Saturday, January 16, 2010

Laidback in Lombok









********************************************We heard that Indonesian taxi drivers are intent upon converting non believers to Islam and our trip to Sengiggi, Lombok was a case in point. Exhausted after a long day of travel we embarked on the taxi ride of our lives. Jan spent the entire trip huddled in the back seat with her eyes closed whimpering while Doug tried to mediate the situation from the front seat. The rain poured as only it can do in Indonesia but the darkness did not obscure the near misses with motorcycles, other cars and small horse drawn carts without lights. There is a rumor in the part of the world that lights increase fuel consumption and many are thrifty. Despite the best efforts of the driver, we arrived safely in Sengiggi and Jan recovred in short few hours.
The morning brought us an Indonesian breakfast of spicy fried rice with a side of vegtables and we spent the day in recuperation by the pool with massages ($8.00) and a leisurely walks in the nearby village. Indonesia (with the exception of Bali) is predominantly Muslim but the people on Lombok are less conservative than other areas. Women can chose whether they wear the headscarf and many do not. There did not seem an air of tension between the dominant Muslims, the Balinese Hindus and few Buddhists. The children were playful and happy and all people were courteous, helpful and honest. The fruits in Lombok are delicious and some are unlike anything that we had eaten before. New to us were ranbutan (lychee) and mangosteen. Each day we eat pineapple, mango, papaya, watermelon and what ever we can try that is new to us. We have not been disappointed.

We spend one day traveling to the central area of Lombok which is nearly devoid of tourists. There was not a single hotel in the day's travel. Our driver, who spoke excellent English, was delighted as he pointed out the various "Lombok tractors" that we photographed. Doug and I did a trek to a falls got caught in a rainstorm and learned that banana leaves do make a nice umbrella in a pinch.
Some premier diving is found on the Gilli Islands off Lombok. We hired a boat to go to the Gilli Islands which are about a 2 hour boat trip. The diving conditions were not perfect but the diving was spectacular. We saw six turtles, beautiful angel fish, parrot fish, blue tetrans and about a 100 different types that we could not identify. Our trip included the boat, captain, a guide who snorkled with us to make sure we did not get into trouble and lunch for about $60 US.
Next we head to Bali which is a different Indonesia where the people are predominantly a variety of Hindu.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry Aunt Jan.... I did forget to mention the crazy taxi drivers. Your post brought back the memories of my time in Bali...I hope you are having a wonderful time!
Xoxo,
Miss Melis