Indonesia: Lombok & The Gili Islands

The boat to Lombok is supposed to leave Padangbai, Bali at 4:30 pm. Three hours and a cup of noodles later, we finally leave. Lombok is another island country in Indonesia, east of Bali. According to everyone we talk to, and the locals themselves, Lombok is today what Bali was 20 years ago - meaning much fewer tourists and commercialism. On the boat to Lombok, we are two of six "Westerners" (non-Indonesians) out of about 100 people. In Indonesia, the first question everyone seems to ask is, "Where are you from?" On Lombok, when I say I'm American they respond by saying, "Ok then you are rich!" Whereas on Bali, they have boards on every street corner showing the exchange rates for various countries and the Balinese know that I am "poor" compared to the British and Europeans.

After arriving at the port town of Lembar, we ban together with the other four westerners - a couple from Spain and a Dutch couple living in Bali teaching English - and haggle with some local taxi divers to take us the one hour drive north to the town of Sengiggi. We arrive around midnight and, thanks to a quick consultation of The Bible (a.k.a Lonely Planet: Bali & Lombok) we find bungalows for the six of us to spend the night, which include breakfast, all for the price of $4.

In the morning, after some Bali coffee (which consists of taking several spoonfuls of straight coffee grinds into your mug and then adding hot water - which leaves an inch of what looks like mud in the bottom of your cup when you are finished drinking) the Dutch couple, Marcus, and I make our way to the beach where our bags are thrown into a boat, followed by us jumping in (and having to time with the waves which keep throwing the boat back to shore). We ride out into the Java Sea towards The Gili Islands (three islands off of Lombok: Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawagan). It starts to rain and we have to pull a tarp over all of our bags. We drop the Dutch couple at Gili Trawagan and Marcus and I continue on to Gili Air.

We stay at Sunrise Cottages, which are two-story bungalows facing the ocean. The whole bungalow is open, with a hammock and bed, including a mosquito net, on one level, then you must climb a ladder and pass through a trap door into the top level that has another bed, including a mosquito net. In order to "flush" the toilet, you have to fill a bucket with water and dump it into the toilet in the hopes that whatever is inside is "displaced" by the water you have just thrown in... Everything utilizes the salt water from the ocean, meaning you shower in salt water, brush your teeth with salt water (really tough at first, but eventually I got used to it). After three days, my hair was about one step away from dreadlocks.

There are absolutely no motorized vehicles on the islands. The only forms of transportation are walking, riding bicycles, or pony carts (as the name suggests, these are small carts pulled by ponies - yes ponies not horses...) It takes approximately one hour to walk around the entire island of Gili Air. These pictures show some local children who wanted to show us the Amore Eel they had just caught.
After a few days here, Marcus and I take the locals' "Island Hopper" boat to Gili Trawagan. This island is known as the "party island" as it's the most developped and even has an internet cafe. We rent some bikes and spend the day riding around the island. Most places in Bali and Lombok the locals are constantly calling out to you asking if you "need transport??" but on the island of Gili Trawagan, the locals call out to you asking "would you like magic mushrooms??" These are advertised everywhere as well, and although they are illegal in all of Lombok, the locals say "There are no police on the islands."
Our last day in the Gili's we meet a waiter, Deone, who agrees to take us back to the Lombok mainland and then by car to his cousin's place in the mountain town of Senaru. Driving along the coastline and into the countryside of Lombok, rather than dogs everywhere (as in Bali), there are goats in the streets, in the homes, etc. Marcus asks Deone what they do with the goats, and whether they are used for their milk, to which Deone responds, "Have you not had any beef or steak since you've been here?" This explains why the "beef/steak" on our pizza the day before, tasted a little odd...

Once we arrive in Senaru, we sit down to coffee with Deone and his cousin and negotiate a guide and porter (to carry our tents, food, etc.) on a two day trek up the Rinjani Volcano. We spend the night in Senaru and hike to the waterfalls just outside the main town, before sundown. We are the only non-locals.

The bathroom in our place had to be my favorite. In addition to the "bucket flushing system" that I had become accustomed to in the Gili's, the "toilet" was a hole in the ground. "Western toilets" were advertised down the road (meaning, they had toilet seats), but unfortunately we weren't staying there...

We awoke the next morning at 5:30 a.m. to meet out guide and porter (who were so small, I looked like a giant compared to them) and began the seven hour climb to the volcano rim. The first few hours took us through the jungle where we almost treaded over a snake, everyone (except me, thankfully) had to pull leaches off their feet and ankles, and monkeys jumped all around us in the trees overhead. Our guide told us to watch our cameras as the monkeys are notorious for swooping down and stealing them. We stopped for lunch and our guide asked us to watch the food and packs, while he went for water, as the monkeys would steal that as well. Sure enough, while we were cooking, a monkey came over and stole a few bananas. The entire seven hour ascent (ten hours, including stops for rest and eating) the only other people we saw were four local fishermen heading to the lake at the center of the volcano.

We reached the rim a little before sundown and set up our tents for the night. Our guide and porter started a fire and cooked us rice, fried egg, and prawn crackers for dinner. Once the sun goes down, it is around 30 degrees and to keep from freezing, we have to get inside our sleeping bags and think about how hot we just were the day before in the sweltering heat of the islands.

We awake at sunrise (after about 2 1/2 hours of sleep, as the cold is added to by the rains that come during the night and I wake to find my sleeping bag soaked through at my feet). All the cold, lack of sleep, and sore muscles from the climb are worth it, when we see the perfect view of the crater and lake at the center of the volcano, and then turn to see a view of the ocean, a volcano over on Bali, and the three Gili Islands we have just traveled from, in the distance.

The guide and porter start up another fire and make us pineapple pancakes and coffee, before we make the six hour descent back down the volcano.

We pick up our packs back at the Rinjani Homestay in Senaru and a 14-year-old with longer fingernails than me, who is smoking a cigarette, pulls up to take us back to the port in Sengiggi. I realize I have become completely comfortable in Indonesia when we pull over to get petrol and the 14-year-old driver hands an 8-year-old who is helping to fill the truck, a cigarette and I think, "how generous". I get slightly nervous when it seems as though our driver is going faster than anyone else on the road and passing everyone, but when I look at the speedometer I see that it's broken so I can't freak out because none of us know how fast we are going...

We arrived safely in Sengiggi (so the 14-year-old must have known what he was doing) and after a much needed shower in a non-salt water outdoor bathroom, spend our last night in Lombok.

On the double-decker pirate ship type boat the next day that is taking us back to Bali, there is a huge sandbox so the other travellers and ourselves can lay on mats in the sand as we sail back through the Java Sea. A group of dolphins begins swimming next to our boat and jump out of the water, and I have one of my many moments of feeling so lucky and grateful to be travelling and experiencing all of this. Aside from a few mosquito bites and some blisters from volcano climbing, I am leaving Bali unscathed, with my "ancient Chinese medicine" in hand, ready for my next trip back.

The locals are right, Bali is a paradise, and I am now on to Thailand for the comparison.