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 18^th, and slept at Kuta

October, 19^th

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 2^nd 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, 21^st

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, 22^nd

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.

The ferry trip was quite funny. They are not used to see foreign people, especially white people. I think everyone on the boat came just to see me, some talked to me, asked me questions, and some people even wanted to take picture with me :-) . In the beginning I wasn’t feeling safe because they were looking at me, a lot, and you never know why (I did something wrong…), but it was only because they were curious. This time I was the attraction :-) .

I was lucky because there was a Balinese dance festival at Padangbai. So, I enjoyed and discovered a bit of Balinese culture.

October, 23^rd

I spent my morning walking in Padangbai, which is a nice place not very crowed. (on the left:fisherman boat)

I Took a mini bus from there to Kuta. In the Bus, I met Yet and Catherine from Netherland (again!). We rested a bit in the afternoon and decided to go to Pura Tanah Lot (temple in the middle of the sea) to see the sunset. But, surprise, it was the end of the Ramadhan and there a special ceremony so there was a lot of people. Moreover, the tide was low…it was even beautiful, but less than it could have been.

October, 24^th

I met Adi (Chinese from Jakarta) the day before, and we planned to drive a bit around Bali. We went to Ubud. In the LP (my bible!!), they said it’s still preserved from tourists…bah bah bah!!not at all. From Kuta to Ubud (2 hours), there are shops all the side long, ok it’s handicraft, but even. The place is beautiful: Temple, monkey forest, and rice fields.

We were going to Bedugul (place close to a lake, at the feet of Gunung Catur, another Volcano) when the engine decided to break!! So we had to take a cab and go back to change of car. Finally it was to late to go there, so we just went to Sanur, nice place a bit touristy.
At night I went out with some backpackers I met at my guesthouse.

October, 25^th

I spend my morning just lying on the beach and at the swimming pool. Then I flew back early in the afternoon to Singapore…finish, back to school! And I was in a rush…of course, when you left for one week! But it worthed it!!!