FRIDAY, FEB 19TH--LOMBOK, INDONESIA

Room service boy woke us up at 6:45 this morning ringing our door bell. He was early as we were expecting him at 7am. We had to be ready to leave ship at 8:15 for our tour on Lombok. So while I had my coffee I called my parents back in southern Illinois. It was 5pm there. We are 14 hours ahead of them now. I used our suite phone (via ship’s satellite) and we had a good connection but finally call was dropped before saying bye. Good to hear their voices after nearly 5 weeks. It is now about 4pm and I am uploading the photos I took yesterday evening as we sailed from Komodo and today’s photos I took on Lombok. I have some nice photos of the evening sky you may enjoy. We enjoyed a less formal dinner up in the La Veranda where they were featuring pastas. Rebecca now has “bug” in her chest and is coughing a lot. Then we enjoyed the show featuring Karen Beckett, an Australian singer. Sorry for jumping around but now back to our hot, but wonderful day in Lombok, a less developed Indonesian island. We had to tender ashore so our tour, “Lombok Handicrafts” finally boarded some very nice air conditioned little buses around 10am. Our first stop was at a shop where pottery was being hand made. As you see from the photos, they made everything. We bought a couple small things of course. Our travels took us past lots of rice fields as that is main product on west side of the island. They get 3 crops a year off their land and it is all hand planted and harvested. Our guide said tobacco is grown on the east side. There are thousands of motor bikes here in addition to small cars and trucks. The country people are very poor and use the “horse cars” to take the vegetables and other stuff they grow to the village markets. There they sell, barter, and buy what they need. Our second stop was a REAL EYE-OPENER! Friday is market day and we went to one. What we saw was unbelievable and I doubt all the photos I took there can paint an accurate picture of what was taking place. Let me begin by saying that the people here on Lombok are very friendly, nice, and seemed glad we were there. You would probably have to be starving before you would eat anything in this market. Saying the place was filthy would be way to nice. Flies were having a banquet. You could barely walk along the narrow pathways through the maze of people selling and bartering their produce, fish, eggs, chickens, spices, and God knows what else. We especially enjoyed this part of our tour on Lombok. They knew no other way of life so seemed happy. Then on to another village where we walked down a dirt street and watched ladies sitting on a stilt platform with a thatched roof with their looms weaving beautiful cloth things. They sat there 365 days a year for 9 hours a day weaving. A young girl had to master the art of weaving before she could marry. Rebecca bought this beautiful, hand-made scarf/shawl for $20. Their houses had nothing covering the windows (just a hole) let alone air conditioning. There was an open trench along the streets (sewer system). No one wore shoes. Last stop was at a black pearl shop that also sold local honey and candy (or what they called candy). Indonesia is know for its black pearls. Rebecca did not get any here but bought another strand at harbor stand for $20. It was a fascinating day for sure. We were back on our nice cool ship around 2pm. Will sail at 5pm for a very short ride over to Bali. They are having a deck dinner and party up on pool deck tonight like on the first segment. Deck is decorated very nicely with ice carvings, carved vegetables and fruits decorating the buffet tables. Really is quite spectacular! Again, we will not attend. Dinner in air conditioned dining room for us!