About a week after returning to Jakarta, came the Lebaran holiday. Lebaran (or Idul Fitri) is the main Muslim holiday in Indonesia which ends their month of fasting. This is the week that people leave the city and return to wherever their family calls "home". Jakarta becomes empty, so it's a good time to get around the city free of macet (traffic) or get out of Jakarta and do some traveling of our own. Since this holiday usually falls near the beginning of our school year, or in this year's case, right before school starts, we usually like to take a trip to somewhere relatively close in Indonesia, and then come back with a few days left before starting school. The last two years we've gone to Bali because it was more familiar, but this year we ventured to Lombok which is another island near Bali. Besides taking Chris' parents to Bali when they come to visit (because it's iconic and has a culture all its own worth experiencing), we will probably choose Lombok from now on.
We went with three other couples to Lombok: Erik & Amanda, Glenn & Gretchen, and Mike & Meg (new to SPH this year, but from Salem!). What a fun bunch to travel with! They were all up for squishing the eight of us, including our luggage and a driver into this tiny van for over an hour to get from the airport to our hotel. Just call us sardines. Chris was on Erik's lap, and Amanda was on mine :)
We got a killer deal to stay at this beautiful hotel/resort!
I've never been to a place with a swim-up bar before! We took advantage of fresh coconuts for about $1.50 almost daily.
The ocean was just on the other side of the pool - so convenient! We also found a tide pool area not too far away!
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| The many faces of the boys |
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| Batik??? |
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| I love this shot of Meg looking into the pools! |
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| The tide started to come in while we were out, so we had some wading to do. |
God sure created some amazing land and sky scenery!
The guys jumped off the nearby bridge with some local boys. Not sure who made who's day! :)
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| the signature Chris jump |
For lunches and dinners, we strolled the almost empty streets (because of Lebaran) until we found something we liked.
We bartered on the beach for a snorkeling day-trip to the Gili islands. The Gilis are a set of three tiny islands just off the coast of Lombok. The eight of us took a boat out for the day and stopped to snorkel off the coast of each island, and then ate lunch at the last one. Sure wishing we still had our underwater camera to document all the beauty below! AND, our snorkel trip wouldn't have been complete without a turtle sighting, and we were lucky enough to see a few at our last sight! Happy campers we were!
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| comfy? |
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| To show how CLEAR the water was! |
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| So hungry at this point. Unfortunately the burgers were. . . less than appealing :( So then we all ordered oreo milkshakes. When in Lombok. . . |
Our last day we stopped to look around at the art market. I like to get at least a little something from each place we go to. Though I don't have a picture of it, I got a neat hand-woven throw, and few beaded bracelets so I could feel "islandy" :)
Then we took advantage of our last day to relax by the pool, and the guys also played some ping-pong and soccer with some of the Indonesian guests.
Lombok, we will be back! And we'll be bringing Marty, Linda, and Josh with us!!! :)
This looks and sounds like such a fun trip! What an awesome opportunity y'all are getting to literally travel the world. And, great photos! That water is so incredibly clear. Thanks for sharing about your amazing vacay.
ReplyDeleteYea, we feel pretty lucky! Thanks for always taking the time to write sweet comments :)
DeleteWhoops, replied with the wrong user account. I use that one for my school blog!
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