Hi, it’s March! Or so I’ve been led to believe. It once again kind of feels like we just left home but yet here we are. The past 2 ½ months have been pretty enjoyable as we’ve been reacquainting ourselves with the wonders, enthusiastic welcome and incredible affordability of Southeast Asia. In the case of Singapore, maybe just two of those three (although there were a surprising number of ways to stick to a budget even in “the most expensive city in the world”).
A quick overview of our 2026 so far:
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Two weeks loving the scenery, food and people of northern Vietnam, all the while a little bit shocked at the unseasonably cold weather, forcing our very few items of warm clothing to work much harder than they deserved.
Two weeks retro-touring old Thai favourites like Chiang Mai, Pai, Ayutthaya and Bangkok.
We added another Thai island to our collection with a quick beach stop in new-to-us Koh Samet, then spent a month (!) in an apartment in a new destination, Rayong. At which point, we convinced ourselves we knew a thing or two (or 42) about Thailand.
Then we spent a weekend walking to and fro in amazing Singapore. No, it’s not cheap, overall. But some stuff kind of is, like public transportation and all the places you can visit that don’t charge any entrance fee. Including, thankfully, a half-lion, half-fish spewing water into the harbour.
And now we’re in Lombok! In case you’re not familiar, it’s the Indonesian island directly east of Bali. Both are roughly the same size, lined with fantastic beaches and full of hills, volcanoes and rice fields in the middle. Other than that, they are nothing alike, though… There will be a distinctly Lombokian blog post coming eventually but, in the meantime, feel free to check out our photos and Laynni’s epic – and occasionally defamatory – stories on either Instagram or Facebook.
Thoughts on Lombok So Far
The most notable difference between these two geographically similar islands is that Bali is mainly Hindu with just a pinch of Buddhism mixed in for flavour, while the local Sasak people of Lombok are almost entirely Muslim, other than a few groups of Balinese Hindus and the odd Christian popping up here and there.
Now, our travels don’t normally focus much on religion but for the second year running we’ve chosen to spend the month of Ramadan in a Muslim country. Which means locals fasting from sunrise to sunset, increasingly active mosques and a steady diet of calls to prayer. For us non-Muslims, the biggest consideration during Ramadan is usually food – where to get it, when, and how careful you need to be about letting starving folks hear your satisfied burp. It seems, however, those things aren’t much of an issue here. While we still do our best not to flaunt our extravagantly delicious daytime feasts, locals are very accepting of the fact most tourists aren’t fasting and they seem happy to indulge our thrice daily cravings. Unlike Tunisia, where restaurants basically shut down for the entire month. In Indonesia, thankfully for us, most places are happy to prepare it and serve it, they just don’t get to eat it (until later, of course).
Mind you, it also helps that we spent our first week on Lombok in one of the most popular surf towns in Southeast Asia – Kuta Beach (the Lombok version, not to be confused with the chaotic Balinese backpacker landmark of the same name). Kuta is a small town with a very average beach but it is, however, surrounded by many more, quite exceptional beaches. It also, somehow, has as wide a selection of Western-themed restaurants as we’ve seen in cities 10x its size. Pretty much all of them excellent, as well.
Feeling like Mexican? Here’s a place with amazing birria tacos. A hankering for Greek? Gyros and moussaka it is. Pizza time? Look no further than the Pizza Shack. Roast chicken? Mad Chicken. Sandwiches? The Spot. Burgers? Drifters. Popcorn? Pepito’s. Looking for inspiration? Shipping container food court. So, you get the idea. Despite the many familiar temptations, we also tiptoed our way back into Indonesian food now and then – nasi goreng, beef rendang and a bunch of dishes whose names I don’t remember. I just know they all came with rice.
We stayed in a great little place away from the main road called Nomada Villas where we shared a private pool with some frogs and a larger pool with other tourists, and we ate, we scootered, we beached, we sunsetted. We saw cows and frogs and surfers and chickens and I bought a rash guard for snorkelling and not a single pharmacy had malaria prevention pills because even though there is, apparently, malaria on Lombok, it’s “not here, north maybe” and eventually their complete lack of concern became our complete lack of concern, as well.
At least until we did, in fact, go north – to stay in the lush, swampy rice fields of Tetebatu. Uh oh, right? Well, somehow, not really. 4 days, 2 mosquitos. Which may have actually been just one mosquito spotted by Laynni, then later by me. Then killed, unceremoniously (away from the swollen city-breeze, garbage bag trees, whispers of disease and the acts of enormity).
We then asked the hotel manager about the lack of mosquitoes considering, you know, everything about this place screams mosquito paradise. “Oh, too cold now, I think!” is how he described daily highs of 25C and nightly lows of 19C. So… maybe? If so, you can bet our hardy Canadian mosquitoes would have a thing or two to say about the fair-weather proclivities of their Indonesian counterparts.
Meanwhile, our room at Lombok Hidden Villas had gorgeous views of the rice fields and a couple volcanoes right from our room (giving off some Atitlan vibes). Hence, we spent a lot of our time just staring at that, while mixing in some short walks through the fields and short scooter trips to various waterfalls. In the evenings, the local guys celebrated their end of day breaking of fasts in the time-honoured tradition of excitable blokes everywhere, by setting off poorly planned fireworks, vaguely hoping no one gets hurt or anything burns down, and absolutely pissing themselves laughing.
Looking Ahead
We’re now – finally – experiencing a set of three Indonesian islands that have been mainstays on the Southeast Asian backpacker circuit for decades now, usually just known as “The Gilis”. Despite the fact “gili” just means “island” in Indonesia. And that there are several dozen more “gilis” surrounding Lombok. Each with actual names of their own.
Reductive etymology aside, Gili Meno is lovely, especially our comfortable and friendly beach resort, Divine Divers Gili Meno. As you might guess from the name, this seemed like the perfect place to get back into scuba diving for the first time since our last epic underwater adventures in the Maldives – with whale sharks and then tiger sharks. If for no other reason than to confirm that we still remember how to dive, plus refresh our buoyancy skills and brush up on all those obscure hand signals we are supposed to remember (“shark / “ear problems” / “triggerfish” / “yes, I did just pee in my wetsuit, how can you tell?”).
First we did some snorkelling, though, failing miserably to find the famous Bask Nest underwater statues of Meno but at least somewhat consoled by seeing a whackload of turtles. Apologies for the technical terminology (and we did eventually find the statues, days later).
Then, considering our recent diving history, it seemed fitting that our first dive in the Gilis was at Shark Point. Where we started out by heading straight down to the Glen Nusa I wreck. Quite a challenge, right off the bat, to get our buoyancy, control and agility just right while working our way into and through the small openings and unpredictable remains. Very cool spot, though, tons of fish, and we managed to make it through without any unfortunate rust-burns.
Then it was onto the sharks (bet you didn’t see that one coming), a bunch of little white-tip reef sharks, then a couple octopi (one of which was swimming, which is less common), and a BUNCH more turtles, including an adorable big momma/tiny baby combo, capped off with the smallest, cutest spotted stingray I’ve ever seen (about the size of a saucer, or a badly shattered kneecap).
Our next dive was to Halik Reef, which was all about the beautiful coral and schools of little fish, but we also saw a couple more sharks, a couple more octopi (just can’t get enough of that word, obviously), some adorable little shrimps scuttling across the coral here and, my personal highlight, the largest cuttlefish I’d ever seen. The most accommodating, as well, as he just kind of floated there, slowly moving forward every so often, paying us no mind as we zoomed in for closer and closer looks. Maybe we aren’t actually as intimidating as we imagine. Or maybe he gets off on the attention. I’m fine with it, either way.
Of course, these dives were really just meant to whet our appetite in anticipation of this trip’s BIG HIGHLIGHT – a one-week liveaboard in the famous diving mecca of Raja Ampat that is coming up next week. It should be pretty amazing. The scenery, the diving, the remoteness. Sharing a tiny room on a boat that never stops rocking, so if you hold off knocking for that reason, I’m afraid you’ll be waiting a long time.
Then we’ll head back to Bali to resume our tour of old favourites (Ubud / Sanur) and new adventures (Nusa Penida). Then, before you know it, and certainly before we’ll be ready for it, we’ll be on our way back home for summer. Although, considering that will only be the beginning of May, I’m using the term “summer” pretty loosely.
Just For Fun
Not every Routinely Nomadic blog post has to be informative and useful (are there any, you ask?). Sometimes we just wanted to tell a funny story. Sometimes we just wanted to share an amusing anecdote. Sometimes we were just in a weird mood. Sometimes we did these things near volcanoes. This was one of those times:
Lake Atitlan: An Historical Pictorial
So that’s it for now – time for me to check in on my daily Indonesian language app. Really hoping that today I will learn something a bit more useful than “Kucing ini suka susu” (This cat likes milk), less strange than asking “Umur saya tahun?” (How old am I?) and definitely less vulgar than “Selamat pagi, kami besar dan kaya” (Good morning, we are big and rich). Relatively true here, but still…