Lombok
JJMoon Diary
Barry and Margaret Wilmshurst
Tue 20 Oct 2009 03:14
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We were
last heard from on Gili Lawa, north of Komodo, snorkelling and looking
for manta rays. We sailed across the north of Sumbawa to a secluded
anchorage on the small island of Medang. We were the only yacht there
on our first night and could have felt
lonely but we discovered that unbeknown to the authors of the book on Indonesian
anchorages there was a thriving village just behind the trees. Several
other Rally boats found their way in for our second
night.
 En route to
Lombok. On a beautiful evening we passed this "classic" volcano north of
Sumbawa.
Then we sailed for Medana Beach marina on
the north-west shore of Lombok, within sight of the Gilies, three islands highly
recommended in Lonely Planet. Medana Beach is not yet a marina but the
owners have great plans. At the time of our visit there were 15 or
20 moorings laid in an attractive anchorage, well protected from wind
and swell. A nice clean toilet block, small well stocked shop, and a large
open sided shed with tables and chairs (and with plenty of cold local beer for
sale) showed that the developer/owners understood their target
market. We had intended to stay for a few days, collect our passports
with visa extensions and move on but we enjoyed the place and felt secure
on the mooring buoys so changed our minds, stayed for the official Rally
festivities and then flew over to Bali for four days of
sightseeing.  Looking out at
the boats in Medana Bay marina, Lombok
  Pony and cart
was the local taxi service. If you took one to market you could ask the
lad to come round with you, pile in your purchases just as you would a
supermarket trolley but then hop in for the return journey. Both novel and
practical. We took this pony and cart and rather like a sailing
dinghy we were asked to adjust our seating position at intervals to assist the
pony and lift the cross bar off its neck.
First we took a day's trip
round part of Lombok, passing through the "monkey forest" before
driving on to a village that specialized in weaving (interesting) and a
place where they made pottery (we have seen better). We ended the
day at the supermarket in Mataram, the island's capital, where we made a
determined effort to re-provision.
 A meeting of
minds!
  Just monkey
business
  Weaving in one
of the villages A couple of days
later we took the local ferry to Gili Air and stayed the night in a
comfortable hotel. The ferries are primitive craft driven by a large
outboard motor and are boarded over the stern, passengers having to take
two or three steps through the surf. On our return one of our number
missed their footing in the deeper than expected water and took a tumble.
Understandably, they were not amused and indeed, from my vantage point as
next man off the incident did not look too good. Brave faces were put
on and indomitable spirits glimpsed but the incident did highlight the
under-developed nature of Indonesia's tourist infrastructure. To have
to ask visitors to a holiday resort to wade through the surf carrying wheeled
luggage sporting airline labels and squeeze past a dirty outboard engine must
reduce the appeal of the place. Nevertheless, we had an enjoyable couple
of days although we were underwhelmed by the reputed beauty of the
island.
Having returned to our
boats the Rally festivities were appropriate and well executed. The
speeches were not too long the entertainment was....well, entertaining and there
was plentiful good food and free beer. We felt the organisers had hit the
right notes.
  Festivities,
full of colour.
  Relaxing
before the performance. Nice lads.
 The
dance
 The
interpreter taking notes during the mayor's speech
A couple of days later we flew off to
Bali - quite a contrast. We had reserved rooms for three nights in a
nice hotel outside Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali but the best thing we did
was to hire a car and engage Pak to drive us and guide us for the entire
four days of our visit. The story of our visit is told in the pictures in
the Bali blog. On getting back to Medana
Beach we found things were a bit quiet - most boats had left. We did some
provisioning, consulted our charts and prepared to sail
for Borneo. As ever when we have been more than a few days in a
place, it was very difficult to drag ourselves away.
We were grateful to, and also
very impressed by Ace Robin who is the guiding light of the marina.
Along with her sister and both their husbands and two others they are
creating a truly impressive yachting facility which they
hope will also help the adjacent village. On arrival at the dinghy pontoon
we were more often than not greeted by the kids: "Hello Mister".
Later the touts were there as well hoping that the Rally boats would be a
lucrative group. Unfortunately for them we probably weren't
as forthcoming as they might have hoped. We had already been to so
many places, been pressed to buy so much tourist merchandise, bought such a
lot of things we really didn't want, that we balked at these further
importunings. We wanted to contribute to the community and of course
we are all on different budgets but very few of us are rich,
only wealthy by comparison. Nevertheless, we did succumb.
Mags bought several sarongs and a bowl or two. Having given we were
surprised and touched to be then given back small presents, bookmarks with our
names on and a woven bracelet as a farewell present. Two of the lads, Soo
and Ram became our particular friends and we were sad to leave them
knowing it would be unlikely we should see them again.
 Ace Robin is a
leading light of the marina project and along with her husband (a Devonian), her
sister and her sister's husband they have brought the facility to a good
standard. We wish them all the best in this venture and hope one day to
revisit.
 Particular
friends Soo and Ram. We were sorry to say goodbye.
One activity which we
yachties appreciated and to which we were more than willing to donate was a
coral planting regeneration project. We bought a concrete slab on
which was painted the boat name (or for some people the names of family
members) and then coral cuttings were attached and the whole placed in a buoyed
area in the bay but away from boating activities to hopefully grow and
thrive, a lure for us to come back in a few year's time to see how our
coral is doing.
  Our coral
being planted.
It was to be a passage of about 400 miles to Kumai in
Kalimantan province but the weather forecast was good and we set off in good
heart.
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