After extending our stay in Sapit for another night, we get to meet Didik himself and spend an evening over home made ‘Nasi Goreng’ - fried rice with a fried egg - speaking about his local business taking hikers up and down the Rinjani mountain, the struggles for locals on Lombok to maintain a business with all the foreigners establishing their own high-end businesses targeted for the Bali crowd, and deep moral discussions about different religions, cultures, and how unfortunately many tourists come to Lombok but complain strongly about the calling for prayers which are broadcast over loudspeakers 6 times a day, starting as of about 4am. Even the smallest of villages have 3-4 mosques which all start broadcasting their prayers simultaneously. We ourselves sat bolt up on the first 4am wake up call but by now have grown so accustomed to it that we usually sleep right through them. It has to be said that it’s quite atmospheric, hearing the chanting and singing echoing off the mountains and back into the valley and can not understand how some people can openly complain about this. It’s like going to the beach and complaining about the sand.
We leave Sapit and head over to our next stop, Senaru. On the way we stop at view points at which watching monkeys seems to be more fascinating than the view itself. They are rather cute and almost resemble cats with their grumpy little faces but can get quite terrifying when they spot any type of snack or drink in your bag. Fabi jokingly scrunches up a plastic bag pretending to open a packet of chips and the instant attention of the alpha male has us scrambling for safety.
Banana Pancake and Mee Goreng breakfast
We spend our time in Senaru village enjoying more sunsets and sunrises and hiking to nearby rivers waterfalls.
Direkt nach dem Frühstück brechen wir zu Fuß auf, um die beiden Wasserfälle in der Nähe zu erkunden. Der Eintrittspreis ist mit 20.000 Rupien fair, nach dem Eingangstor geht es erst einmal viele Stufen nach unten ins Tal. Wir begegnen einigen Affen, ausgerüstet mit einem ‚Monkey Stick’ lassen sie uns jedoch in Ruhe. Unten liegt der ‚Sedang Gile‘ Wasserfall, wo einige Locals gerade ihre Essensstände öffnen und eine Gruppe Kinder sich als Guides anbieten. Wir lehnen dankend ab und folgen dem gut erkennbaren Pfad flussaufwärts.
Same sunrise taken at various time stamps
On we go along the main road and up again towards the mountain. Accommodation has become difficult to find and we settle for a 3€ a night bungalow which we share with scorpions, ants, face-fluttering-moths and little caterpillars intent on making their way up into our bed.
Looking over to Bali, sunset
We end our trip with a two day stop at the costal town of Singgigi which is a popular weekend destination for locals from Matara, Lombok’s main town. To recover from our last night we book into a beautiful bungalow village with 95 steps up to the bungalow but a stunning view as a reward. We chill at the pool, beach-hop along the coast, shop for trinkets as souvenirs to take home. Our bags have officially met their final capacity and even my secret talent of making everything fit reaches it’s limit.
Wie immer alles traumhaft schön!