Although you’re much less likely to see bikini-clad tourists strolling through beach resorts there’s every chance to visit a Sasak village and be shown the intricacies of songket dress making by a local female tour guide who arrives on the back of a motorbike. Life on Lombok exists without Western ways, as it always has, where you’re just as likely to hear the early morning call to prayer as you are the whistle of an endemic scops owl whilst staying in a village at the base of Mount Rinjani. Scenery is much more rugged, mountainous, dramatic, with Rinjani, the island’s volcanic centrepiece, revered for forest-covered highlands and fertile lowlands where cotton, coffee and soya beans are cultivated, much as they have been for generations.
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Although parts of bali have embraced 'anything goes', neighbouring Lombok certainly has not, and therein lies its charm. The lack of commercialism is refreshing and so is the peace and quiet.
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Lombok’s a place of peace and quiet with deserted beaches from where to surf, swim or snorkel over coral, or simply soak up the sunshine and silence. Shhhh.
Find out more in our Lombok travel guide.
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