Lombok in a day!

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Today was a marvelous day. We decided to get off of our well tanned lazy behinds and actually do something besides bask in the glorious sun and go for the occasional swim/snorkel. Don't get me wrong, it is difficult to get rid of pristine tropical beaches on small islands that have no noise from cars or airplanes. However, the time had come to go off adventuring for the day.

Awan, our guide and possibly a new friend had given us his very polite, low-key sales pitch several days ago and we decided to go with him. We began our journey by packing and moving out of the rice barn bungalow. We went to the "harbor", which is really just a beach where there is a break in the reef that surrounds the island. We waited for about 1/2 an hour for our boat and then were off to bangsail harbor, the notorious cochroachey place. Every human that has ever been there would agree with all of the current literature that even bothers to include this place on their maps. It is, unfortunately, the major hub for getting to and from the islands of Lombok. As we pulled up to the beach, once again there was no pier just grab your bag and jump in the water, we saw the herds of touts, guides, and random riff-raff approaching before we even had our feet on solid ground. I had fortunately spotted Awan from the water, which was a huge relief. As he met us it was as if he had some magical presence as the crowd broke and set off after other prospects as we were clearly marked as his. He led us to a horse drawn cart. I was a bit surprised because he had assured me the day before that we would have a nice shiny new car with AC and a radio. He must have seen the look of alarm on my face because he quickly told me we needed the horse to take us to the car, only about 10 minutes away. We pulled up to this decked out MTv Pimp My Ride style car complete with a lcd monitor in the dash, low-profile rims, and racing seat belts and tires (I thought they were a bit excessive but once our driver was on paved roads twisting up and down cliffs and mountainsides the need for them became clear). Apparently tourist money really does do more for some of the locals than others.

Our first stop was at a local market, Tanjung. I wasn't too thrilled that this was on the itinerary as I figured it would just be loads of hassle. Surprisingly it was not and turned out to be a great experience. Loads of peanuts, coffee, brown palm sugar, melons, and anything you would ever need for your day to day living. The scene was far more west-african than I would have ever expected. People sitting around on the ground surrounded by their wares and whatnot. After a scurry through the busy isles filled with strange glances of "why are their white people here" we moved on. Our next stop would be a small town called Senaru at the base of Mt. Rinjani, the third largest volcano in Indonesia. We drove along through rice paddies, peanut fields, and several small villages. This was our first opportunity to see how people live when away from the all-mighty tourist dollar. Poor farmers really. Small thatched huts with palm leaf roofs. Quite beautiful picturesque but aren't so many places when you don't actually have to live there?

We arrived in the sleepy village of Senaru without incident. This town was nothing more than a farming village until tourist started showing up wanting to climb Mt. Rinjani. It is a 3 day trek up the volcano from there and now there are a handful of guise shops that would arrange the trip for would be climbers. Steph and I were going to do this trek as it would have been even more epic than Mt. Batur. We became glad we didn't once we saw a few porters carrying some girl down the mountain with her boyfriend following behind looking quite bewildered. Maybe next time ;) At any rate, we were here not to climb the entire volcano but just part of it to a couple of waterfalls. It would be a 2 hour venture into the jungle. The first waterfall was about 100 feet and one steady stream downward. Nothing too impressive to be honest. After about another 45 minutes however we arrived at the second waterfall. Truly spectacular! We were able to walk right up to the base of it. It stretched about 30 yards from end to end and was even taller than the first. As we approached the sound of the water crashing down was deafening. The power and strength of it literally took our breath away, like on a cold New England morning when you first step outside and taste the winter air. The hike up the river and through the woods back to the village went quickly as the experience left us quite exhilarated.

We ate a bit of lunch and then set off for a traditional Sasak Village. The Sasak people came to Indonesia quite some time ago (how vague). They continue to live very traditional lives as farmers and live in very traditional villages. You won't see too many pictures of them (when we are finally able to post them) because it felt a little strange walking through the dozen or so buildings taking pictures of the people going about their daily business. Straw houses with thatched roofs. No electricity, no running water. Are next stop was also Sasak related. We went to a weaving shop. There we were able to see the traditional way of weaving. This involved a look which the woman actually is strapped into. Her body weight provides the necessary tension. Stephanie was asked to try it but did not as messing up the intricate pattern would have been horrible. I wasn't allowed as it is a Sasak belief that doing so would make me sterile. The woman we watched was making the material that would be used for her wedding dress and her husband's wedding attire. In total it would take her 3 months to complete. We got to play dress up and were put in the traditional wedding garb, I even got to hold a sword!! After all of this we were of course taken to the shop to "look" at all the weaving. A dozen sales pitches later we bit the bullet and are glad we did.

The sights of the day don't really compare to the learning that we did by seeing the small villages. Awan provided us with a wealth of information about the various cultures which coexist on the island of Lombok. Population disparities as the one on Lombok, being 90% Muslim and 10% Christian, have lead to much civil unrest and make travel unsafe in other parts of Indonesia. The people of Lombok pride themselves on their ability to "get along". The people, like in so many other places, don't have much faith in the national government. They don't really believe in paying taxes due to the high level of corruption and the governments failure to provide for some basic needs. Although I was assured there is weekly trash pick-up I don't really think so because there was an abundance of it along every river we saw, next to the swimming children or bathing people of course.

The ride to Mataram, the capital of Lombok pop. 350,000, was exciting to say the least. The decked out sport features of the car were definitely put to the test, as was Stephanie's ability to hold back vomiting. The roads twisted and turned up one side of a volcanic mountain and down another. The views of the terraced rice paddies was beautiful if you could keep your mind off of the thought of rocketing over one of the ledges. As huge trucks would come zipping towards us we drive on the shoulder with a plummet of several hundred feet a gravel slide away, As we zipped down the road we saw an abundance of monkeys all over the road. Our driver seemed to think of them as pylons to weave around. Interesting approach to say the least.

In Mataram I went to the mall featuring a McDonald's that delivers a KFC and even a Pizza Hut! There were even escalators. The juxtaposition to what we had seen earlier that day was quite moving. Worlds away it seemed.

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