Lovin' Life on Lombok (part II)

After finally arriving in Bali, I headed out to Lombok to meet up with Mary, Hari, and Steve. Now I was a little MIA for awhile (my bus from Mt Bromo, a volcano in eastern Java, broke down while in a town with no cell phone capablities let alone internet so I was a day late getting to Bali. I was not able to contact Hari/Mary so they were obviously getting pretty worried. But I lived to tell the tale and made it to Lombok alive, but a day late). Lombok is what people say Bali used to be like ten years ago - a quiet beach island, not flooded with tourists or crazy clubs. But since we were in Indonesia during rainy season we did get a lot of rain, especially while on Lombok.

I had brought some friends I met in Java with me to Lombok and on our first day on the island we all got motobikes and went out to a local beach to go surfing. As the rain began to pour down we abandoned our misson and instead visited a small village on the island. There we learned about the local weaving that is done on the island, which is a way that many people make money. We also spent some time meeting the local village people and children. Back at Senggigi Beach we quickly discovered a great happy hour, they cleverly called CRAZY TIME! just a minute walk from our hostel. Some spicy red curry and several mai-tais later and we were ready to party. It was really great to have Steve back with the crew and we definately celebrated that night.

The next day Steve and I checked out the Sengiggi beach since it was nice out. We spent the day just laying in the sun, playing Jenga, drinking fancy drinks, and then avoiding the storm that soon rolled in. Ahh the rain. That night Steve departed the island bound to go home to America so when he left it was just the threesome back together again.

We woke up the next morning and decided to again take out our motobikes and explore this beautiful island by going north. After we took off the sky opened up on us and we were stranded at Monsoon Point, named the day earlier by Hari and Mary, and were forced into our rainstorm hut. There are small huts all over the island becasuse quick rainstorms happen so often, but they only last about 10 minutes. Sharing the hut with us was an Indonesian man carrying a rather large saska. Let's just say we got out of there as soon as the sky cleared. We continued north around the island and it seemed that at every turn in the road there was another breathtaking view. I was just enjoying the beautiful scenery that the island had to offer. This island is really something to see. Eventually we turned and started heading east into Monkey Forest. The road through Monkey Forest was very lush and filled with trees and yes, monkeys. We all know how I feel about monkeys (see China monkey blog entry) but for some reason I did stop to take a picture of a monkey when he suddenly began to charge at me. Luckily I had stayed on my bike to take the picture and was able to get out of there quickly. Further along the road we encountered a line of cars and bikes, after some investigation we realized that a huge tree had fallen across the road and men with large chainsaws were attempting to cut it up so that bikes could pass. After waiting about 15 minutes they had carved up enough of the tree to pass and we were on our way. After we returned to Senggigi I took off for a while on my bike to do some exploration of my own. I came across a small village where I stopped to play with some of the kids. It seems that cockroach on a string is the next big toy for young kids.

For our last day on the island we actually decided to rent a car because we really wanted get to the northern most part of the island. This car was a minivan and the three of us felt like school kids on a roadtrip, complete with snacks and good tunes. There were a few random tapes in the car and one of them just happened to have good music on it. That day we cruised around the island, saw some waterfalls and local villages. For the sunset we pulled over at a village and suddenly the car sank into a mud pit!! We could not get the car out and soon the entire village was over by our car to watch us. The village men got together and pulled, pushed and put wood under the cars wheels to get us out. While the boys worked I talked to the villagers and took pictures. That was our last day in Lombok and we left for Gili Air the next day.