Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Looking at the guide book for a place in the interior of Lombok gave only three choices.
Tete Batu which had transport by Perama, several places to stay, and, promised walks and water falls, a little too similar to Munduk we thought.
Sapit with only one homestay said to offer magnificent views
Sembalun Lawang in the national park but essentially a take off point for a three to five day treks to climb Gunung Ranjani 3726m, which we might have followed ten years ago.
So we set out by taxi to Sapit, by stopping at two craft villages recommended by Huberto of the museum.
First stop then was Loyok where we visited a home where husband and wife were already at work baskets from strips of bamboo into rice steamers, and using much thicker bamboo after stripping to make the handles. The steamers were so obviously not suitable for carrying so our eyes alighted on small plates which were made by similar techniques but using much sturdier coconut leaf and of flatter and stackable design. The man anticipating our interest started to make such a plate to demonstrate the technique. At Sapit they served our breakfasts on just these sort of plates covered in a green banana leaf. They asked 1$ per plate we came away with four and left a further dollar tip.
Next stop was close by at Pringgasela a textile weaving village, here Alain immediately took us on a very interesting tour of the town and used reasonable English to give detailed explanations, we stopped at a house where three women were weaving and we had a prolonged look at the techniques they were using, two were weaving and the third engaged in the layout for the next loom using a battery of six colours.I gave each of the women a small tip 0.2$ and they were absolutely delighted. Alain finally took us to his house to show us a selection of perhaps just eight strips of cloth each essentially 1 m (loom width) by 4.5m long woven by his sister. Although far less typical of the bright colours associated with Indonesia we opted for an elegant piece in royal blue and white, he said the blue was a natural dye from Indigo but that the white was chemical. We waited whilst they cut it in half and joined the two pieces to make a more square cloth. The pattern, Songket, is normally added by embroidery but in this case was actually done on the loom. We paid 45$ and left a tip of 5$ with Alain. No doubt as mass tourism hits Lombok which seems inevitable, given the quality of the beaches which far outshine those of Bali, the experience of visiting this type of craft village will be changed utterly by the daily round of tour parties. No doubt Alain and several others who speak English will do well but we do wonder about the women with the unique skills.
After a journey of around 6 hours the taxi arrived at Hati Suci the only homestead in Sapit, the clock showed only 28$, he initially asked for the 60$ suggested to him by Huberto, and to us as a maximum but we settled very amicably for 40$. Inspection of the rooms was a bit of a shock not helped that at the time there was an electricity failure. The double bed we were shown was about 4ft as opposed to the 5 to 6 beds we had grown used to, the bathroom consisted of a squat toilet and a barrel of water and plastic saucepan to flush it, the walls were of thinly woven bamboo and the masonry walls round the toilet had never been painted, though the floors were tiled. As usual I was concerned about mosquitoes, but were a figment of the imagination as usual in the dry season.We opted for a room with narrow twin beds but the drapes weren't inspiring, there was however a fine view from the veranda and many lovely flowers in the garden. To judge by the highly professional production of much of their advertising material it had initially had much better times.
We resolved to stay only one night but in fact stayed two, accompanied only by an English teacher from Japan, who told us he liked the place and had visited regularly. His main interest here was the stars of the southern hemisphere, viewed from his veranda and from the mosque on top of the hill in the village. He was obviously a loner but was very interesting to talk to and was particularly knowledgeable about European opera and the annual world opera singing contest in Cardiff. He travelled by local buses, bemo, motorcycle taxi and donkey cart, ie using local transport as we had previously done, but is almost unused in today's Bali/Lombok by backpackers because it is too difficult and necessitates a knowledge of Indonesian at least..
One feature which had been off putting at first had been the presence of a deaf mute, something we did not recognise immediately, but on the second night the son number three Tashi appeared and the earlier establishment started to make sense. His English was excellent and he was obviously prepared to lead treks to Rinjani, but no longer had the clientele, he was a teacher at the mosque, a man of most liberal tolerant views, and his wife was the local midwife who lived at her place of work. His ambition now was to set up a clinic and playgroup for orphan children, he had already purchased the land.
Tashi on the left of the leaving photo,
hatisuci2007@yahoo.co.id
told us a great deal of the history of Lombok and confirmed the disastrous failure, due to drought, of the rice crop in 1966 which led to mass starvation. Those who survived lived on mice, who presumably got more than a fair share of what little grain there was. At the time traditional farming methods meant there was only one rice crop per year, but by 1968 new strains, the so called green revolution - if my memory serves me right - needing fertilisers and pesticide had been introduced leading to no less than three crops per annum - now reduced to two to allow incorporation of tobacco as a cash crop in the dry season.
Everywhere it was obvious that brick tobacco drying towers were being constructed at an unprecedented rate. We were told that in this region all the farmers were contracted to sell their crop to British American Tobacco who had a cigarette factory nearby, and who doubtless funded the construction of these towers, for there was no other sign of capital expenditure, unless you count all the new mosques which were being built, presumably financed by a rich church and the few well off farmers who both benefited from the poverty of the vast majority, strains of European church building in an earlier era.
Each day we walked along the roads hoping to discover the circular route, but on the first attempt we aborted by the danger of nightfall, and the second in the opposite direction we aborted for the heat of midday just before the junction which would have completed the circuit. That day however we were amazed at the size of a police procession led by a car but followed by about one hundred and fifty motorcycles each with two young policemen and women in blue tunics. We were told the next day by the policeman who accompanied his elder brother on the drive to Kuta Lombok that the exercise was an attempt to stop illegal logging in the National Park around Rinjani.
Just one complaint from a very happy stay - the noise pollution from the call to prayer from 4.30am to 7am and again in the evening. They may be utilitarian but there is nothing pleasant about the sound of conflicting poor quality loudspeakers, and unfortunately this also applied to another peaceful spot, Munduk in Bali, though there the noise came from the Hindu's broadcasting what sounded like the Ramayana, a case of getting your retaliation in first? Contrast the pleasant peel of bells from our churches which complements the beauty of the countryside.
Tashi Kabul
hatisuci2007@yahoo.co.uk
081918357332
Sapit
Tete Batu which had transport by Perama, several places to stay, and, promised walks and water falls, a little too similar to Munduk we thought.
Sapit with only one homestay said to offer magnificent views
Sembalun Lawang in the national park but essentially a take off point for a three to five day treks to climb Gunung Ranjani 3726m, which we might have followed ten years ago.
So we set out by taxi to Sapit, by stopping at two craft villages recommended by Huberto of the museum.
First stop then was Loyok where we visited a home where husband and wife were already at work baskets from strips of bamboo into rice steamers, and using much thicker bamboo after stripping to make the handles. The steamers were so obviously not suitable for carrying so our eyes alighted on small plates which were made by similar techniques but using much sturdier coconut leaf and of flatter and stackable design. The man anticipating our interest started to make such a plate to demonstrate the technique. At Sapit they served our breakfasts on just these sort of plates covered in a green banana leaf. They asked 1$ per plate we came away with four and left a further dollar tip.
Next stop was close by at Pringgasela a textile weaving village, here Alain immediately took us on a very interesting tour of the town and used reasonable English to give detailed explanations, we stopped at a house where three women were weaving and we had a prolonged look at the techniques they were using, two were weaving and the third engaged in the layout for the next loom using a battery of six colours.I gave each of the women a small tip 0.2$ and they were absolutely delighted. Alain finally took us to his house to show us a selection of perhaps just eight strips of cloth each essentially 1 m (loom width) by 4.5m long woven by his sister. Although far less typical of the bright colours associated with Indonesia we opted for an elegant piece in royal blue and white, he said the blue was a natural dye from Indigo but that the white was chemical. We waited whilst they cut it in half and joined the two pieces to make a more square cloth. The pattern, Songket, is normally added by embroidery but in this case was actually done on the loom. We paid 45$ and left a tip of 5$ with Alain. No doubt as mass tourism hits Lombok which seems inevitable, given the quality of the beaches which far outshine those of Bali, the experience of visiting this type of craft village will be changed utterly by the daily round of tour parties. No doubt Alain and several others who speak English will do well but we do wonder about the women with the unique skills.
After a journey of around 6 hours the taxi arrived at Hati Suci the only homestead in Sapit, the clock showed only 28$, he initially asked for the 60$ suggested to him by Huberto, and to us as a maximum but we settled very amicably for 40$. Inspection of the rooms was a bit of a shock not helped that at the time there was an electricity failure. The double bed we were shown was about 4ft as opposed to the 5 to 6 beds we had grown used to, the bathroom consisted of a squat toilet and a barrel of water and plastic saucepan to flush it, the walls were of thinly woven bamboo and the masonry walls round the toilet had never been painted, though the floors were tiled. As usual I was concerned about mosquitoes, but were a figment of the imagination as usual in the dry season.We opted for a room with narrow twin beds but the drapes weren't inspiring, there was however a fine view from the veranda and many lovely flowers in the garden. To judge by the highly professional production of much of their advertising material it had initially had much better times.
We resolved to stay only one night but in fact stayed two, accompanied only by an English teacher from Japan, who told us he liked the place and had visited regularly. His main interest here was the stars of the southern hemisphere, viewed from his veranda and from the mosque on top of the hill in the village. He was obviously a loner but was very interesting to talk to and was particularly knowledgeable about European opera and the annual world opera singing contest in Cardiff. He travelled by local buses, bemo, motorcycle taxi and donkey cart, ie using local transport as we had previously done, but is almost unused in today's Bali/Lombok by backpackers because it is too difficult and necessitates a knowledge of Indonesian at least..One feature which had been off putting at first had been the presence of a deaf mute, something we did not recognise immediately, but on the second night the son number three Tashi appeared and the earlier establishment started to make sense. His English was excellent and he was obviously prepared to lead treks to Rinjani, but no longer had the clientele, he was a teacher at the mosque, a man of most liberal tolerant views, and his wife was the local midwife who lived at her place of work. His ambition now was to set up a clinic and playgroup for orphan children, he had already purchased the land.
Tashi on the left of the leaving photo,hatisuci2007@yahoo.co.id
told us a great deal of the history of Lombok and confirmed the disastrous failure, due to drought, of the rice crop in 1966 which led to mass starvation. Those who survived lived on mice, who presumably got more than a fair share of what little grain there was. At the time traditional farming methods meant there was only one rice crop per year, but by 1968 new strains, the so called green revolution - if my memory serves me right - needing fertilisers and pesticide had been introduced leading to no less than three crops per annum - now reduced to two to allow incorporation of tobacco as a cash crop in the dry season.
Everywhere it was obvious that brick tobacco drying towers were being constructed at an unprecedented rate. We were told that in this region all the farmers were contracted to sell their crop to British American Tobacco who had a cigarette factory nearby, and who doubtless funded the construction of these towers, for there was no other sign of capital expenditure, unless you count all the new mosques which were being built, presumably financed by a rich church and the few well off farmers who both benefited from the poverty of the vast majority, strains of European church building in an earlier era.
Each day we walked along the roads hoping to discover the circular route, but on the first attempt we aborted by the danger of nightfall, and the second in the opposite direction we aborted for the heat of midday just before the junction which would have completed the circuit. That day however we were amazed at the size of a police procession led by a car but followed by about one hundred and fifty motorcycles each with two young policemen and women in blue tunics. We were told the next day by the policeman who accompanied his elder brother on the drive to Kuta Lombok that the exercise was an attempt to stop illegal logging in the National Park around Rinjani.Just one complaint from a very happy stay - the noise pollution from the call to prayer from 4.30am to 7am and again in the evening. They may be utilitarian but there is nothing pleasant about the sound of conflicting poor quality loudspeakers, and unfortunately this also applied to another peaceful spot, Munduk in Bali, though there the noise came from the Hindu's broadcasting what sounded like the Ramayana, a case of getting your retaliation in first? Contrast the pleasant peel of bells from our churches which complements the beauty of the countryside.
Tashi Kabul
hatisuci2007@yahoo.co.uk
081918357332
Sapit
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