May 2nd: Ferry Ride from Padangbai to Lembar, Lembar to Mataram – 24km
Day 201
The ferry connection between Padangbai and Lembar runs 24 hours, and the ferry leaves every hour. The ferry ride is 4 to 5 hours long, depending on the weather conditions. Then ticket costs 57,000 IDR for each of us, including our trikes.
Car ferries are always the easiest way to transport our trikes. We drove on, parked, and had the usual chat with locals and the crew, who are always curious about our trikes, and soon found ourselves sitting in the air-conditioned passenger hall. The hall has bench seats as well as a designated sleeping area on the floor. The ferry was not full, so we took a row and lied down for a nap. There is a food kiosk on the ferry, selling instant noodles as and snacks. We got two nasi bungkus from a lady before the ferry left port, so we managed to avoid the overpriced cup of noodles on the ferry.
4 hours later, we arrived in Lembar, Lombok. The ride was lovely at first, but as we got closer and closer to Mataram, the capital city of Lombok, the traffic grew thicker and thicker. We decided to stay in Mataram for the night, so we could avoid staying in Senggigi 15kms further ahead, as we learned that it is a very touristy and expensive area.
After circling Mataram for almost 30 minutes looking for a place to stay, we could only found either very cheap fan rooms with mandi showers, or very expensive modern hotels. We were not in the mood for a fan room since the temperature was quite high, nor did we want to splurge on a hotel room for no reason. Eventually we found an exceptional hotel for the middle ground price of 200,000 IDR, and moved in just before the afternoon rain storm.