I guess indonesian stomachs can cope with meat being sold open on the market, in the very hot weather, with flies attacking the meat. I guess nothing for Europeans stomachs? Or at least it did not look very appetising… However the vegetables and fruits look marvellous!

 

And we found this: fresh cashew nuts! Now we understand why the cashews are so expensive. They grow one by one in their shell which is pretty big and takes a lot of handwork to deal with.

  

Alex had some money over from the tooth ferry and other work being done on the boat so he promptly wanted to buy a toy of his own. However he did not have enough and he tried to bargain with…. no success. 

 

Driving along the West coast of Lombok up towards the capital of Mataram.

  

The island is divided into two main religions: muslims and hindu. So we saw mosques and hindu temples everywhere nearby the roads. However the muslim religion is the one dominating Lombok. 

 

We arrived to a little village where they drove us around in these small pony carriages that are typical for Lombok. We felt pretty oversized to be dragged by these tiny horses made for two adults. 

Alex, Jörgen and Gary in one carriage. Inez, Mado and Louise in another. 

   

Meeting school children on their way to / from school giggling around when they saw us passing by. The traffic is quite dense among pony carriages, motorbikes and cars.

 

The carriage driver asked Inez if she wanted to drive the carriage   Can I? Off course and she did it pretty well!

 

They drove us to a small community where every household works with pottery. We walked through the village, talking to the locals with our guide explaining that this community’s only source of income is pottery.

   

I love this picture! The fascination of new technology and games on iPad is the same whereever you are in the world…

 

Once the pottery is made, the clay is still wet and needs to be burned over open fire. Here is the main “oven” of the village where all pottery is being burned. 

      

Our next stop was then off course fhe pottery shop! Amazing jars, "krukor, krukor, krukor" and more krukor! We were very tempted to buy the whole shop as everything was so nice and quite cheap. We decided to come back later on during the week. 

 

We continued our route for our next stop for lunch stopping at a lovely lush place nearby the river. 

    

Then we found this sign! For us Swedes, this is a funny translation as “musholla” means a mice hole. So we had a good laugh at it! 

After lunch we continued to the famous Water Palace. Built in 1774, this palace was once part of the Balinese Kingdom's royal court in Lombok and used as a meeting place for Hindu lords. It features a large artificial lake with a floating pavilion. Visually stunning with all its lush green nature !

From where we were standing, which was the Kings’ balcony we had a fantastic view over the whole Water Palace. 

The King’s room in the Water Palace was decorated with beautiful doors on each side. 

  

Further away in the Water Palace were more natural pools and another “Musholla”, this one decorated with big letters… That is when we realised that Musholla was not a translation for toilet, but the place where they pray. In all public places the place where they pray is often close to the toilets. Yes we had a good laugh ;-)

   

Walking further in the Water Palace we discovered they had installed a …. zipline! We had to do it and we managed to get Alex and Inez along too!

 

Mado prefered to stay behind and take pictures.

On our way up.

 

Inez and Louise on their way down. 

  

Alex and Jörgen on their way down.

 

It was really fun however the most frightening was not the zipline itself but the scooter ride back on the very narrow path along the water!

  

Mado Alex and Inez watching the next adventurers.

  

We left the Water Palace and drover further to a textile fabric where the women were weaving scarfs, dresses and their traditionnal clothing. In this area the woman haveto learn how to weave in order to be able to marry.

  

Very quickly Louise got a chance to go for it. She explained very accurately how to do it and Louise weaved a few times. Great fun!

   

As soon as we entered the shop Alex got taken care of. Don’t think he was having a good laugh but we were! He looked pretty handsome. Alex looked just like an indonesian prince!

  

Yes we got away with 2 scarfs: one for Louise and one for Anne. We continued our tour on Lombok driving through some part where the traffic was really jammed. However this was due to a funeral...

   

… and this one to a wedding. The bride at the bottom of the right picture.

  

We finished our tour by visiting a traditional village from Lombok where they still hold on to old traditions and  how they lived in the former days. This veranda below is made out of cow poo. The house on pillars is to keep away from animals as the food is stored here. 

  

A traditional fighting game. 

  

 

The same battle now for kids!

  

Accompanied by music and Indonesian instruments.

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Further away we saw young girls weaving.

 

Beautiful traditional Lombok costumes.