Sade Village

Sade is a Sasak village on the road down to Kuta in southern Lombok, kept as a customary settlement with houses in the traditional form - bamboo frames, thatched alang-alang roofs coming down almost to the ground, and floors of packed earth mixed and polished with buffalo dung, which the villagers explain hardens the surface, keeps it cool and repels mosquitoes, and which visitors are invariably told about first. Rice barns, lumbung, with their distinctive curved roofs stand among the houses. The women weave songket on backstrap looms in the doorways and sell it. A local marriage custom involving symbolic bride abduction, merariq, is described by the guides. It is one of the most visited villages in Lombok and the guiding is organised and expects payment.

What you actually see

• Dung-polished floors - the packed earth treated to harden and cool it.
• Alang-alang thatch - roofs coming almost to the ground over bamboo frames.
• Lumbung rice barns - the curved-roof stores standing among the houses.
• Backstrap weaving - songket worked in the doorways and sold direct.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

It is heavily visited and the tour is scripted, with sales pressure at the end. Guides expect payment beyond the donation. People live here; ask before entering houses or photographing.

Nearby

Kuta Lombok and the southern beaches are south; Praya airport is north.