05-OCT - Sat - Senggigi – Tourism gone wrong

We took a day trip (1,5hrs) to Senggigi, the real tourism mecca of Lombok (apparently). The drive itself was very educational, seeing the countryside change from an arid landscape to lush green vegetation, with the all familiar rice paddies; whilst having a good conversation with our driver. We learnt that schooling is free up and inclusive of high school and compulsory for all children. The kids selling bracelets and claiming they need money for school are transported in from other villages by their head of family, to boost the family’s income. We heard how families in need receive assistance from the government, in form of money and subsidised rice. We saw rice fields just out from Kuta, all dry, the land cracked by the sun, with farmers tending to them, removing the weeds, the walls being repaired. This is in preparation of the rainy season to begin at the end of October/early November, for the one yearly harvest of rice in this part of Lombok. As we reached Senggigi, it was nothing like we imagined. It has a wide main street going straight through it, large warehouse style buildings on the one side, half of them abandoned; small shop fronts and café on the opposite side, largely boarded up. The beachfront is livelier, with big resorts taking up all of the coastline, some having seen better days, a few desperately holding on to their luxury status (and failing), and others having fallen from their glory, now all abandoned and protected by a layer of dust and vegetation, their 80s image preserved forever. Never-the-less, the feeling of being in a post-apocalyptic town cannot be shaken, with the infrastructure of what used to be or should have been a sought after tourism destination clearly visible, but no tourists in sight. Seems like a tourism boom took hold 25 years or so ago, and then imploded, leaving a large concrete memory of a better era gone by. Thank God we choose Kuta instead of Senggigi!