Mangku Sakti Waterfall Sajang — Attraction in West Nusa Tenggara

My friend and I wanted to go hiking in nature, we with very little money because we saw that there were waterfalls and we wanted to swim. When we were on our way with the motorbike, two more guys in motorbikes shouted at us from behind and stopped us. They explained to us that we had to pay them a crazy amount,150.000Rp each one if we wanted to go through. He spoke perfect English. I explained to him that we had little money, I could pay him that and we didn't go into the waterfalls, we just wanted to walk through nature, and he didn't allow us. He lied to us saying that we could only go with him because he was the guide and that even locals had to pay and go with a guide. It wasn't the first time that we just wanted to spend some time in nature and we found this, it's a constant on this island. We left there very sad, for us going up the volcano is very expensive so we were left without options and with a very bad feeling. We have a travel blog and quite a few friends interested in visiting the island, so we will never recommend it. These practices of paying illegal tickets...

By 2022, if u google the way to the waterfall, google map will send you to the middle of jungle where the path already overgrown, without any sign to show u the right way.

Just find the waterfall gate beside the road that lead to Sembalun, the gate and name sign is very big, u wont miss it.

However even tho this is the right way but the road is very broken for vehicle and also too far for walking, from the gate i think is about 2 hour walking to the waterfall, theres some intersection which has no sign, if u lucky u can ask people around, if not used common sense.

If u found the parking lot for waterfall, the path is hidden behind resting area like gazebo, dont get cocky, if u miss it u cant reach the waterfall. This hidden path also had intersection again, chose the left one. The path climbing big stone will take u to Mangku Sakti Waterfall while another path that take u to the river is acces for Mangku Kodeq waterfall.

I get lost twice here, almost give up, luckly i found some local that give me the right direction. I really enjoy my visit...

We where around 10 minutes away, when two guys came from behind riding motorbikes and telling us to stop, so we stopped. They told us that there's a fee of 30.000, but that was very hard to get to the waterfall on our own, and that was better to pay for a guide, 150.000 (I'm not sure If was for each person or in total, we were 2). We told him that it was too expensive, there wasn't even signs to get to the place or any corroboration that it was there. Then we told the guy, if we pay, we get any receipt? He told us that we wouldn't, and from that moment he told us that we needed to go to the ticket office, 25 minutes away by motorbike, to buy the ticket, that he couldn't sell it to us there, I guess he said that so we pay for the guide service. Very sketchy, normally you pay for some sort of mantainance, some signs or something, totally a scam, and if not, it's just ridiculous these people...