Lombok - Senggigi, Mt. Rinjani, Gili Air

Sengiggi:

I'm so glad we started Indonesia with Lombok, specifically Sengiggi. Sengiggi was explained in "the book" (aka Lonely Planet) as having Indonesia's most beautiful beaches...a bit suspect.  While I wouldn't agree with that, there are some untouched beaches and bays just outside of the small town that we saw when wandering on a motorbike. Even without a beautiful beach, we ended up liking the small beach town for both its slightly seediness and definite friendliness. What really helped was our American expat friend Jack who we met in Kuala Lumpur during our tour of the Petronas towers. He and his wife are retired from California and moved to Sengiggi a year and a half ago and he hosted us like an old family relative. He even let us crash at his place on two nights that sandwiched our hike and trip to the Gili's. Surprising number of expats in this town...mostly Australian, few Dutch and others - they all thought Jack was CIA since very few Americans travel to Lombok and NONE have ever expated there before...so us being from VA, home to Langley, really solidified their conviction. :)

So back to Sengiggi....it's a small, black sand beach.  This was my first experience with a black sand beach and Senggigi was more grey than black.  Between that, the slight trash issue and all the boats parked on the sand, the beach was not that beautiful.  That said, the water and the bay were breathtaking. Lombok has incredibly mountains, lush and green island so all around is stunning.  We found good coffee, cheap beers, saw the sunset and ate really good food so yea, we had a good time in Senggigi.

Rinjani:

Lombok is home to Indonesia's 2nd largest volcano, called Rinjani. We could see it clearly from the Gilil Islands and all the west coast areas of Bali we visited. The peak is 3,726 meters (12,224ft) high and we decided to hike from the bottom all the way to the top! Great idea! I'm being a bit sarcastic but in reality it was a really great, rewarding experience. It was a 3 day, 2 night hike, with a start at 2am the last day to climb to the peak to watch the sunrise. We lucked out with a great group of people to spend three straight days with - all of us around the same age, mostly couples, with very similiar interests in travel, life, etc. :) It helped to have good people because the company we signed up with was a bit disorganized but didnt ruin any part of the experience. The weather was on and off with clouds and a bit of rain but we also lucked out with that, getting to see all the "sights" and no rain in sight the day of the climb to the peak.

All three days were tough! The first was steep and UP the whole way, about 8 hours of hiking (and we were a "fast" group compared to the average, our guide told us later). The morning of the second day we got to the edge of the crater. Although I dont know the exact history, Rinjani is millions of years old and has blown in a way where the original cone is gone and is instead a giant crater with a lake inside. Within the lake is a "baby" cone that erupted as recently as 2010. The volcano is still active, evident of the smoke we saw creeping out of the baby cone while viewing the incredibly blue lake from the crater (perfect weather that morning turned into a sprinkle and dense fog as we started climbing back up - lucky!). We also visited the hot springs that day - our only "shower" in 3 days! We finished that day with a steep downhill and almost as steep back up to the ridge taking about 5-6 hours. That night one of our trip mates who was from Hawaii did a fire dance on the ridge...pretty spectacular!

Day 3: The next morning was the 2am "Wake Up! Wake Up!" from our guide. In the dark and WIND and COLD, we "hiked" through what was basically sand - one step forward, about 1.5/2 steps slidding back down - for close to 2.5 hours. Then sat hudled all together (literally hugging each other) behind a rock waiting for the sunrise because we climbed a little too quickly. I dont think I've ever been so cold in my life. The wind was torture and the temps were below freezing and we had on all that we brought with us - a pair of leggings, scott had wind pants without a lining, we each had a tshirt, long sleeve shirt and a rain jacket and two pairs of socks (at least we had good socks, thank you darn tough!) - no hat, no gloves. This made the reward of reaching the top and seeing the sunrise, pink and red through clouds, that much more rewarding. I Think I even teared up a little. No sleep and cold will make you that much more emotional! Besides just the sunrise, we could see the entire island and other islands close by. It was pretty surreal. We'll post some pictures but as usual, it doesn't do the entire scenery justice. Then we had to get ALL the way down the 3,726 meters. It was downhill so much easier in one sense, but brutal on the quads by the end of the 9 hour day (in total). One of the best and most rewarding hikes we've done together!

Gili Air:
After the hike, we were dropped off by boat to Gili Air. Gili refers to very small islands (easily walkable in a few hours tops), usually just off the coast of the bigger islands. There are three off the northwest coast of Lombok (and more in the south). We chose to stay on Gili Air, which is like the mama bear of the 3 gilis. Gili "T" is the largest, most developed and known as the party island - besides being full of beach bars, there are no police on the Gili's so you can imagine all the other things present {the island is known for it's mushroom colada, advertised on all their signs...no, we did not try it}. Gili Meno is the smallest and least developed island, we heard great for families. Gili Air is in the middle in size, has a good number of beach bar and restaurants but a large chunk of the island is still undeveloped so you can find peace and quiet as well.

The slow, island time pace was PERFECT after the hike. We laid out on a small part of the beach with a quiet restaurant so lunch was brought to our beach chairs (love this!). One day there, we went diving. It was our first of many dives in Indonesia and just INCREDIBLE diversity of coral and sealife. We saw about 10 sea turtles on our first dive, some of which came right up to us and swam with us for a bit. Besides the diving, just being on the boat in turquoise water riding between the 3 Gilis was awesome. We planned to stay on Air for 3 days and then make our way to the south of Lombok where friends said that the most beautiful beaches in Indonesia really were, but we fell in love with Gili Air and stayed all 5 days we had. We did a bit of snorkeling and paddleboarding and road our bikes around the island a few times, but we most enjoyed just taking it easy and seeing the sunset every day! :)

Colorful fishing boats

Palms trees

Sunset off coast of Senggigi

Surfers point

Owner of awesome restaurant in Senggigi sporting the USA shirt

Local Indonesian food

Camp site #1 on ridge

Well hello there

Lake and crater

Lake

Sunrise at the top of Rinjani

On top of the world

Cold as hell..but worth it

Gili Air sunset...never gets old

Looking back over to Lombok

Indonesian wedding that we went to..great experience!

Sun reflections at low tide on Gili Air

Angkor Wat Sunrise

As mentioned in the earlier post on Angkor Wat, we did a trip to view the area during sunrise.  This required waking up around 4am and walking out to the area in the pitch black.  It was a great experience and we got some good pictures to remember the occasion.  Here are some of the ones we captured from our phone:

 

 

Sunrise reflections

 

Ankgor Wat Selfie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panaorama

 

As always, the obligatory monkey pictures

 

Penang

Penang is a small island just off the northwest corner of Malaysia. It was used for a center of trade by the British so it has much more of a city feel than an island feel, with very few small beaches. The downtown area is a UNESCO historical site - the colonial/malay blend of architecture is apparent and some larger buildings and gorgeous but a lot of the smaller merchant streets need some renovations as parts are literally crumbling. In typical Malaysia fashion, it had a Little India and a Chinese zone and has influences from close neighbor Thailand so its is known around Asia for its amazing food. Which we can attest to! They had these establishment, we'll say, where there were several food vendors under one "roof" (tarp) - sort of like an outdoor food court. Each vendor had a different flavor: curry, Indian, lebanese, pizza, naan, Chinese, Thai, BBQ, soups, dumplings, etc. all were smaller dishes and super cheap. So we walked around and order a little from a bunch of different vendors and had this amazing mix of food every night.
 

A large portion of the island is protected national park. We did a great 2 hour (each way) hike with a nice, relaxing long break at the almost private beach on the other side. I was happy we hiked here as opposed to the muddy jungle hiking near he highlands :)
 

We planned to island hop further northwest but didn't feel like dealing with the hassle (we must be nearing the end of our trip) so we splurged a bit and stayed at a resort close to the national park where there was some beach and laid out for a day by the pool and watched the sunset from the beach. The breakfast (our favorite meal of the day) buffet was worth the extra money we spent alone. Next stop, Indonesia!

Tower from Kapitan Keling Mosque

 

Penang Lighthouse near Fort Cornwallis

 

Secret Beach and the ocean connection to the lake near where we hiked

 

 

Our resting spot overlooking the Malacca Strait

 

Another beach view

 

Post-hike refueling on PB-Js

 

Monkeys surrounding us on the hike back

 

Sunset from Penang Hotel

 

A local trying to persuade Kerry to do a palm reading

 

Awesome coffee shop owned by a cyclist with bike theme

 

Awesome Street Art

 

Best you can't guess what goes on in here....jk

 

Decorative lights

Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands refers to a valley high up in the mountains in the middle of Malaysia. Like Dalat in Vietnam, it has its own "micro-climate" and is much cooler than the rest of the country. Downright cold at night in fact! Due to the temperature, fruit, tea and other food is grown here that cannot be grown in the heat in other places. The British established this area as a hill station, building several lodges and developing a few towns, to serve as vacation spots to escape the heat in the 1800s. We enjoyed the cooler weather and did a bit of cliche sightseeing but there are old lodges and long hikes through the jungle that we'll have to check out next time. :)

 

Our first stop was a bit random, a small museum in a basement called The Time Machine. It was an interesting/eclectic collection of "stuff" from different time eras. Old coca cola advertisements, variety of coffee mugs from different decades and places, a few Guinness posters, etc, etc. More interestingly, it had pictures of the Cameron Highlands throughout the decades; parts of the town we stayed in looked exactly the same as when it was first established over 100 years earlier. It also had some very simple posters and a few newspaper clippings noting Malaysia's history and involvements in the World Wars and their own independence struggle. It was not the place we thought we'd get a history lesson but was very helpful!

 

Nest stop was the top of Gunung Berinchang, the tallest mountain with the ricketiest viewing platform I have ever seen (we obviously survived)! The views of blues and greens were beautiful.

Next was a strawberry farm where we enjoyed strawberry ice cream of course. I don't usually like strawberry ice cream but when it's freshly made with strawberries picked right there, its delicious. Like Dalat, the strawberries here are celebrated because they can't grow anywhere else in the country due to the climate.

 

Last stop was at the Tea Plantation, established in the 1800s by a British entrepreneur who recognized the perfect climate for tea trees. The tea is exported worldwide, famous in Malaysia and is still family owned and run. It's huge! I would screw up the stats but many hundreds of hecta-acres. The tea trees are groomed and kept short and grown on the rolling mountain sides creating truly beautiful views. The pictures here just can't do it justice.

We didn't stay long but enjoyed our time in the Highlands!

 

Stuff from the Time Machine

Great ad

scenic view

Terraced tea fields

Top of the mountain signage

Panorama

Selfie with the terraces

KL (or Kuala Lumpur for the uninitiated)

We were pleasantly surprised by how much we loved Kuala Lumpur, or "KL" as it's referred to around Asia. We don't know if it was because it was so clean (and paved, still a lot of dirt roads in Cambodia and just dusty in general and of course the pollution is pretty bad all over Asia), or because it was nice to get back to a big city and the ammenities that come along with it, or if it was because it was a bit more modern/western which maybe subconsciously we had been craving, or if it was because its such an interesting place culturally. Most likely it was because of our love for the mall we went to everyday (more on that later). Probably for the reasons listed and more, we needed up thoroughly enjoying KL.

So at first, we experienced a bit of sticker shock - coming from Cambodia and Vietnam, which are both SO cheap, but really it was still much cheaper than home. Except for the alcohol - due to the Muslim influence, the tax on alcohol is crazy high. So we took a break from nightly beers - I think we had one each from a supermarket in the week and a half we were in malaysia. It made us realize (too late) how spoiled we had become on how truly cheap everything was up to that point.

I'll butcher the actually history of Malaysia, which is very interesting, but suffice it to say they have had a lot of different cultures' influence to create the unique that is there today. The strongest and most evident cultures are: 1. Muslim 2. Indian and 3. Chinese but the British were here as well and of course Malay influence starting back when it was more tribal (which Borneo still is much more so from what we've heard). All the cultures and religions co-exist peacefully and intermingle here. Its the most open religious freedom and diversity we've seen.

The Petronas Towers are likely the most famous landmark in KL. They were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 - 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers., currently ranking 9th tallest. Facts: 351.9 m (1,483 ft) tall, 88 floors plus 5 basements, 78 elevators, 395,000m sq (4,252,000 ft sq) total floor area, double decker skybridge on the 41st-42nd floor. (mom, these were included for you). We went to the skybridge first and felt we were looking down on the entire city. KL has its share of buildings but it is certainly not a skyscraper city like NYC or Chicago so the illusion of being very high is there. Then we went to the observation floor on the 86th floor (I think). The illusion is gone as we are actually very, very high. The mountains outside the city were in clear view. I felt like a kid, just loving it. The building design is Islamic influence glass and metal exterior and is very cool.

There is surprisingly another tall structure in KL - known as the KL Tower. It looks more like the Seattle Space Needle than an actual building. It is a 421m (with antenna) high telecommunications and broadcasting tower which actually appears to be taller than the Petronas Towers because it is built on a hill (515m above sea level). The hills it's built on is surrounded by a small section of protected jungle. We walked to the base and around the park at the bottom but didn't go to the top since it was foggy the day we went so we cannot say for sure which view is better.

Parts of KL reminded us of DC in a way. The National Mosque is at the bottom of a large and lovely park which leads to several memorials, including a beautiful war memorial, which looks vaguely familiar to one we've got in DC. There is also a lake, small amphitheater, several fountains and modern sculpture park. It's quite lovely to walk around.

Along with the DC theme, we came upon Merdeka Square which is where all the original government buildings were built, some of which have converted to various museums and such. And here is where the similarities cease as these buildings are very influenced by Islamic culture. I couldn't stop taking pictures - they are beautiful buildings but also so different from what we're used to in the west.

So last but not least, the Pavilion Mall. It poured rain all afternoon our first day so we found ourselves spending quite a bit of time here that day. This place was unlike any other I've ever seen (not counting the Dubai malls because of course those are enclosed cities, no longer in the same category of malls). It was huge - 6 or 7 stories and not narrow floors likes in some cities but as long as Lynnhaven Mall on each floor all the stores were nice up to high end and it was just beautiful in general. We did some window shopping (they had a superhero store that we spent quite a bit of time in - was pretty cool). But the mall also had a huge variety of restaurants, bars and cafes that were all cool. It also had a great supermarket where we did our snack shopping for awhile. Then best of all was the food court. The bottom level (so same size as all the other levels, see above) was a few restaurants and then tons of food spots. Every variety of food you could imagine: Thai, sushi, Vietnamese, hamachi, western (burgers, etc), Lebanese, the list goes on and on. And all much cheaper than outside, even versus street food. It was awesome. Needless to say we ate here a few times!

Dance time at Johnny Rockets...so Malaysia

Food from mall food court...awesome!

Mall

Hindu temple

National Mosque in the background

Independence memorial

Merdeka Square with the old colonial style buildings

PertronPersonas - looking up

From the Skybridge - little higher

At the top

In all their glory

KL Tower

Super hero

View from the back of our taxi to the bus station...driver had all kinds of trinkets and craziness going on