BALI – LOMBOK
2 weeks ago there was a huge celebration for the end of Ramadhan, which means day off, no school, holiday, viva vacancia…anyway, this day was a Tuesday, fortunately for me day which I have all my compulsory tutorial. So I decided to take profit of this situation and go away from Singapore: Indonesia I’m coming!!!!
The republic of Indonesia is a nation of islands consisting of 18,110 making it the world's largest archipelagic state.
With a population of roughly 220 million, it is the world's fourth most populous country and the most populousMuslim-majority nation (around 85% of the population is Muslim): Bali is mainly Hindu but Lombok is mainly Muslim!
My team:
As I skipped 1 week class nobody could do that :-( I went with Didi, a Dutch guy, for couple of days but then he had to leave :-(, I finished my trip alone.
I Flew from Singapore and arrived Wednesday night the 18th, and slept at Kuta
October, 19th
Morning KUTA
Hanging in main streets and beach of Kuta. Kuta is big tourist place in Bali. A lot of people are not going further than it (dixit lonely planet). You can find beaches, with waves if you want to surf, an attractive nightlife.
It’s here than in 2002 and 2005 took place attempts…and you can easily the place:they didn’t construct anything else there and built a simple monument with names of people who died: impressive.
Afternoon: flew to Lombok, with a local low cost. I wasn’t very confident in this company…if Didi would have not been with me I would have never flown, I was too scared! When you check in your luggage, they ask you to weight you with your handbag, it means you go on the weight normally dedicated to luggages. Then it was the smallest plane I have ever taken: 18 seats. No stewards of course, the captain explain the safety procedure. But everything was alright.
Anyway we arrived early in the afternoon, so we decided to rent a mob: Didi was the driver and me, as usual, the passenger. It was the first time for Didi, and Indonesian’s circulation is approximately as bad as in Malaysia maybe worse. They don’t care about the white line, for them it’s like a third way. You have to stick on one rule if you want to survive on the road: the bigger is always winning! So when you hear a honk from a bus or whatever, it doesn’t mean it wants to overdrive you and you have to go on the side. It means it is overdriving you so be aware of your ass!!! But Didi did well!!
We went to Sukarara. On the way, 2 policemen arrested us, because we stopped at the red light (I swear it’s true!!). In fact, when you want to turn you don’t have to stop whatever the color of the light. They wanted us to pay 100 000 Rupiah (10€) for that otherwise they kept the Didi’s driving license: it was clearly corruption. After at least 15 minutes of negotiation, they let us go without paying anything. In Indonesia you can bargain everything, even corruption!
picture: market on the way to sukarara.
It was the first time i saw pink, yellow, blue, purple and green chicks :-). They color them, because children are more attracted by them.
Sukarara is small village where very few tourists are going. We had to buy some gas and the seller, Sam, was very nice with us. He shown us women who were weaving sarong (traditional tissue used as a dress for official ceremony) and he invited us to his house to eat, drink and presented his family. His wife weaved as well, so they wanted us to try them: so we did J
They were so very friendly and so curious about us.
In Lombok a girl cannot get married if she doesn’t know weaving. So, from 9 girls learn to weave. To do a sarong they need one month which one week is used only to build the pattern. Girls get married between 13 and 20 years old (and 20 years is quite old) because “girls are easy growing here” said Sam. We left this place, non without buying a sarong for each of them J
October, 20
th
Woke up at 4am and picked up at 5am. Direction Rinjani Volcano. We booked for a 3 days trekking: the main attraction of our trip. This Volcano is 2nd highest volcano in Indonesia, 3700m, and it is still in activity (last eruption in 2004).
8am we started from Sembalun, with a guide, two porters, Didi and me.
Each of the porters carried 25 kg at the beginning (food, cook’s utensils, tents…). They always wore the same clothe whatever the weather (hot, cold, wet…), and they climbed it wit h flip flop!!! Even with that these disadvantages they did it pretty fast, almost as fast as us!
They pamper you. Even if they arrive after you, they take care
of everything: tent, fire, cooking…and you just take a nap coze as a lazy tourist you are tired ( I did it!). They are doing that once a week during the dry season, and once a month during the wet season.
We arrived at 4am at the base camp 2700m, took a nap, took pictures…and sleep early for the next difficult day.
On the right: picture from the base camp. After going to the summit you go down to the lake, and then go up to the rim on the other side
October, 21st
Woke up at 2.30am to start climb at 3am. Didi learnt a bad news: he had to leave right after going to the top (as his plane from Lombok was cancelled).
The goal: to see the
sunrise from the top 3700. It takes normally 3 hours to climb it, but I was very slow in the last part. As it was so sandy, I had to crawl!!! 1 hour!!! Everytime I did a step I slid. Anyway, we missed the sunrise :-(, but it wasn’t such a bad thing as it wasn’t so cold and we saw the island very well.
(on the left: the sun is rising, and we are not yet at the top...nonononononono!wait for us sun!!!).
Lombok was made by theses volcanos, it’s not a huge island, and from there we saw the entire island, and even the other volcano in Bali: nice weather!
We went back to the base camp for a huge breakfast, and with the guide we left quickly afterwards. He told me “we still have 8 hours to walk: it’s a big day today”…Didi!! I want
to go back with you J
Didi went back and I kept going alone!
From the base camp, we went to the lake, down, down very down (especially when you know you have to climb it again!!). Ate there, took a shower in a (real) hotspring and climbed up the other side and went down to another base camp. I was pretty tired when we arrived (I’m wondering why!).
Here is panorama from Rinjiani I tried to do...
October, 22nd
Last day …it was only descent to Senaru, it was better because I had muscle pain. Senaru is a beautiful village.
Afterwards, I went to the harbor to take a boat from here to Padangbai in Bali. Boat is slower than plane…but cheaper and anyway, I wasn’t able to do anything else today. I was just dreaming about a shower, a real shower.
At the end of the semester, in order to not screw up your exam, you have one week to revise, and then you have 2 weeks of examination. As my all my exam was at the end and in a row, I had to week to revise which was more than enough…so I decided to travel to Philippines with some other friends from November 18th to the 22nd included:6 days (what a short trip, isn’t it Stephanie?)
Once arrived in 
Philippines is a beautiful country and local are very nice…but I have never seen so much poverty than in Manila: children are everywhere, alone, in the street, ask for something, ghettos, entire family living outside…but local people told us not to give money otherwise they will keep living in the street and they will not try to find another way to leave….but it’s hard not to feel guilty and not to give them something.
