I really really didn't want to come back to Singapore (and to reality). We spent 6 wonderful days in Lombok, a most beautiful, peaceful and friendly island east of Bali in Indonesia. The first 3 days were spent trekking up Mt Rinjani, a 3,700-ish metre volcano dominating the Lombok landscape. We did not take the longer trek route to the summit but opted for the crater rim -cum-lake shore itinerary. At the 2,600m high rim, a most amazing view of the crater lake with a "anak" (baby) volcanic cone rising from the middle of the lake was revealed to our gasps in awe of the mountain's majesty. (Photos from Holga will follow shortly.) The hike to the crater rim was arduous, at least for me, for I was the weakest and most unfit among the four of us. Thank God for Sze Yao who gallantly volunteered to carry my pack uphill, for without his help, I would have taken double the time and slowed down our progress. The hike up offered a whole range of mountain experience, starting from the tropical rainforest at the foot (Senaru), then progressing to temperate rainforest (think Pacific Northwest, with lichen coating the mist-shrouded trees with a ghostly white hue and moss hanging from the branches), to the drier, yellow savannah bush landscape further up and finally exposed steep gravelly slopes as we clamoured (crawled for me) up the rim. The first night was spent camping at about 2,000m, with the wind howling incessantly throughout the night (estimated temp of 7-10 deg) and occasional rumblings from the volcano. Hired porters provided great service, from laying our tents with a thin padding to cooking hot chicken soup, which we slurped down eagerly and warmed us to the toes. We were supposed to spend the second day hiking down from the rim to the lake shore, some 1,000m down a precipitous trail. Upon closer examination of the near-vertical plunge, massaging of our wobbly knees and advice from our trekking guide Osman, we decided to abandon the plan and spent our second day going downhill, which proved to be even more trying than the ascent. I was covered from head to toe in brown dust as we half-slid ,half-skidded down the steep sandy slopes. At the end of the one-day trek downhill, my legs felt disconnected from my body as my muscles were no longer able to control any movements.
After a night's rest at the foot of the mountain, we trudged on during the third day to visit some waterfalls, which Osman had kindly offered to bring us, following our forsaken attempt to hike down to the crater lake shore. The waterfall was quite spectacular, with spring water gushing down with a deafening roar from a height of 65m, being the highest waterfall in Lombok. We had an enjoyable and much needed dip in it since we hadn't showered for nearly 3 days.
The next leg of our trip was meant to be a reward for our strenuous "mountaineering" efforts: we booked ourselves into a small beachside resort - Puri Mas, located at Sengigi on the west side of Lombok, which afforded a panoramic view of the turquoise waters of the Lombok strait separating Bali and its lesser-known sister island. We also took a day trip out to the Gili islands off the Lombok mainland (Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air), where we snorkelled in clear, deep waters and had a lazy lunch at the small and rustic Meno island. Apart from colorful coral fishes, we also spotted a couple of puffer fish. Unfortunately, we failed to encounter any sea turtles, despite repeated assurance from our snorkelling guide Kris, most likely because of the colder-than-expected currents, which instead brought throngs of small jellyfish (yes, ouch).
Everyone we met were friendly and welcoming, possibly because we are tourists and the Lombok economy is heavily dependent on tourism for income. At the same time, we all felt that the local folks, despite being less wealthy in monetary terms, were a genuinely happy bunch very much at peace with themselves. As Kris put it with a charming grin, "Here, I'm on holiday everyday".
Photos from iPhone - pardon the poor quality (Holga ones, with views of the crater lake, will be posted shortly. Hopefully, they will turn out well...)
Camp
Lots of sweet pineapples and 3 days worth of nasi/mee goreng
Gullies carved by lava streams. The top is the crater rim, where views of the lake and anak volcanic cone come to the eye (not captured here). It's an almost vertical trail, some 1,000 metres, from the rim down to the lake shore, which we did not attempt after much consideration.
Mist-shrouded hillscape.
View inside the beachside resort Puri Mas
Cottage porch
Garden inside the resort
The tropical heat produces lush and colorful flora. Everything from the sink to our beds were decorated with strewn flowers freshly plucked from the manicured gardens.
Row of rustic Sasak (indigenous people) cottages. I stayed in the middle one.
Lots of Balinese sculptures adorn the resort, whose Dutch Indonesian owner Mr Marcel seems to be greatly inspired by. He also owns a private home-cum-spa retreat located a 5-min drive away from Puri Mas, where he keeps a range of exotic pets from deer to monkey. We had a somewhat painful massage there, mostly due to the back-breaking hiking earlier.
Rolling waves dashing up the seawall fronting our resort.
Moi and the stone frog and the beautiful sea.
The almost-infinity pool.
We nested ourselves on a
bale (raised attap pavillion), sipping mint tea for hours, listening to the waves and the laughing shrieks of the local kids frolicking on the surf. Really really didn't want to be back.
I am a huge fan of crime fiction, which has to be one of my favourite genres of all time. The best ever written one in the world of true crime has got to be Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which is largely based on the mass murder of a family in rural Kansas by a pair of dysfunctional boys in the late 1950s. A large part of Capote's book is devoted to the dynamic psychological relationship between the two boys, whose gruesome act of crime could not be performed individually. I like the book because it left me quite quite sick after finishing it.
