Rambling on random things, torturous Rinjani trek, etc

Written last night, Sunday 6 September (details of torturous two day Rinjani Trek further below).
Just back from dinner at a local place, where I chose my food from the window of the stall (rice, tuna, tofu, potato cake, vegetables, egg with coconut sauce). I dined with my neighbours in my hotel, a friendly ~60 year old couple from Florida, US. They’ve traveled extensively throughout south east asia, so have many stories. At the warung (cafe) we also met a young Swiss guy, who is working with the government in Mattaram (capital of Lombok), giving advice in regards to town planning and mapping systems.
The couple is really nice, and think I’m so sweet with my limping, lol (I can hardly walk, and even small steps are hell). But it’s good, they keep me laughing through my pain :D

Random things…
I’ve picked up a few more Indonesian words, and it does work well using them, I get a good response. I wish I’d picked up more, sooner.

I really dislike being called ‘sweetie’ or honey, or beautiful. Generally it’s in passing, in combination with asking where I’m going etc(that’s standard to ask everyone), and I don’t generally feel intimidated because they don’t generally come up to me or follow me, but I just really don’t like it.

I saw my first rat today, it was brown and cute. It ran across the footpath, then sat on a wall for a while, but ran away before I could take a picture.

I’ve had rice once or twice a day as part of a meal every day now for over 3 weeks (not sick of it yet).

I haven’t had a hot shower in 3 weeks (occasionally it’s a bit chilly like if I need a shower in the morning, or in the mountain town of Senaru, but generally it’s not an issue).

I’ve met more Americans outside of Kuta (Bali) than Australians. Have met about 5 Americans and 3 Australians, crazy considering how close Australia is to Indonesia. The most I’ve met are German and French, Dutch, Italian, British and a few random Spanish, Swiss, Canadian or Scandinavian people thrown in.

Geckos here can be very big, and noisy. Enough to wake you up at night. The biggest I’ve seen is about 20cm, but others have claimed to see bigger ones. They’re good because they eat insects.

So what have I done the last week… I spent a few more days doing nothing on Gili Air, made a day trip to Gili Trawangan with the German girls. In part that was to get money from the only ATM on the islands, but I took only my mastercard, left my visa card on Gili Air. That was a mistake. It didn’t like my mastercard.
So the next day it was time to leave as I was running out of money.

To Senaru

I took the public ferry ($1) to Bangsal Harbour, and then was hoping to find transport to Senaru, in the mountains in the north of Lombok. I asked around on the boat, and an Italian couple thought I might be able to get a spot in their car, and I did. So that made life easy, a nice 2 hour drive to Senaru, not cheap, but efficient.
In Senaru our driver introduced us to a guy who organises treks, and the italian guy got us a good deal that included the 2 day/1 night trek up Rinjani and a nights accommodation in Senaru. They dropped as at the hotel (Pondok Indah, basic but good), and there I discovered that there isn’t an ATM in Senaru, or credit card facilities. Gah! So the guy organised a car for me to Senggigi, 2 hours away…! Luckily it was only 11am. I stayed an hour in Senggigi (freaking out when the first ATM didn’t work!) and had lunch, then I was back in Senaru by 4pm, phew! That was an expensive mistake. Never assume there’s an ATM anywhere, even if it sounds like a busy tourist town!
Walked 20mins to a beautiful waterfall in Senaru. Skipped the two other ones as it was getting late and a guy was following me around at this waterfall, and I think he wanted to be my guide (for money), but it was confusing as he didn’t speak english. Unfortunately he also followed me halfway back to my hotel, annoying and confusing. I wasn’t worried about my safety, it was just weird.

Two day Mount Rinjani trek

After a good nights sleep, started the trek up to Rinjani at 8.30am. Got to the crater rim at 5.30pm, having covered 9.2 km distance and 2000m in height.

Steep climbing the whole way, an hour break for lunch and some other half hour breaks. I came sooo close to not making it, and have heard others turning back. But I wasn’t going to give up halfway, then all that effort would have been for nothing. Even though the second half (especially the last quarter), was so much more difficult. But I took advice from some girls coming down, just go slow. Just stop as often as you need to, you left on time, so will get there before dark, even if you go slow. So I did, and I was the last one (of about 40 people (small groups of ~7)) up, but I made it in time to see the volcano and crater lake in sunlight and then see a beautiful sunset over the top of Bali.

The rim of the crater on Mt Rinjani is at 2600m (Senaru at 600m), and it’s the second highest volcano/mountain in Indonesia (the summit is at 3726m). At the moment they’re not offering treks to the summit, as the volcano erupted in May. But that climb is even worse than what we did (though it’s hard to imagine), so I don’t think many people would do it anyway.
As it could dark the temperature dropped to about 5 degrees, and the wind was so strong.
Dinner was Nasi goreng made by the porters. We were a group of six, and had one guide and four porters. They made us lunch (noodles), dinner and breakfast and lunch the next day.
Lunch on day 1:

Our campsite on Rinjani:

After dinner we walked from our camp back to the rim (about 50m) to see the lava!!! Awesome. Then went to bed, where luckily I was just warm enough with all my clothes on and in a sleeping back.
Got up before sunrise, after a very crappy nights sleep, with winds so strong they broke my tent. I was holding it down with my body, and then the top came off too. But it was too cold to get out of my sleeping bag to fix, but the porters did when they got up for breakfast at 4am(the guide was on ramadam, the porters in part, so they have to eat before sunrise)
The sunrise wasn’t very spectacular, but it was still possible to see the lava coming out of the volcano now, and steam:

After breakfast we started heading down. I went first as I had sprained a muscle in my upper leg, and once again I knew I’d be the slowest. The first half I felt good and made really good time. Unfortunately the second half became more and more hell, as my knees couldn’t handle the weight of me descending, and my toes, ankles and other muscles weren’t very pleased either. But my knees really slowed me right down, and once again I was much slower than everyone else, who had to keep waiting for me :(   I left the summit at 7.30am and was down at around 1.30pm. I’ve heard of people coming down in about three hours, gah!
Later someone said I should have used a stick or two (like the french who were soooo quick up and down), as you put a lot of your weight on the sticks and so spare your knees. Next time…
Generally people feel the leg muscles about 2 days after the physical exercise, but I had trouble walking the same day (yesterday), and today is worse.
But it’s ok, I’m still laughing, I know it will be over in a day or two or three! It’s a bit weird people looking at me though, I really look like an invalid, limping, and steps are just crazy! But I laugh, and they laugh. And most treks to Rinjani are organised from here (I’m back in Senggigi), so they understand as soon as I say Rinjani. Though I know most people don’t have quite as much problems as I. I’m fascinated. I knew I wasn’t fit, but I didn’t think I’d be the worst! Though I guess at least I didn’t turn back… One couple I spoke to said they’d started with a group of 6, and the 4 others turned back halfway!

And now I’m posting this above online, it’s Monday 7 September. Tomorrow I take a boat back to Bali as I’m flying to Malaysia on the 10th.
Spent half the day working on enjoyperth, and reading my ‘new’ book High Society from Ben Elton. Would have read the whole thing in one go but have to do some work!
Also had a full body massage, was torture to my legs, but nice overall. Hope it helps heal my muscles quicker. I’ve felt no improvement from yesterday, still limping and steps are still very difficult, no matter how small.
Had lunch with my american friends again, and talked about life, materialism, traveling and biogenetics and bioengineering. Awesome, and great people.
And at breakfast (banana pancake and cup of tea, free at my hotel) talked to an Italian guy who was traveling through southeast asia alone. Again been told it’ll be easier for me in Malaysia and Thailand etc, though it does seem the main reason is that there is more tourism. I’ll wait and see!
I’ve only seen a tiny bit of Indonesia, but it’s been good. Looking forward to going to Malaysia now, but I will be back, one day! Kalimantan, Borneo, Flores, Timor, Java, Sumatra…!!

Just had dinner again at the little local cafe next to my hotel. Tonight I had rice with egg, tempeh, tuna, some green leaves that are a bit like spinach, and chilli, which wasn’t too hot. I was by myself tonight, and I could see every Indonesian walk in do a double take when they saw me, haha.