The last of Lombok

Posted under Deja vu Asia 2010

Well, we got our tour of the south of Lombok. Not a great deal to see as the island is not all that populated, and of course, the tour guides try to direct you towards the local industry in hopes that you will make a purchase. We, of course, did our best not to disappoint anyone Our first stop was to a pottery making facility, where all types of pottery is made, by hand, for export.The items are mostly shipped to Java, and then for export.

Our next stop in the world of industry, was to a village noted for its weaving. Weaving had been done here, in the same fashion , for generations.

Rather than go to school for a wasteful education, the girls are taught to weave, from about the age of seven. Now these looms are very basic, and the weaver must stretch it tight by means of her feet at one end, and a board across her back at the other end. This is done from a sitting position on a carpet of straw. You get to do this all day, which would amount to about 10 cm of weaving. You do get a bit of time off in order to give birth, and the children are then looked after the old folks, who can no longer weave. We had a local guide, who gave us quite an insight into the village life. She spoke very good English, which she had self taught from television and the tourists who had come to the village.

In between showing her village to tourists, she wove cloth, along with the rest. She explained that cost kept the majority of the village uneducated, as schooling is paid by the individual families, and very few can afford this luxury, so most education is saved for the boys. The girls are taught to weave, marry young, and have many children. This outlook was slowly changing, and the present generation were only having one or two children.

Our next stop was to the Kuta beach region of Lombok, which is on the south end of the island, and has a white sand beach. It also has bigger waves, and is an attraction to surfers. This works out well enough as the area is not as well  developed as the Sengigi area where we were staying. The surfers tend to be of a younger generation, (if you can imagine), and are less fussy about their accommodation.  As it was a Sunday when we did our tour, there were many locals at the beach, Sunday being a family day and the beach being affordable.

The picture is of the kids at  play — miles of soft sand and they are all on the lone lump of rocks in the area. Go figure!

Back in the seventeen hundreds, when Lombok had a king, the royal family spent considerable time in the mountains to the north. This, because it was cooler, and if you were king, you could. It was, however, a bit of a pain in the royal rump, to travel back and forth to the mountains all the time, and so the king had a new temple and grounds built for his personal pleasure.

The grounds were excavated to give the appearance of the temple situated upon the mountain to, and two lakes were dug to represent the two lakes which the king enjoyed at his mountain retreat. Although this was a Hindu temple it is still a very popular spot today, used by both the few remaining faithful to the Hindu philosophy, and the predominant Muslim population.

From Lombok we are to go to Kuala Lumpur, in Malasia, and as swimming is out of the question, the most likely solution was to fly. We booked passage for the three hour flight with a local carrier called Merpati Airlines. Upon closer scrutiny, via the internet, I noticed that Merpati’s track record was less than stirling. They poked one in the dirt in August of 2009, and then repeated the performance in December. They were probably placed on this earth in order that even Air Canada might look good. A quick cancellation of our tickets and we are back to the “fast Boat” to Bali and an Air Asia connection to Kuala Lumpur. More to tell about this metropolitan area in the next blog issue.

Take care of yourselves.

T