Day 12 - Tetebatu

Breakfast at 7 consisted of pancakes, honey, toast and eggs which was lovely and well needed after being woken up at 0430 by the Call to Prayer. We then set off on foot for our 2.5 hike along the rice fields. These differed to Bali in that these were more level than those in Bali. Bali had significant height to their fields as well.

We walked for 2 hours when we came to a lady’s house for coffee in which she made us a combination Robusta coffee grown from her garden mixed with Cacoa bean and vanilla. It smelt wonderful. I had ginger tea and our guide showed us the different things that were grown in the vicinity and dried. Chilli, nutmeg, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, cloves, white and black cumin.

We discussed ethnicities in Indonesia and were told that there were over 700 different ethnic groups in Indonesia with over 1000 different languages spoken! I had just managed to learn Thank You in Balinese, we now have to say “Teramakasi “ in Lombok.

After our walk we headed back to the basic hotel and got ourselves packed with a quick dip in the pool to cool off, the humidity is definitely higher on this island. After loading the bus, we drove for about 30 mins before arriving at a basket weaving and craft shop, they also had beautiful masks all made from mahogany and delicately painted with colourful patterns. I attempted to learn how to weave a ring out of bamboo, it was a complete disaster, if I had a day job right now, I wouldn’t be giving it up!

We had a quick look round the mosque over the road, only going so far onto the concourse and taking our shoes off to go up to the windows. The inside is sacred so we weren’t allowed in, even respectfully dressed. This mosque has been “being built” for 10 years and they guessed that by the end it would have cost around 1 Billion Rupiah which is the equivalent of £50,000 in the U.K. When I told the guide how much my flat cost, he was absolutely amazed, definitely a completely different world here. We also learnt that all of the Calls to Prayer are sung in Arabic as are all of the teachings, however the majority of the population don’t understand the language so they follow a religion whose teachings they cannot understand. Which I myself find completely bizarre!

Our place for lunch was high in the hills which our tour bus was unable to get to, so we all decamped into the flat bed of a truck and held on for dear life. As we were leaving a huge crowd of people appeared into the street and a cow was led down the road. We didn’t need to be told what was about to happen and all but 1 of us closed our eyes and put our hands over our ears as they slaughtered the cow in the street. It is sacrifice week here for Muslims, a great time to arrive. The amount of blood we have seen on the street being washed off the road is obscene!

We arrived at our bungalows for the next two nights, on the beach and although basic was clean with an outside bathroom. We all sat on the lawn on beanbags, beer in hand and nattered until dinner.