Lombok and Mount Rinjani (Indonesia)

The boat to Lombok from Gili Trawangan took a whopping 10 minutes.  I had prearranged for a pickup from the hotel, but had also received an email stating the driver would be indefinitely late, due to service at the mosque, “it’s Friday after all,” as he stated in the email, so was somewhat unsure of the exact pickup plan.  We found a building with a few chairs, set down our things, and waited around for about an hour until the driver showed.  It wasn’t that big of a deal, because there were food stalls and vendors around, so I was able to get a really good lunch of gado-gado, a traditional Indonesian veggies dish topped with peanut sauce and krupuk (prawn chips…I don’t know what they are called in the US) for $1!  Gotta love Indonesia.  The drive from the docks into Sengiggi was about 45 minutes of winding coastal road, where the driver honked as he approached every single turn, by the end making me a bit car sick with all the loud honking and jerking back and forth on the brakes, but we made it without incident.  The hotel was very nice, with a great pool.  The first thing we did was prepare to meet our travel guide who was arranging our next few days.  I had arranged for a four day, three night boat trip to Komodo Island.  Researching that had been a bit of a pain, because the good reviews were amazing in terms of the tourism experience and getting to see Komodo dragons; however, the bad reviews told horror stories of boats capsizing in the middle of the night, with no life boat, cramped, unhygienic sleeping situations, and overall safety hazards, so it was a bit tricky to decide one way or the other.  In the end, I had found a (hopefully) reputable company that assured safety, and from Ubud, booked and paid (which was also a bit worrying since there were stories in circulation about scams).  We crossed our fingers and hoped the travel guide would show, which he did not long after I arrived at the hotel.  Unfortunately, the news was not good.  He informed us that the trip had been canceled due to inclement weather, and he had spent all day running around Sengiggi talking with the other travelers from the trip.  I can only imagine what that must have been like; as backpackers, plans change daily and you really learn to adapt and make do, but for someone that maybe came to Lombok specifically for that one trip, it may have been more difficult to placate them.  We talked about different options, specifically using the money we had paid to instead do a hiking trip of Mount Rinjani, a bit north of Sengiggi.  I had actually been really keen to do the hike, but since our time was so limited, it didn’t look like I would be able to, until!!!!...plans changed.  So last minute, the travel guide was able to book us for an overnight hiking trek up to Mount Rinjani.  It is the second largest volcano in Indonesia, and still very active, last erupting in 2010.  After we were able to settle everything, we spent the rest of the evening trying to rearrange plans and set something up for after the trek.  Next was a nice dip in the pool, before being driven into town for dinner.  I think they misunderstood our intentions, which were to eat cheap street food, and instead dropped us off at a nice western style food restaurant.  We decided to just walk down the street a bit until we found something more suitable, aka cheaper.  We settled on a small roadside vendor and I ordered the duck, which was a hefty $2 and probably the spiciest thing I have ever eaten.  My face was dripping with sweat and I was teary up as I ever so slowly tried to swallow each bite.  In the end, I think I ended up uncharacteristically leaving a few bites on the plate, unable to finishing due to extreme pain, and we walked back to the hotel for bed.
We woke the next morning and lazily started arranging our things, and fixing up an overnight hiking bag.  We went to breakfast at a different roadside food stall just down the street from our hotel.  The food was nasi campur style, with the really amazing stewed beef.  I always found that if I ordered more than four things with my rice, I was just too full, but I couldn’t help it, that beef was so delicious!  We went back to the hotel, where I was able to Skype chat my best friend Mira, and find out that she was pregnant!!!  Yea Mira!!!  And will be naming the baby after meee!!!!!   …Right Mira!?!?!?  TBD.  Anyway, it’s always nice to reconnect, and we hadn’t spoken in ages.   Early afternoon, our ride came and picked us up, along with Kevin, a fellow traveler and all-around nice guy from Malaysia, followed by a two hour drive up the coast and then inland to Senaru, the town on the outskirt of Rinjani National Park.  We were dropped off at a small hotel, overlooking farming fields with the ocean in the distance to the west and the mountains to our right.  The view was expansive and really beautiful.  We unpacked our bags in our rooms and met a local who walked us through the fields to some of the waterfalls just outside of town.  The walk was pretty short and easy; the waterfalls weren’t amazing but they are always pretty to see, and we enjoyed the chance to get around a bit.  When we returned to the hotel, we all ate an early dinner, before prepping for bed, where I took one of the coldest showers I’ve ever taken.  The only other one I can currently think of was in the mountains of Guatemala in the early morning, when it was quite chilly outside and there was no hot water.  I know you’re probably thinking, Kathleen…it’s Indonesia.  Yes, I know; but it was a mountain town, and after the sun went down it was cool out.  Fine, I was MAYBE being a baby a LITTLE bit.  Anyway, getting under the covers after was a blessing.
A dark and early start the next day began at 3:30 in the morning.  We all woke up, got our tricked out hiking gear, and finalized our overnight bags.  The owner of the hotel served us hot coffee and a ramen and veggie soup for breakfast and we all got into a car for a quick ride over to the “entrance” to the park.  Later, I will come back to the reason why I used quotes for entrance.  Anyway, the hike started off easy, it was pitch black so we all had headlamps.  Well, everyone else had headlamps, but I had received a flashlight for Christmas in Australia (it was my Silly Secret Santa gift), and couldn’t justify having two sets of lights, so I just used that.  Anyway, up the mountain we went.  The first few hours were gradual, with minimal exertion.  The sun finally started to peep its rays through the canopy and we stopped after a few hours in for another breakfast, prepared by our Sherpas.  I can never get over having a Sherpa, it’s such an odd concept to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I MUCH prefer hot prepared food to MRE’s and tuna, but I still feel bad for the Sherpas.  Anyway, the breakfast was good and filling, and we continued up the mountain.  For the most part, the climb was not terrible, occasionally I would be a bit winded, but we rarely actually to stop to rest at all, just maintained a nice steady pace.  Midafternoon, we stopped again for lunch, just as a bit of fog and rain started to set in.  We were only a few hours from the rim of the crater overlooking a large lake, which was to be our final ascent.  There is a higher peak on the volcano, but weather at that time of year, did not allow people to continue to that height.  We sat and ate our lunch of rice with vegetables, soup and chicken, while we waited out the fog and rain.  A bit into eating, we started to notice long tailed grey macaque monkeys encroaching in on us, slowly, cautiously, smelling out our food. 

The guides told us not to throw food at them or they might get too close; occasionally, they would throw a rock toward one to prevent it from getting too comfortable and trying to steal our food.  Luckily there were no monkey attacks that day, but unfortunately the rain never really let up.  Instead of continuing to the crater rim, our guide decided we would set up camp there, and just wake up a few hours earlier the next day to start the climb.  None of us minded, and after waking up at 3:30am, falling asleep just as the sun went down was no problem.
Another 3:30am alarm that day, we prepped to hike again, and climbed out of our tents for a bit of coffee before climbing; never a bad idea.  Again, we climbed in pitch black up a path that seemed to meander right and left following the route of mud and lava in its descent.  That part of the trip was much steeper, we were above the tree line, and had to stop more often to catch our breath.  The deep black slowly turned to deep blue and a fine line of lighter blue could be seen in the distance as we kept climbing, trying to race against the sun to reach the crater rim in time to see the sun rise.  As we rose, so did the sun, until I could finally see the rim, and an ominous cloud wrapping around the side of the volcano, making its way toward us.  We were each in a bit of panic, afraid that we might not make it to the top in time, and if we did that our view of the sunrise might be obstructed by the fog.  Finally we reached the top at 2,700 meters, and looked down into the crater at the blue Segara Anak Lake, (Child of the Sea) and all around.  The view was still very dark, too dark for photos, but the fog seemed to be thinning around us!  As the sun rose, we were able to see all the changes in the sky and how they affected the colors in the volcano.  We started to better make out Segara Anak Lake, and the small mountain formed inside of the crater, Gunung Baru (New Mountain).  As you may imagine (and can actually just look at the photos as well), the view was amazing.  We took a pretty massive amount of photos, trying to take advantage of the changing colors.  When the sun was up and we could pull ourselves away from the view into the volcano crater, we looked around at the ocean surrounding the island of Lombok, all three of the Gili islands, including Trawangan, and Bali way out in the distance!  After about an hour and a half, our guide brought us back down to the camp site.  With that small descent, well maybe a bit over an hour, my body was already aching.  I feel like going down is always more difficult for me than going up.  We rested at the campsite while breakfast was prepared, and settled in to eat a good meal before descending the rest of the way.  The way down was quick, though the guide started talking on his phone the ENTIRE TIME to his “girlfriend”, whom he had been talking to pretty much every minute since the night before…can anyone else say “mistress”?  Anyway, everyone was a bit annoyed, so I sort of separated myself and walked up ahead closer to the porters.  We made one more stop for lunch before finishing up.  Now, let me jump back just a bit to why I used quotes for “entrance” earlier.  When I initially looked into Mount Rinjani, I read that the whole park was closed that time of year, due to weather conditions.  But, when I asked the Komodo dragon tour agent about hiking the park, he said it was no problem and we could definitely hike it.  He wouldn’t lie to me just to make a little extra money…right!?!?  Anyway, everything seemed fine.  We didn’t question the absurdly early departure time, because hikes often start when it’s still dark out.  Just before leaving to start the trek, I remembered hearing someone use the phrase “steal camping”, but didn’t know what it meant.  Though we did develop a sneaky suspicion that maybe the park was in fact closed, and we had not used the official entrance into the park.  Fast forward to our exit, everything was going normally, when we sharply strayed from the designated path, and started walking through people’s backyards.  Suddenly, at the very end, our guide yelled out “RUN!!”, and we all followed his lead, breaking through the forest, and sprinted toward a car waiting on the side of the road.  We threw everything in on top of ourselves and piled in the car to speed off toward our hotel.  It was then confirmed.  Yes, we had snuck into a national park and a UNESCO geopark, camped overnight, and made a clean getaway like bandits!  Forever now dubbed as “steal camping”.  We made the short drive back to the hotel where our bags were being stored.  We enjoyed a quick lunch and packed up the car to drive back to Sengiggi.  I was pretty pooped, so attempted to each get a little nap in, but with the curvaceous road and constant honking, sleeping was impossible.  We arrived back to the hotel in Sengiggi and arranged to spend one extra night there.  Our plans were so up in the air prior to leaving for our hike that we hadn’t prearranged anything.  Luckily they had availability, so we were able to relax.  I had to do a bit more planning for our next step, but unfortunately I couldn’t buy any airplane tickets online within 24 hours of departure, so gave up and decided that showing up to the airport to purchase a ticket could work.  Dinner was back at the nasi campur place down the street; stewed beeffff!!!!  I ended the night with a little pool time, before packing and heading to sleep.
The next morning wasn’t rushed, because the flight wasn’t until early afternoon, but I still wanted to get there early just in case, so after finalizing packing and eating breakfast at the hotel, we took the hotel’s transport to the airport and crossed fingers that there were seats.  We lucked out, and the flight still had space, so we were able to buy tickets to our next Indonesian island, Sulawesi!