I know I am behind on writing about Indonesia, and I am very sorry, but it is difficult to keep up on blogging sometimes when you are on the go, with limited wifi. I am now in New Zealand, but I still plan on pumping these out.

Two weeks ago, I spent a week on Lombok and Gili Trawangan (Gili T). Joseph, Sophia, and I left Ho Chi Minh City for the last time (for me, they were flying back through HCMC on their way back to the states). We flew Malaysia Airlines, through Kuala Lumpur, and spent a night in Kuta, Bali near the airport, before flying to Lombok. For most of my life, I had dreamed of travelling to Bali, but up until a couple of months previously, I had never heard of Lombok. My best friend from Hawaii, Taylor told me I needed to visit it though, because her boyfriend was living there for the year, and she thought I would love it. I looked into it, and decided she was right.

Exploring Kuta, Bali for a day before flying over to Lombok

Lombok is the island right next to Bali, and is described as what Bali was forty years ago, before it became one of the top tourist destinations in the world. It is slightly smaller, though I think, equally as beautiful, and vastly underbuilt compared to Bali. Unlike Bali, but like most of Indonesia, it is mainly Muslim, and as Taylor’s boyfriend, Alex later would tell me, there is an ongoing joke on the island that it is the “island of a thousand mosques, and they are all empty.” Though the island is mainly Muslim, it is still an island, and so there is generally a more laidback lifestyle on all fronts of living.

Getting back to our adventures; we had booked a tour to hike Mount Rinjani, Lombok’s highest volcano, and so our driver from the tour company was waiting for us upon our arrival at the Lombok airport. We then sat through the three hour drive to Senaru, where we were to spend the night before our hike early the next morning. We got to the tour center, where they fed us our first mie goreng (friend noodles with a fried egg on top), and where we paid for our tour. In order to hike Rinjani, you have to go through a professional tour company. They do not allow you to do it on your own. Honestly, it was so worth it though, we had booked the two day, one night tour which took us to the crater rim, and then back down. Originally, we had wanted to do the three day – two night tour, which brings you to the summit of the crater rim, but since we were short on time, we decided against it, and in the end, I was glad we did considering that the trip to the rim from the top of the crater alone, is seven hours, and none of us had done any sort of training during our four months in Vietnam. Eventually, I would love to return though, to complete the summit, as Edmund Hillary would say; “because it’s there.” The tour itself included our pick up from the airport, accommodation in Senaru the first night, a porter for each of us, our tour guide, food, supplies (tents, sleeping bags, etc.), and drop off after the hike.First mie goreng of the Indonesia trip, served at Green Rinjani.

We woke up early the next morning, to eat breakfast before our 7am start time for our hike. Our tour guide, Ari, met us at our hotel, and we headed up to the Rinjani park entrance to obtain our entree tickets (included in our tour package). We then began our hike up. The hike is divided into five sections; trail head – pos 1, pos 1 – pos extra, pos extra – pos 2, pos 2 – pos 3, and then pos 3 – crater rim campsite. At each stop, we took a rest to have some water and snacks, and at pos 2 our porters cooked us up delicious Indonesian stirfry and friend chicken.

A visual of the trail, lunch on the trail, the entrance to the hike, and a kitten who joined us for breakfast, pre-hike.

The landscape and foliage in Indonesia is very similar to Hawaii, minus the monkeys, I felt as if I could very well have been in Hawaii. For anyone who has ever hiked in Hawaii, think of Mount Rinjani as Olomana first peak, and multiply that by five. As an avid hiker, Rinjani would be rated a difficult hike. Mostly because it is entirely uphill. The last section of the hike was higher than the jungle, and it open air. As exhausted as I was at this point, it was definitely nice to have the change of scenery, and when we reached the top, everything was completely worth it.The trail after it opened up from the jungle, almost at the top.

The view from the crater rim of Rinjani left me speechless. The crater rim is larger than any photo can depict, and inside of it, a vast crater lake reaches for several football fields wide. In the middle of the crater lake, a smaller, younger volcano has been growing out of the lake for millions of years, and still is erupting sporadically. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. We were blessed with the weather, as apparently the mountain had been rainy and covered in clouds during previous days, and though the clouds kept coming in and out, we got many views of a clear open crater. We got to the top around 4pm, and then had time to relax. Our porters set our tent up on the crater rim, with a beautiful view of the crater, and we spent the next couple of hours taking photos, eating dinner (chicken curry, and friend bananas with chocolate and cheese), and just taking in the view. Around 7pm, we were blessed with a fantastic sunset and moonrise over the crater rim, which made our campsite look like something from a National Geographic article.

View from the top, and our campsite on the crater rim.

After the sun had set, I popped an ibuprofen for my sore muscles, and settled into my tent for a good night’s rest. Surprisingly, I slept very well, and woke up just in time to see sunrise the next morning. I am not a religious person, but I think that the sunrise that morning, might have been one of those few times that would help me define what a “religious experience” is. After breakfast, we packed up our stuff, and began our descent down the volcano. The descent was much easier than the ascent, and we completed it in about four hours, including lunch. Most of it was spent practically running through the jungle, as running was much easier on my knees than walking. My toenails are still purple though, two weeks later from this descent. Word of advice: cut your toenails before attempting this trek.

Sunrise from the crater rim of Rinjani, and the hike down.

Once we reached the bottom, though we had little energy, we decided to take a little extra hike to the Tiu Kelep Waterfall, Lombok’s most famous waterfall which was nearby. The waterfall was a short, 15 minute hike down some steps and a long a trail, again very similar to Hawaii. I have seen a lot of waterfalls in my lifetime, and I think this was definitely one of the most magnificent. Not only was there one main waterfall coming down, but surrounding it, were many smaller waterfalls cascading down for thirty feet around the main waterfall. It was raining when we got there, which made for slightly blurry photos, but the upside was that we were the only people in the waterfall for about ten minutes, which is a huge deal anywhere in Asia. After the waterfall, we had a two hour drive to Senggigi, where we were to be staying with Alex for the following two nights. The drive turned out to be slightly terrifying, as it was pouring rain, and the driver was driving pretty fast, but we made it to Alex’s in one piece. It turned out his water was broken when we got there, so we showered with a bucket and then went out for some dinner, and I had my first Bintang. Unlike most local Southeast Asian beers, Bintang tasted more like a real beer than watered down Budlight, and I knew I would continue to enjoy them during my time in Indonesia.

Tiu Kelep Waterfall, and my first Bintang.

The next morning, Alex being the greatest host ever, cooked us up some sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs, and the four of us traveled by motorbike down to Kuta, the southern part of Lombok. It was a perfectly sunny day outside, and our sour muscles were very ready to spend the day at the beach. Kuta is known for its white sand beaches, and beautiful water, and it didn’t disappoint. We first went to Tanjung Aan Beach where Alex and I ended up renting some boards to surf. We paddled out, and the waves were great, though I hadn’t surfed in months, and paddling to the spot became the hardest part. I caught some great waves though, and was very happy with my first Indonesian surf session. A couple of the waves I caught lasted 20 to 30 seconds which is pretty much any longboarder’s dream, but it did make it harder for me to paddle back out after them. After surfing, we rewarded ourselves with a couple of coconuts on the beach, and then decided to move onto Pantai Seger Beach. This one was completely different from Tanjun Aan, it was very shallow, but the water was crystal clear, and nobody was there except for a couple of fishermen standing out in the water. We ended up eating lunch (more mie goreng) at the restaurant on the beach, and then we headed to Mawun Beach. I think that Mawun Beach is one of the prettiest beaches I have ever been to. It consisted of a huge blue bay, surrounded by green cliffs, and just seemed completely unreal. Unfortunately Mawun is known for having the most hagglers trying to sell things on it, and we were approached by a couple of young boys trying to sell us pineapple and mango. Luckily, Alex speaks Indonesian well, and ended up just playing with the boys. By that time, it was late in the afternoon, and we were tired and sunburnt, and we wanted to get back to Senggigi in time for sunset, and so we decided to head out by taking the scenic route, through rolling hills, rice paddys, and villages. It was one of my favorite hours of the entire trip.

Riding through the rice paddies, surfing at Tanjung Aan, and a panorama of Mawun beach.

Along the way, we had to stop for gas. In Indonesia, from what I experienced, there are very few gas stations, rather, people on the side of the road locals will sell gas kept in old Absolut vodka bottles. When you need gas, you just pull over next to one of these houses, and using a funnel, they will fill up your tank for you. Not sure how dangerous this is, but I thought it was kind of cool, and also gave an accurate representation of what vodka tastes like. At the place we stopped for gas this time, there were six young girls helping us to fill up, they couldn’t stop laughing at the cute American boys we were with.

We got back to Senggigi just in time for sunset. We were on the search for some fresh seafood on the beach, but the lady who usually sells it wasn’t there, so we headed to a beachside restaurant instead to get dinner and watch the sunset. It was a perfect end to our time in Lombok. We went to bed early, ready for the next couple of days of Gili T.Sunset in Senggigi.

To get to Gili T, we decided that taking the public boat would be our best option. For under $7, we booked transport to the pier, and our boat ticket. After dropping off the rented motorbike, we were taken in a van to a place where we were told to wait for our boat, just down the road from the ferry. From there, we were shuffled to a horse drawn carriage and told we would be taken onto the pier. Once on the carriage, the driver then decided to tell us that it would be 100IRD for the ride that would have taken us 5 minutes to walk ourselves. We immediately told him no, that we didn’t want to take the ride in the first place, but were forced to. He obviously didn’t understand what we were saying, and when we finally got to the pier he kept pressing for the money. I finally gave him 20IRD and told him that was it and he backed off. This is a classic Southeast Asia thing, and when there, you have to learn when you are being tricked into paying for things. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING is free.

The boat ride to Gili T was its own adventure. About 40 of us were packed onto a small boat, like animals, and brought over. Luckily the water that day was pretty calm. I never even took off my big backpack for the whole ride for fear of trying to get it back on amongst all the people. The boat took us right up to the beach on Gili T, and from there, we walked five minutes to our hotel, the Cotton Tree Cottages, where we met Alex, since he took an earlier boat. If you ever go to Gili T, I highly recommend Cotton Tree. For $15/night per person, we got a two story Indonesian style bungalow with two king beds, and a beautiful outdoor bathroom and shower. Plus the place had an infinity pool.Infiniti pool at the Cotton Tree Cottages.

Our plan for the first day on Gili T was to rent bikes (regular bicycles, because motorized vehicles are not allowed on Gili T), and to take part in the fun fungi that is very available all over the island. Gili T is the largest of the three Gilis, and even so, you can walk around the entire island in about an hour and a half. We road our bikes down until we found a bar that looked appealing to us, which was advertising magic mushrooms, sat down, and ordered our magic smoothies. Apparently, like all other drugs, mushrooms are not legal in Indonesia, but on Gili T, the only police are just paid security guards, and they are all paid off to allow the sale of mushrooms. This results in most bars having advertisements in front of them saying things like “no woman no cry, no mushroom no fly”. I expected the smoothie to taste bad, but it actually was one of the best smoothies I have ever had.

Various signs advertising mushrooms on Gili T, and the mushroom smoothie.

From there, we spent the day cruising around on our bikes, stopping at different places to enjoy the beach or to sit on cushions and just enjoy the high. It wasn’t super strong, but it did turn out to be a spectacular day.Chillin on Gili T.

That evening, we headed out to the bars for some drinks. On Gili T, so that every bar gets good business, each bar is given a night to throw a big party. All the bars are still open, but the designated bar will be the one that everyone goes to. The night we were there, it was Irish bar’s night, and the place was packed. We ended up staying out pretty late, but it was so worth it.

The next morning, I had scheduled myself to do two dives with Manta Dive. Sophia, Joseph, and Alex were able to tag along on the boat and snorkel while I dived. Since I was the only Open Water Certified person on the dive expedition (all the others were Deep Water Certified), I was basically able to have a private dive with my dive master Ozi. The first dive I did was a more shallow dive, with lots of fish, sea anemones, a couple turtles, and eels. The coral was a lot more alive than I had expected it to be, which made me very happy. The second dive was at a dive site called manta bay. I only saw one manta, but I did see more turtles, and several baby sharks resting under coral. All in all, I was very happy with both dives, and it felt great to suit up again after all this time.

Two baby sharks hiding under coral, a family of anemone fish, and my Ozi and I.

That afternoon, Alex left us to head back to Lombok, and the rest of us spent the afternoon exploring Gili T. We went to some of the famous swings and hammocks that the bars have built as “Instagram spots” to take some photos, like the tourists that we are, and we also climbed to the top of the small hill on Gili T. From there we could see Rinjani, and the other two Gilis. Exhausted, we headed to the night food market to have some grilled lobster, and then called it an early night to rest up for our trip to Bali the next day (Bali will be my next post). Looking back, Gili T doesn’t even seem like a real place, though it is, and I do need to return at some point in the future. I also definitely feel the need to explore the other Gilis.