From Bali I took a boat to Gili Trawangan, one of 3 small islands off the coast. Gili T, where I spent 3 nights, is the most developed. Its made of dusty roads, horse-drawn carriages, lots of chickens and children running around--and of course, perfect paradise beach. The water is a deep deep blue, then bright turquoise, and finally clear as it hits the sand. There are huge mountains surrounding the islands, making for an even more awe-inspiring backdrop. It's a really relaxed place, I had lots of beach time (something I clearly never tire of). There's also some pretty great diving, and I did a dive and saw some massive sea turtles! The current on the Gilis is really strong, wade into the water just a few steps and you feel yourself being pulled. This made for a a challenging dive, but I loved it! We also spent a day on Gili Air, a bit smaller and even less developed than T. All in all, a lovely 3 days of sand and sun.
From the Gilis we headed over to Lombok, a much bigger island. And so stunning! Greenery and coconut trees everywhere, and sweeping views of the Indian Ocean as you come around the curving roads. It was one day relaxing on sengiggi beach and booking a 3 day trek to the summit of Mt. Rinjani, a volcano that reaches 3726 meters.
Luckily, I don't think I really knew what I was signing up for. Oh my word, this was hands down the most physically challenging thing I have ever done in my life. It makes all other treks I've done look like a stroll around the park. Pretty much every step is straight up or straight down, it is grueling and unrelenting. At many points I was unsure if I would make it to the finish.
Day one we trekked uphill for about 6 hours, after a 5am pickup from our guesthouse. It was slow going with many breaks--we made it to our campsite just for sunset. But wow, what a sunset! We were camping overlooking the crater lake of the volcano, which was beautiful. And we were above the clouds, almost at the full moon, so the night sky was gorgeous. We had a view of the volcano on Bali, the Gili islands, and massive green hills all around. Stunning. The night was really cold so we huddled around a small fire while we ate dinner, then fell asleep probably by 9pm.
The next day we woke up to watch the sunrise over the crater lake, wrapped in our sleeping bags. After breakfast we hiked down 2-3 hours, my knees starting to get mad at me about an hour in. They had no idea what they were in for. We reached the lake, took a quick dip, then walked a little more to some natural hot springs under a steaming waterfall. This was a godsend for our already sore muscles and dirty skin. It was absolutely delicious.
But then we had to make our way back up. It was only 3 more hours, but this was where I shed my first tears. There
was some free rock climbing/scaling, and every now and again I would look down and remind myself not to fall. It wasn't easy, but we made it to our campsite, set atop a mountain with another gorgeous view and night sky. And we had a clear shot of the summit of Rinjani, the beast we were going to tackle. Everyone talks about how the summit is the hardest part, obviously, and I wasn't convinced that I'd make it.
We had an early dinner and went to sleep around 7:30pm, me a little excited and very scared.
We woke up at 2am, with sunrise at the summit our goal. It was a full moon, and friday the 13th--good thing im not superstitious. This was where shit got real, holy moley. It was intense, to say the least. Picture me on my hands and feet clawing my way up what looked like a 90degree slope, over gravel-y loose rocks and volcanic ash. Every movement felt like one step up, two back, with already screaming muscles and a pounding heart. It should take about 3 hours, I made it in 4, and could not have been prouder of myself. I got to the summit and started crying, can't even tell you why. The view was amazing and I'll say that it was worth it, and I'm glad I did it. But never again.
2-3 hour walk straight down back down to our campsite for breakfast. Then I made the mistake of asking the guide "how long do we walk to get back to the bottom?" "6 hours." My spirits sunk, I couldn't even imagine making it back down. I wanted to throw a temper tantrum. That would bring me to a grand total of 12 hours or so of trekking. And so it did. It was allllll downhill, much of it on loose gravel. I went down a lot of it on my bum, and did not enjoy this part! So painful. But we finally reached the bottom, dirty and tired and sore but proud!
A lot of people traveling out here go to Nepal; unfortunately I couldn't get there on this trip. But I've now been told that if I can summit Rinjani, I can definitely accomplish Everest base camp. So who knows, maybe I'll add that to my bucket list.
At this point I had about 4 days left of my travels (eep!), but I couldn't even be bothered to use them wisely. Days later I'm still sore from the trek, there's no way that the next morning I was going to do much of anything. One of the things I was most excited for in Indonesia was Flores, a beautiful island and base for Komodo National Park. The park is where you can see some Komodo dragons and do some of the best diving in the world. But when I first got to Lombok, I learned that I had wayyyyy underestimated how long it takes to get there---at least 24 hours by boat! Big whoops. Originally I planned to do Flores/Komodo after Lombok, but since I had already given up on that dream, I decided to just take it easy during my last few days. I went to Kuta Lombok, south on the island, a little surfer paradise. That's where I stayed the past few days, not doing much of anything. All week I've been battling a cold and feeling pretty sick (yes, trek included), so I'm glad I gave myself time to just chill. I'll get to Flores and Komodo one day!
While in Kuta I got a manicure, necessary due to the layers of dirt under any of my remaining unbroken nails. Clawing your way up a mountain can have that effect! I also got my last Asian massage, which was very needed. Mani and massage set me back about $10--it should be so easy to get spoiled back at home!!
And now it's pretty much all over. I'm waiting for flight number 1 of 4, ending in Newark almost 40 hours later. I can't believe I'm here already! It's been quite the adventure.
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