Lombok like Bali? The “Balification” process

Not all was nice and lovely in Lombok unfortunately.

I have to say that I've found Senggigi quite changed already, in less than a year time. The name I came up with for the change is Balification: things here are starting to get too similar to Bali.

First of all sellers on the beach and on the roads are getting pushier and pushier; the beach was already off limit to tourists because of that (many prefer to spend time in the well protected swimming pools); it's impossible to walk or have a meal anywhere or without having sellers all over you. As a consequence many restaurants and hotels have signs asking customers not to talk or invite sellers in; some posh hotels even have barriers and anti-sellers security men.

Of course this is a vicious circle, as sellers of course need to make some money to eat, and will be even more aggressive in places where they are allowed, but at the same time this doesn't sure help visitors having a relaxed stay.


Consider also that almost every shop owner tends to take advantage of the fact that you're a visitor and not familiar with local prices. The price of a bottle of water at the same shop depends for example on whether you'll be served by the owner or his wife. In many occasions while paying in shops I had to wait and make clear that I wanted my change back. They looked almost surprised, a “visitor” that knows how much something costs! Of course I don't mind leaving the change or a tip, but I want it to be my choice and not being considered a dumb tourist.


Another effect of the Balification process is more “bad” tourist coming over. Many of them are sexual tourist, and the consequence is more and more prostitution. While before sex workers were hanging around in few clubs and discos now you even see them down the road at night. Not a pretty sight.

To add to my frustration for the Balification process internet connection (which was quite decent in February and March) was rarely available, and I've found even the service in many places that I liked much worse.

I thought a lot about all these changes. Is it possible that Senggigi got so much worse in less than 10 months? Is it possible that when I came here the first time I was so excited about my trip beginning, seeing new places and cultures, and coming from a stressful environment didn't mind or even notice all these things? But then just one month ago I was in Langkawi, where like in Lombok the pace of life is very slow, and there's the same lack of Western facilities like decent internet connection, footpaths, cash registers that allow to have your bill in less than 20 minutes.

Still i loved there, while now I don't know if I would recommend Senggigi as a tourist destination to my friends now.

Unless of course you go there for Kampung Loco. That was what really made the trip. Not only my friends, but everyone in the village really considered me one of them, was super nice and polite. Going there you see the real life in Lombok, you forget the pains of tourist life in Senggigi and most important you learn to really appreciate the people and their culture there.

Feel free to contact Lombok Travel Info if you ever wish to visit or stay in the village. My friends there will be more than happy to help you and show you around.

Return to Lombok

Having had enough of Bali I decided to head back to Lombok. I don't really understand why Bali is so famous and Lombok so unknown. From Lombok you can see Bali (mount Agung at sunset), but from Bali you cannot see Lombok. I believe this is a good metaphor: Lombok has everything that Bali has, and more. You have lovely beaches, tropical climate, fantastic culture, but without the traffic, noise and hassle of the super-touristic Bali. Beaches are suppose to be even better, and from a culture point of view while Bali has only Hindus, in Lombok you can get to know Hindu AND Muslim cultures.

Senggigi is a small place (sometimes too small), so 30 mins after my arrival everybody knew I was back. You know the way, the hotel guy at reception tells the barman, the barman goes to but cigarettes and tells the supermarket guy, etc. Time to check-in, have a quick shower and get to my usual restaurant to grab some food, and here comes my friend Sahur.

This time I didn't come back to Lombok to go on more tours, explore the island and generally speaking to be a tourist. This time the plan was just to chill out, spend time with my friends in the village, and get more info about the project to help the kids here. Like going back home. And so I did. My friends took me with them to various events that are part of their life this time of the year. First one was the party for the birthday of the prophet Mohammad. Not many tourist there as you can imagine. Every village celebrates it on a different day for a total of a couple of weeks, so people can go from one place to another, enjoying concerts (in Sasak language mainly) and seasonal food prepared jst for the occasion. The gentlemen in the pic are actually cooking a Panggang, a cake made of rice, palm oil, sugar cane and some other ingredients, stirred for hours in that pot heated from a fire in a hole in the ground.

From a Muslim celebration to an Hindu one. So the next stop few days later was cock fighting (expect comments from my veggie friends here) and Bola Adil. Bola Adil is a kind of Hindu simplified version of a roulette. You roll your money like a cigarette and you throw it on your favorite symbol, like yellow ball, red square, or green mountain. Then an odd shaped ball will be rolled on a table with all symbols and depending on where it stops... 10 to 1 paid for the right symbol, less if you put your money on combinations.
On the second day I happen to win quite a lot there (beginner's luck?), so with the money I won we went to the market, got 5 huge fishes, 6 durians and had a big party, grilling the fish and having more than 15 people eating in total!
How much did I win? Less than 15 euros!!

So keep that in mind: if you want to donate only a few euros to send the Kampung kids to school it still can make a huge difference!

The following days were exciting ones for the village, Kampung Loco. Having grown to a high enough number of residents, the village was electing for the first time a Kampung kepala, a head of village. This will give the village more power and independence from the city to which it was previously belonging. For me it was fun playing half the official photo-reporter, half an independent international observer:)

On the less cultural side, the remaining days gave me the occasion to flirt around a bit and exercises my bad influence on the lads. I will refrain from going into details, but let's just say that gin and tonic is now extremely popular there, and is now available in many bars where before my arrival they didn't serve it. One of them is Berry's Cafe, with staff at TGIM below.

Bali Spirit Festival & Paddy's Day re-tox in Sanur

Detoxing in Ubud...

My doubts about the Yoga Festival were founded. I tried. I went with the best intentions: let's try something different, let's be healthy for a few days, detox a bit, discover something new.

But no, I wasn't converted. The vegetarian life is not really for me. Herbal drinks replacing coffee, salads replacing meat, basically (too) healthy stuff replacing the good, sinful pleasures of life.

Did you know that even dairy can be unhealthy? Worse than wheat they say :) Cooking food? Not good either. Vegetables served were “cooked” at no more than 58 C.

But there were also some good things. Mojitos were served at night, and i enjoyed a few glasses... and a few classes too! Here's a quick summary.

The Belly Dancing class class was indeed pleasant to look at; of course I didn't ruin it by trying it myself - that could be a niche huh? Male Belly dancing.. The Sufi Chanting one was.. well let's just say I was glad I was just observing.. I took a session of West African dance instead; lots of fun but very intense on the physical side: lactic acid made my legs sore for the next 4 days!



The session I enjoyed the most has to be Laughter Yoga. Not difficult to guess that laughing it's good for your health, but the founder, Madan Kataria, which was the one giving the class, proved it from a medical point of view. For example when we breath there's a good part of stagnant air that we don't exhale, and one the goals of yoga is of course correct breathing and exhaling all air. We do that though when we laugh. So Laughter Yoga it's a less boring way than traditional yoga to exhale all air and be nice to your body and mind. So what do you do? Sit around and just laugh? Yes, exactly! The idea is “fake it until you make it”, after all for your body fake or real laughter doesn't make any physical difference anyway. And after a while of course some “real” laughing inevitably arrives. Did I made you curious? Check out more at the Laughter Yoga website!


If you're looking for info on the Bali Spirit Festival it's all on their official website, don't let my unhealthy review get in the way :)

Some related posts:

Ubud, Bali and Nyepi

Authentic Happiness

Lombok, Bali's little sister island

And now let's move to the real unhealthy part..

Retoxing in Sanur

Although the first day of the festival was good fun I thought that for the second day - which happened to be my birthday - I deserved something more in my style, so i treated myself to an hour of Balinese massage, Indian food (to which I am lately simply addicted) and a bottle of Hatten white wine.

Paddy's day was approaching, and of course a Yoga festival is not the best place to celebrate the patron Saint of Ireland. So i decided to move south of Bali, to Sanur, which is supposed to have a good nightlife; a good place for some re-tox, I thought, after all the exercise and the vegetables I got at the Spirit Festival. Kuta Bali is supposed to be the worse place for touts; well I haven't been there, but Sanur was definitely touts paradise. Impossible to go on the main street without receiving literally hundreds of offers. Taxis and bemos will start beeping at you from hundreds meters before approaching you, then slowing down, following you for few meters, and the hardcore ones will even stop to offer you “transport”. I made an experiment and counted how many offers I received in a minute walking around.. well between people on the street, taxis and bemos I got 20 !

Good news though.. there's an Irish pub. Normally I wouldn't care too much, but hey, it's Paddy's Day. So Cat & Fiddle pub it is, with Indonesian band playing away all Irish classics. Amazing to hear "Whiskey in the jar" played by a fiddler from Papua and with tropical percussion on top..

Ubud, Bali and Nyepi

Bali? What? (I hear you say)? You said you were NOT going to go to Bali as it's too touristic and busy, and doesn't fit with your overall traveling plan.. well you're right, but you know how I've never been a big planner, and I liked the idea of a first, unplanned, stop.

The reason why I'm here is a Yoga, Dance and Music festival. I saw an ad on a local paper and i thought: wouldn't that be a nice birthday present for me? There are some risks involved in a Yoga festival, like being surrounded by superhealthy American people who talk only of energy and flow, or even worse vegetarians! :) But I decided to take the risk and check it out. Will not go to any retreat, but only to the open sessions, so if it's too healthy I can always runaway to retox somewhere else.

The festival is held in conjunction with Nyepi, so let me tell you a bit more about Nyepi, or the balinese new year. For a whole day it is forbidden to do anything. No work, no going out in the streets, no electricity, no fires, no noises. You just stay in and do nothing, or rather think, meditate. Isn't it the idler paradise? The rules apply to tourists as well, so that you just stay in your hotel (that wont usually charge you for that day) and do nothing. The Airport is closed, but many tourists just run away in the previous days. They run away as there's nothing to do, while I came on purpose for it.

The day before Nyepi instead you have to make as much noise as possible, so there are firecrackers (it's new year's eve after all), a lot of pot banging and parades with the giant monsters (Ogoh Ogoh) you see here.



The Ogoh Ogoh are then burnt. The reason behind all this is an exorcism of evil spirits: you let them run free (parade), then you scare them away (burn the Ogoh Ogoh, make a lot of noise) and then at Nyepi you don't make any sound so the evil spirits will think there's no one on the island.

With the right state of mind you can really enjoy a day of doing absolutely nothing. I enjoyed indeed, thanks also to my books and my personal touch, a bottle of Balinese wine to gently sip through the day.

Read more about Differences between Bali and Lombok