We have been plagued by much controversy while here in Lombok. Clearly events in Ambridge haven't helped but the controversy that we have faced on a day to day basis at Jo Je Bungalows, our place of residence, has been to do with toast, specifically: how much toast is extra toast. Breakfast on the beach was included in the price, something of a requirement these days as I am not a great fan of having to head out to find grub early in the morning followed by hungry children, and we have all enjoyed the experience. But with growing boys and girls, not to mention parents, the option of buying in extra toast and hence supplementing our rations has been one that we have taken up each day. Now variety is the spice of life but a bit of consistency is also quite nice too. Each day the extra toast has arrived in different sized portions ranging from three half slices to five and once including an extra orange juice on one particularly random day. There have even been variations on the same day between extra toast portion one and two with portion two being greater than portion one. And that is without us even thinking about the addition or not of jam. Controversial indeed.
Certainly our time has not been without opportunities to spend our tourist rupiah. Our combined mental arithmetic has been put to the test when converting to Malaysian Ringgit (3215 Rupiah to the Ringgit) or slightly more simple the conversion of 18600 to the GBP. Loads of beach traders have been very keen to relieve us of that cash by offering us string bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings, pearls (all of which apparently have been genuine and of very good quality), t-shirts, wooden carvings, bowls, massages, fruit, and so the list goes on. Fortunately it has been in a very smiley way and after three to five "No Thank Yous" the traders have left us alone. (While sitting writing this paragraph I have been approach by one bloke selling bananas and rambutans and another guy selling pirated DVDs. Probably sensing what my mind was composing, we had been earlier helped across the road by a bloke keen to sell us a range of day tours.
Our car hire here was good value and yesterday it helped us complete a mini tour of the area. After some searching we managed to find the rather nice Pura Lingsar Temple complex. It was a mix of styles in that there was a large rectangular archway to approach the place through and the complex was a series of squares interconnected. Naturally there were various people who were offering souvenirs at "very-good-price-only-look-is-ok" which we ignored. Instead we paid a small donation and gained the necessary entrance ticket to explore the inner, open-air sanctum. Unexpectedly the ticket was wearable: a bright yellow sash that we were instructed had to be tied around our midriffs. Fortunately our girths were of a slim enough size to be able to wear the things and so we set off to stroll around. Thankfully non of fell foul of the other strict entrance condition in that menstruating women were not permitted entrance. Why do world religions have so many silly rules? I had better stop there before a rant develops.
Later we found, a bit by luck, Narmada Park, an even larger complex of squares, paths, places to wear yellow sashes while not menstruating and even a swimming pool and zip wire over a lake which the boys enjoyed very much.
As with other attractions that we had found we discovered these places by semi accident. Our map gave us a general idea of where the places were but after that we had to employ a sort of hopeful guesswork in that there were very few roads signs. One kilometre before our destination of Pura Lingsar we drove into a place signed Puri Lingsar which turned out to be a well hidden hotel and when we first arrived in Narmada we eventually discovered that we had been within yards of the park but thanks to no signs we had had to explore a bit before arriving. Still the explore was worth it.
Driving on Lombok has been a slightly more good-natured and not quite so frantic version of the KL motoring experience. Mopeds abound and travel around at a range of speeds occasionally employing a freestyle approach to the left hand side of the road. Roads are generally fine for two small ish cars to pass each other although overtaking slow moving mopeds can be a challenge given the twisting nature of the roads.
Overall the trip has been a good one with the culinary art high points being peanut curries on the beach leaving me with a desire to learn how to make peanut sauces.