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TRAVEL
282
November14
The hotel
A direct flight to Lombok takes just
under three hours, and a picturesque
drive across the island (you can choose
the jungle village journey that I took, or
a slightly longer coastal route) saw me
pulling up at The Oberoi in an hour.
The benefit of the longer coastal
drive across Lombok to The Oberoi is
the resort’s unique position – set on a
shore that’s close to rich coral reefs,
with the Gili Islands just a 15-minute
boat trip away. The view from the lobby
is stunning, stretching across the infinity
pool, over the reef-speckled ocean and
to the island of Gili Air.
It’s no shocker that the resort is
arranged around the long, white beach,
with a wonderfully maintained stretch
of tropical gardens sloping from the
private bay and up towards the suites.
The Oberoi is a stylish hotel – there’s
a sexy mix of local and contemporary
design, but it maintains a comfortable
and inviting touch. And while I’ve never
been big on masonry, I found myself
quite taken with the fawn-coloured tiled
stonework and how it blended with the
traditional thatched roofs.
The villa
While the resort’s facilities were
gorgeous, I can count the number of
times I left my accommodation on one
hand. For I was staying in an ocean-
facing villa with a private pool, which
offered far more luxuries than even
I – seeker of A-list treatment – could
have hoped for. Within my pretty, three-
metre-high walls (don’t worry: the rooms
are elevated so you can always see
the sea), my garden featured a pool,
rockery, pond and raised dining pavilion.
Meanwhile, my room boasted a huge
ceiling, four-poster bed, lounge area,
separate terrace and brilliant indoor-
outdoor marble bathroom that I loved
pottering about in. I was able to pop in
and out of the sun by day, plus I enjoyed
incredible sunsets by evening – and if a
cloud dared to appear, I had unlimited
Wi-fi and movies on the big-screen TV.
The food
You’re probably thinking that I didn’t
even leave my beloved abode to eat –
and you’d be right! The cherry on the
cake when it came to my Oberoi trip
was that my all-inclusive dining package
included unlimited room service. I had
breakfast, lunch and dinner winging
its way to my villa each day (with a sea
of chocolate milkshakes in-between),
which I would take on my private pavilion
or on the sofa in front of some sort of
Above:
Inside
my pool
villa (where
many rom-
coms were
consumed)
at The Oberoi
Lombok
Opposite
page:
Releasing
turtles; my
beloved
pool villa at
The Oberoi
Lombok;
colourful
horses on
Gili Air