Lombok

The summit stands 3,726m and a crescent lake sits inside the crater. Two or three days on foot get you to the top, and nobody climbs without a guide and porter. The park closes from January to March for the rains. The 2018 earthquake forced several reroutes.

The old Sasak village stands in its earlier shape and households keep living inside it. Earth floors are rubbed and set with buffalo dung, said to keep dust and mosquitoes off. A guide attaches himself at the entrance and a donation is left on the way out.

A garden laid out in 1727 by a Balinese king as a scaled-down Rinjani with its crater lake. The story is that age had stopped him climbing, so he brought the rite down here.

A Balinese Hindu shrine and a Sasak shrine stand side by side inside one wall. White eels live in the pond and are said to surface for boiled egg, which is sold at the gate. Once a year the two sides throw rice cakes at each other in a festival.

It shares a name with Kuta in Bali and nothing else; the south coast here runs as a chain of separate bays. A motorcycle circuit brought wider roads, and places to stay have multiplied in a few years.

A hill under short grass, ten minutes to the top. A crowd collects while the light drains off the sea and the cattle go on grazing between them.

Water off Rinjani drops in two strands, with bamboo channels running alongside to carry it out to the paddies. People stand under it because the water is said to make you younger. The steps stay wet and sandals get no grip on them.

On one night in February or March each year, sea worms rise in swarms and people wade in to scoop them by hand. The event grew from a story of a princess who threw herself into the sea and became them. The catch is scattered on fields or grilled in leaves.

Crushed red coral mixed through white sand turns the water's edge pink. The colour deepens wet, so it shows best where the waves reach. It sits at the southeast corner, nearly two hours out on road that gives up being paved.

Looms stand in the yards and women weave songket; they will sit you down to try it. A large cloth with gold thread laid in one strand at a time takes months. The village will tell you a girl once had to weave before she could marry.

Two horseshoe bays joined end to end, a few kilometres east of Kuta Lombok. On one of them the grains are coarse as peppercorns and scratch bare feet. Bukit Merese rises on the western side, so people pair the two near sunset.

A long, gently curving crescent on the southwest coast where soft waves make it a favourite for first surf lessons. Late in the day the village buffalo herds plod across the sand on their way home. Kuta Lombok lies some 40 minutes' drive eastward.

A waterfall reached on foot from Senaru village on Rinjani's northern slope, passing Sendang Gile falls on the way. Further up the valley, many strands pour off a curved cliff. The path fords the stream again and again, so expect wet feet.

The great mosque in the middle of Mataram, emblem of an island nicknamed the land of a thousand mosques. The tallest of its five minarets rises 99 m, a metre for each of Allah’s ninety-nine names. Visitors are kept out during prayer times.

Gardens made in Cakranegara when a Balinese kingdom ruled west Lombok; a causeway leads to a pavilion mid-pond. Next door stands Pura Meru, a Balinese Hindu temple. Local kids fish from the pond's edge.

Lombok's first resort strip, on the west coast north of Mataram. Follow the winding shore road to Malimbu hill for all three Gilis and, when skies are clear, Bali's Mount Agung. The sun sets over the sea, so cars pull over at dusk.

Islets off Lombok's southwest peninsula; boats hop between Gili Nanggu, Gili Sudak and Gili Kedis to snorkel. Rooms and shops are far fewer than on the northern Gilis, so shores stay empty. The peninsula road is long and twisting; give it a full day.

An earthenware village southwest of Mataram where families throw pots in their yards and fire them under straw. Its trick is the kendi maling, a jug filled through its base that stays leak-free when turned upright. Workshops let you try shaping one.