Lombok, Indonesia - Part Deux

We crammed so much fun with Sarah and Justin into our week on Lombok that it requires two entries in the blog. So after our snorkeling adventure to the Gili Islands, we took a day to just relax at the pool.

We did make a brief excursion into the coastal city of Sengigi for lunch and shopping. We grabbed some great food and some strange drinks at an "art market" which gave us some great views of the ocean again. The "art" was mostly stalls of cheap tourist trinkets, but the girls found a few nice keepsakes before we went back to the coast to our hotel.

After catching our breath for a day, we ventured off for one of our most exciting adventures yet: a trek at the base of Mt Rinjani to a series of springs and waterfalls. The hotel arranged a local driver who took us through some of local towns on our way to the waterfalls. After cruising through a local market filled with horses, buggies, and traders selling all manner of fruits, veggies, fish, etc, we moved into the more mountainous terrain of the rainforest. After about an hour in the car we arrived at the "monkey forest."

Literally on the side of the road over a beautiful lookout was an entire troop of grey local monkeys. It was obvious the monkeys were familiar with the occasional tourist passing by because they had their eyes focused on the bags of peanuts our driver brought with him. Once we started handing out peanuts, they were our best friends. The monkeys would even take them from our hands, stand up on a bench to get closer, or even pull on our shorts to say "hey, give me some more!"

So once the monkeys had eaten all our peanuts, we pushed on for another hour on the road to get to our lunch stop. We were now at the north side of Lombok at a little restaurant the overlooked valleys and mountains. Rain clouds were rolling in, but we could see the first waterfall in the distance, and we were ready to start trekking after a quick lunch.

A guide came down and took us through a winding trail from the restaurant and back into the rainforest. After about 15 minutes, we arrived at out first destination: a towering 125 m (410 ft) waterfall fed from a natural spring farther up the mountain. After a quick climb down to the mist, we started trekking again to yet another waterfall!

However, before we could get to our next geological adventure, we needed to cross a slippery concrete bridge that doubled as an aqueduct. Kate was not at all amused by this crossing...

However, back on solid ground we trekked through some beautiful scenery before arriving at yet another massive waterfall in the middle of the Indonesian rainforest. This one emptied into a very large pool which was deep enough that we could swim around near the powerful stream of water falling down into the pool. We couldn't get too close though, because the current really sucked you in where the water was falling!

However, the adventure wasn't over yet. On our hike back, we followed the river back across the scary concrete bridge and into an aqueduct tunnel straight through a mountain for about 600 ft of darkness! Despite the nail marks in my arm and slew of 4-letter words not to be repeated here, I have to say Kate handled it really well. Even the BATS and SPIDERS!

After swimming in the waterfall, climbing over trees, and sloshing through jungle rivers, we dried off and trekked back with some great pictures and even better memories. We drove home to the hotel to rest and grab some more great food at the hotel.

We can't express in words, pictures, or videos how much fun we had with our friends on Lombok. It was certainly an adventure to celebrate for years to come!

PS, here is Kate crossing the scary bridge (hee hee):