It has been some time since I have posted on new happenings in Indonesia. The last week before break was busy and nothing out of the ordinary was happening, so I figured I would wait until after my holiday to update my blog. I mean, why waste valuable blogging time on boring things when I can tell you about my latest adventure?
Before I get into the “plot” I will first introduce the “characters” of this splendid tale.
All of the adventurous women with whom I travelled to Lombok are employed by SPH. Helena, Rebecca, Sally, Allison and I are all working at the Lippo Karawaci Campus, Lindsey is from the Kemung Campus, and Leanne is from the Sentual Campus.
We Karawaci ladies left school at 3:30 on Tuesday afterschool and rushed to the Jakarta Airport. Since the Indo veterans (Helena, Sally and Rebecca) informed us that planes are never on time in Indo we took our time in the airport and stopped for some food, only to find that our plane was actually leaving on time! So we picked up our pace and made it on time to our flight.
We arrived in Lombok that night and were picked up by a travel guide that took us to a home stay (hostel-type place) for the next night. From there we loaded up on hiking snacks and winter gloves and headed out to the Volcano. It took a couple of hours to get to the base of the mountain, but we had loads of fun as we took in the rice paddies, monkeys, and village life, ate loads of fruit, and laughed like crazy. When we arrived in the village area that would be our starting point, we took a short hike to and swam in some gorgeous waterfalls, walked through an underground aqueduct, and made friends with a local Indonesian guide. After this warm-up hike, we headed to our second home stay that was run by some local Indonesians. We spent the eve of the big hike playing cards with some local kids and porters.
Our hike started at 7:00, but we were woken much before that thanks to the seemingly thousands of neighbourhood roosters. After packing up our stuff and filling our bellies with yummy banana pancakes, we started walking up hill. I tried not to think about how I would be walking up hill the rest of the day. A big mountain always seems smaller when you make small goals and take it one step at a time. The hike was very intense, but amazing. It was wonderful to watch the vegetation and temperature change as we climbed higher and higher. We passed through farms, jungle, dense cloud forest, grassland, and sparse forest. It rained most of our first day, which made it challenging. We had a long lunch break at the second post because our guide and porters had a hard time cooking in the rain. You are probably wondering who the porters are. Well, we had one guide and 3 porters who carried all of our camping supplies and cooking materials up the mountain. We carried our personal stuff on our backs. The porters provided all of our meals for us, which were good, but heavy. They even set up a little toilet tent for us on the rim of the volcano! (pictures to come)The porters climbed the volcano with flip-flops and heavy baskets balanced on beams across their shoulders. We could not believe that they did this on a regular basis! Crazy strength!
We arrived at the rim of the volcano in time to see the beautiful sunset and scenery. It was breathtaking and completely rewarding to stand at our destination and take in the beauty. Our tents were set up on the rim of the volcano where we had a caldera on one side and the mountain slope on the other, not to mention the wild dogs, monkeys, and wild boar in the vicinity. I can honestly say I have never slept in that atmosphere before! Actually, we didn’t really sleep the entire trek because of small sleeping space, hard ground, and jungle noise. Even so, it was all worth it.
Our second day was just as exciting as the first because we got to trek down into the caldera of the volcano where there is a “baby volcano” and a beautiful blue lake. We took a dip in the water, hung out with some other trekkers, and then headed to the steamy hot springs where we spent our afternoon. The water was hot and sulphuric, but it felt so good on our sore muscles. Climbing out of the caldera was a challenge because we had to grab onto rocks and roots at times, but we got back to the rim faster than we expected to. Instead of camping on the rim a second night, we headed down into the jungle to avoid the danger of heavy rains on the rim. After passing several occupied posts, we finally found a space to set up camp. Going down, that first chunk was almost as challenging as going up because of the steep incline and loose volcanic ground.
We awoke that third day to sore bodies, monkeys, and the desire to see the bottom of the mountain. It took several more hours to return to our home stay. We kept thinking it would come sooner, but it didn’t. Finally, a few of us eager ones and one of our goofy porters ran the final leg past the chickens, cows, and villagers along the way. We cheered and high-fived as we sat down and had a nice cold drink of water. We had done it! We had climbed to the rim of Mount Rinjani (3726m). It felt pretty good to look back at the mountain and see what we had accomplished.
After everyone came down the mountain, we got a ride back to Mataram (the main city on Lombok) and stayed the night at a nice hotel where we got massages and soaked by the pool. Then, Helena and I split off from the group and headed out to the Gili Islands which are just off the coast of West Lombok. I took my PADI Open Water Diver certificate, and Helena did her Advanced Open Water. It was a three-day course, so we ended up staying 4 nights on the Island to do the dives we needed. I did all of the course work for the open water course online so that I could complete the practical stuff when I arrived. We stayed in a cute little bungalow that was close to the Blue Marlin dive center. The Island atmosphere on Gili Air ( air pronounced eye-air) was wonderful. There are no motorized vehicles so everyone walks, bikes, or takes a horse chart to get around the island. There were a bunch of tourists on the Island, but also plenty of locals who were very friendly. It was especially helpful to have Helena along because she speaks Bahasa Indonesia quite well. Two of our favourite restaurants on the Island were an Italian place and a place that served wonderful Thai food. I have never had such good Ravioli in my life!
As good as all of these things are, the best part of our island experience was, of course, the scuba diving. I will admit, I was a little nervous going into the scuba course, but once I got into the water and adjusted to the feel of everything, I was in love with scuba!! It especially wonderful because I pretty much had an instructor to myself the entire time. She was very experienced and I moved quickly through all of my skills. It was amazing to see all of the ocean life right in front of me. Helena described it as swimming in the aquarium. I got to see sea turtles, a sting ray, octopi, clown fish, barracuda, star fish, moray eels, a banded sea snake, angle fish, lion fish, and so many other beautiful things. The dives went so quickly! When we came to the surface I just wanted to go down again! We even did our last dive at shark point, but we didn’t see any. Too bad, it would have been so cool! And don’t worry, these ones don’t eat people. I am already thinking about when I can go scuba diving again.
After our wonderful dive experience Helena and I headed down to Gili Nangu, where our friends were waiting for us. The journey down there was hectic and frustrating, but when we saw the small, quite island with neat straw-hut bungalows and few tourists, we were ready to just relax and enjoy the sun and fellowship. I even tried snorkelling on Gili Nangu, but once you scuba you can’t go back to snorkel…it just isn’t as good.
Our final day was spent hanging out on a beach near the main land and catching bargains at the local market. Because of the sudden rain storm and some flooding, our departure from the tourist area was rushed and a bit stressful. We were running past stopped traffic and walking through dirty water to ensure that we could make it back to Jakarta. Thankfully, we arrived at the airport on time, and found our flight…delayed. We and the Lombok pottery that we bought made it back to Jakarta in one piece. We had a fabulous time on our adventure-filled vacation. We are already searching the guide book for our next destination. What will it be? Komodo Island…Malaysia…Sumatra….West Timor…? I guess we will have to wait and see!!
