Gili Trawangan
We took a boat to Bangsal and then a bus to Senggigi on the western coast of Lombok. We had been extremely impressed with the beauty of the Gili Islands and were thus surprised to see how beautiful Lombok is as well. During the drive from Bangsal to Senggigi there were white-sand beaches on your right and rolling green hills on your left. While Lombok doesn't share the crystal clear and turquoise waters of the Gili Islands, it makes up for it with its lush greenery. Quite amazingly, we were able to stay in a wonderful hotel in Senggigi for a good price. We decided to spend our days there by relaxing, either at the hotel pool or on the beach.
Sendok Guest House, Senggigi, Lombok
Senggigi Beach, Lombok
On Sunday, then, it was time for our boat trip through Nusa Tenggara. I apologize in advance for perhaps using the word 'magical' too often during this blog post, but 'magical' epitomizes this part of Indonesia for me, with which I have completely and hopelessly fallen in love, and I believe Jochem has as well. All the beauty that we've been blessed to witness during the last 2 months bleaks in comparison to Nusa Tenggara. It surpasses everything we've seen so far, and this includes my beloved Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. It may be the most beautiful piece of earth that I have ever seen.
However, as it says in our Lonely Planet: "Be warned - this is no luxury cruise." Indeed, it wasn't anything like a cruise. Life on boat was ROUGH! It was more back-to-basics than any rained-on camping trip I've ever undertaken. Our boat was small and made of old wood and had a certain smell. The trip was a bit too expensive for our budget, so we didn't opt for a cabin but for sleeping on deck. Perhaps naively, we thought we'd be sleeping in dorm-room-like accomodation, but no, we literally had to sleep 'on deck'. We didn't have any place to put our luggage except for a big luggage storage room, so every time you had to get new clothes or your set of toileteries, you had to dive into this room, locate your carefully packed backpack, dig in, locate your necessities and repack said backpack (and, OF COURSE, it was only after you'd done that, that you realized that it might be useful to also get your toothpaste out together with your toothbrush). Luckily, each night we succeeded to snatch a sleeping spot on the top deck (as opposed to the low deck where it was hot and where you could clearly hear the boat's engines roaring) where we slept under the moon and stars, but during the day the top deck was sunny and hot. At night we were often sailing so there was a lot of wind and, thus, it was often very cold. Because we were out at sea, you and everything that you own smells and feels like the sea - you know, that kind of salty dampness that you may recognize after a day at the beach. Add sweat, humidity and heat to this mix and imagine getting dressed or getting under your sleeping blankets. Maybe you're wondering: were there no facilities on board? Oh yes, there were. Small ones. Cramped ones. Hot ones. 3 toilets/showers on 40 people where the water pressure is non-existent and you have to flush the toilet manually with a bucket of water. And, since you don't have your own room, you also have to get changed here. Although I did end up with fabulous beach hair (so Bic (and I know that you're reading this, even though you appear to have vanished from the face of the earth), if you're still interested in volumized hair: go on this boat trip!). I've never felt dirtier in my whole entire life.
Having said all of that, I must underline that IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! Our company, Perama, was professionally organized. Our tour guide, Gary, was sweet, attentive and knowledgeable. And the amazing crew on board did absolutely everything to please us, including cleaning up after us, preparing our sleeping spots every night and cooking 3 meals a day. I'm actually very proud of myself for having handled these difficult living arrangements for 5 days and 4 nights. It made me realize that while I like having a routine and definitely don't like to give it up, I AM able to let it go when the situation calls for it and still enjoy myself. I only had one low point - this was on the last day of our trip. I'd been pretty sick for a couple of days by then (sleep-deprived, dehydrated, still sunburned from the Gili Islands, with belly aches and a liquid stomach) and in the morning I wasn't careful enough when putting in my contacts and the wind blew one on the floor. Jochem and I spent 15 minutes frantically looking for it with flashlights in the very dirty sink and on the very dirty floor and I was like: "Get me off this )(*&^%$#@! boat!" Miraculously, Gary found it and all was well again. What really made the trip worthwhile for me, though, was Nusa Tenggara itself. This is beauty of the remote, deserted and parched variety. The mesmerizing landcape is made up of deep blue waters studded with hundreds of moon-like islands. It is beautiful in its harshness.
Our first day was mostly spent on Lombok. We made a quick visit to the village of Masbagik to view the craft of pottery-making by the local women and saw how the local men make wooden boats by heart in the village of Kampung Padak. In the afternoon and evening we spent a couple of hours on Gili Kondo for some snorkelling, a walk around the nearly deserted island and a bonfire barbecue.
Gili Kondo
We sailed all night and woke up near the island of Satonda. In 1815 a nearby volcano erupted that caused a tsunami, which accounts for a beautiful salt water lake on the island. It was magical to swim in this lake - it is like swimming in a giant green crater and if you sit still long enough, wild fish therapy fish will come to nibble at your dead skin. This place was one of the highlights for me during this trip.
Satonda
After Satonda we sailed for 6 hours to Kilo/Donggo Beach on the island of Sumbawa for swimming and snorkelling. We sailed all night and witnessed a couple of truly magical things on the boat - millions of stars, a bright red full moon and glow-in-the-dark algae that glowed up when it was disturbed by the fish. I was laying on my back, listening to my friends' playlists, looking up at the sky. It was my favorite moment on the boat.
The next morning THE highlight of the trip commenced: our visit to Komodo National Park on the island of Komodo.
Komodo National Park
Here we saw a couple of big and small dragons laying in the sun digesting their meals of previous days.
Komodo National Park
However, we also stumbled upon one dragon as it was eating a deer! Only later did we understand how rare this is - our rangers, who had worked at the park every day for a year, had only seen it 3 times, while our tour guide, Gary, had only seen it once in 2 years. We were extremely lucky, then, to have seen this!
Komodo National Park
The park was gorgeous, but dangerously hot - I could literally feel my skin burning despite the protective clothing and layers of factor 50 that I had just put on.
Komodo National Park
Komodo National Park
Which is why I was extremely happy to be heading for Red Beach on Komodo, which is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen and comes as close to a deserted island tropical paradise as I can imagine. I think it's called Red Beach because the white sand is studded with red dots of crumbled red coral.
Red Beach, Komodo
Red Beach, Komodo
After swimming and snorkelling some more, we headed for Labuan Bajo on Flores, which was as far east as we would travel. When you look at a map, Lombok and Flores look really close together, but in reality it's about 850 kilometers apart. We only had a couple of hours there, which we spent at a cafe overlooking the sunset over the harbor. At night, back on the boat, some people got off at Flores and some new people boarded and we slept in a drizzle of rain.
Labuan Bajo, Flores
The next morning we woke to another magical moment: dolphins jumping out of the water near our boat. We made our way to the island of Rinca for more hiking and more dragons in Komodo National Park.
Rinca
Rinca
Rinca
After another gruelling exercise in the burning sun, we sailed to Gili Laba for yet more swimming and snorkelling.
taking the smaller boat out to Gili Laba
Gili Laba
Gili Laba
One last night of sailing and we found ourselves in Labuan Haji on the island of Moyo.
comparing nail polish colors in Labuan Haji on Moyo
We walked through the village and its beautiful rice fields.
Labuan Haji, Moyo
Labuan Haji, Moyo
In the woods we played like children at this waterfall. Jochem acted dangerously on the rope (no worries, Linda, I preached him about it until his ears fell off), while I enjoyed the simple pleasures of shade, coolness and fresh water.
Moyo
Moyo
Our final stop of swimming and snorkelling was the tiny island of Keramat.
Keramat
After that things happened very fast. We sailed back to Labuan Lombok, took a bus back to Senggigi, found a really nice hotel room, had about 4 showers apiece, ordered room service and crashed into our beds. In the morning we took a cab to Teluk Nare, took a boat back to Padangbai on Bali, found a room at the same hotel that we stayed in 2 weeks ago, arranged our transport to Sanur on Sunday (where we will FINALLY see my parents again) and had a big lunch. I plan to do absolutely nothing in Padangbai but rest from an, arguably, very difficult, but very rewarding trip.
back in Teluk Nare on Lombok with Stefan, Alvaro and Aleix
I bet that I'll be fabulous on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
No comments:
Post a Comment