Viktor Hotel Lombok
Naturally walking with two Caucasians made them an obvious tout target. Eventually I managed to speak to some police officers to ask about how we are to get to Mataram which is our first stop by bus. Cars go for 150,000 rupiah onwards to Mataram while the bus cost 20,000 rupiah but you got to wait for a long time before it leaves or arrives. It usually arrives just before a flight lands and the operator to Mataram and Senggigi is Damri. You can purchase the ticket before hand or on board from the conducto
Welcome to Lombok.
“We will be landing in Lombok shortly” came the announcement over the aircraft PA system.
So this is it, the real adventure begins. There was almost 40 minute wait to clear out immigrations and I was last in line with the guys. Now none of us had return tickets and since the boys are from the EU they both needed to get a visa.
My turn came up and guess what? I got pulled over for not having a return ticket. So there I went into the immigration waiting room to have a ‘chat’ with a zit faced officer.
“Miss can you speak Bahasa Melayu?”
“Yes”
The rest of the conversation was continued in Malay and I was arguing over why I needed a return ticket and the boys don’t. According to law, if you have a free entry without having to pay visa you need a return ticket which is valid. And since I’m Malaysian I have to have a return ticket. I explained to him that I’m willing to purchase one now, right there and then. But he kept saying,
“Oh but that is not it, you should have one even before you left your country. So now we have to send you back”
“No you’re not. You are not sending me back plus the next flight is hours later and I’m buying a ticket now and you are going to print it!”
So that went on for another 15 minutes before he finally coughed out that I ‘needed’ to pay like 500,000 rupiah to get in. I clearly made such a bloody scene and fuss, which again went on for a while before I finally paid the damn fee. Even the officer was puzzled that no one on the Malaysian end warned me about this must-have-return ticket policy and said it should have been mentioned before I purchased my tickets. Well it was an expensive lesson for me but what a way to start the journey. Oh well, it’s equivalent to a night out in Malaysia anyway so am not complaining too much but am still a bit sore about it. And this line hit the spot,
“It’s for my country, not for me”
Like I haven’t heard that one before.
Managed to interview the officer though, of where to go and how to get from one place to another for cheap and not being ripped off (yeah and I just got ripped off by him!). But he did furnish me with information which was useful.
Hotel Viktor 3.
Naturally walking with two Caucasians made them an obvious tout target. Eventually I managed to speak to some police officers to ask about how we are to get to Mataram which is our first stop by bus. Cars go for 150,000 rupiah onwards to Mataram while the bus cost 20,000 rupiah but you got to wait for a long time before it leaves or arrives. It usually arrives just before a flight lands and the operator to Mataram and Senggigi is Damri. You can purchase the ticket before hand or on board from the conductor.
The bus operator was nice to give us information about places in Lombok; As I speak the local language it’s relatively easy to get around. But as always I need to hide the boys, get info and haggle before revealing them as my 2+. If not it would be double with them two in plain sight.
Pura Dan Kemaliq Lingsar.
We got to Mataram under heavy rainfall. The bus driver was kind enough to get a taxi (Blue Bird taxis are the most reliable taxis in Bali and Lombok, and they run on meter) to the accommodation we wanted to go too. We got to Hotel Viktor, which is really a guesthouse more than anything. They have Hotel Viktor 1,2 & 3 all lined up in the same street. We got into Viktor 2 and for 3 people to a room a night, with cold shower and fan it cost us only 150,000 rupiah (all 3 of us). For the rooms with hot water showers, it’s located in Viktor 3, just across from us and cost about 250,000 rupiah for 3. This is obviously not including breakfast. You can chill out at Viktor 3 to use the wifi as that’s the only accommodation that has wifi connected too.
The people running the accommodation are nice and they were very helpful. We wanted to rent scooters to go around the island and to rent in Mataram it will cost 50,000 rupiah but you must surrender your passport to the rental office. We have done this before in Thailand but over here, there is no insurance plus we were advised against it as scooter thefts are very common in Mataram. We were advised to perhaps rent scooters when we get to Kuta-Lombok as it’s safer over there plus we would be needing them to beach hop.
