In remote Lombok villages tourists cause a sensation. News that “orang bulan” (moon people) have arrived travels fast and the whole village turns out to gawk. Small children bawl “Hello Mister” over and over again, regardless of the visitor’s sex. If you are female this can induce a bit of a complex, until you realise this is the extent of their English.

In the beach resorts you get a very different kind of attention. Lombok is fast gaining a reputation as a place where western women can go to pick up a toy boy. Scores of pretty boys hang out on the beaches. All have long hair, tattoos, guitars and three chords of Leaving on a Jet Plane, which is exactly what most of them hope to do — preferable on the arm of a rich foreign woman.

It’s hard to understand how the spoilt and the unspoilt can exist so closely. The answer probably lies in the fact that most tourists visit Lombok on a quick side trip from Bali and spend most of their time on the beach. But if you go exploring you’ll discover a landscape of lush rice terraces, spectacular waterfalls and traditional villages producing exquisite weaving, pottery and baskets. All this is presided over by an active volcano, Gunung Rinjani.

For real Lombok culture go to the villages on the southern slopes of Rinjani. It’s a different world where the dokar, a little pony cart, rules the road as it has done for centuries. They clatter along, lurching from side to side under the weight of whole families and piles of market produce.

Unlike the barren southern shoreline, the landscape is sculpted rice terraces, palm trees and clumps of yellow flowers and crimson ponsettia bushes. The landscape’s colours are echoed in the art and craft of the Sasak people, the original inhabitants of Lombok. In some villages you can find houses built with traditional bamboo thatch and painted with brightly coloured geometrical designs.

Most villages have a craft speciality. At Pringgasela the women weave beautiful sarongs and lengths of ceremonial cloth with intricate designs of gold thread. Loyok is famous for its finely woven cane baskets. Here the local children delight in teaching visitors how to make rings by plaiting strips of coloured bamboo. At nearby Rungkang you can watch pots being made from the local black clay and have a go at one yourself.

In the early morning and late afternoon the jagged crater rim of Rinjani pops through the clouds. The Sasak’s believe it is the seat of the gods. At full moon families make the pilgrimage to cast offerings into the sacred lake and seek the curative powers of its hot springs. The best place to make an ascent is at the ancient village of Senaru on the northern slopes of the volcano. Here you can hire a tent and a porter to accompany you on the trip which takes three days there and back. The climb to the rim takes the most of a day. The path gets progressively steeper as you ascend through thick rain forest where the trees rustle and swish with monkeys. Eventually you reach the chill of the cloud line and the forest thins out to pine trees. The last two hours are spent stumbling up increasingly rocky and barren landscape.

The view from the rim takes away what little breath you have left. In the late afternoon the clouds roll back and the sunlight pours into the crater, lighting up the six kilometre wide crescent lake. Out of the crater’s centre the smooth, charcoal grey Young Mountain, a secondary volcano which erupted in 1994 and is still breathing wisps of smoke, rises.

The nights are cold and it’s a relief when dawn comes and it’s time to begin the descent to the lake. A steep, rocky path winds down to the green banks and eucalyptus trees that line the shore.

The lake is clear and surprisingly warm — a legacy of the volcanic activity. Clouds pour through a gap in the rim with an eerie rushing sound and it’s time to retire to the hot springs to soak your aching muscles. The locals were adamant that it’s impossible for white people to bathe there as the springs are too hot. But we managed to inch our way into the scalding water to join a local family who watched with delight as we turned beetroot.

The white sand coastline of Lombok is undeniably beautiful. But for those who make the effort, Rinjani and the unspoilt areas of the island, are one of Indonesia’s highlights. Don’t miss out by getting seduced by the beach, or the beach boys.