Sunday morning two weeks ago I left Gili Air by local boat. Two days ago I went for a full day snorkeling trip and we were visiting four different sites. The first out of four spots was quite nice, as there were a lot of turtles. The sunlight was just perfect, as you saw all those nice colours reflecting underwater when you swam with them. The second spot infront of Gili Trawangan was just full of dead corals, due to the moaring of all the tourist boats and dump tourists stepping on the corals. I’ve no idea why we went there. The third spot where these artificial underwater sculptures infront of Gili Meno. Didn’t hear about them before, but was OK to dive through them, as they were just a few metres below the sea level. For lunch we stopped at Gili Meno, which was then my 7th island in Indonesia. We were introduced to eat only on the restaurant on the beach, where a Nasi Goreng was 55k IDR…seriously ๐คจ. That’s five times more than in Yogyakarta! No, you won’t get my money. Hence I was walking 5 minutes into the island and found a warung where I got it for half the price. Which is still expensive, but regarding that it’s a small tourist island, it was OK. The fourth spot had a lot of small fishes, but due to all the anchors of the boats, also the corals got damaged there. The snorkeling spots where not that impressive, I already saw more beautiful sea live, for example Bora-Bora is an excellent spot for snorkeling.
The day before I attended a Yoga class. It was the first time after more than one year, but the teacher was really nice. Even as it was an intermediate level, I was proud of myself that I could follow most of the figures. In order to improve my rock climbing performance I probably should also do more yoga in the future and not just strengthen my body.
Anyway I finally went to Lombok, as my 8th island. Once arrived and got out of the boat, all the touts were approaching one to offer their driver “skills”…as you know, you get a driver licence in Indonesia just by paying at the police station. And if the police doubt that you are able to drive a car, you just need someone who claims that you can do so. Well, I was just walking away from them, even if they’re persisting offering their skills for 200k IDR and more. I said I would pay 10k rupiah, but somehow they didn’t want to agree. While walking to the main junction some taxi driver offered me to drive. When I said I’m taking the local bus…they replied, no local bus today. Sure, because with local bus you wouldn’t have business. I was the only one who walked that 1km to the junction, but in the end I got directly my local bus, without any waiting time, to Mataram for 20k IDR. Suddenly I was out of the tourist bubble. On the way I saw some houses with cracks in the walls and also some intermediate huts for the local people. I guess these damages were caused by the last earthquakes. Some of the houses may completely broken. In Mandalika bus terminal I changed the bus and made an excursion to Selong in East Lombok. There I met my host Rauhil and her friend Anton, who actually picked me up from the bus. They were both pretty kind and we had a nice conversation the whole afternoon and evening. Anton told me that he’s also a guide to Mount Rinjani, as he’s from North Lombok. But the peak is still closed due to the last earthquake, and only a two days track to the crater rim would have been possible. He also told me that in North Lombok almost 99% of the houses got damaged by the earthquake, and most people are afraid to sleep in these houses. Some cracks are as wide as an arm. The government provided some immediate money, so the people can rebuild their houses.




