Black Lombok coffee & sweet white bread!... Trecking Rinjani 3726m

Returning from a 3 day treck up Mount Rinjani, a volcano that is not active but with a volcano right next door that was going off every 3,4 hours & literally smoking! My lovely friend Lydia from the ashram had told me to climb it & said it was the hardest thing she has ever done! She was not wrong. I thought that as I love climbing, hiking I would be fine but I can safely say it was one of the most intense hikes i have ever done. Me & my friend Arianna (we did our yoga training in london & bali togeths) have arrived back down & now feel like we need new legs! The intensity of the trek was what made it so hard i think, there was no messing about from word go, no gentle hiking & chatting & enjoying the views! NO it was straight up, up & up! With this trek it was 3 full days of hiking, scrabling either straight up, up & up Or down, down, down! For the first night we camped at the base of the final summit climb up the mountain, we arrived around 6pm after hiking since 7am. We had about 1 hour lunch break & a few very short stops on the way but not alot. This trek already made the Inca trail in Peru seem like a walk in the park! After a couple of hours in the tent trying to sleep despite the cold we then had to get up at 2.30am to prepare to climb to the top of Rinjani!

We got up & had told our porters that we wouldnt want to eat anything but they hadnt understood & we were given some lovely white bread (my favourite, NOT!) & jam & black sweet coffee! ahaha what is happening to me, I decided that maybe I would need it to get to the top & so indulged, it was actually quite nice i guess! At 3.15am we set off up the Rock! It was pitch black & my crappy head torch was about to die! About 30mins into the trek & my head torch did die & I felt like i was climbing completely blind! Only one of the porters had gone with us & he didnt speak english! Feeling very unsafe, I felt myself getting a little frustrated, i had told the guide that my torch was rubbish but they didnt give me another one! I love been slightly unsafe but this felt like a joke, I really didnt want to fall off the side of a volcano at 4am in the morning! Also Ariannas torch seemed to be playing up so between us it was like blind leading the blind. The porter kept going to far ahead & leaving us with no light, so in the end I asked for his torch which I would use & then shine behind me for Arianna! The porter didnt seem to have a problem leading in the dark. The stars were beautiful though & eventually we settled into scrambling our way up. Around 5.30 light started to break through & we began to see how far we had left to climb until we reached the summit. We watched the sunrise as we were climbing & then made the top around 6.30am i think, it took us around 3 hours to climb! It was a wonderful view & then the most spectacular thing happened. THe volcano (Nangi) next door erupted, we knew it was live & had been going off & we were told we could go there but it was at our own risk! Hahaha we didnt expect it to go off though, I captured it smoking on video. So spectacular. As we were hiking a few hours later it went off again. This time as we were lower we had the full impact, it sounded like a bomb going off, a little scary! We asked the guides if it was safe to carry on the trail which goes nearer the live volcano & around a lake at the bottom & they said yes so on we went.

We arrived back to our campsite around 8am for our 2nd breakfast, this time rice with veg & black Lombok coffee, which i was quite getting into! We only had a 1 hour break & then we had to head off again. We had another 6 hours to hike, this time it was a long down hill which is harder on your knees & then a never ending up hill to our final camping destination for the night. We were getting v.tired as the up just went on & on, me & Arianna tried to motivate ourselves by chanting our way up, haha. The guide,porters had long since lost interest in us & pretty much left us to fend for ourselves! It was getting tougher & tougher this hiking business!!

We did have a break for lunch by the lake & then we went for a dip in some thermal hot springs, this we v.relaxing & just what we needed to rest our aching feet!

On the 3rd morn we had to do yoga in our tent as it was so misty & cold & wet outside. It was quite funny as the tent was only a 2 man & not enough room for one person to do, never mind 2 but we adapted to the space

To be continued......

Gurupak, Lombok

I decided to move to a tiny fishing village, Gurupak. I am so glad I did as i didnt realise it until i moved but the constant hassle from people trying to sell you things in Kuta, lombok gets to you after a while. In Gurupak there is no hassle. Its a funny place, the roads & main street kind of looks like a bombs hit it, rubble everywhere & houses that seem to have fallen down & so the families have just moved out but it is still a working fishing village & people are nice! Where i am staying has a view of the ocean & all the fishing boats, with a day bed & hammock where i can hang out & a place for me to do yoga over looking the sea, its v.nice! The family also keep feeding me massive banana pancakes x2 every morning at 6.45,7am! I actually like to practice until 9am but felt that i couldnt not eat the pancakes & let them go cold, so i find myself so full by 7.15 & only having done 40mins of practice! Oh well its a good test at me been flexible & not stuck to my routines! The family are so lovely & invited me to eat with them today. It was the first proper Sasak (Lomobok) meal i have had since been here & it was lovely, fish curry! It was so nice to be invited to eat with them & reminded me of how Indian people are!

Sadly whilst i was staying the town, a sad event happened & I found myself in the midst of a funeral. A young teenage boy (18 i think) committed suicide by taking animal poison & nobody really new why, except he had been a little depressed for the last month. The house where the boy lived was opposite where i was staying so it was impossible not to hear the crying & sadness all around the village. As Lombok is a muslim island the boy was in the house for people to pay respects to & then within 24 hours the funeral happened & we watched as he was carried up the street wrapped in bamboo & some material. It was a sad day & i watched the parade of mainly men who carried him to the funeral site. It was interesting to watch how people were able to then get on with their lives & still take tourists out on the boats to surf etc, life just keeps ticking on i guess.

Lombok 13th April 2010

The first thing that i notice is that there are no advertisements anywhere! In india even you would see really remote places but still with adverts, here there are none. The landscape is green & hilly with beautiful beaches. There are hardly any cars, a total contrast to Bali, & you definitely have a feeling of been in the wilderness. The sad thing is that it doesn't feel as safe here, you get hassled alot by people wanting to sell you stuff & people always seem to want you to go somewhere or buy something that you dont want. On the taxi journey from the port to Kuta a beach surf place, the drivers wanted to charge per person to go via an ATM & then wanted to take us to a local village! We told them to just take us to our destination for the agreed price. It was nice that me, Rosh & Ariana decided to go to Lombok together for a few days, then Rosh had to return to Bali to meet a friend.

Everything seems to have happened so quickly, i cant believe the month intensive course is over, I was v.sad for it to end but at the same time it was long enough! I have made some wonderful new friends & look forward to spending more time with them.

I am really enjoying scooting around on a scooter! It gives you a real sense of freedom.

I am trying to digest everything i have learnt & not just rush onto the next phase of my travels like i have a tendency to do! I do need some time to reflect but i also want to teach, this is the best way to see what i have actually learnt. Anandas breathing techniques & pranayama were amazing, i look forward to practicing & teaching them.

The first day we toured around on our bikes, we came across a beautiful beach with only locals shacks on I think, no tourist hotels or anything, really lovely. The local kids came upto us & then a local who had v.good english & he wanted us to stay. I enjoyed playing a mini bit of football with the kids, it made my day. The only thing you come across on the roads that usually stops you in your tracks is heards of water buffalos! Its v.funny!

Surfing

We get taken out by a boat to the breaks, which sounded scary but its not as bad as it sounds. However my surfing may need to go back to basics as i spend most of my time under them rather than riding them! Also its the first time that i realised that i have to paddle on my own, before i have had an instructor who must have been doing it all for me, as I am rubbish! I have alot to learn & think i just need to practice paddling. If i actually make it to a wave, i may get up but then it feels like it takes me half a year to get back again! In that time i have usually been swept under alot of waves trying to get back. I am getting good at eskimo rolling with the surf board though, if that counts! haha its fun been on the water though & i get to watch all the good people! Sometimes i get a little distracted by watching other people & miss the fact that a super big wave is about to take me under, haha!

Did something silly today & locked my key for my moped into the glove box under my seat, luckily the kind locals who had filled up my tank with petrol, which they have in glass bottles at the side of the road & poor in, manged to prise the key out by the help of his little kid. I gave the kid some money & he gave it to his dad straight away, bless!