Lombok like Bali? The “Balification” process

Not all was nice and lovely in Lombok unfortunately.

I have to say that I've found Senggigi quite changed already, in less than a year time. The name I came up with for the change is Balification: things here are starting to get too similar to Bali.

First of all sellers on the beach and on the roads are getting pushier and pushier; the beach was already off limit to tourists because of that (many prefer to spend time in the well protected swimming pools); it's impossible to walk or have a meal anywhere or without having sellers all over you. As a consequence many restaurants and hotels have signs asking customers not to talk or invite sellers in; some posh hotels even have barriers and anti-sellers security men.

Of course this is a vicious circle, as sellers of course need to make some money to eat, and will be even more aggressive in places where they are allowed, but at the same time this doesn't sure help visitors having a relaxed stay.


Consider also that almost every shop owner tends to take advantage of the fact that you're a visitor and not familiar with local prices. The price of a bottle of water at the same shop depends for example on whether you'll be served by the owner or his wife. In many occasions while paying in shops I had to wait and make clear that I wanted my change back. They looked almost surprised, a “visitor” that knows how much something costs! Of course I don't mind leaving the change or a tip, but I want it to be my choice and not being considered a dumb tourist.


Another effect of the Balification process is more “bad” tourist coming over. Many of them are sexual tourist, and the consequence is more and more prostitution. While before sex workers were hanging around in few clubs and discos now you even see them down the road at night. Not a pretty sight.

To add to my frustration for the Balification process internet connection (which was quite decent in February and March) was rarely available, and I've found even the service in many places that I liked much worse.

I thought a lot about all these changes. Is it possible that Senggigi got so much worse in less than 10 months? Is it possible that when I came here the first time I was so excited about my trip beginning, seeing new places and cultures, and coming from a stressful environment didn't mind or even notice all these things? But then just one month ago I was in Langkawi, where like in Lombok the pace of life is very slow, and there's the same lack of Western facilities like decent internet connection, footpaths, cash registers that allow to have your bill in less than 20 minutes.

Still i loved there, while now I don't know if I would recommend Senggigi as a tourist destination to my friends now.

Unless of course you go there for Kampung Loco. That was what really made the trip. Not only my friends, but everyone in the village really considered me one of them, was super nice and polite. Going there you see the real life in Lombok, you forget the pains of tourist life in Senggigi and most important you learn to really appreciate the people and their culture there.

Feel free to contact Lombok Travel Info if you ever wish to visit or stay in the village. My friends there will be more than happy to help you and show you around.

Back to Lombok, Kampung Loco

Coming back to Lombok is like coming back home. The lads from the village, Kampung Loco, were at the airport waiting for me with three scooters: one to carry me, one for my backpack and one.. just for fun. From the Mataram airport to Senggigi I felt like an escorted ambassador in that line of scooters.

I came back to Lombok for various reasons.


First of all to see my friends and “extended family”. To live again the kampung life, and see how my friends are getting on.

Secondly I knew Joep and Marijke, the founders of Proyek Kampung Loco would be here at this time, so I wanted to meet them after hearing so much about them, discuss with them what else can be done for the village, and see if my familiarity with Internet applications could make life easier for the project.

Thirdly I came to here to close the circle. Lombok was my first destination on this trip around the world, and as I feel it's almost time to go back to old EU I wanted to come back to this island to close the circle, get some conclusions and move on (not simply move back) to my European life.

Already on the second day my friend Baong took me on a hike up the mountains. It was supposed to be from the top of the mountain, the Monkey Forest, all the way down to the village. Somehow it looked to me like the path (when there was one) was always uphill though.


Very tough hike (don't even want to know how many kms were involved, or how Baong can do it all barefoot) but stunning views of the mountains, the little villages, huts and Hindu temples up there, and the odd person coming down with wood or bananas to sell at the market.


But apart from that hike I didn't do any touristic activity. I've seen most of the places of interest in Lombok in my previous visits, plus this time I didn't come to do sightseeing but to see and spent time with my friends. An so I did. Hours and hours chatting and messing in the bruga with the folks, drinking coffee, eating fried bananas, and other unpronounceable but delicious snacks.


And of course there was Bemo shopping. With Marijke and Joep, the founders of the Kampung Loco Proyek, and the lads from the village we went around investigating prices for a bemo (minivan) to bring the kids to school, licenses involved etc. But more on this soon...

Read the Previous Lombok stories...

Blog Action Day, Poverty: Project Kampung Loco

Today 15th of October is Blog Action Day. Every year on Blog Action Day thousands of bloggers will write a post to raise awareness and try to help on a certain social topic. This year that topic is poverty.


All posts are in theme with the blog; quoting Blog Action Day guidelines: A Tech Blog might look at pro-poor technologies and projects like 1 Laptop Per Child, or A Personal Blog might document a personal activity of the blogger that is helping the disadvantaged.

I'd like to take this occasion to remind old readers of McSilly's Adventures, and to inform new ones, of a project that helps the people in Kampung Loco, a little village in the island of Lombok, Indonesia, just beside the famous and expensive Bali.

The Project Kampung Loco helps improving the development of the children and the people of the village. It is not an official charity; instead the two founders deliver all funds collected to few trusted people in the village, and make sure the money is properly used and documented. People find it reassuring to donate to someone they know and see how their money has been used rather than donating to a big official charity and then not knowing if how and when the money reached the people that needed it.

There are 4 main projects: Sending kids to School, Providing Medicines, Emergencies like hospitalization, and transportation to schools by Bemo, a little mini-van.


I was in Lombok and by pure coincidence I ended up in Kampung Loco. Immediately I became friends with the folks in the village, and got to know about the Project simply seeing things like a water tank and a laptop for children to study; both provided by the Project. Getting to know the situation a bit more I was almost enraged at how what many people consider a very small amount of money can make a huge difference for the people in the village. You can read all the information on the official website, but just to give you an idea: 25 Euros will send a kid to elementary school for one year!!


I would like to take the Blog Action Day chance to thank again all the people that I reached in my previous posts and in my little Kampung Loco Page (available in Italian as well) and that donated generously. The main goal of buying a Bemo, a little mini-van that will dramatically reduce the costs to send kids to school is almost reached.

And I hope old and new readers will consider donating some amount (nothing is too little) through the Project Bank Account, or simply by Paypal or credit card clicking the button below.

In a week time I will be back in Lombok and I will update you again, hopefully showing pictures of the happy Kampung Loco children waving thanks to you.

Lombok kids to school update

As I am traveling around the world the collection to send Kampung Loco kids to school still goes on, thanks to my friends and "official collectors" Antonio (IT) & Pascalle (IRL).

In Italy the collection just ended, and we were able to collect the (pleasantly surprising, I admit) sum of 900 Euros. The dream of buying a Bemo that will cut drastically all costs for kids transportation to school is getting closer.

In Dublin because of various conferences, ski trips, etc. we're a bit behind, but we all know how busy those office workers are:) As school start is getting closer in Lombok it's time to wrap up the collection in Dublin and in other locations. Final date to collect all funds is Friday 6th June.

If you're in Dub reading this blog you probably work for the big G. For you Pascalle is the contact point. If you're somewhere else in the world please find bank transfer details here:

Account name: Joep Valize
Notification: “Andreas Friends”
IBAN: NL72 RABO 0153 82 7955
BIC CODE: RABONL2U

I'm quite confident we'll be able to collect a decent amount of money; best case we get the bemo and get the village transportation-independent. Worse case scenario all kids will be able to go to school this year, but then again, what about next year?

Thank you kindly to all who donated already and to all the others wishing to do so. Looking forward to update you all on how your contribution is being used.

Return to Lombok

Having had enough of Bali I decided to head back to Lombok. I don't really understand why Bali is so famous and Lombok so unknown. From Lombok you can see Bali (mount Agung at sunset), but from Bali you cannot see Lombok. I believe this is a good metaphor: Lombok has everything that Bali has, and more. You have lovely beaches, tropical climate, fantastic culture, but without the traffic, noise and hassle of the super-touristic Bali. Beaches are suppose to be even better, and from a culture point of view while Bali has only Hindus, in Lombok you can get to know Hindu AND Muslim cultures.

Senggigi is a small place (sometimes too small), so 30 mins after my arrival everybody knew I was back. You know the way, the hotel guy at reception tells the barman, the barman goes to but cigarettes and tells the supermarket guy, etc. Time to check-in, have a quick shower and get to my usual restaurant to grab some food, and here comes my friend Sahur.

This time I didn't come back to Lombok to go on more tours, explore the island and generally speaking to be a tourist. This time the plan was just to chill out, spend time with my friends in the village, and get more info about the project to help the kids here. Like going back home. And so I did. My friends took me with them to various events that are part of their life this time of the year. First one was the party for the birthday of the prophet Mohammad. Not many tourist there as you can imagine. Every village celebrates it on a different day for a total of a couple of weeks, so people can go from one place to another, enjoying concerts (in Sasak language mainly) and seasonal food prepared jst for the occasion. The gentlemen in the pic are actually cooking a Panggang, a cake made of rice, palm oil, sugar cane and some other ingredients, stirred for hours in that pot heated from a fire in a hole in the ground.

From a Muslim celebration to an Hindu one. So the next stop few days later was cock fighting (expect comments from my veggie friends here) and Bola Adil. Bola Adil is a kind of Hindu simplified version of a roulette. You roll your money like a cigarette and you throw it on your favorite symbol, like yellow ball, red square, or green mountain. Then an odd shaped ball will be rolled on a table with all symbols and depending on where it stops... 10 to 1 paid for the right symbol, less if you put your money on combinations.
On the second day I happen to win quite a lot there (beginner's luck?), so with the money I won we went to the market, got 5 huge fishes, 6 durians and had a big party, grilling the fish and having more than 15 people eating in total!
How much did I win? Less than 15 euros!!

So keep that in mind: if you want to donate only a few euros to send the Kampung kids to school it still can make a huge difference!

The following days were exciting ones for the village, Kampung Loco. Having grown to a high enough number of residents, the village was electing for the first time a Kampung kepala, a head of village. This will give the village more power and independence from the city to which it was previously belonging. For me it was fun playing half the official photo-reporter, half an independent international observer:)

On the less cultural side, the remaining days gave me the occasion to flirt around a bit and exercises my bad influence on the lads. I will refrain from going into details, but let's just say that gin and tonic is now extremely popular there, and is now available in many bars where before my arrival they didn't serve it. One of them is Berry's Cafe, with staff at TGIM below.

Bali Spirit Festival & Paddy's Day re-tox in Sanur

Detoxing in Ubud...

My doubts about the Yoga Festival were founded. I tried. I went with the best intentions: let's try something different, let's be healthy for a few days, detox a bit, discover something new.

But no, I wasn't converted. The vegetarian life is not really for me. Herbal drinks replacing coffee, salads replacing meat, basically (too) healthy stuff replacing the good, sinful pleasures of life.

Did you know that even dairy can be unhealthy? Worse than wheat they say :) Cooking food? Not good either. Vegetables served were “cooked” at no more than 58 C.

But there were also some good things. Mojitos were served at night, and i enjoyed a few glasses... and a few classes too! Here's a quick summary.

The Belly Dancing class class was indeed pleasant to look at; of course I didn't ruin it by trying it myself - that could be a niche huh? Male Belly dancing.. The Sufi Chanting one was.. well let's just say I was glad I was just observing.. I took a session of West African dance instead; lots of fun but very intense on the physical side: lactic acid made my legs sore for the next 4 days!



The session I enjoyed the most has to be Laughter Yoga. Not difficult to guess that laughing it's good for your health, but the founder, Madan Kataria, which was the one giving the class, proved it from a medical point of view. For example when we breath there's a good part of stagnant air that we don't exhale, and one the goals of yoga is of course correct breathing and exhaling all air. We do that though when we laugh. So Laughter Yoga it's a less boring way than traditional yoga to exhale all air and be nice to your body and mind. So what do you do? Sit around and just laugh? Yes, exactly! The idea is “fake it until you make it”, after all for your body fake or real laughter doesn't make any physical difference anyway. And after a while of course some “real” laughing inevitably arrives. Did I made you curious? Check out more at the Laughter Yoga website!


If you're looking for info on the Bali Spirit Festival it's all on their official website, don't let my unhealthy review get in the way :)

Some related posts:

Ubud, Bali and Nyepi

Authentic Happiness

Lombok, Bali's little sister island

And now let's move to the real unhealthy part..

Retoxing in Sanur

Although the first day of the festival was good fun I thought that for the second day - which happened to be my birthday - I deserved something more in my style, so i treated myself to an hour of Balinese massage, Indian food (to which I am lately simply addicted) and a bottle of Hatten white wine.

Paddy's day was approaching, and of course a Yoga festival is not the best place to celebrate the patron Saint of Ireland. So i decided to move south of Bali, to Sanur, which is supposed to have a good nightlife; a good place for some re-tox, I thought, after all the exercise and the vegetables I got at the Spirit Festival. Kuta Bali is supposed to be the worse place for touts; well I haven't been there, but Sanur was definitely touts paradise. Impossible to go on the main street without receiving literally hundreds of offers. Taxis and bemos will start beeping at you from hundreds meters before approaching you, then slowing down, following you for few meters, and the hardcore ones will even stop to offer you “transport”. I made an experiment and counted how many offers I received in a minute walking around.. well between people on the street, taxis and bemos I got 20 !

Good news though.. there's an Irish pub. Normally I wouldn't care too much, but hey, it's Paddy's Day. So Cat & Fiddle pub it is, with Indonesian band playing away all Irish classics. Amazing to hear "Whiskey in the jar" played by a fiddler from Papua and with tropical percussion on top..

Help Sending Kids to School

As many of you asked me how to help to send the kids in Kampung Loco, Lombok, here's a little page I created to get things organized a bit.

http://lombok.kids.googlepages.com/home

Even few Euros can make a huge difference. Thanks a lot.

Ubud, Bali and Nyepi

Bali? What? (I hear you say)? You said you were NOT going to go to Bali as it's too touristic and busy, and doesn't fit with your overall traveling plan.. well you're right, but you know how I've never been a big planner, and I liked the idea of a first, unplanned, stop.

The reason why I'm here is a Yoga, Dance and Music festival. I saw an ad on a local paper and i thought: wouldn't that be a nice birthday present for me? There are some risks involved in a Yoga festival, like being surrounded by superhealthy American people who talk only of energy and flow, or even worse vegetarians! :) But I decided to take the risk and check it out. Will not go to any retreat, but only to the open sessions, so if it's too healthy I can always runaway to retox somewhere else.

The festival is held in conjunction with Nyepi, so let me tell you a bit more about Nyepi, or the balinese new year. For a whole day it is forbidden to do anything. No work, no going out in the streets, no electricity, no fires, no noises. You just stay in and do nothing, or rather think, meditate. Isn't it the idler paradise? The rules apply to tourists as well, so that you just stay in your hotel (that wont usually charge you for that day) and do nothing. The Airport is closed, but many tourists just run away in the previous days. They run away as there's nothing to do, while I came on purpose for it.

The day before Nyepi instead you have to make as much noise as possible, so there are firecrackers (it's new year's eve after all), a lot of pot banging and parades with the giant monsters (Ogoh Ogoh) you see here.



The Ogoh Ogoh are then burnt. The reason behind all this is an exorcism of evil spirits: you let them run free (parade), then you scare them away (burn the Ogoh Ogoh, make a lot of noise) and then at Nyepi you don't make any sound so the evil spirits will think there's no one on the island.

With the right state of mind you can really enjoy a day of doing absolutely nothing. I enjoyed indeed, thanks also to my books and my personal touch, a bottle of Balinese wine to gently sip through the day.

Read more about Differences between Bali and Lombok

Leaving Lombok

So after coming back to Senggigi, I spent basically most of my time between a couple more of excursions, hitting few bars at night, the hotel swimming pool (learning to swim or something close to it) and the kampung, the village where my friends live. Here (thanks to my muse Pascalle) I learned more about their culture, the way the live, the project in place to help them. The concept of family is extended here to your neighbors as well; spending most of the time outdoor you live together with your neighbors, spend hours with them, more than you would do with other relatives or friends living elsewhere.Of course you share everything you have, which often is not much. The project has helped these guys in many ways: bringing a big tank of drinkable water (no need to go to wells or go up and down from the mountains); making medicines and money to visit the doctor available; allowing as many kids as possible to go to school (yes, not everybody goes even to elementary school if you can't afford it). You'll be surprised how the amount of money that for us really means not much (the money you spend on an average night out in town for example) can really make a huge difference here, like sending a kid to school for whole year, or allowing someone who is really sick to get to the hospital in the main city. But you'll here soon about how we can help in this blog, just give me time to organize a couple of logistic things. For the moment, after taking a picture of Sahur's beautiful family it's time for me to go back to Singapore, but with the promise that I'll be back in a month or so, with more ideas and means hopefully to help this village.

Gili Trawangan

Spent 4 days there. The biggest of 3 tiny coral island just off (40 mins by boat) Lombok. If you're in Bali or Lombok you simply must go there. There are no cars, motorbikes and dogs on the island, just bikes, cidomos (horse carts), white sandy beaches, and cats.

Gili Trawangan is also known as:
- Backpackers paradise (even if now all kind of tourists go there);
- Tra La Lan (instead of Trawangan) because of the laid back atmosphere;
- The party island (every night party in one of the bars, just follow the music, after all you can walk the whole island in 3 hours, and only a third of it has bars & hotels);
- The smallest island on Earth with an Irish bar on it (Tir na nog)
I would also add my own definitions:
- The island with the only Irish bar where on a high tide night you have the waves caressing your feet while you sip your G'n'T
- The island with the toughest mosquitoes (not only they bite in plain daylight, they bite you in places like the sole of your foot! Mosquito repellent for them is just a bit “spicy”.. a good few mosquitoes actually got used to the taste and they love it now!)
So in a few words.. a “touristic tropical paradise”.. but.. there's a word too much there.. and it's “touristic”.. in fact in 4 days there I only spoke English, got to know only a couple of local folks, and overall felt like in a resort.
True also I was missing my new family in Lombok too much.. so, nice experience, gorgeous landscapes and sea (I cant swim so missed snorkeling, diving, turtles, coral,etc) but after all.. if i want to spend all my time talking English with Europeans or Americans i would have gone to Europe or America thanks very much..Lombok and “my village” here i come back to you...

More Lombok stories..

New Sensations in the Island

So after 3 weeks on this island it's nice to look back and think of the new things I've done, the new sensations I've discovered or re-discovered.
Freedom of movement
Forget socks, shoes, long sleeves, and while you're there, throw away your watch too. Your body moves in a different way without layers of clothes, or at least that's the feeling. Only downside is you might be tempted to do more physical activities, like exercise, go for a jog, things like that. But so far apart from few exceptions I've been able to keep the focus. Being barefoot most of the time also means you actually feel the ground you're standing on.
Shower under the stars

The balinese-style bathroom I had in the hotel in Kuta was a little world on its own. Main carachteristic is being on open air. Discovered the pleasure of a shower under the tropical rain, or even better, a shower under the stairs. An open air bathroom makes you realise: it's never going to be cold here!
Sounds
The sea is constantly around me. The sound of the waves never leaves me. From having lunch to sleeping, from having a beer to cheking my mails, the sound is always there. It will be strange when leaving this place not to have that constant soundtrack around. On top of the waves my lullaby when in bed at night consists of frogs, geckos (did you know they make such a loud noise? I thought it was some giant night bird! Also i think they're called geckos because they go: geeeeee koo!), water from the pond, crickets and other unidentified flying insects (UFIs).
Food and drinks
Yes, if the snapper or the crab was alive when you ordered it, it definitely tastes better. I saw a boat called Catch a Snapper, while a restaurant is called Wrap a Snapper. My diet consists 80% squid though, I just love it. Bananas fried in coconut oil? Yes, please. Lombok in Sasak language means chilli, so I'm making sure to have lots of lombok while in Lombok (like having a Kilkenny in Kilkenny?). To drink, rice wine, or even better palm wine. In a tall glass put ice, squeeze a couple of wedges of lime, add a couple of spoons of honey, then add the palm wine and stir. Dash of tonic water optional. The also have a cocktail called Malaria Killer, I rely on my pills for that though.
Arachnophobia
Spiders and various insects are very tough, and have quite a personality. Normally you can blow an ant away, but here ants hang on to you, used as they are to tropical winds. A lizard or any other reptile will normally run away if you make some noise, like stomping your feet. Here they look back at you as to say: got a problem? The spider in my room deserves its own poem, so here it is:
The spider in my room is so big and tough...
..I've thrown a sleeper at him, he threw it back!
..I offered him a cigarette.. he accepted!
..He wears sunglasses even at night!
..He uses the leftovers from my dinner as a starter!
..He saw himself at the mirror and got a fright!
..He wakes me up at night when crawling around bumps into things!

..He crawled more than the Google spider (or so he says)!
..He came to the hotel on his scooter!
..He flies around with a bubble from the gum he's chewing!
..When he's in I sleep at my friend's place!
..I only saw half of the sunset!
..I wrote this poem for him!!!The one in the pic it's not actually him, but will give you an idea nonetheless. Of course I'm exaggerating, it's not that bad here with insectsssaaaahh.. ahhh.. heeeelp.. ahhh...fhdfgjhgkfjgjdff gfdgjdfksghfds dsfgdfglfsdgdfgsfds

More Lombok stories...

Kuta Beach: Reflections on Time and Coffee

After few excursions around Lombok (Hindu temples, traditional weaving villages, etc) I decided to go spend some days down in the south of the island, in Kuta. Not to be confused with the Kuta in Bali, this is an enchanting little village with white sands, spectacular rocks in the sea, and few cows to avoid on the main road. Like in the Kuta in Bali people come here to maily to surf. This also means that nightlife is limited to dinner and couple of drinks before everything closes down, at around 10.30pm. Even if you wanted to stay up electricity goes off so often that your only chance is watching a movie on your ipod. So the chillout is so extreme that becomes almost forced.

If that's something possible they're even more chilled out here than in Senggigi. Time goes incredibly slowly; I think that's why everyone looks on average 15 years younger than their real age. In one day people here do what we would concentrate in probably 3 days. Time doesn't fly away between your hands; you never wonder: where's the day gone? I went from a 10 minutes lunch break to a 4 hours one. Then a little rest and coffee. Coffee is not taken to improve your productivity, and it is not taken in cars, trains, business meetings, or while walking to work. It is taken for the pleasure of it (and to kill the sleepiness from the beers you had with your lunch). It requires as a consequence a full hour at least and a few ciggies to go with it. You see? Lunch and coffee can take up to 5 hours with a good book. 5 hours to do something that we do in .. how long?

Welcome to Kuta then, chillax and surf capital. And what a non-swimmer like me is supposed to do? Put the feet up, join few more idlers at the only bar with beer today - they say the beer supply supposed to arrive here stopped in the commercial Bali, where they paid more for it (bastards) so these guys went to the main city 70kms away to get some – and join the locals in their favorite past-time: counting the number of scooters passing by (17 in a couple of hours so far)!

Part of the community

After a week here my Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) is getting better. Yesterday I moved on from common greetings to ordering meal and drinks in the local lingo. Everybody really appreciates your efforts, and will try to teach you a few more hundred words. Meanwhile I got closer to the folks in Sahur's village. Went for dinner to his place a couple of time, went to the Monkey Forest, where i received my first marriage proposal from an eighteen years old girl (Tida Apa Apa, commented Sahur, No Problem, they get married even at 16 here!) and as a good ex-googler I helped the village folks with some computer problems. There's a Dutch project involved in improving life conditions in the village. They helped with getting water to the village, getting kids to school and they also provided a common laptop so that all kids can practice after school. The thing is, it's quite an old laptop, and for some reason the cursor every now and then starts drifting around like crazy and goes hiding in the nearest corner, making it impossible to do any work. Well two months without Google are not enough to get the geek out of me, so after a few hours on the internet i was able to fix the problem. If you have an Inspiron 8000something with the same problem here's the fix.
I really have to stop talking like a nerd, so lets move on and say that fixing the laptop really allowed me to get closer to the community. Going up to the village after a day on the beach is like going home, with everybody saying hello, all kids approaching (for those of you that are fans of Bud Spencer is like when Banana Joe comes back to the village almost!) and hours spent outside in the brugah eating bananas (fresh or fried) and drinking coffee (which is actually cultivated here on the island). Oh and for the femail readers of this blog, I politely declined the girl's marriage offer.

More Lombok stories...

Fresh Coconut anyone?

In Lombok, Indonesia, here's how fresh coconut works..

Read the story and buy some Fresh Young Coconuts (Set of 3)

Today went with Sahur and some other Dutch tourists to an excursion up in the mountains near Senggigi. After a good hour of trekking (often with no path at all, Sahur meanwhile guiding and happily proceeding barefoot in what I wouldnt describe as the easiest ground) we arrived to a tiny isolated village. Like everyone here in the island the folks there were very friendly and welcoming, they insisted on us taking picture of them and they offered us fresh coconut. So here's the chance for me to pass on the perfect recipe for fresh coconut, all in 3 easy steps. For those of you who need a closer guidance videos are included.

Step 1
Climb up the coconut tree.

Step 2
From the top of the tree select the best coconuts and throw them down to the ground. No worries, they wont break.

Step 3
Easy huh? Here's the difficult step. With your inseparable machete cut the top part of the coconut, but you have to make sure to cut only enough to let a small hole appear. That will allow you to drink the nectar contained inside. A deeper cut will and the coconut is wasted! Make sure you dont throw away (or rather dont let chickens steal) the parts of the coconut you just cut off. Once finished drinking you'll cut the nut in half and can use the left bits to cut out a spoon to scrape the soft white edible part.

Et Voila'! Fresh Young Coconut is served!!


Interested in Coconut Lover's Cookbook?

Around the Island with new Friends

All things happen for a reason. Although I wouldnt recommend the first place where I was staying, it's there that I got the chance to meet and become friend with Sahur, a sweetheart guy that works there. He brings me around in his scooter, gives me tips on where to go eating or exploring, and promised to bring me in some special places up in the mountains. I went for coffee in his place and really discovered a tiny little village just mins away from the main road of Senggigi, the main touristic city where I'm staying at the moment.

What you see here is "downtown" Senggigi, while below you can see Sahur relaxing in the brugah in front of his house/shop.


Finally a typical view from the main road towards the beach.. How do you see a DiTonto Pirates Bar there?

Arrival in Lombok

Well first of all as there were no seats available i managed to book this flight in business class for the same price. Being the only one in biz class I was very well looked after, with hostesses rifilling my wine glasses Irish-style (that is everytime the level was just about half the glass) from before take off to landing. This meant that I had constantly a Mr. Bean face on, and arrived in Lombok in spectacular mood. After the first confusion with the currency (thought i paid the taxi 28 euros for 20 mins ride, while actually it was 2.89 euro!) and the first impression of the island (I used to tell my mother thaat I was going in the middle of a jungle to scare her a bit, but I wasn't too far) I checked in this B'n'B, or Homestay as they called them here.
The city boy had some issues here, as even if I tought I was on my own.. well let's say I was indeed sharing with various elements of the local fauna. Now that I've been here a few days I realise I was being a bit fussy (I've changed accomodation meawhile though), and when opening a shower curtains some spider or small insect come up I consider myself lucky (big guys coming out from the Homestay shower) and think: the more the marrier! Pics are my room in the Homestay and the view from my ruma (veranda).