Eastern Islands: Lombok & Bali
Hi gang! In my last post, I left you in Komodo Island, home of the famous dragons. Well, after sailing a short distance west, we found ourselves on Lombok, Bali’s neighboring island. In fact, some people call Lombok the “untouched Bali” because it hasn’t been touched by tourism quite as much. We knew it would be harder to explore on our own here, so we went on a tour titled “Parks, Palaces and Temples.”
Driving through Lombok, we immediately noticed how dramatically different the lifestyle was compared to what we’re used to. It would have felt like we were going back in time, had it not been for the hundreds of motor bikes zipping through the streets in a seemingly unorganized fashion. Of course, there were plenty of horses pulling covered carts on the streets as well. Small homes are built lining a narrow waterway where the villagers bathe and clean household things. We actually read that, while the locals are very conservative, they bathe naked along the streets because they believe they are “invisible when doing so.” Interesting, for sure.
Anyway, our tour took us to a water palace and two temple complexes that housed dozens of temples. We found ourselves running out of time trying to photograph them all! Many of them are so old, covered in “greenage” and have overly unique statues at the entrances.
Here is a visual snippet of what we saw in Lombok:
After leaving Lombok, we sailed the short distance west to Bali, where we stayed for two days. Karen and I did tours on both days. On the first day, she went to go ride an elephant and visit a bird park, while I went on another temple tour and orchid garden visit. All was beautiful, but I especially liked the “floating temple” we visited that was located on a beach. You actually had to walk through the water if you wanted to enter the temple.
On our second day, we did another tour that visited, you guessed it, more temples! We also visited the Bali Art Museum and had lunch at a place called The Dirty Duck Diner. We later learned that “dirty duck” is actually a type of dish you can order in Indonesia. It was also in Bali that we got to see a traditional dance show, with overly unique music and elaborate costumes and makeup. We were lucky enough to sit in the first row, which made for great photography!
So without further ado, here are some images I shot in Bali:
Our next stop would be Surabaya, on the island of Java. More to come!