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The remote island of Sumbawa is located in the Indonesian archipelago east of the popular tourist island of Bali and Lombok. Sumbawa is quite a large island. This island measures about 280 kilometers long and taking about 12 hours to travel from east to west, and it varies in width from 15 to 90 kilometers. As you travel further east the islands become less traveled by tourists and conditions become more rustic with facilities for tourists becoming more limited. Compared to Bali and Lombok, Sumbawa is relatively uncrowded being about three times the size of Bali with less than a fourth the population. The people of Sumbawa are mostly farmers and ranchers by trade. In times they prospered through the sale of fine horses and fragrant woods (sapan and sandalwood), but now they live a much rougher life than do their Lombok and Bali neighbors to the west. The capital of Sumbawa is Sumbawa Besar, located on the western side of the island, however the most popular entrance point into Sumbawa is at Bima, on the east coast. Sumbawa has some beautiful countryside, dotted with small traditional villages and rice paddies for as far as the eye can see. Traffic throughout Sumbawa is fairly light in comparison to islands like Bali and Java, and often water buffalo strolling along the main road will cause you to slow and wait till they decide to clear the road for you to continue on. Sumbawa's distinctly Australasian climate, flora and fauna lend a thorny, dry and scrub-cutting edge to day-to-day life and survival.
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