Kuala Lumpur to Lombok

Today was intense!  We got up at 4:30 to drive to KLIA2, the new Kuala Lumpur airport terminal for economy flights to catch our 8:30 Air Asia flight to Lombok, Indonesia.  Last year we went to the old economy terminal for our trip to Phuket, Thailand and that terminal was pretty chaotic, teeming with people and steaming with heat.  Check-in at the old terminal was a real "cluster" with a long walk to the "gate" which was merely a door outside to the tarmac followed by another very long walk outside to ultimately reach the plane.  On that trip, my wife Carol almost de-laminated, was sputtering F-Bombs and  about ready to throw in the towel in the last 100 yards to the plane.  By contrast, the new terminal was enormously easier.  The building was air-conditioned, check-in was well organized and the walk to the gate was tolerable.  The only downside was that even in this brand new modern building the public toilets, like everywhere else in Malaysia, are just disgusting.  Every stall has a hose that people use to clean their backsides with instead of toilet paper and as a result there is water everywhere; on the seats, on the floor, the walls . . . everywhere.  How could anyone think that using a hose to clean yourself is easier or more convenient than toilet paper . . . for yourself or the next unfortunate user???  Note to Southeast Asia; get rid of the damn hoses in the toilets and force people to use toilet paper!

After a three hour flight we were slammed by the heat and humidity in Lombok as we walked down the steps of the plane to the tarmac.  Carol said, "Ah, this is the Asia I remember".  The terminal itself was small and not air-conditioned.  We had to get a "Visa on Arrival" for $25/person but that went very quickly.  In contrast to Kuala Lumpur where there was virtually no customs inspection, in Lombok it was the Full Monty with dogs sniffing every piece of luggage and every piece of luggage and carry-on going through an X-ray before we were permitted to leave.

The drive from the Lombok airport to the Oberoi Hotel was about an hour and 45 minutes.  First we went through an agricultural area dominated by by rice paddies and water buffalo on a four-lane highway and then we took what the driver described as as a short cut on a very narrow road with no shoulder with clusters of third world poverty shacks for housing,  ramshackle stands with liters of gas for the motorbikes which outnumbered cars by at least 20 to 1, then we climbed into the hills of a mahogany forest and then through a jungle with dozens of monkeys by the side of the road before descending to the coast and our hotel.

 Once we got to the Oberoi, it was a radical shift from the third world  to the lap of luxury.  We turned off the road above, went through a couple of miles of forest and then reached a gated security post where they inspected the underside of the car with a mirror for bombs.

We have two villas; one is a two-bedroom ocean view with its own pool which we thought Amy and the G-kids should use.

Ours is a one-bedroom ocean view villa but without a pool.  I'll post some pictures later of the interior.  Its fabulous.

Here is a stretch of the beach:

This is a shot I took down by the dock:

And as I was walking back to our room I was even treated with a rainbow:

We're really looking forward to the next four days here!