Asia! We made landfall on our fifth continent today, and the change couldn’t have been more dramatic. After spending the past several days visiting ports in New Zealand and Australia, Indonesia presented us with new languages, religions, architecture, and pretty much every other element of the local culture, and I loved it.
Lombok is a relatively small island, just forty miles across, and immediately east of the similarly sized but much better known Bali. With a population of around four million, the island is home to a lot of people considering its modest size. Math isn’t my strong suit, but dividing the population by the island’s square mileage (1778) yields a population density of 2250 people per square mile. Most of those people live in the southern half of the island, away from the towering Mt. Rinjani, an active volcano that dominates Lombok’s north.
That population density was especially apparent to us as we spent our day in and around Mataram, the island’s largest city and home to one in ten of its inhabitants. It’s hard to know where to start in describing our day, but I’ll begin with traffic. There’s a lot of it, bumper to bumper in most places, and chaotic to a degree that is hard to imagine for a westerner. Motorbikes and scooters make up a good percentage of it, and their drivers weave in and around the cars and trucks pretty much at will. The rule for passing and turning, even for large tour buses like ours, seems to be that if oncoming vehicles have room to slow or stop before crashing into you, you’re good to go. Our tour bus actually had an “assistant driver” who would jump out and stop traffic so we could make turns in especially busy areas. How about that.
Amazingly it all seems to work, which brings me to a related point. Lombok is home to very nice, friendly people. Perhaps it was just the fact that we were tourists, but people smiled and waved at us everywhere we went. For example, if our bus was stopped at a traffic light and a motorbike pulled up alongside, the driver and passenger would often smile and wave at us. Kids alongside the road would wave as we went by, and so on. While Lombok is working to increase tourism like its neighbor Bali, this behavior was clearly more than just part of an organized campaign. People are genuinely friendly here.
One of the other things that was immediately noticeable as our bus left the port in Lembar and headed north towards Mataram was the many large and colorful mosques. Like most of Indonesia Lombok is overwhelmingly Moslem (more on that tomorrow), and is said to be home to a thousand mosques. I can believe it, as there were often three or four in sight at the same time as we motored along. Most of them were large, with colorful domes and minarets, and I would have dearly loved to visit one. Unfortunately, they’re off limits to non-Moslems, so that wasn’t possible. Still, they were a delight to view as we drove past.
Ironically, Buddhist temples are open to all, and we were able to visit an elaborate example used by Mataram’s tiny Buddhist minority. As this was the first Buddhist temple I’ve ever visited, I can’t generalize, but this one was something of a large, open air complex, with multiple smaller worship areas devoted to specific concerns. The entrance was guarded by stone figures, as were some of the inner worship areas. When I have time I intend to do some research to help me better understand what I saw.
We also visited a cultural museum, a craft market and a pearl shop (fresh and saltwater pearls are a big industry here), and they were all interesting, though I have to say that none of them were as interesting as the views out the bus windows as we traveled around the area. We got some nice photos, and hopefully they will convey a feel for what southern Lombok is like.
One other thing worth mentioning is that this is the first country we’ve visited where the language is so different that figuring out what a shop sign, billboard or other text means was virtually impossible, at least for me. Even Indonesians cannot understand each other if they’re speaking their island’s or region’s local language to a non-local. For example, Lombok natives speak Sasak, while a stone’s throw away on Bali they speak Balinese. In fact, there are a whopping 718 regional dialects in Indonesia, but fortunately all Indonesians learn Bahasa, the national Indonesian language, and can easily communicate with each other that way.
Lombok is a perfect example of the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, so this is probably a good time for me to stop and show you some of our photos. I’ll elaborate in the captions where that’s helpful in supplying context.
Tomorrow we make the short hop over to Bali, similar to Lombok in some ways but surprisingly different in others, so stay tuned.
One of the more interesting, if shiver inducing exhibits at the museum. This horse is part of an elaborate celebratory Indonesian circumcision ceremony. When a boy turns seven he is placed on the horse and carried around town while a band plays music, with all the hoopla culminating in the boy’s circumcision, which is considered to be cause for celebration.
Traditional Indonesian wedding garb.
We saw dozens of beautiful mosques as we traveled around the island. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit one. There are said to be a thousand mosques on Lombok.
Rice paddy (harvested), with a mosque in the background.
Stone statue guarding the entrance to a Buddhist temple.
Our tour guide, dressed in traditional Indonesian clothes.
Gentleman praying at the temple.
At the Buddhist temple. Turning your back and throwing a coin into the pool is supposed to improve the likelihood that your prayer will be answered.
I tried it too. Look closely and you can see the coin in the air.
Typical traffic scene. The traffic control officer is doing his best to manage the situation.
Another typical traffic scene.
Moslem woman on a motorcycle.
Four people on this motorbike.
Not sure what to call this.
One more. We got a lot of smiles like this one wherever we went on Lombok. Oh, did I mention that helmets are mandatory here?
We saw these everywhere. People buy gasoline, put it in empty liquor bottles, and display it out by the road. They then sell it at a premium to motorbike drivers who stop because they’re about to run out of gas.
Small roadside stand. These were also everywhere.
Another stand out by the road.
The language is so different that it’s difficult to figure out what a shop is selling without a little help from Google Translate. As best we could figure this one was selling Internet and cell phone plans.
Woman selling batik at a craft market.
Carver at the craft market.
Traditional Lombok parasean martial arts contest demonstration at the craft market.
Squat toilet at the craft market. These are common in Asia and Africa. First one I’ve seen in person.
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