We hired a tour guide and driver to take us around and see a bit of Lombok, along with our Ozzie friends Chris and Ann from Silver Girl. We arranged pick-up at 0800 and first stop was Banyumulek, one of the main pottery making villages in Lombok. We toured one of the many factories where everything is done by hand, and the beautiful finished products are sent world wide. Next on the agenda was a stop at Sukarara, a weaving village where ikat and Sasak traditional cloth is displayed and sold. Some of the weavers work outside, and a quality piece will take from 1-3 months to weave! Blankets, sarongs and cloth are made and sold here. We had previously made a short stop in Mataram where our guide, Awan, bought a box of breakfast pastries for us. He usually guides the overnight mountain treks to the second highest volcano in Indonesia- Mount Rinjani, but a friend of his (and a new friend of ours) asked him to take us around and he was a wonderful guide, explaining everything in good English and answering our many questions. We headed south to Kuta, and stopped at Tanjung Aan, a beautiful small village on the water with fine, white sand beaches. Talk about laid back. After a late lunch we headed back and made a final stop at Rungkang Jangkuk to visit a wood craft and furniture making facility. What a treat for the eye! The workmanship and complexity of some of the pieces was amazing; good thing we had no room aboard for any of the larger pieces! We returned to our boats at about 5:15 P.M., after a nine hour tour of a small part of this beautiful island. During our drive we saw lots of mosques and temples, two weddings; tobacco and vegetable fields; lots of monkeys, rice paddies, and thousands of mopeds weaving in and out of the traffic. Everyone says that parts of Lombok are what Bali used to be like 20-30 years ago, before heavy tourism changed everything there. We certainly enjoyed and highly recommend our day trip; cost p/p: $15.00USD.(Please be aware that prices are always negotiable, and often change...) Awan's cell: 0819 0734 5121.
Pic: They notch the design with chisel, and cut and inlay the shell...this was a big shop with a lot of furniture.
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