West Nusa Tenggara- Lombok and Gili Trawangan

March 2017

Lombok is one of the islands, of Indonesia, situated between Bali (to the west) and Sumbawa (to the east). It is about  43 miles across and covers around 1,743 square miles. And it is fantastic!

Just off the coast are the Gili Islands, a great low-key get away.

In March we spent 4 days on Lombok and 3 more on Gili T, not nearly enough time on either.

The first part of the week, we stayed at Kila Sengiggi, a great resort right on the coast.  It is located on a peninsula giving us water from most views.

The Sunset Bar, not just for sunset.

They have a great breakfast buffet.  We even ran into one of our school families at breakfast one morning.  I think the kids are stalking me.

The beach area on the north side.

The other view from breakfast.

Lots of fishing going on.

A beautiful end to each day.

Surfs Up on Sengiggi

Fishing boats.

Making new friends.

Fishermen (boys) just coming off the boats and heading home. Seat belts optional.

The town of Sengiggi.  We stopped in at The Office, making this a business trip and a write off.  Right??

We hired a car, driver, and guide for two days and saw the sights.  On the first day we headed north for scenery, temples, monkeys and waterfalls.

On the second day, we headed out for pottery, weaving, and a visit to a Sasak village.

All dressed up with nowhere to go.

 

This Sasak village is located at  Sade, in the southern part of the island.

Very few people in the village speak English and many do not even speak Bahasa Indonesia.  The children now, do attend public school nearby but for the most part the village is a self contained community.

About once a month, the floors and walls of the Sasak house are spread with a fresh layer of dung and straw plaster.  It stinks at first, but once dried it creates a hard and durable surface.

The houses have two rooms.  A lower room and an upper room.  The husband sleeps in the lower section and the wife and children sleep in the upper section.  Cooking is done upstairs.

Betel nut, commonly chewed in many parts of Southeast Asia.

A boy and his pet rooster, on a leash.  Our guide told us that dogs and cats are not pets here.  Birds are pets.

A traditional lamp that burns palm oil.

The building in the back is the rice barn.  Residents each have their own farm plot but they help each other and pool certain resources like rice.

Traditional drum.

The men and women only marry within the village.  If a man wants to marry, he must ‘steal’ his wife and take her out of the village.  They must then find a place to lay low for a few weeks until the family is no longer angry. Then they can return and wed.  If the man asks permission of the father, he will be denied and possibly punished.  If he gets caught stealing her….denied and punished.  The woman however has a say in who she weds so it is unwise to steal a girl without her permission.

We had an amazing time on Lombok.   We saw a lot and learned a lot.  See Gili Trawganan for the second half of this adventure.

Other posts from this trip:

Falling

Nyepi

Monkey Business

Mayura Water Palace