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Published: December 12th 2009
Senggigi
Our Perama bus that would take us through LombokNovember 22 2009 - November 24 2009
TOUR--3 days / 2 nights, Perama tour, deck--Rp2,000,000
Senggigi was to put it into non-expletives, c**p! This is supposedly Lombok's primary resort but is actually overly expensive (considering the beach isn't great) and extremely noisy at night (having being kept awake all night by the lousy live band in the club next door). Luckily this was only a one-night transit before hopping aboard Perama Tour's 3-day boat trip to Flores via Komodo Island. This is how it went:
DAY 1 We set off with our tour bus from Senggigi at 9am for a half day tour of some of Lombok's villages. First up was the tiny village of Loyok where we visited a small home-run bamboo "factory". Here they made handicrafts from bamboo such as bracelets, instruments and handbags. It was slightly awkward as it was clear that it was slightly set up that the people sat there making the handicrafts were obviously asked to start making things as a demonstration. After a while we hopped back aboard and headed to a country-side village called Rendah Nangka (Jackfruit Farm). Here we had a great lunch which was provided by the
Somewhere in Lombok...
...and Dan lost his marbles! Kepala Desa (Village Head) and he told us about the life of a farmer, how the village runs and a funny story about how those who don't smoke in Indonesia will not make any friends. Another 20 minutes away we stopped at yet another small village where pottery-making was the order of the day. Here, the women-only workers make hundreds of plant pots, cooking pots, plates etc. per day and again it looked slightly staged but was interesting enough. By this time everyone (16 of us) was itching to get on board the boat that would take us to Flores. Before that, however, we stopped at a small Perama office to see them building their latest bugis schooner boat. These boats are the traditional Indonesian work-horses which ship cargo around the country. Perama build these kind of boats for tours and trips similar to the one we will be embarking on. After a quick look around and a snack of banana fritters we headed round the corner to board our boat. The boat didn't look much from the outside, but was actually quite big on the inside. Apparently they can hold up to 40 people but luckily the 16 of
Somewhere else in Lombok
A ramshackle village with it's local public transport us was enough. So we set sail (well actually it was a motor rather than a sail). We headed first to "Perama Island", an island 45 minutes out of Lombok which is just used by Perama for this trip. This windswept island was small and barren and really made you feel like you had just been swept up onto a desert island. As the boat had to anchor off shore we had to transfer to the island with the tiny speedboat which is towed behind the main boat. This boat can only fit 6-people at a time on a calm day. We had 8 in the boat, and the Strait between Lombok and the other islands is notoriously choppy! It was interesting and we didn't sink. We had a few hours in the late afternoon to chill on the beach and snorkel. The snorkeling was treacherous as the currents were moving like a river torrent and the visibility was poor, even though the coral was amazing.
That evening we gorged on some good Indonesian food prepared by our boatmen and then had about half an hour's "entertainment" by the crew and our tour director, the very chirpy Nardeen. This was
Loyok, Lombok
Indonesian schools are covered in paintings like these followed by the most bizarre experience in the world--line dancing, to some cheesy Indonesia music, on the beach, under the moonlight. Not the easiest thing to master, especially after a few Bintangs!!
At 9pm we headed back onto our tiny little speedboat. The only problem was the anchor on the main boat had come loose and for a while we lost it!! It was a bizarre sensation floating around in a tiny boat, with a bright moonlight, searching for a large bugis schooner tour boat!
After hopping aboard we set sail (by motor) through the night to our next destination.
There are two classes on this boat. Deck and cabin. To be honest cabin isn't actually that much better and we were happy with having the deck to sleep on. Even though the deck was inside in the main galley (is that what they are called??). Anyway the main "room" in the boat was laid out with mats and pillows for us to sleep on. The majority of us decided to lie down on the open deck at the top and this was one of the better experiences so far. With a half moon, millions of stars as far
Loyok, Lombok
Bamboo handicraft factory as the eye can see and a lot of shooting stars, completed with a few Bintangs went down a treat! The seas, however did get choppy so we all moved to the main sleeping area and surprisingly got a decent nights sleep!
DAY 2 We awoke to a beautiful sunrise at 5am. The sun was coming up over the famous Mt. Tambora is Sumabawa, which blew it's top many years ago creating the "Year Without Summer" in Europe. We anchored off a tiny island called Pulau Satonda, and after a good breakfast of toast, egg, fruit and a lot of good coffee, we boarded the little death trap and headed over to the island. This small volcanic island has a salt water lake in the middle and absolutely no people. We spent an hour or so swimming in the lake with most off us swimming into the very center of it (and this isn't a small lake!). Afterwards, we did some more snorkeling and swimming around the boat. It was too deep to really snorkel and there were a few jelly fish around but we had the opportunity to jump into the sea from the deck. Some went
a little further and jumped from the top of the mast! There's always one or two!
We then set sail by motor for the rest of the day to Kilo Beach in East Sumbawa. This trip took longer than expected (Nardeen said it should take 5 hours, it took 7) due to strong currents. The 7 hours was good, and we managed to catch quick glimpses of dolphins in the distance and watch the coastline of Sumbawa pass by. Unfortunately it was too late to go to Kilo Beach so Nardeen decided to take us to a random little fishing village in the middle of nowhere. This was an interesting experience, neither good nor bad, and quite emotional. We were greeted by hundreds of kids who wanted to have their photo taken, and even the older folks were joining in. We walked through the village feeling a bit like celebrities when Dan was approached by a young local man who wanted to practice his English. His name was Eric and he introduced Amy and Dan to his 3-year old child and proceeded to show us around his village. He was very curious about the West, our thoughts on Muslims (this
Rendah Nangka
The Kepala Desa's rather nice looking house village is purely a Muslim village) and other topics of conversation. His name was Eric, even though his real name was long and unpronounceable. He was such a nice guy and was sad that he could afford an education and how village life was hard. After about half an hour we had to head back to the boat so Dan bought Eric a pack of kretek (clove) cigarettes. He was speechless and started crying. It was emotional and then he wanted to invite us to visit his house, which sadly we couldn't as we had to head back. Eric asked for Dan's email address (yes they might be poor, but still have phones with internet access). He then wanted us to spread the message that his village needed help and needed money. It was a hard situation to be in as we are not the kind of people who like to show off any wealth and as this village is a simple, poor village, it's hard to say to the locals that we are also not rich. After saying goodbye to Eric (who again had tears in his eyes) we left the village of Sai to all the villages running
Rendah Nangka
And his rather nice looking pineapple garden out onto the beach waving goodbye. It was surreal, and slightly disturbing. We didn't feel comfortable going there as tourists, taking pictures like tourists, and intruding into people's lives. But the people were so friendly, so welcoming and so happy to see us and have their photo's taken. Most of these people see white people on a very irregular basis, perhaps never at all and yet they open their doors to us and welcome us with so much warmth, which you wouldn't find anywhere in the West. We really hope Eric one day gets in touch, and for sure, Dan has already been talking about returning to spend more time with the friendly villages of Sai.
We kept anchor off the coast of Sai and attempted some fishing, swam around in the darkness and had some dinner, before setting sail by motor to our next destination. We were warned before we slept that it would be rough over night and they weren't wrong about that! At about 1 am the majority of us (except those in the cabins) woke up to large swells coming in from the south. We were heading east and the waters around these islands are
Somewhere in Lombok
Being greeted by a bunch of kids some of the earth's strongest, with huge riptides, whirlpools and waves. We were at this time passing a very narrow channel in which the huge waters from the Indian Ocean were making their way north towards the Indian Ocean. The boat, however, was surprisingly stable and the main thing that was affecting us was the fact that there was apparently a rat on board! Although we didn't see it, some of the others were coming up with stories of a huge furry beast nibbling at their toes!
DAY 3 We woke up to another sunrise off the coast of Komodo Island. This was obviously to be the highlight of our trip and after breakfast we set ashore to hunt for komodo's by camera. We trekked for 3 hours, with 2 park rangers, and only saw one Komodo. Actually another we saw far off in the distance, but the one we saw wasn't doing anything and didn't seem to be bothered by us. That was until an Irishman called Connor decided to wander off to get a better photo angle and the Komodo decided to stalk him down! We could just see the photo opportunity appearing, capturing a Komodo
Somewhere in Lombok
Chickens helping themselves to the people's food! is full felt chasing down an Irishman! It didn't quite happen that way! We returned by to the main park entrance and had some cold drinks at the local restaurant. And right there, under the restaurant and around the restaurant were three huge dragons, sunning themselves in the sand!! We didn't really need the 3-hour trek! We were a little disappointed but walking back to the pier one of the Komodo's decided to get up and follow us. It followed us all the way to the pier, and this by far, was the better experience.
We then set sail by motor to the nearby Pantai Merah (Red Beach) for some snorkelling and sunbathing on this sun scorched island with a deserted little beach. The sand wasn't red as it's name suggests, but the snorkelling was OK, even though the visibility was still bad. After some lunch back on board we set sail by motor for the last leg of our journey to Labuanbajo on the west coast of Flores. The scenery from Komodo to Flores was spectacular with the brown volcanic islands and deep blue sea. The sea was again quite choppy and again felt like we were moving against
a river! As Labuanbajo approached we prepared to disembark. When Labuanbajo did approach there was no easy way to get onto dry land! There were no parking (or is it mooring?) places for the boat and thus we had to use the small death trap to get to the dock. This also wasn't simple as there was still no space for a tiny speed boat and the water was quite choppy. We were finally forced to push two boats apart and try and fit into a smaller than small space. We finally made it!
This wasn't the end of our trip and there was still another "programme" (Nardeen's overly used word of the day (or three days). After checking into a hotel in Labuanbajo we returned to the boat for a Farewell / Welcoming party. Why Farewell and Welcome? Well the boat tour continues back to Lombok, and some people on our trip were returning. Other were boarding from Flores and the point was to mingle and share experiences. Which we didn't. In fact the group (all 27 of them!) boarding in Flores didn't seem to want to socialize, so our group took up the best spot on the
boat and drank and shared our own stories! Most of us were staying on in Flores, so we have the opportunity for more drinking whilst here! Those that left, we said goodbye to, and thanked them for being great companions on our trip. We had a nice sized group (judging by the amount of people on the outbound tour) and had a fantastic time. If we were to be asked what the highlight of the trip was, we'd say it was the whole 3 days. Uncomfortable at times, unique at others, it was still an amazing, priceless experience, with a great group of people. We would like to thank the crew of Perama who kept us fed, entertained and with fresh water. And thanks to those on board we shared our experience with.
So we are in Flores, where we'll attempt to traverse it within a couple of weeks.
Until then...
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