Part of a chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Lombok is separated to the west of Bali by the Lombok Strait. The island is circular in shape with a “tail” at its southwest end where we are at anchor in Port Lembar. The population of Lombok sits around 3 and half million. A little history, the Dutch first visited the island in the late 1600s but settled mainly in the eastern half, leaving the western half to be ruled by the dynastic Hindus from Bali. Cultural and religious tensions simmered until a revolt which occurred between 1891 and 1894 leading to the annexation of the entire island to the Nederland East Indies. Religious belief has always distinguished the Indonesian Islands. As Bali is known as the land of a thousand temples, Lombok is known as the island of a thousand mosques. Lombok was transformed when Islam reached its shores in the 16th century, interesting that on Bali the dominating religion is Hindu at 94% of the population while here in Lombok some 20 miles across the strait the dominating religion is Islam at 94%.
Our first tender port of the cruise, fun. We tendered into port at about 9:00AM jumped into a Taxi and had a visit to the Mayura Water Palace. Built in 1726 by the then Balinese King of Lombok, this Palace (remains really), has incredible pools and temples on site including a fountain of youth, where you can get Holy Water. As our day was short here we headed to the town mall to pick up a few items (broke down and finally purchased some local Batik clothing), then back to the pier. A tip for those visiting here, as you are coming off the tender you will be inundated by young men trying to sell overpriced tours, fine if you are into that but best to go with at least one other couple but if not continue down the road where you will find the regular taxis. These are good honest hard working regular guys driving the “Blue Bird” Taxis, with the meter on we were 40 minutes to the Palace where he waited for us for our visit there, yes we paid the meter at that time, reset when we got back in. He then took us the 20 minutes to the mall, paid again where he again waited the hour that we spent in the mall and then took us back the 40 minutes to the pier, were we again squared up and gave him a good tip, total cost for one of the young guys trying to get you into their cars $60.00 USD, for us doing it on a meter with our Blue Bird Taxi, $21.00 USD including a good tip. A good half day here for us, tomorrow we visit the Komodo Dragons.
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