Lombok (Days 5-7)

Hi everyone,
We've just returned from 4 days in Bali which we'll describe in our next blog.  Here we'll describe the three days prior to that.  On Tuesday we took a tour from Medana Bay to Kuta on the south coast of Lombok.  On Wednesday we did our "visa run" to the town of Mataram.  On Thursday we had the official welcome ceremony.

The tour on Tuesday took us to a pottery, a weaving centre, a Sasak village and Kuta beach (the latter not to be confused with Kuta in Bali).  All of the stops were interesting, and we were parted from money in all but the last stop.  Most of the items bought were good value, and all of the stops were interesting.

Pottery

Weaving

Sasak Village

Farmland

Kuta Beach (Lombok)

The visa run on Wednesday was for us to be finger-printed and photographed as part of the process of extending our Social Visa in Indonesia.  The process takes about a week, and requires attendance at the main office for this one part.  The exercise took 3 hours for our party of 12 to be processed.  We also spent a couple of hours at the big mall in the town buying supplies and having lunch.  The drive from Medana Bay to Mataram takes about 90 minutes each way, so that was the day gone.

On Wednesday evening the marina put on a Blues Night with a very good band.  It has to be a good night to get us dancing, and so it was!

On Thursday we had a boat maintenance morning - topping up our water tanks, checking the engine, stowing supplies etc.  In the afternoon the formal welcome to Lombok featured local musicians and a fine meal.  The local Regent attended, along with a number of other officials.