Early on another misty Saturday morning we arrived on the island of Lombok, one of the Indonesian islands. It has its own sleeping volcano, Mount Rinjani, and is a real mix of modern (huge glossy shopping malls), lush green rice paddy fields and ramshackle roadside villages reminiscent of the quieter parts of India.
Once again, we negotiate the services of a driver, a quiet lad called Choy. Firstly we head to the main capital Mataram, where we visit the city’s biggest Islamic centre. Again the island is 40% Islamic, 40% Hindu and the rest are a mix of Buddists, Christian and Catholic and they all live happily and respectfully together.
The Islamic building certainly was impressive, huge, symmetrical and so very clean. We didn’t fancy a tour as it meant donning head to toe tunics, not a great idea in 32c heat!
Next we visited a Hindu temple in the grounds of the Water Palace, the gardens were hosting the oddest combination of events – a tattoo competition and a classic/ modified motorbike display 😀. A very odd combination yet so peaceful!
The Mayura Water Palace was built in 1744, this palace included the former king’s family temple, (which is a pilgrimage site for Lombok’s Hindus on 24 December) around a cooling lake, with a pavilion in the middle. It all sounds very idyllic – the lake and the temple were once stunning but these days its a stagnant rubbish filled pond in a park used by locals and the buildings (once revered temples) are overgrown and unkempt. Sadly our guide, with his stories of good and evil and black and white couldn’t convince us that the temples were still in use, far too uncared for……
We stopped at a shopping mall for lunch in Pizza Hut, a huge cool modern place thats at odds with the rest of the town, glossy quiet and clean in a world of ramshackle chaos and mess. We opted for Pizza Hut as the other restaurants were more authentic, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and we really wanted something plain and familiar.
Finally we headed out of town through endless rice fields to a “traditional village” called Sade pronounced “sar-day”. Here we were taken around a living museum, 700 odd people living in houses built traditionally with straw roofs, clay floors (cleaned with cow shit, apparently the ammonia in it works wonders so forget about Flash!!), watched women weaving batik tapestries (Di & I were talked into buying a scarf each) and learned about the Love Tree, where local single men and women meet and where the men have to kidnap their chosen woman before declaring his love for her under said tree… all very old fashioned! Ah yes, and they have cats, chickens, dogs, kids all roaming freely amongst the dirt and chaos….
We headed back to the ship feeling amazed by this island, lush green, friendly, interesting history, and so calm and chilled. If only we had more time here….
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