Honimundi's Laws of Travel - Rules are Always Created and Destroyed.

When most people go to Lombok, the small Indonesia island just east of Bali, they take fast boat from Bali and head straight for the Gilis, a trio of even tinier islands in the northwest of Lombok. Known for their lack of motorized transport and relatively easy access to naturally grown psychotropics, these little islands surely were appealing. However, when staying in Padang Bai in Bali, the jumping off point for ferries to Lombok, both fast and slow, we witnessed the droves of tourists/backpackers/travellers being herded like cattle from minivans onto the fast boat jetty, ultimately on their way to the Gilis, we resolved not to be one of them.

Rule #180 - Whenever Possible, Take the Road Less Traveled

 

When it comes to Indonesia, Bali itself is the road most traveled. And so, when planning what to do in Lombok, we decided it would be best to try to get off the beaten path a bit. This meant, to start, we would take the slow boat to Lombok, which was to take over three hours.

Rule #204 - Travel Like the Locals

We used the three hour boat trip to come up with a general plan on what we would do on Lombok. Since we only had 10 days left on our Indonesian visas, our options were quite limited; we could only pick two or three destinations, after which we needed to be back in Bali for our flight out of Indonesia.

Since much of our time on Bali was spent lazing around on beaches, we were itching to do something physical. Luckily, Lombok has Gunung Rinjani, a 12,224 foot volcano and the second highest mountain in Indonesia. The standard route up starts from the village of Senaru, which lies at an altitude of 1971 feet, making for about 10k feet of climbing. This was not going to be a walk in the park. Excited at the prospect of doing some serious hiking, we decided to make our way towards Senaru and arrange the climb from there.

Getting off the ferry in Lombok, we were assaulted by the normal mass of touts offering transport and tours.

Rule #176 - Always Leave the Port or Station Before Hailing a Taxi

A firm "No" got most of these guys off of our backs as we followed the mass of Indonesians out the port and (presumably) towards the buses out of here. One guy, however, persisted, and stuck to us like a proverbial fly, and no amount of ignoring, shouting, or swatting at was going to get him from buzzing around.

"Where are you going? Do you want to climb Rinjani?", he pestered. "Damnit, this guy is practically forcing me to lie!", I thought. I can't tell him where we're going, or he'll know why we're going there. Thinking fast, I confessed we're going to Sengigi, a dying resort town that's on the way to Senaru; I wasn't lying. He offered a reasonable price for the trip, made more reasonable by splitting it with a French couple that happened to be nearby. It was getting late, so we jumped into his van.

The tout rode shotgun as his young associate sporting one of those abnormally long fingernails on one of his pinky fingers (can somebody please explain what this is supposed to represent? Is it "Look at my long clean fingernail - I don't work manually with my hands", or maybe "Look at my long fingernail - I do so much cocaine that it's best I grow my own implement to snort with"?) drove, allowing the tout to turn around and start selling us a climb of Rinjani.

Rule #122 - Whenever Possible, Avoid Tours

We were a captive audience, and unless we implemented the ol' tuck and roll and jump out of the moving van we were in ...

... we took advantage of the opportunity to get some pricing so we have a number in mind when we get to Senaru the following day.

The tout did his thing, claiming he himself was a long time guide for the climb, and although he won't be guiding us, he showed us some personal pictures of him on the summit during sunrise. At this point in our trip, we had developed a sixth sense for scams, and questioned him on his lack of any real marketing material. Some brochures of the company he represents describing the climb and what to expect would do wonders in convincing us. Instead, he showed us his credentials as a licensed tour guide in Indonesia - it seems that he was not scamming us, he's just unprofessional, at least by Western standards.

And so, on the way to Sengigi, we engaged him in negotiation. After mentally converting to USD (the 10,000:1 exchange rate can be confusing at times. Talking about a price in terms of meelyons is different, psychologically, than talking about it in terms of hundreds, however good it feels to be a temporary meeylyonaire), the price we were offered for an all inclusive 3 day / 2 night climb didn't seem too bad. When he threw in transport to Senaru that very day, the scales began to tip in his favor. We were pressed for time, and one less day "wasted" organizing the climb may be worth whatever we're overpaying by breaking ...

Rule #131 - Always Shop Around

Upon arriving at Sengig, we were still unconvinced. "We're breaking too many rules!", we said to ourselves, and began unloading out of the fan along with the French couple. The tout, sensing his prey getting away from him, as a last ditch effort threw in transport to anywhere on Lombok after the climb. As I wrote before, transportation in Indonesia is quite expensive, and with this perk, we were sold. I told him to write it up. He did, and he told me to pay him in cash. My SCAM-DAR once again going off, I told him that I didn't have the whole sum in cash (which was true), and that I'd like to pay with credit card. After calling his boss to confirm that he can accept a credit card payment, ge said that 1/3 of the payment will have to be made to him so he can buy food and other supplies for the trip. He said we can stop at an ATM in Sengigi, as there are none in Senaru (which did end up being true).

My SCAM-DAR was going haywire as I thought back to a time we were road tripping through Poland and a cop stopped and ticketted us for speeding (we were) and driving without a license (didn't have an international one, and didn't know I needed it. The Polish law on the matter changed recently before the trip). He demanding immediate payment or incarceration until the fine was paid. Not having the whole amount on me, and not being able to legally drive lest I open myself up to another ticket the moment I turn the ignition in the car, the cop drove me to an ATM to withdraw the necessary funds. Once the ticket was settled (it was legitimate), he wanted to drive off, leaving me stranded several kilometers from my car and awaiting girlfriend, and I had to shame him into chauffeuring me back to my vehicle.

Rule #231 - Never get Driven to an ATM by the One You're Paying

"Screw it, we're committed", I thought to myself as I pulled the plug on my SCAM-DAR to silence it's ringing. We went to ATM, and as the tout counted and pocketed the funds, I thought I saw a slight smile curl the corners of his mouth. I chalked it up to the feeling of a sale well made, and settled into the luxury of the drive to Senaru by private car.

It was dark by the time we arrived in our hotel in Senaru ...

Rule #221 - Never Arrive After Dark

... and after unpacking in our room for the night (which was also included in the negotiated price of the climb), I noticed our tout friend and his young long-nailed driver had meals waiting for them. They were not, as he claimed earlier, out and about buying supplies for our climb. I sighed inside, and the germ of the thought that I had paid this guy's sales commission in cash began to grow in my
mind.

Rule #208 - Always Try to Cut Out the Middleman

Before I could begin beating myself up for it, I was whisked away by motorbike to another guide company's office which has the only credit card processing capabilities in town, where I paid the remaining balance for the trip.

When I got back, Agnes and I ordered dinner and while we were waiting for it to be prepared, we watched a swarm of flying ants bouncing buzzing around the few light bulbs illuminating the outdoor sitting place and periodically dropping to the ground as if they just grew their wings and were learning to fly.

While we waited, we were pleasantly surprised to hear Polish being spoken by a tired looking couple at the hotel restaurant. Bart and Basia were on a month long tour of Indonesia, and just came off the mountain we were about to embark on the next morning. We compared notes on Indonesia thus far, and they filled us in on their experience climbing Rinjani. Eventually, as it generally does amongst the budget-conscious, the conversation invariably turned to how much we paid. Unfortunately, we learned that they paid less than us by an amount nearly identical to the what we paid in cash to our original tout friend, solidifying my earlier suspicion that he did, in fact, pocket the cash spit out crisp and warm from that ATM earlier that day.

Rule #262 - Never Ask Others What They Paid

With this new bit of knowledge, my mind vacillated between anger and acceptance. I was angry at at the tout for lying through his teeth during his pitch, and at myself for ignoring intuition and believing him. But this was useless anger - what was done was done, and I tried to let go and simply accept the situation as it was. To forgive the tout, and to forgive myself. To find peace of mind.

I tried to find the tout to congratulate him on his sale, to make him know that I know, and to see what his reaction would be. But alas, he, along with his oddly long-nailed young friend were gone. So I settled on mentally tipping my hat to them, and after sweeping out some of the drunken ants that somehow found their way into our room, we packed our bags, set an early alarm, and went to bed, putting the day behind us and looking forward to the next.

Rule #1 - Let Go and Go With the Flow