Lombok

Lombok is a few hour boat ride away from Bali, and while everyone knows about Bali, many people don't know about Lombok. Lombok seems to be one of the thousands of hidden gems of Indonesia. I absolutely love that country. Everywhere we have gone there is different and amazing in its own way (Medan and the surrounding areas including the Batak people and orangutans, Yogyakarta with its amazing temples, Mt Bromo and the beautiful volcanoes of east Java, incredible diving in Manado, east Sulawesi, crazy beauty, intense Islam and tsunami destruction in Pulau Weh and Banda Aceh, and of course Bali - which I'm on the every-six-months-plan for).

The very little that we saw of Lombok reminded me a bit of Bali, but it was also really different. The island itself seems to be a bit more hilly/mountainy, and the Gili Islands, which are north west of Lombok, are just white sand beaches with nothing to do but dive, snorkel or relax. There were a whole bunch of Hindu temples (like Bali) around west Lombok, at least, though the island is apparently 90% Muslim. Please note that we spent a total of three days in Lombok and 2.5 in the Gili Islands, and in Lombok, we really only saw a few places in the west, so my perspective is really limited.

Our first stop was an amazing hotel near Senggigi that was recommended by two friends. Qunci Villas was one of my favorite hotels ever. The bathroom was the coolest bathroom I have used, and the service at this hotel was unmatched (even by the 5 star hotels in Asia). All of the dudes know who we are, say hello, and are super friendly. We asked about transportation to a temple, and after we got back, we had three different people asking how the temple was. At breakfast they knew our names, what we liked to eat and drink, and probably our birthdays. The place just makes you want to sit by the pool and read. All day. So we did.

The Gili Islands was a totally different story. It was a bit rugged for a lady who's seven months pregnant, and while it was super relaxing, it was a bit of a letdown from Qunci Villas. We had been spoiled. Our hotel on the Gilis was on the main island, but totally removed from all of the other action (which is good). We had our own little Javanese hut, which looked really cool, but in practicality there were a few problems. The lights were so dim that we literally couldn't read or see anything (though that gave us the opportunity to watch part of the BBC Planet Earth series we brought with us on the trip...), so we were sleeping by 10pm each night. The bathroom was another cool, outdoor bathroom, but though we were paying over USD100/night, we didn't get hot water (or fresh water...though that's not their fault - I don't think they have it on the island), and there were stairs going up and down to get to the bathroom. Not ideal when you're pregnant and going to the bathroom six times per night. Finally, while the four-post bed was really cool looking, in reality it came with bed bugs, and since I can barely reach my ankles to scratch, I'm just not interested in bed bugs. On the positive side, the view, the salt water pool, and the banana pancakes at the hotel were superb.

Other than the hotel, though, we really enjoyed relaxing and doing nothing. The first day we took a super long walk (until I literally got sick from the sun and exhaustion) to check out the rest of the island and what we should do while we were there. We decided on a lot of reading plus one snorkeling trip around to the other Gili Islands. Overall, it was super relaxing, and our biggest decisions were where we were going to eat our next meal.

Generally, the pregnancy thing wasn't too much of a problem. The biggest challenges were fitting on a really crowded snorkeling boat (my ass must be bigger than it was...) and getting onto the boat to leave the island. I had my big backpack on my back, and I literally couldn't take a big step up onto the back of the boat. I was just too heavy. I tried about five times, and I didn't know what to do. Finally I could reach to the top of the boat and pull myself up with my arms. Thank goodness for yoga and all of those downward dogs. I also had to walk a lot slower and drink about four times the amount of water that Matt drank.

After the Gili Islands we went back to Lombok and spent a day driving around the Mataram area, visiting a few pottery shops. Since we came here for 1-2 years, and now we have been here for three and we're clearly not leaving anytime soon, we got a beautiful set of handmade pottery dishes. It was in this crazy house with TONS of stuff everywhere (including a mouse), and we sort of had to look around to find a complete set (they only had three plates of the ones we liked most and then four of the ones we liked second most...so we got six of our third choice, but they're still really beautiful). We got some really beautiful things, including an amazingly gorgeous vase for about USD3.

One of the pottery stores we visited said that their biggest "customer" was Ten Thousand Villages. This is a website that I have bought stuff off of - it's basically a company that brings products made in villages around the world to the masses. They have specific guidelines outlining what "fair trade" means to them, etc. When I have bought stuff in the past, I was sort of skeptical, since I didn't really know where it came from or if it was for real, but learning that this amazing co-op of women potters in Lombok supply to this website made me excited.

Upon our return to Singapore there were two big emotions. Super happiness to be reunited with the Kitty and super unhappiness recognising that I won't leave Singapore until at least November. The longest I have been here up until now without leaving is about five weeks (MAYBE six). I may freak out on this island...but we'll see. Hopefully I will be busy enough until the baby's born to not think about it, and afterwards, I'm SURE I will be busy enough that I won't notice.

Click here for photos from our trip.