Ampenan is the old port district at the western edge of Mataram, and the most historically atmospheric part of the conurbation. In the colonial era it was the main harbour, and the old town retains a quiet, slightly faded character — a grid of low buildings with Chinese shopfronts, a small Arab quarter, and occasional Dutch colonial structures.
The port itself is no longer active, and the beach at Ampenan's western edge is not particularly clean, but the town repays wandering. The Chinese temple, the old warehouses along the waterfront, and the mix of ethnicities — Sasak, Balinese, Chinese, Arab — reflect the trading history that made Lombok's ports commercially significant well before tourism arrived.