Lombok

We have been in Lombok since Saturday and the time has melted away. Lombok was described on one tourism website I read as the tropical paradise you imagine when you think of Bali.

First impressions tended to confirm the "tropical paradise" claim. After pulling into the harbor of Bangsal, the forty minute drive to the beach town of Senggigi along the coast was one 'wow' moment after another:




I booked our accommodation a few months ago - 3 nights only - and mostly forgot about it. So it was a nice surprise when we got here and it turned out to be not only gorgeous, but run by a lovely couple who have the friendliest staff with views to die for:




We've now extended to a week.

And Lombok is such an incredible place, I want to come back before we've even left! Being predominantly Islamic (rather than Hindu, like Bali) is an obvious difference. It is called the island of a thousand mosques - and without counting them out, I'm prepared to believe it. You can hear the call to prayer everywhere and the Muslim population is conspicuous in the clothes, especially of the headscarved women (which not all women are).

It is drier and a bit hotter here than in Bali, which doesn't tell you a lot, really. When I say hotter, I think I've sweated out my entire body water weight on a daily basis. Ewww... In practice, the landscape is super dramatic by the ocean because the beach sweeps up to the road and then to huge hills all around the west side of the island.



Where in Bali, you might see the proud Babi (pig) in the villages, here the (cutest ever) goats roam the sandy hills around Lombok.

Also, all across the coastline, are large open spaces just next to the beach, which belong to or are used by the local Lomboks (Lombokians??) to keep their animals, sit, talk, eat, wash clothes, etc.







The first few days were spent walking around trying to get an overview of the area. First to the mall and then to some back to basics bakso:




There were some long walks along the coastline:




And sunset:




Yesterday we walked miles through a village to get to the Taman Wisata Kerandangan which is a national park with nice waterfalls. There is really not much info about many of the sites in Lombok, so I found out about this park while reading a guy's blog about running while staying in the Senggigi area.

The village itself was really nice - friendly people, cute cows, baby chicks, goats... And some aggressive dogs. First, the cute kids:




Incidentally, the kids are sitting in a bemo - a small bus and one of the main local modes of transport. Here is a better shot of the inside:




There is no door on the back. You just jump on, sit on the bench seats and press a buzzer when you want to get off. There are no advertised prices. I think the deal is you pay what you think is fair and see what the driver thinks! Fun!

The other main form of local transport are horse drawn carts. Yes, seriously. They're all over the island from 5 am taking people to work, markets, school, etc.

Anyway, we get to the national park... Only to find that because it is not the rainy season, the waterfall is dry... It was still a nice (if not hot as he'll) walk through jungle. We did spot some giant toads and a water snake.




Ooh, we were also chased by dogs. Again - another alpha male hero moment for Phil who turned and faced the marauding pack, yelled "no" and breathed a little fire from his nose. And they ran from him like they had seen a demon**

The local people here have much less exposure to English speakers here compared with Bali and many of the locals who've struck up conversations with us have told us how keen they are to practise their English.

On our way out of Kerandangan village, we were joined by a high school student on bis bike, riding through the village after classes and he asked where we were going. We were heading to a nearby beach warung, and he asked "if he may accompany us to our restaurant to practise his English". Wow. A teenager. A polite teenager.

And he walked us all the way there. And offered to be our tour guide if we want to go anywhere. He was 15. Talk about motivation and drive. Anyway, we're going to be Facebook friends so he can tour guide us when he's old enough to drive. Very sweet.

Warung was lovely btw:




There are a fair few locals selling things on the beach - jewelry, paintings, DVDs, etc, but nowhere near the scale of Bali. It's low tourist season at the moment and there seems to be lots of people without work. The dryness of the dry season here means that some crops can only be grown once a year and outside of harvest time it is quiet.

Everyone I've met bemoans the low tourism and wishes for an influx of visitors. Ironically, part of the charm of Lombok is the lack of tourism, the quietness even in the busiest areas and the feeling that you haven't taken over someone else's home, but that you're just a visitor, treading lightly. Heaven.

Travel tip: when a dish is advertised as being "a whole young chicken", expect head, beak, eyes and feet. Not everyone's cup of tea. Phil wouldn't touch it. I ate it because I felt so guilty about the sacrifice of the chicken. And I had to hide the head under a napkin.

- Posted using a shooting star

** some exaggeration may have occurred

Bali in pictures

We arrived in Lombok after a boat trip from Bali. It was a long trip in the end - a drive from Ubud to the harbour, then a two hour very bouncy boat ride and another drive up a huge hill to the hotel.

I booked a few days in Lombok on a dreary day in June while Phil was in Germany and I was looking for a distraction without much thought as to what it would be like and what we'd do! We arrived on Saturday and have been spending the last few days wandering around the area...

More on that later, today's post is Bali in pictures.

The ubiquitous rice field:




The visit to a Balinese temple near Ubud:




And one of the amazing stone carvings:




A friendly elephant at the Elephant Safari Park:




Phil riding another friendly elephant (called Boris):




Beautiful tropical flowers:





The Balinese are crazy about flowers - these are our towels in Lovina:



A valley of rice fields at Jatiluwih:








Coffee and tea varieties for tasting at coffee plantation:





There is a fascination with putting little fish into water bottles:




I'm coming to get you!!




Soaking away the worries at the hot springs:




Lake Bratan in the central highlands of Bali:




A very elaborate fishing boat in Lovina:




Phil demonstrating his prowess at the well




And carrying the water like a local - one handed




Vibrant green rice paddies out the back of our room in Ubud:




One of many majestic Banyan trees:




Offering to the rice god for a bountiful harvest. Every rice paddy has a corner devoted to the offerings








In Ubud, there is a fairly large tourist market selling jewelry, sarongs and a variety of souvenirs. Early in the morning before the vendors set up, there is a local market selling fruit, vegetables, flowers for offerings, fish and live chickens.

Flowers for offerings by the basketload



Fish anyone?




The last two chickens on the truck




One down one to go




Gorgeous blue duck eggs





Snake fruit - yum!




Posted using a pinhole camera and a colour wheel

Location:Jalan Raya Senggigi,Gunungsari,Indonesia

Bali's animals

Given that Tuesday morning was devoted to a nerdy-sounding, but actually fascinating tour of birds, it seemed that a post on Bali's animals was fitting.

And now that I have finally purchased the do-hickey that allows me to put the camera photos on the iPad, all the photos in this post are 100% mine. (some are Phil's. If it looks like a really good, arty, focussed shot, ten to one it's his).

As anyone who has ever seen me with an animals would know, I'm a bit nuts about animals.** In Bali, there are animals just everywhere. I will go so far as to say it is literally impossible to go for even a short walk without encountering at least a couple of species. Every Balinese village I've ever seen owns guard dogs (ultimately wimpy ones) which sit outside the family compounds all day. They're not very effective although they generally do stand up and bark a bit - usually once you've already passed them. There are some village dogs that are more aggressive, and they trigger Phil's inner alpha male. In Lovina, he ran through the villages with a bamboo stick in hand to ahem... discourage any little nips from over-protective doggies.

Right now, I'm sitting outside our room in Ubud which is situated in the middle of the rice paddies in central Ubud. I am on a large daybed in the garden listening to the unbelievably noisy chickens and roosters that live next door. For the past two nights there has been a 4am wake up call from the over-excited poultry. I did come prepared with earplugs after reading other people's reviews on trip advisor, but the roosters cry is piercing and still wakes us up.

I am sitting with a ginger and white striped cat, who is very friendly. We gave him a bit of a pat at breakfast on our first day, and last night he crawled through the window at about 3am and jumped on our bed!! Lucky for him I recognize the movement of a cat on the bed, or there might have been a melt down in room 3 at the Sawah Sunrise. I was pretty confident that GOMP would kick him out, but GOMP was off duty and the softer side of Philipp let him stay til the morning. Here he is:



Every place we've stayed has pets. In this place in Ubud, they have two cats and two dogs, plus a pond full of fish. There are fish everywhere. In the rice paddies, in ponds, even for sale in random village markets.



In Lovina, the guesthouse had a gorgeous kitten with no tail who liked to bite and an old grumpy dog that was incredibly loyal to the staff but not so crazy about guests!

The general approach to the pets here is one of assumption by the Balinese owners that you will love their cat/dog as much as they do - which I do. GOMP is fond of telling me that when I pat someone's dog in the street, I come across as a slightly deranged person who might kidnap their pet! I do wonder what it's like for those who are not such big fans of strange animals traveling through Bali. The dog here is undoubtedly harmless, but we did ask his permission to come through the gates the other night to avoid lots of barking and possibly a nip.

The dog situation was more extreme here a few years ago with innumerable strays. Then a rabies outbreak erupted and rather than treat/ vaccinate dogs, there was a wholesale rounding up and putting down. On this trip, it is rare to see a dog without a collar outside the villages. I think this has led to an increased sense of ownership by the Balinese towards their dogs. They definitely love their pets. A couple of charities have also popped up devoted to helping the Bali dogs.

Most villages also have a healthy dose of chickens, roosters (often kept in basket cages for cockfighting), cows for ploughing fields and some pigs for food - esp the Babi Guling.

They eat a lot of Babi Guling! Speaking of which, we went on a looong walk yesterday around the rice fields of Ubud. I'm not sure exactly how far we went but my legs were jelly by the end. Here is the Babi Guling we had for lunch in a village (and on rosh hashana no less):




And here is the warung's dog sitting patiently waiting for scraps:





We came across a cute three month old pig in the village next to our bungalow in Lovina, probably destined for a table. I mentioned in an earlier post that we had driven through an area near Bedugal where there was lots of egg farming going on. We also drove past large pig farms. I think the commercially reared pigs fared a little better than the poor chickens! So much for my idea that Bali's eggs are free range. The cows seem happy and always have a nice comfy shelter though:




Which brings me to Tuesday. I had read about a tour called Bali Bird Walks, which I had wanted to do for a while. The tour was set up over ten years ago by a bird enthusiast called Victor Mason who started taking groups of people walking through the rice fields to look at all the different birds. His sidekick is a Balinese woman called Sumade who also takes the tours. We haven't actually ever done an organised tour while travelling together because generally you can usually do it yourself. But I was really keen to go along to this one. Phil less so. He agreed to drop me off at the meeting place yesterday morning and when it became clear that we would be the only two participants, he gallantly allowed himself to be roped in.

A pair of binoculars in hand, we set off for the rice fields. It turned out to be an awesome morning. Not only did we see lots of beautiful birds, we also ate wild raspberries and cherries, sucked the nectar out of hibiscus flowers, drank a coconut, spotted two rice field water snakes, dragonflies, butterflies and learned lots about the rice cultivation from Sumade, our guide.

I never realized the rice production was so coordinated between the farmers on adjoining lots. They aim to plant and harvest at the same time, so any losses from the flocks of rice-eating birds can be shared between farmers, instead of decimating one crop only. She also said that these farmers travel up to two hours a day to their rice field from their village, work all day tending the rice and only harvest it for their families to eat - so they're not making money from it. That's some hard work! A Balinese person can eat half a kilo of rice a day (3 meals a day of rice as the staple) and without their own rice fields, the family can't afford to buy rice. Makes you wonder what happens when someone is sick and can't work in the rice field when needed.

A few myths were debunked - Someone had told Phil and I on a previous trip that the ducks which are plentiful in the rice fields and certainly help fertilize it, also eat the baby snakes which grow in the rice fields. We asked and it was total crap as it turns out. I think we must be the only people to have ever asked such a question, because she looked very confused... and then highly amused. I think she was too polite to laugh directly at us, but I'm pretty sure she was close to it.

Anyway, it was too difficult to get any pictures of the birds, but here is an amazing nest we found in the tobacco fields in Lovina.








Beautiful, no?

Tomorrow we go by boat to Lombok to continue the Bali exploration...

**Arachnids excluded


- Posted using pig power

Location:Jalan Campuhan,Ubud,Indonesia

Ubud

We have had a fantastic few days in Ubud. It's probably been amongst the most activity filled days of the trip so far. We ventured on our first real tour, went on a looong walk through the rice fields and villages that surround Ubud and I had the spa day to end all spa days. Aahhhhh... Oh, so good.

Today I will be picking up the essential lead that allows me to transfer photos from the camera to the iPad so I can stop ripping off Internet pics to represent our trip. Yay! This will probably mean a few posts full of photos - feel free to skip if boring! GOMP claimed that I was likely losing readership due to the inauthentic photo postings, which appears to borne out in the lack of comments lately (sob)...

So I'm holding off on stories of the Ubud adventures until I have the photographic evidence! But I can record my wonderful spa day... If you're ever in Ubud and in need of a serious relaxation day, I can recommend the Bali Botanical full day spa outing.

You are collected from your hotel by car at 9.30am and taken down the road to a building hovering over a river and surrounded by jungle. The pre-lunch treatments were a traditional Balinese lulur (spice body scrub) followed by flower bath and a facial.

The website advertises lunch as a "light" snack at a nearby restaurant. I thought, good to have a light lunch if you're going back for more massagey goodness. A car comes to collect you to take you to the nearby lunch venue.

Hmmm... Some false advertising there. This was lunch, which was arranged at a gorgeous restaurant in Ubud:




Yes that is panfried barramundi with gnocchi. And it was delicious. And I couldn't finish it. Not even close. And yes, there was a first course of soup which I didn't think to photograph, mostly because I didn't expect more! And there was more. That's lemon curd tart with vanilla bean ice cream:




And coffee:





After lunch there was a two and a half-hour Aryuvedic massage with warm oils followed by a hair cremebath (conditioning treatment). I got back to the hotel at 5.45pm. I could barely walk by the end of it and sort of floated back to the room. Meanwhile Phil spent the day running around Ubud (literally) and taking photos. I think I made the better choice... Just heaven!

To all my friends of the Jewish persuasion - Shana tova. Wishing you a sweet and prosperous year.


- Posted using Aryuvedic techniques as first taught by the Hopi Indians

Location:Jalan Campuhan,Ubud,Indonesia

Lovina

In an hour's time, we will leave Lovina and head to Ubud for a five day stay in the middle of the rice paddies in Ubud. The last three days have passed so quickly, it's hard to believe it's already time to leave.

As I think I mentioned earlier, the Sananda Bungalows where we are staying was set up by a Swiss woman who conceived of this place after a vision in a meditation. And there are definitely some hippie aspects to it. Before building any of the villas, she constructed an obelisk in the garden to communicate with Switzerland. And as there was no telephone mounted in the obelisk, I can only conclude that she meant communicate spiritually.... But the place itself just felt calm and relaxed with a focus on nature and fresh, mainly vegetarian organic food from the garden, which was gorgeous. We were treated to a small dessert after each meal - delicious homemade Indonesian rice flour concoctions (except one lunchtime when there was a small piece of what tastes like Christmas cake. It turned out to be... Christmas cake. Slightly incongruous in september, in Bali).

Sheila, an Indonesian woman, was our hostess in Lovina. She took us to the neighboring village one morning to the home of all the staff so we could see where they lived. Phil and I drew water from the well and carried buckets of water on our head, local style (about 10 metres) much to the amusement of everyone watching. We must have seemed like such lightweights - These women carry water to use pretty much every single day of their lives.

It was sad to pack up. We met a lovely girl from Germany and one from Switzerland there. Sheila made us treats to go and packaged them up for us. So thoughtful. I really want to go back later in the trip. It's not that we did anything special there, more that it was a place of zero stress.





Actually, one thing did happen - I organized a massage with a woman from the local village who came over. All the girls had a massage and later when comparing notes, we discovered that we all found it "interesting". She walks all over your back in a sort of effective but painful way. I was thinking during the massage that I really should have learned the Indonesian word for "enough", although I got the distinct sense that the masseuse did not believe that massages should be an enjoyable experience. In addition to massaging the stomach, she also has a technique of aligning the inner organs by... Sticking her finger in your bellybutton and wriggling it until you are aligned. Eewwwwwww.... Really very unpleasant!! Afterwards I felt pretty good - my muscles were definitely more relaxed. But there was a feeling of violation that hung around for a bit. Ah well, just another experience to add to the pile.

- Posted using hippie vibes and Xmas cake

Location:Jalan Pancasari - Baturiti,Baturiti,Indonesia