9th December – Day trip to Lombok – early start (7:30 meet) – drive to harbour to meet hydrofoil – 2 hr trip to Lombok…
The things I especially remember about that hydrofoil was how crowded it was and the big screen film shows to keep the passengers occupied. Most of the passengers were local people, but most of the films were short British comedy shows of a fairly slapstick variety. I recall Mr Bean, Benny Hill and I think they showed Futtocks End on one leg of the journey too.
Met at other end – we are touring with five Germans and three guides – (two German, one for us!). Went to see weaving village (Sukarara)…
…and then pottery village (Banyumulek)…
I suspect that Lombok is still somewhat behind Bali as a tourist destination, but in 1993 there were not that many Western tourists going there and it really was a long way behind Bali. I’ll guess it might seem very commercially-touristic now, visiting these villages.
…then toured a Sasak village – Rambitan – (very primitive)…
…and then on to Kuta Beach for lunch and then Tanjungaan (Lovely beach). Finally stopped at Batik painting workshop near Rambitan before returning to harbour for homebound journey. Got home quite late (8.00) – ate at Chinese restaurant in hotel.
That was quite a day. All the photos we took on that day and the evening before – by which I mean all 56 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:
