Picture Perfect Places: Day 59 - Lembar, Lombok, Indonesia

Lembar is the port!

Lombok in the island!

Indonesia is the country!

We arrived at the Lembar port early in the morning and this was another port that required us to tender ashore.

Therefore we tendered into this port but it was not an easy tender - another domino effect including 25 minutes each way, motor problems, heat, lost tempers, huge amounts of people disembarking - all combining to make us late leaving in the afternoon. But that was ok, because we had a wonderful day! On our way over, we saw many boats going from island to island as well as fishing huts in the water!

Today we were going on a private excursion of Lombok. As soon as we got off of the boat, an Indonesian band welcomed us.

Outside the wall, there were hordes of young men selling their waves.

To my surprise our little bus was followed by these men on motorbikes because we showed an interest in what they were selling! I come to figure out that where ever you go there are hawkers selling you things so we had plenty of company.

Jane is full of knowledge and has given me the following information about Lombok! This island is part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Lombok is separated from Bali by Lombok Strait. Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world, numbering 240 million (only China and India number more). Lombok numbers 3.5 million which is quite a lot considering it is fairly small. The Dutch first visited the island in the late 1600's but settled mostly the eastern half, leaving the western half to be ruled by the dynastic Hindus from Bali. Cultural and religious tensions simmered until a revolt which occurred between 1891 and 1894 leading to the annexation of the entire island to the Netherland East Indies. Mount Rinjani is the islands most dramatic geological landmark, rising 12,224 feet, making it the third highest in Indonesia. There are 6 religions now with Muslim being the dominant one, followed by Hindu and Christianity. Bali's dominant religion is Hindu, the animism version and the sacred is woven into their daily life like water. We saw many Muslim temples but only one Hindu shrine in one field.

On our drive from temple to temple, we saw the many parts of the countryside, with rice paddies planted right up to the front door of homes, schools, and public buildings. Over 95 per cent of the Lombok population have their own home, but not everyone owns land which is vital for growing rice. Rice is the main crop, with two seasons and vegetables being planted in the third.

Over 95 per cent of the Lombok population have their own home, but not everyone owns land which is vital for growing rice. Rice is the main crop, with two seasons and vegetables being planted in the third.

We saw many people harvesting the rice crop by hand - threshing the rice sheafs by hand, unto sheets to dry for a few days before packaging it up, as well as many other interesting sights along the way!

We were then taken directly to Narmada park, where we saw the park that was built by Anak Anung in the Balinese kingdom. The park was built as a replica of Rinjani mountain and kingdom palace.

There was an olympic size pool opened to the public!

There were even people washing their clothes in the fresh water lake!

Then we continued to Lingsar Temple, which had a beautiful pond and gorgeous structures.

We saw women walking through the temple and there was a section of the temple where people made offerings and even stayed to cook food for the gods.

Another section of the temple, had a pond in the center where you made a wish for good luck!

At the markets, we bartered and bought some things as most things are beautiful and relatively inexpensive.

At the temple, there were the most darling children ranging in age from about 5 to 12, who wanted to sell us bracelets, coconuts, table runners and batiks.

Here there were women hand-weaving the traditional way. Handweaving is an obligation for the women and the girls in the village. They have to make hand woven textiles as they grow up and before they marry.

Lombok is not very clean there are open water ditches in Lembok, with sewage evident and children playing in the water, as well as garbage visible everywhere.

The educational opportunities are improving, with most wanting their children to become doctors. The Indonesian government is trying to encourage people to decrease their family size to 2 children from the average of 5 or 6 today.

If you work in the public sector you are not paid very highly, but your pension passes to your wife after your death, then to your eldest child till they turn 35, then to the next one. Only the first 2 children qualify. The poverty is so bad that it is driving hundreds of thousands of people to attempt to float their small boats to Australia hoping to claim political asylum. This problem was so bad that Australia was paying Indonesia to fix the problem.

There were tons of people just sitting on the sides of the street and tons of markets along the sides of the roads!

Alongside the road, were these baskets that housed chicken that were used for fighting.

Our next destination, was Mayura temple where we saw part of a park complex that was formerly a Royal Castle complex called Castle Carve Ckaranegara and Kawi. Mayura Park is what remains of the once existing Karang Asem kingdom of Bali.

In the middle of the large pond is a structure called Kambang Hall that was finished from the Mayura temple.

Everyone has to have a second and third income, which is usually a craft of some sort. The first crop, they keep 20 % and sell 80% and the second they keep 60% and sell the rest. If you don't own land you can obtain your rice by helping others harvest theirs and you would receive 10% of what you harvest for yourself. The annual income is less than $1000 from rice. Tourism is vitally important, with some of the most beautiful beaches attracting surfers and snorkeling and divers. The surfing is some of the best in the world. It is advertised as the unspoiled Bali - Thanks Jeff for the pictures!

Everywhere we drove there was something or someone that I wanted to photograph!

Look at all the stuff these women have on their motorcycles!

These little bottles are actually gas for motorcycles!

This island is very poor and we did notice that sprinkled here and there were signs of new larger homes, and new developments of little town homes. Over the years, things are improving gradually and the old native homes were gradually being torn down and being replaced. This is a culture where people live very close to one another as they really do depend on one another for their agrarian life.

A high percentage of our crew are from Indonesia - most of the dining staff and room stewards and many from Bali. Therefore there were a lot of crew getting off to meet family who had spent a day coming by ferry to see them, or else just to get off and to pick up the food items they love and miss after being onboard for many many months. The delay meant lots of them didn't get too much time with their family. Others were lucky enough to have made arrangements for their wives and children to come onboard the ship. Our dining room steward also got ashore and was smiling ear to ear about getting food and just getting off the ship. One of the Lido servers' entire family, except for his parents came to see him and he was really delighted.

When we were getting on the tender to get back on the ship, children were hanging out on the banks of the water begging for money and men were against the fence trying desperately to get you to buy their wares.