Swap Bali's Bustle For the (Promised) Peace of Lombok

It's not hard to understand why the tourists aren't coming. "The people were cutting each other's heads off," Roy, a tour guide, says, running his finger across his neck. "They threw the heads away like plastic." And though the Christian-Muslim riots were 21 months ago, tales of beheadings tend to stick in the mind. Besides, there have been problems since, including a fight between rival villages in which nine people died. And anyway, this is Indonesia, sick man of Asia, viewed as primed to explode in 1,000 different ethnic and religious directions. Seriously, why holiday in Lombok?

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