Tears, Fears, Jeers, and Cheers

Mimi napping on the ferry to Lombok

I left you on my last blog with a bit of a cliffhanger, we were on the ferry from Bali to Lombok island, with some vague notion of heading to Kuta once getting to Lombok, hoping to escape the tourist crowds and the bad vibes that come with them. The ferry ride went along with no hassles, and did in fact go to Lembar in Lombok as we were expecting it to.
While on the ferry we met a few other backpackers, coincidentally all from Germany – two traveling together and one alone. They were also considering Kuta as the next destination, so we decided to group together to get a better price on a private car across to Kuta (about 5 AUD a head) in what ended up being a very mini-van. The coincidence of the only other tourists on the local ferry being from Germany ended up being not so coincidental at all, as most other tourists in Kuta at this time of the year are European, with most of them being German. Aside from the Deutsch around, there were a few French and a few American tourists, and unfortunately enough of those were the kind who’s presence can somehow ruin an entire accommodation.

Lombok style chicken

We had decided that Kuta would be our place of rest for a few days, having had moved around and seen a lot in Kuta Bali and Ubud. This ended up being the case. The first evening we headed out for some dinner and hoped to see the beach afterwards, but by the time we had eaten the sky had quickly gotten dark. Dinner ended up being this delicious chicken dish, the name of which I never caught. Chicken here has a lot more flavour, as the chickens actually resemble birds instead of some sort of hormone pumped meat ball full of corn.

Kuta Beach at the harbour

The next morning we walked down and along the beach for a short while. When we first got to the shore we were at the harbour for the fishing and surfing boats, there was rubbish everywhere and it was pretty off-putting. Walking east along the beach things started to clear up and the water started to look much nicer. The sand granules at Kuta were quite large which made sinking in the sand easy and walking difficult. We explored the foreshore a little and found there is a lot of development going on trying to get the beach tourist worthy (think huge concrete slabs as at Bondi or Maroubra). Our driver the day before had mentioned how they were still “building the beach”, which was pretty confusing at the time, but I suppose this is what he had meant.

Kuta Beach, construction out of frame

On the way back home, we saw some kids kicking a stray puppy into a ditch. I stopped and walked over to them which made them stop and run away. The puppy was stuck on a ledge in the ditch. I reached down and lifted it by the scruff of its neck down to the bottom of the ditch where it could run out to the beach. For the rest of the day we debated whether we should go back and take it with us. When we came back to look for it that night, we saw it running across the road to join a huge litter of its siblings – we decided against taking it.

Cool hat Mimi

That afternoon we rented a little scooter to check out a nearby beach, Selong Belanak. While there we had some lunch and then got in the water. I spent some time body surfing until deciding I wanted to take one of the local surf-guide’s offer to rent a boogie board for a little while. This was a lot of fun and the guides had fun chatting up Mimi while I was out in the water. I wasn’t too worried about them as we had also met up with the German Duo mentioned earlier. After heading back to Kuta, we wondered around the streets looking for food for dinner and also toyed with the idea of booking a sort of mini cruise from Lombok Island to Komodo National Park, with many stops along the way. Dinner ended up being a local eatery and we decided not to book the cruise.

Mimi napping in Kuta

Not booking the cruise was one of the best decisions we made, as we decided we needed to spend another day in Kuta thanks to severe diarrhea and soul-wrenching stomach cramps. Mimi somehow got away with no sickness at all but at one point I could hardly walk. After lying in bed past midday, I decided to brave the streets so that Mimi could get some food and I would be able to get some meds. Antibiotics to kill whatever was killing me, buscopan to stop the pain, gastro-stop to bung me up, and several hours later I was feeling pretty good again. We spent the afternoon working out where to go next and where to stay. We were in favour of continuing to move towards Komodo with the knowledge that the next island across, Sumbawa, is twice as wide as Lombok. We hoped we could find transport in the morning to Lebuan, Lombok where we would take the ferry to Poto Tano, Sumbawa.

At Poto Tano harbour

We’ve generally been looking on Booking.com for ideas of where to stay in each place, but booking doesn’t really offer much across all of Sumbawa. We checked various other booking websites and even airBnB, but to no avail. As a last shot I thought I’d give couchsurfing a go, having had success with it on travels in the past. As luck would have it, there were a couple of people listed around Sumbawa and one person listed at Poto Tano. We hit him up and he said he would love to host us for a night or two, and could even pick us up from the harbour.

Mimi napping on the ferry to Sumbawa

In the morning we looked at how we would get to Lebuan, Lombok, but the bus had left from Kuta long before we were ready to go. We wandered the street negotiating prices to take a private car to the harbour and eventually, after talking to our fair share of drivers, we found one. We made it to the harbour without any trouble but a ferry was sounding off as we arrived, meaning we probably had to wait for the next one. We bought our tickets and asked multiple times and pointed at multiple clocks to be sure of when the next ferry to Poto Tano would leave. The ticket man insisted that it was at 12, exactly one hour away. Thirty minutes later we found ourselves rushing to get on the ferry as the gates were basically going up, and it was only by chance that we were actually near the ferry to see that it was about to leave.

Possibly the best chicken I've ever eaten

Our host was Novan, a student of tourism at a university in Lombok, who is taking a year off to live with his parents again and working on various projects. Novan and his friend Nandi picked us up from the the harbour at Poto Tano in Nandi’s van and took us to his parents house. We chatted there while waiting for the daily 4 o’clock thunderstorm to finish. Once the sky had cleared, we headed out to a piece of land owned by another of Novan’s friends (in the small town we were in, almost everyone is everyone’s friend). Here, they had been working on making a sort of communal garden with vegetables, fruit, cows, and chickens; along with having a nice spot to hang out, read, and take photos. Three chickens were slaughtered and fresh vegetables were picked to make a local dish – Ayam Taliwang, literally Taliwang style Chicken; Taliwang being the town closest to where we were staying. The recipe for the perfect marinade is held closely and although the ingredients are well known, the secret proportion for the perfect taste had been learned within this circle during a five year stint in prison. After preparing the chicken, a fire was started to cook over. Pandi, another friend, began to show his skills when getting the fire started by lighting the inside of an old coconut and shaking it around to get it fired up.

Chickens that are actually birds

Novan had an incredible day lined up for us the next day, based on a few things I had mentioned I would like to see (an itinerary I thought might’ve taken us a few days). Knowing there would be water involved, we would be travelling by bike, and not knowing where we would be, I opted to leave my camera behind and only take my gopro; this was a decision I would very quickly come to regret.

Lebo Taliwang

The first stop was at Lebo Taliwang, the largest and maybe only lake in Sumbawa. We hired two canoe’s from a local fisherman who lived in a shack by the lake with his family. It’s hard seeing people like this living in actual poverty. The fisherman looked like he had had a long life full of hard work, with many more years to come. They really didn’t have much and the wife and young daughter just sat in their gazebo watching the lake. I think about what incoming tourism might bring to people like this, and I continue to believe they would actually be worse off – I want to write more about that later after I’ve seen more of Indonesia and more varied lifestyles and levels of tourism.

Canoeing with a view

The canoes were not like any canoe I had seen or used before, being very long, thin, and shallow. Not having too much confidence being able to steer such a beast, Mimi shared with Novan and I with Restu, as we had been on the bikes. The lake was really beautiful to see early in the morning and though I see how hard their life must be, I envy the moments those fisherman would get to look up and see their office.

Drifting in waterfall pools

Following canoeing, we headed further down the coast to Jerewah Waterfall. To get to the falls we rode out of the local village and through the rice fields. Eventually we got to a bit of a track where we continued on foot, the runoff from the falls at our side eftand the roaring sound in the immediate distance. The falls were the true oasis that one could believe only exists in daydreams and fantasies. After having a swim here in the cool blue water, we moved on pretty quickly when local school kids showed up bomb diving into the water and soaping themselves up. If it weren’t for that I could’ve stayed there all afternoon.

Chilling by the beach

While heading back toward the village we stopped at Poto Batu, a beach with a view. Down on the waterfront a Rastafarian had set up shop, creating a Jamaican style bar for people to come down and enjoy drinks wile relaxing in the shade with the water at your feet. He was a nice guy who was really happy to meet people from out of town/Sumbawa/Indonesia.

Mimi enjoying fresh coconut jelly

We then made it back to Taliwang and crossed out of town again now into different rice fields. Here, Pandi was working with an old farmer, who we at first didn’t see as he was up a coconut tree. Coconuts were dropped from the tree and Pandi effortlessly cut them open for drinking. We had more coconut juice of several different varieties of coconut than anyone could ever need which was incredibly refreshing after a hot day in the sun.
The tour was over from here and we headed back to Novan’s home. Several more of his friends and neighbors were around and fish from Novan’s backyard fishpond were marinated and cooked over a fire for a late lunch. Just after finishing lunch, the daily four o’clock rain came down hard. It sounds like a big daily storm would be a pain but the way it takes the heat off the air is always welcomed.

Mimi and Novan, farewell!

We had a really great day with Novan and owe a lot to him for not only showing us around his district, but for inviting us into his home and life and showing us the true way of life for people in Sumbawa.

Our bus to Sumbawa Besar

On Tuesday the 17th, two days ago now, we left Taliwang at 7 in the morning on the local bus headed to Sumbawa Besar. The bus was about as comfortable as it looks. I’ve written enough for this blog but won’t get to post for a few days. I’m going to set it aside and post it when I next have reliable internet. In the meantime I’ll work on the last few days – I feel a lot has been going on. So expect another blog not long after this one.