We booked ourselves into Nomads Tropical Resort. Not cheap but I hadn’t stayed at a surf camp before so it looked good on the net so we gave it a try.
We flew from Bali to Lombok, where we were picked up by car and driven to a jetty somewhere in east Lombok. From there, we boarded the speed boat which took us to west Sumbawa. We were met by another car which took us to Tropical Resort.
The resort was large, had pool, restaurant and bar. There were a number of other facilities e.g. gym but I didn’t use them. The rooms were good with plenty of room and a bathroom.
Straight in front of the resort were two surf breaks. The right didn’t really get any good the time we were there so we mainly surfed the left which was fun. The waves varied in size to ½ head height to double head height. It was a bit out of control when it got bigger. The reef is flat and I only hit it three times. One time hard which cut my foot though not badly. The crowds varied from just a few to way too many.
We looked at the other breaks in the area but they looked too intimidating to me.
One day, when it was small, we took a speed boat to a right hand wave down the coast. I really liked that wave though the paddle back out after a wave was a bit heart pumping. The waves broke sort of in three sections. When you pulled off the wave you were sort of in the impact zone of the next wave section if a set was following. I got caught a few times but it wasn’t too bad.
There were three of us surfing. One of the other guys got caught inside for ages after a drop in/fall off in front of me. Karma!!!
We snorkelled at the reef at Tropicals but the currents were strong and it wasn’t that good.
On a number of occasions, I went for walks along the reef and beach at low tide. These times were quiet and enjoyable. The scenery was very pretty and the hills of the point were high and covered in jungle growth. The beach was white sand fringed with thick jungle growth.
We went on a number of road trips to check out the surf breaks and local villages. The area is generally well off compared to other spots in Indo. The nearby mines provided well paid work and the feeder industries provided services for the local communities.
The resort is by itself so the people we/I met were on the beach or visiting the resort.
The people working in the mines had very interesting stories on the mines dealings with the local people. Most problems between the two seemed to stem around money. In one instance, problems arose due to the job interview process. The locals didn’t like it that they didn’t get the jobs after the first interview.
Most conversations were small talk. Some people did some interesting things. One guy travelled around Indo as a sort of intermediary between locals and companies. Another guy worked in the mining school. There were few western girls. One group of American surfers had hired a car and were travelling throughout Indo – the car must have been crowded when fully packed.
The hotel staff were locals and nice. The management positions were mainly westerners from Portugal, South Africa and Australia. One of the owners was from Indonesia with an Australian husband who built pools around indo. The husband was a quiet, interesting and nice guy.
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