Today 15th of October is Blog Action Day. Every year on Blog Action Day thousands of bloggers will write a post to raise awareness and try to help on a certain social topic. This year that topic is poverty.

All posts are in theme with the blog; quoting Blog Action Day guidelines: A Tech Blog might look at pro-poor technologies and projects like 1 Laptop Per Child, or A Personal Blog might document a personal activity of the blogger that is helping the disadvantaged.

I’d like to take this occasion to talk about a project that helps the people in Kampung Loco, a little village in the island of Lombok, Indonesia, just beside the famous and expensive Bali.

The Project Kampung Loco helps improving the development of the children and the people of the village. It is not an official charity; instead the two founders deliver all funds collected to few trusted people in the village, and make sure the money is properly used and documented. People find it reassuring to donate to someone they know and see how their money has been used rather than donating to a big official charity and then not knowing if how and when the money reached the people that needed it.

There are 4 main projects: Sending kids to School, Providing Medicines, Emergencies like hospitalization, and transportation to schools by Bemo, a little mini-van.

I was in Lombok and by pure coincidence I ended up in Kampung Loco. Immediately I became friends with the folks in the village, and got to know about the Project simply seeing things like a water tank and a laptop for children to study; both provided by the Project. Getting to know the situation a bit more I was almost enraged at how what many people consider a very small amount of money can make a huge difference for the people in the village. You can read all the information on the official website, but just to give you an idea: 25 Euros will send a kid to elementary school for one year!!

I would like to take the Blog Action Day chance to invite Flashpackers and Flashpackers aficionados to donate some amount (nothing is too little) through the Project Bank Account, or simply by Paypal or credit card clicking the button below.

Thank you kindly in advance, on behalf of me, the Project Kampung Loco and the children in the village.

We often mentioned how you don’t necessarily need a big budget to go Flashpacking around the world, if you know how and where to find sweet alternatives to mass tourism destinations.

In this first post about Flashpacking Destinations we want to reveal a nice alternative to the famous and exotic dream destination Bali. Located just beside Bali, Lombok is often defined as an “unspoiled Bali”, or a “Bali 20 years ago”.

You can find there the same fantastic beaches, great culture (even more actually as in Bali the main religion is Hindu, while in Lombok you can visit Hindu temples but Muslim mosques as well) and nice Indonesian food (Lombok means actually chilly pepper in the local language, Sasak).

What you’re not likely to find in Lombok though are the mass of tourists that are in Bali and the expensive prices for accommodation and meals. That is if you don’t visit Lombok in July and August, when most of the tourists are there (and a good part of them coming for 2-3 days trips from Bali).

15 to 45 minutes by boat from Lombok you have the three Gili Islands,Which are the typical postcard picture Islands, with crystal clear waters ideal for snorkeling and diving and no cars or motorbikes (only means of transportation are bikes and cidomos, tiny horse-carriage).

The north part of Lombok instead is a bit hilly and cooler and you can enjoy stunning views of terrace rice fields and coffee plantations.

You can reach Lombok by plane or speedboat from Bali, or if you want to skip Bali altogether Silkair (the low cost sister company of Singapore Airlines) flies directly from Singapore and Merpati Airlines directly from Kuala Lumpur.

For excursions, diving tours and accommodation we recommend go2Lombok.com, as part of what you pay goes to schoolkids in need.