller boutique hotels we've stayed in the past.

The Sheraton is an older style hotel with HUGE gardens and a huge area of private (and very clean) direct beach frontage. We're pretty certain we're gonna like it here!

The view to the beach from our ground floor room ........... 

 We just chilled out on the balcony in a smug self satisfied way after we arrived... We'd had an early start to the day and travel is exhausting!!!

 Then we faced the challenge of working out which beach loungers might suit us best tomorrow morning.... These looked good - close to our room, quite private and under shade ......

 ... and a view to the south ....

 ...and the north .......

 Of course there are pool loungers too on offer and day bed bures under the trees (but not on the beach). It's going to be a tough decision to make in the morning which option we'll choose.

So we went for a walk, southward along the beach........

 .. and then turned up the laneway from the Senggigi Pier towards the downtown part of Senggigi (the Wild West frontier part of town). Senggigi has everything - including a strong live music scene and great street art..

 ...... and on the main road in the " downtown" area there are still plenty of desperate looking tour operators, empty broken down retail spaces and some pretty desperate looking small hotels - alongside incredibly upmarket restaurants and lots of fancy stuff. We found a very sleek and upmarket deli/bakery on the main strip and Rob was stoked to see pandan flavoured donuts filled with nuts and red bean (only in Asia!!!). I tasted them too - they're definitely worth a return visit.

 We made it back to the Sheraton in time for happy hour cocktails - but a disappointing sunset on this occasion.

So many decisions to make at happy hour.

 This is a big hotel, but the hotels on Lombok have been pretty quiet since the earthquakes (about this time last year) and so everything feels very spacious.  We had no trouble getting the best beach side table for sunset (although not a good one tonight) drinks.

 We are pretty entranced by this setting and found it hard to leave. Lucky the dinner options are pretty great here too!