New Airport Sights

Last week I was travelling around the new airport. It looked like just about every earth moving and road making machine in Lombok is in the area making roads, even in the torrential rain....
Looks like one new road is heading across the fields to Batujai. There is lots of action on the batujai to kediri section too, which had been halted for quite a while now .

So maybe the april/may 2011 hope for opening is a possibility. Don't know much about the runway, but it looked and felt great when we drove at high speed down it!

But I hope all the lovely TV screens and shiny escaltors and luggage carousels that had been installed several months ago are still ok.. ..

And work is also underway on the small remaining, yet terrible section of road between Penujak and Mangkung, on the road to Selong Belanak.
Officials have also 'promised' a start to repairing the Kuta to Selong Belanak road this year ( that is 2010).
Any reports on this yet?

I haven't heard but I have to compliment the authorities on the excellent improvements that have been done to the road between Senggigi and Malimbu. I hear they will continue the work all the way through to Gondang. The road north of Klui used to be down-right dangerous, it has had the cant fixed, corners smoothed, plus resurfaced.

If this airport opens in 2011 I stop drinking tuak.I visited this airport as well several weeks ago and the only ones who are working there are the locals at night stealing electric cables.It,s still a f.....g mess whit the new terminal already starting to corrode due the lack of maintenance and running out of money.The new runway is excellent to drive on high speed on my motorbike but if you take a look to the left or right(depending where you stay)on the runway you can see the waterreservoir what normaly fills up during the raining season.Have they build a dam so the water can't brim over the runway in a heavy rainy season?No way,see your feets can be a littlebit wet in the near future.About the road they have to build from the airport to mataram.The first 20 meters are already finished so if we keep this working speed on it will be september 2075(64 years and 10 months)further before this track is ready.Than this whole project has to be certificated by international standards.So the first one who gives the green light must be full on drugs or money given by our beloved government.There is no decent first aid or good hospital in a wide spread of 40 kilometers.Is this writer 100%objectif?Maybe yes,maybe no,maybe 80% because the writer lives 700 meters from the runway of Selaparang airport in Ampenan and want to keep it this way instead of travelling more than one hour to check in.But seeing the last developments of the BIL the coming years it will take not more than 5 minutes to check in.So I'm of now to Pak Kentut,euuuh,sorry,Pak Ketut to drink some white tuak.

I hope Pak Kentut, sorry Pak Ketut isn't where all the hot air is coming from!

I guess I am buoyed by the fact that there appears to be real action in regards to the roads, instead of 5 year olds throwing a teaspoon of soil into a hole and asking for money! The road from Batujai to Kediri is all set out already, and some already built, so I don't think we can be too worried about that section.

I agree the terminal is going to need to be sorted out...again, but at least there is a building. There is no way, even if it is just for the sake of national/Lombok pride that this airport will not open. Indonesians are great at renovating! The rest is landscaping. Maybe they could use seaplanes if the runway gets too wet?!

Is Pak Kentut's, sorry Pak Ketut's tuak better than the pandan arak I get from Pak Mogok?

Pak Ketut's tuak is very nice,specialy his white tuak.I like it more than the red one.So I go often to Mataram to drink the tuak there or bungkus it and take it with me to Ampenan.In the Karang Ujung in Ampenan they only sell red tuak.He has also Tuak Putih and Brem and also makes a mixture from Brem and Arak putih with cloves.This drink I can highly recommend to everyone.Drinking it very cool it,s marvellous.But take care because it,s a lightswitch drink,that means one moment your still up and the other moment your literaly down.
If you want something else and want to know what's really going on in Lombok visit this tuak selling places and enjoy lomboks traditional drinks.

What is Tuak?

Is it the same as Arak?

Is it a distilled liquor?

Josi

PS Are the reports about progress of the new airport made before or after consuming Tuak?

Tuak is from fermented rice, Arak from the fermented sap of various trees!, well typically palms.
It is amazing what you can make alcohol out of really if you try.

Yes, that is a very fair question about the airport. At that stage my vision was impaired, but only by the torrential rain, I swear!

Another little problem they have is emergency vehicles. The plan is to use the vehicles from the existing airport. Except that they are not closing the existing airport, so they can't use those emergency vehicles .... They can't even organise tests because there are no emergency vehicles....

The point about the water on the runway is actually quite a serious one. So are the cracks and the fact that the footings are not as specified (way too thin) and no international passenger jet can land on it as is. I heard that essentially the entire runway needs to be re-done, with proper drainage and with footings as specified by the engineers.

The whole thing is a mess and I don't think there is any danger of tjabemerah having to give up Tuak any time soon.

It would appear that drinking Tuak is the safer bet at this stage.

I know the new airport will open some day and things will settle down eventually.



However, there will be few more target dates, slippages and the usual reasons for that.



Mimpi, Freogirl, Tjabemerah...... want to make a small wager on the year it will open?



Josi

I am not a betting woman....

I am still hearing October as the opening datw following the VPs visit recently.

I have heard that Selaperang Airport was rented to a mining company from July... so flights have to move to Kuta.

I have also heard that the landing strip in DPS will close for a while to be lengthened and during that time flights will be re rerouted to Lombok.

I have no idea if either claims are true or not or the impact of!

I do know that 2012 is Visit Lombok and Sumbawa Year and I hope that they get a lot of the issues sorted out by then, not least the roads on southern Lombok which at the moment make a vist West of Kuta difficult unless by experienced bike riders.

I do know development is going through the roof in Kuta Lombok at the moment. I am, about to start a photo record as suggested by a recent guest.

Todays paper says Selaparang will close 30 sept, and new airport will be opened by Pesident SBY on Oct1. Another recent article stated that SBY had booked this opening and one other 'mega project' opening in lombok, for Oct 1.

So I guess there are so many commitments from the very highest level, and so publicly stated, that this is what will happen.
I Can't wait for a 30 minute drive to the airport!

How exciting, I think the airport will only be around 15 mins to my house

Is that for domestic and international flights?

Yes, although not the 747's you sometimes see in the promo material! Currently there is really only Silk Air direct to Singapore, but the long term plan was always that this new airport would service East Indonesia, and take some pressure off Bali, 'open up' east Indonesia to tourism, and also be the departure point for hal pilgrims from this region as well.
Air Asia has beeb making noises about flying here, so maybe the new airport might be the stimulus needed...

This from Indonesia.travel http://indonesia.travel/en/news/detail/464/new-lombok-international-airport-to-be-inaugurated-on-1-october-2011