One week Lombok

August 2003 - One week Lombok is not enough, but in fact it was a 'little' present during my holiday. I didn't expect to get of Jawa this year, and now see what I have seen! The island is completely different from Bali, for those who have only seen Bali. Certain features are known on Bali, for example the Sasak population, but culture on this island is something which is very hard to find on Bali, because there it's all changed and maintained for the tourists.

		Arrival on Lombok On 22 August 2003 we (my 'guide' and me) arrived at Lombok for a week long holiday, for ...			Beaches everywhere I didn't see the beach at daylight this holiday yet. Parangtritis beach was at midnight with some campfire ...			Clouds Building Where there is land, there are clouds. If you make a picture here very early in the morning, ...
		Play the Drums Don't know where, but we were cruising on the island by car the first day. Some kind of ...			Family home This is the sign of the bengkel of the family of my friend. She met her family for ...			Traditional Living East Lombok), we found a village which is still very traditional. There are several of these in West ...
		I don't live there I had to pose in front of the house. This is not, I repeat, NOT my house. However ...			Orange Corn The woman with the white bag is carrying corn, and on the concrete you can see the freshly ...			Tobacco Sauna We discovered that East Lombok is the tobacco center for Sampoerna. They even have a kretek-cigarette factory over ...
		Drying again The process of drying the tobacco is not only to put it in the sauna. It also has ...			Fresh and green The fresh growing tobacco plants just across the street where their family and friends have been brutally slaughtered ...			Sorting the leaves Before putting them in the terribly hot and dark drying place, the leaves are sorted on color and ...
		Traditional Weaving Traditional weaving of a fabric by a young woman which is enthousiastically working on putting the right colors ...			Tete Batu We are near Tete Batu in Soedjono Guesthouse and Restaurant. This place should be one of the top ...			More Green Just down the path where the previous picture was taken. The sawah-landscape is beautifull here, too bad this ...
		Bali seen from Lombok Back in Lobar (West Lombok) we travelled around by motorbike again. After the trip to the east, we ...			One of the Gili's From the same spot we also could see one of the Gili Islands which are located off the ...			All Gili's, find them All three Gili islands, Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air, are featured on this picture, the problem ...
		Fisherman A lonely fisherman is sailing close to the beach to catch some fish. In the background you can ...			On the Rocks I had to climb for 5 minuted on bare feet to reach this spot. The rocks here are ...			"Robinson" Ooh... I just arrived on the island by swimming from Bali, and now I'm going back for lunch ...
		Ooh, spectators However the beach looked empty, many people were to be found here, all hiding from the burning sun, ...			Traditional village This is the village which is supported by the (local) government as being traditional. It's true, but they ...			Sapi in the shade With almost no trees, no graas and only dust, it's not funny to be here. It was very ...
		Preparing Wool This woman is the only of the entire village which I saw working at this hot time. She ...			Roadside Hut While driving from west to east Lombok over the central route, we had a fairly close encounter with ...			Gunung Rinjani A better view on Gunung Rinjani was offered to me a few minutes later. We had to look ...
		First look at Sumbawa I had never been there, but at least I can say I have seen it now. This picture ...			"Sampoerna-wood" Only when driving back to the inlands again, I noticed the Hollywood-like sign of Sampoerna. It was clear ...			Traditional Farming This farmer is working on his fields just outside Mataram, the capital of Lombok. I was quite surprised ...
		Blue sky.. eeh, beach The southern part of Lombok can be compared to the southern part of Bali. However, Lombok is much ...			View from the Restaurant We had lunch in one of the few restaurants on the beach. A few years ago, a big ...			Selling to the one tourist When they saw me, they had their one chance of the day probably. But I didn't need anything, ...
		Collecting Wood In the hottest time of the day, the children are put to work. Not that much, but collecting ...			Gathering Seaweed Mostly women are wading through the waist-deep waters of Kuta. They are gathering a special type of seaweed ...			Mangrove The first time I saw mangrove in 'real life' was on Bali last year, but now I had ...
		My, myself and I I walked from almost the other end of the bay to here, a trip of about half an ...			Really white and blue The skies were clear blue and the sand of the beach was white. If you have a closer ...			More activity In front of the almost bald mountain foot you can see several fishermen catching some fish. This all ...
		Salt Farm Salt is almost a luxury product in some parts of Indonesia, but over here, it's extracted from the ...			Preparing the soil Before new salty water can be directed to the salt-'sawah', the soil has to be flattened, so the ...			Extra Catch There is a small surprise left behind when putting the salt water into the vaporation beakens. Tons of ...
		To Gili Trawangan We took the umum (public) boat to Gili Trawangan, so we had to wait for over an hour, ...			Ooh so blue Very blue indeed! Gili Trawangan was much more quiet than I had expected, but still there were enough ...			Bebek's Escape We were somewhat behind a group of ducks cleaning the ricefields from weed and other things that should ...
		Bebek Catching Not as easy as I thought actually. I was already walking barefoot, because wearing slippers or anything makes ...			Sawah Lunch Back from Gili Trawangan, and back home in Mataram we later visited another aunt and the family which ...			Rough Sea The way back was on a slightly smaller boat than the first trip. The small strait is in ...
		Boats An example of the boat we had on our way back to Lombok again. This picture also features ...			Small Beach The beach on which you arrive on Gili Trawangan is kind of disappointing. No place to enjoy the ...