I can't remember if I've talked about this before (or if it was just a post milling about in my head that never got put down on "paper"), but one thing I really appreciate about Indonesia is the government's recognition of the multiple religions that are practiced here. One way they recognize this is through national holidays. Two of these holidays were last week (creating a very lovely 4 day weekend): one was Muslim, and the other Christian (good friday). The downside, in some respects, is this creates so many public holidays it can be difficult to get work done. But overall I think it is very smart to be so tolerant, at least officially (and in practice, in all my interactions in Indonesia so far).
J and I have decided that we need to try to get out of Jakarta more often. It is such a huge, noisy, cumbersome, polluted city that we need to get more "breaks". Having a 4 day weekend was therefore too great an opportunity to pass up. We had hoped to tack a trip to Thailand on to my planned but at that time unconfirmed work trip to Bangkok. Unfortunately confirmation was very late in arriving, and by that time the flights were already either booked or expensive. So, we decided to go instead to
Lombok, the island east of Bali. We had heard good things about it, that it was beautiful with nice beaches, and quieter and less built up than Bali.
By the time we booked our trip many flights were already sold out. So, we were forced to extend our holiday to 6 days rather than 4 (oh, poor us!). With 5 nights available we decided to stay 3 nights on Lombok and 2 nights on an island off of Lombok that I had also heard about,
Gili Trawangan. Our quick assessment - skip Lombok and head straight to the Gilis!
Lombok is indeed quieter than Bali. This is a good thing in general, except that it felt slower in a bit of a sad way. There were still hawkers, and they seemed a little desperate for business. Streets were pretty bare and shops opened late. But, it is low season and it was a holiday, so this might not be a very good assessment given the time of year. It's also not as unique as Bali. The Hindu religion gives Bali much of its flavor and since Lombok is predominently Muslim it didn't exude that extra color. On the other hand, the beaches are more beautiful and less crowded. On our drive between our hotel and the port to go to Gili T, we saw some gorgeous postcard-perfect beaches. And they were totally undeveloped and empty - just beaches that butted up against people's farm land or where local fisherman docked their boats. Lombok is also somewhat mountainous, so the views really were amazing.
We stayed at the
Holiday Resort in Senggigi, which was a good deal. It was a bit run down, but nice enough for a good price. We stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment, and the resort has a big pool, kiddie pool, playground and kids club (staffed indoor play area) so there were plenty of distractions for C. I also have to admit that we brought our nanny along. With a 3.5 year old and a 9 month old, vacations don't tend to be very relaxing and it's hard to do anything around a baby's nap schedule. So, the vacation cost a bit more but we had a much better experience. We'll be doing that again.
We spent a half-day touring around the island near Senggigi. There's a lot to see actually, like Mount Rinjani and Kuta, but we elected to stay closer to our part of the island so we would spend less time in a car. After all, C tolerates car rides for only so long... One of our destinations was the "Monkey Forest", which consisted of a roadside stop where we could feed monkeys peanuts (or bananas, which oddly enough they seem to really like! Who knew, monkeys like bananas). I think the word "forest" is taking it too far, but C had a good time feeding them peanuts and they were quite civil and polite monkeys - unlike the monkeys we've come across in Bali. Those Bali Monkeys, they're so naughty.
Bad Bali Monkeys, Bad! (okay, I've had
way too much coffee today) I fed some of them peanuts as well, and always tried to give them to the pregnant monkeys or the new moms. And this is why I can't sit through an episode of Oprah without crying. I even started crying today at one sentence written in a fictional account of Heath Ledger's (very tragic death) last few days in an article in Esquire magazine. I'm guessing there are few tears ever spilled whilst reading Esquire magazine, but leave it to me... (I know my mother is now grinning ear to ear because she can just imagine the day when my kids tease me mercilessly because I won't be able to sit through 2 minutes of some sappy show like Little House on the Prairie, without crying). So hear I am, miss bleeding heart, making sure the more vulnerable monkeys are fed as well. We also stopped by a traditional Indonesian market on our drive, which was similar to the markets you find all over Africa.
We also visited a Hindu temple called Pera Muru and the Water Palace, which was a pavilion-like building in the middle of a man-made lake where the king would conduct business. We then headed to a pottery making village (in Bali and Lombok villages specialize in one craft, so especially in Bali you see shop after shop of the same thing). The pottery is special to Lombok so the designs were different than most of what I see around Jakarta. And that concludes our busiest day during our vacation.
Getting to Gili Trawangan (Gili T) is not an easy task. We got on a chartered minibus jam packed with people and luggage for about 1 hour. Then they dropped us off at a cafe near the port for us to have a drink while we waited for our boat to arrive. We then had to go a short ways to the port - J started haggling with the driver of a cimodo (horse and buggy) about the price to take us and the luggage to the port. He haggled over 50 cents. While his wife, baby, and 3 year old were waiting in the late morning sun sweating to death. We're not in Peace Corps anymore HONEY! After convincing J that it was worth an extra 50 cents, we arrived at the port to find that our boat wasn't there, so we waited. And waited. Until they told us we would take a public boat, not a chartered boat like we had been told.
Let me take a quick break and tell you that Indonesians don't generally get mad. At least they don't show it, and in the view of an American they don't stick up for themselves. If there is an injustice done to them by a business, for example, they won't argue very much, and they definitely won't raise their voices. You can see where I'm going with this. For those of you who know my husband, these 2 perspectives don't mesh very well (and don't very well with me either for that matter). So, there was some arguing, maybe some yelling, and finally we boarded a public boat that wasn't quite full but that we got to leave anyway.
The boat ride was fine. We made it to Gili T, stepped out into the water, and waded to shore with our suitcases and children dangling from our arms. I wish we had a video of it, I'm sure it was a miserable site. We were then whisked away into a cimodo (also a hilarious site - 5 people, 2 big suitcases, and a few bags stuffed into a cart) for a 3 km ride to our hotel. We stayed at
Alam Gili, a sister hotel to the place my mom and I stayed in Ubud. It just opened in December so it was in perfect shape. The staff were true to the Alam hotel chain style - absolutely lovely. And best of all, it was so beautiful and serene and quiet. It's so quiet because there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. The only means of transportation are the cimodos, bikes, and feet. As soon as we arrived I started planning when we could return.
We mostly just relaxed. We walked on the beach, looked for seashells and coral, played in the water, and read magazines. J and I also went snorkeling and had a quiet dinner alone on the beach. We took C into "town" once for dinner and walked around a bit - not much there but a few decent restaurants, hotels, and dive shops. There were other families at our hotel, including a British family with 3 boys who had just moved to Jakarta the week before. They were fun and C helped them to hide Easter eggs for the hotel staff to find. I think the staff enjoyed the Easter egg hunt more than kids usually do!
All in all a very successful vacation.
And now I promise to give the travel blogging a rest for at least one post.
