Continues from here.

♥November 27th♥

On our 3rd day at Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp, we’d arranged to do soft tracking around Tanjung Ringgit.

We had a hearty breakfast and started our journey at 7:30am, with April and another Camp Host Jawa accompanying us.

Soft tracking it’s called; but…. it was about 5km journey and 2.5hrs track, walking through some thorny bushes (with April and Jawa giving us all the help like parting the bushes for us, or carrying the children over them etc), hilly rocky path, and what I couldn’t stand most is, because of the dry season, we hardly got any shelter from the plants/trees around, and even though it’s early morning, it was HOT!

April helping Zara with through thorny bushes

Tracking along the cliff

The reward? Spectacular View!

Tanjung Ringgit – Cliff

Both April and Jawa helped with the girls, while we followed them closely. With Daddy making many stops to photograph the grand view or whatever he fancied.

There were a couple of beaches we walked passed, and the girls spent some time exploring.

Leaving their mark on one of the beaches

Because we have 2 children with us, Irwan was arranged to meet us mid point with the car, just in case the children were too tired to go on.

Irwan and Jawa, spent sometime with the girls at the tide pools showing them various sea snails.

The girls decided to move on with the tracking, and not take the car back. (Zaria regretted afterwards)

And continued the exploring…

Zaria got a bit tired after a while, and had to be coaxed by April.

And because it was so hot, when she saw the sea next, she said she wanted to jump into the sea (April had to hold on to her just in case she really jumped in).

We made a couple of rest stop finding whatever shelter we have, and there were more beautiful views that greeted us.

Beautiful views after beautiful views followed by more walking.

Finally, Zaria gave up and wanted to be carried. Luckily Daddy had the stamina to carry her and walk on.

We tracked from Beloam all the way to the Light House, and then Irwan picked us up from the Light House so that we didn’t have to walk the return journey (I don’t think I could have made the return journey walking in the heat).

How did the girls do? They did well… Me? I had massive heat stroke after that, with throbbing migraine, and I had to lie down and missed lunch.

We rested in the room till about 2pm and then it was time to leave Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp. Irwan drove us to our next hotel, Jeeva Klui near Senggigi, which is about 2hrs away.

I was in a bad state and just slept throughout the journey; and then had to rest further in Jeeva Klui. I didn’t even manage a proper good bye and thank you to all of those in Jeeva Beloam who made our stay so memorable.

After this trip to Jeeva Beloam, I’m known as the softie in the family. Snorkeling… sea sick. Soft tracking under the sun… heat stroke..

Continues here.

My memory of Lombok when I went on a company trip more than 10years ago was : beautiful beaches and clear sea, uncommercialised, laid back. So when I learnt about Air Asia’s plan to fly there, I immediately convinced Daddy to go there for a holiday. We planned to break our holidays into 2 parts, touristy Senggigi and a quiet part of Lombok.

After much research, and trying to pick between the 2 famous Lombok hotels Jeeva Klui and Qunci Villas (both highly rated in Tripadvisor) as our Senggigi base, we found out that the Jeeva Klui management have another camp like property, Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp, just opened, in a very remote part of Lombok.

We contacted a few properties South of Lombok and Jeeva Beloam, we were attracted by Jeeva Beloam’s offer (all inclusive, camp like, remote) and decided to go there as the first part of our holiday.

Jeeva Beloam initially did not want to accept the 2 girls since the property does not have facilities for children and being far from everything (nearest public health facilities an hours away); but after a few email exchanges with them, we managed to persuade them and agreed to take full responsibility of the girls’ well being while there.

The plan was set. We would spend the first part of our holiday in Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp then to Jeeva Klui.

♥November 25th♥

We arrived late morning in Lombok, and easily spotted April, our Jeeva Beloam camp host, who came to pick us up.

Jeeva Beloam is located at Tanjung Ringgit, the remote South Eastern tip of Lombok (so remote that roads are not paved, and there’s no electricity supply). The 90 minutes drive from the airport took us on small country roads going through rice and tobacco farms. April was obliging and stopped upon our request whenever we saw something interesting.

A warung spotted along the way

Most tobacco farmers have already harvested their tobacco, leaving the fields pretty barren.

We even managed to make a pit stop at a salt farm using salt pans or salt evaporation ponds.

(From Wikipedia : Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow artificial ponds designed to extract salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested.)

Salt farmer drying sea water

Pools of seawater, which will dry up and turn into salt

Salt farmer ready for work

Zaria picking up salt crystals found along the salt pans

After passing the last village where electricity services terminate, the rest of the 11km car journey was on a semi paved road built by the Japanese during WW2, hence it was very bumpy (but the girls had fun rocking around in the car).

Upon arrival at Jeeva Beloam, we were greeted by other warm Camp Hosts, AND a spectacular view.

We were told we were the only guests there during our stay, so we have this whole luxurious camp all to ourselves!

The five available Berugas, i.e. rooms

The key to our Beruga

The view from the restaurant.

The view from our balcony.

There’s no electricity supplied to Jeeva Beloam, lights were powered by solar panels, and power from generator was only turned on from 6pm to 6am daily. Hence during the day, we only got sea breeze instead of fan; but after 6pm, we can have the aircon turned on, and all power sockets working (to charge our phone, camera batteries, laptops).

Our room.

Tea and Coffee making facilities (fresh supplies of hot water was provided in flask instead of using electrical kettle)

The shower

As this is an all inclusive stay, all activities like cycling, soft tracking, snorkeling were included and we got 3 meals from the camp. A set menu was provided for each meal, but the chef will accommodate any special requests, if the ingredients were available.

The lunch menu on the day we arrived

The dadar gulung we had which consisted of shredded coconuts with palm sugar wrapped with pancakes

It rained while we were having lunch, cooling the place down. (As Jeeva Beloam wasn’t set up for children, children who visit the place need to be sensible to avoid accident.)

We spent the hot afternoon napping in the room, with sea breeze cooling us. And after the girls woke up, they wanted to play at the beach. The girls claimed it’s one of the most beautiful places they have been to. The sand powdery soft, and the sea crystal blue, and the beach is just few meters away from our room. The waves were very strong and not suitable for swimming but there are other places which April would bring us in the next few days for swimming.

In the evening, April brought us to one of the nearby beaches to view sunset. (In Tanjung Ringgit, both sun rise and sun set can be viewed from different beaches).

It got dark around 6:30pm in Lombok. We had a nice long dinner, and then have an early night.

Girls waiting for dinner.

The building that houses the Reception, Library and Game Room

The Restaurant

Our Beruga

Continues here.