Conquering Mount Rinjani

People who know me well, knows that I hate camping, hate the feeling of stickiness and not be able to shower even for a day. But somehow, I end up signing up for a 3 days 2 nights including CAMPING to Rinjani!

It all started when I got  message from a friend asking me whether I am interested for a hike to Rinjani. I was like Rinjani what?!! Then I ask her day trip ah? She said no and there is camping involved. I told her no way I am going as I hate camping. But I asked another two friends and they said yes and somehow due to my yolo spirit and kiasuness of not wanting to ffk these two friends whom I persuaded to join the trip, I end up buying the flight ticket and paying for the 'camping' trip. I did not do much research nor train much other than hiking up Gunung Nuang two weeks prior and a two hour hike up to Pulpit Rock when I was in Norway. 

The day came when we boarded the flight to Lombok and then another two hours on the road to the foot of the mountain. Our group consist of total of 16 people with 8 were from the same group/clique. I prepared myself for the worst as we ate dinner and take a long shower before hitting the bed. We had three guides, Sarwan, Anan and Erun with another 16 porters bringing our big rucksacks, food, gas, tent, chairs and etc...yes...they brought even chairs up to the mountain, something we very much appreciated later on. We were briefed on the route and the hours for each route the night before. Physically I was prepared, mentally I was not sure..more like mentally not going to shower for 3 days. The plan is to use Sembalun trail for ascent and then Senaru for descent and spend 1 night each at the crater rim and hot spring. 

Carb loading before the hike

Our hotel at the foot of the hill

First stop. Let's take a photo

Our group of 16
(photo credit to tour leader)

The real deal is on the right hand side of the photo
(photo credit to tour leader)

We started the day around 9 am after having a heavy breakfast. The day was hot and humid and not long after 10 mins, I have started to sweat and asking myself why would I signed up for this. After about 1 hour, we took a small break eating bananas and filling up our tummies. This was before we reached Post 1 and it's already crazily hot and felt like in a savannah. After about two hours we reached the spot for our lunch, which is Post 2. We saw some half naked Dannish man running up along the trail and stopped at the same spot as us. My tour leader in his finest sense of humour decided he needed to take the moment of half naked men in full glory and captured us in his photos. Well, as least there were something for us girls to look back in the future:) After seemed like a more than hour of lunch and three bowl of rice for myself (I have never taken more than half a bowl of rice at home), we continue the journey, this time through the hot savannah field with not a single tree for shade.

Lunch for the day
(photo credit to tour leader)

cooking in the progress. the porter even brought a gas stove along!

check out all the stuff the porter has the carry

Oh and not forgetting that every few minutes, I felt like I was being 'chased' by one of the lady in our group. Apparently, after I told this to my other friends, they said the same thing of her trying to catch up with me and another girl. Sigh..it's not a race my dear! I conserved my energy and used most of the yoga breathing and small steps to hike up the Bukit Penyesalan, where there are seven small hills to be hiked. After seemed like eternity, we reached the camping site but to my horrow, it's surrounded by mist and I can barely see anything, let alone the lake or the peak of Rinjani. Apparently, our tent were set up at the most strategic spot overlooking the lake, but all I can see is layers and layers of mist. We settled down for the night and imagine my big surprise and happiness when we were provided with mattress and pillows. Ok, don't expect like the soft mattress and pillows in hotel but they were good enough for me, someone who hates camping! We washed up or more like using sheets and sheets of wet tissue for 'shower' and then I went out to 'survey' on the makeshift toilet prepared for us. Surprisingly again, it was far exceeded my expectation or maybe my expectation has been lowered down after witnessing how bad the toilet situation back in Everest Base camp. Soon after, we had our dinner and once again, it's a fight to get the chicken, lol.

The next morning, we were woken up around 1.30 am to ascent the peak in time to catch the sunrise. Before the trip, I repeatedly told my friends that I am not gonna try ascending the peak and I just wanna chill at the camp while waiting for sunrise. But somehow, kiasuness kicks in again and off I went in the dark, dusty, full of rocks and sand trail. We started the journey quite late and I knew that I won't make it for the sunrise and hence took my own sweet time to hike up. The first 70% of the trail was ok, fairly doable but the last 30% where the loose sand, rocks, volcanic dust and not forgetting the chill wind which I swear was blowing at almost 80km/h. Every three steps up were followed by two steps down and it was so demotivating that after half an hour, I barely move 50m! I spotted our guide, Sar and Anan along the way and many thanks to them that I managed to reach the peak at 8am. I even asked Anan to shield the 80km/h wind for me, lol.

the toughest part of the journey
(photo credit to tour leader)

Only manage to catch the sunrise mid way

The lake is totally covered in clouds

tour leader making his signature coffee tarik

Made it to the top

What I did't expect was it was really cold up at the peak and I was practically shivering through my jacket and uniqlo extra warm heattech. And while waiting for my tour leader who tried so desperately to light up the fire to boil his coffee tarik, a signature drink that he must do everytime he went up any peak of mountain or hill. After the arrival of the last member of the group, we did some group shots and savoured our hot coffee tarik. Then it's time to head down and here comes the tough part. You see, I have no qualms of climbing up any mountain but I have trouble going down. With the loose rocks and sand, I fell down more than 10 times and I think after that, one of the guide took pity of me and kind of fed up that I was so slow that he proceed to help me 'figure skate' down the mountain! At one point, I fell and almost dragged him down with me, almost making him the first guide in history to 'tergolek' down, lol. With the skating down part, I had to stop every 30 minutes to get the sand and rocks out of my shoe before continuing the skating and after 3 hours I finally managed to reach the campsite in one piece but covered in volcanic dust from head to toe. As it was almost 1pm, we had to make a decision whether to proceed to the hot spring or stay another night at the campsite. As I was too 'pancit' to walk anymore, I voted for another night and the same with the others. Meanwhile 8 others will descent back to the foot of the mountain to catch the transport to the Gili Island. I think our decision to stay on made the guides and porters extremely happy as the dinner for the night, we get to eat two whole chicken between the 8 of us instead fighting over a small piece of chicken like the other night!

Dinner in progress
(photo credit to tour leader)

BBQ chicken, two whole chicken instead of bite size chicken
(photo credit to tour leader)

After conquering Rinjani
(photo credit to tour leader)

Camping in style

Segera Anak lake

We were so happy to finally see the lake 

The decision to stay another night at the campsite proved to be the best decision made as we managed to catch up on sleep, rest and finally able to see the lake in front of our tent during sunset. We also enjoyed gazing at the stars at night with the warmth from the campfire while trying to guess the title of the movies mentioned by our guides, haha. During the night, it rained but surprisingly it was quite warm in the camp. I was surprised that I was really enjoying my stay in the camp and quite chill about not showering for the 2 full days.

We enjoyed our hike down which turn took us about 8 hours plus lunch in between as we played, sang, jump and skipped along. I think our guide must be thinking these people were crazy and they might as well joined in the fun, lol

Plenty of Edelweiss

And my guide keep asking me to take a photo of him with the cow

Another jump in front of Rinjani

Crazy things that we do while descending
(photo credit to tour leader)

See what I mean, even our guide Sar and Anan joined in the fun

Didn't know that a can of coke can make us this happy

Rolling hills of Rinjani

And finally we made it back in one piece with 3 days of dirt and unforgetable memories

 Going on this trip made me cherished little things in life such as comfortable bed, meat, shower, being in good company and having good health. It is also my first ever camping trip that I really enjoyed and this time around, my leg was fully recovered from the ache by the second day, unlike the previous time in KK when it took me a week to fully recover. I guess being prepared and doing some yoga really helps a lot. To all the porters and the guide we had, trully appreaciate what they did, taking care of us for the past few days and not forgetting tour leader for organising this and lastly, my dear friend who first contacted and asked me,"Eh, wanna go hike Rinjani or not"? and to think that I almost ffk her :)

Ratu Boko @ Yogyakarta

If I can use one word to describe this place, it would be "It's Not Worth It", ok make that four words.

Seriously, I almost fainted when I went to the counter to buy the tickets. It's USD 13 which translate into almost RM 50. If I were there for the sunset, I would not mind at all but the sky was crying and the sun was nowhere to be seen. My heart also crying after paying about RM100 for 2 tickets into the temple. Ratu Boko is not too far away from Prambanan temple. I think the driver was a bit shocked when we asked him to bring us there as I guess not many people went there and now I know why. I wished I did some proper research before suggesting the temple. We could turn back after reaching there but sigh, damage to the wallet was done.

If Borobudur is a good place to watch the sunrise, Ratu Boko is the best place for sunset. And I had to admit that from the photos that I googled, it was definitely one of the good place for sunset viewing.

The temple was practically empty when we reached there around 3pm after Prambanan. We started with Borobudur temple and then followed by Prambanan and lastly Ratu Boko. Temples overload. We just spent less than an hour here as it was drizzling ans we were knackered from the temples marathon, lol. So it was just few clicking here and there and walked from one end to another.

So, do I regret going there? Yes. Frankly I would rather spend the money on more batiks, haha. Could have bought another two sets of cloth or rather 3 sets of cloth with that amount of money.

Prambanan Temple @ Yogyakarta

So, I did mentioned in my previous post that the combination ticket for Borobudur and Prambanan temple is USD30. Smart of them to peg the ticket price to USD and charge that to foreign tourist who had no choice but to get it. If buy separately will cost about USD 48 for both temples. Yup, very expensive.

After we spent 2 hours at Borobudur, it's another hour journey to Prambanan temple which is a Hindu temple and Borobudur is Buddhist influenced. Personally, I preferred Prambanan than Borobudur, probably because of less people photobombing my photos as it looks good in photo.

In the end we also spent 2 hours here before leaving to Ratu Boko, a decision I regretted soon after I bought the tickets. That will be another story for another day.

Basically, the temple is dedicated to the God Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Gosh, now I recalled those history and religion that I learned while in university. And from what I can recalled, the temple was badly affected during the earthquake while Borobudur temple was badly affected by the eruption of Mt. Merapi and covered by ashes.

Borobudur temple, Yogyakarta

This must be one of the most expensive temple I ever visited which cost USD 30 for the combination ticket to Prambanan temple as well.

And it's tad a bit disappointing as I would expect something like Angkor Wat. The trip to Borobudur temple from Jogja was an hour journey. Initially,  I wanted to catch the sunrise at the temple and suppose to leave around 3.30am but after seeing the rain non stop for the last few days in Jogja, I decided to change to 7am instead. We woke up around 6am for breakfast before leaving to Borobudur. We hired a car with driver for 10 hours and he fetched us from one place to another.

When we reached the temple, we were swarmed by a group of local students who wanted to practice English with us and asked us to give them grades based on their conversation with us. In the end after I gave the only one who practiced with me an A, the rest just came and asked me to sign their card. And they never practiced with me. But as I wanted to go off, I just signed and gave them an A as well. Cheating but I was too lazy to answer their repeated questions. One funny thing I find about here was that, the locals love to practice English with us eventhough we can speak some Bahasa Indonesia.

So in the end we spent around 2 hours at the temple, trying to maximise the money that we paid to get in.

the local students who practiced English with me

The carvings

View from the top

View from bottom

View from far

Ramayana Ballet @ Prambanan Temple, Yogyakarta

Yup, I am finally back from my week long trip to Yogyarkarta spending most of my time in the hotel and doing nothing but sleep and overdose of HBOs and Fox Movies. Followed hubs to Jogja as the capital is fondly called for his conference and hence spending a week there where else the sightseeing can be done in 2 days. One day for the Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko temple and the night for the famous Ramayana ballet. Another day was for shopping in Malioboro where I got myself batik cloth while exclaiming "so cheap, so cheap" all the time.

It was also supposed to be my birthday trip but I think my plan birthday trip for hubs was much better. At least food wise. Not much of a fan of Indonesian food though there was some decent foodstalls along the roadside near to where we stayed for the week. I think even the hotel staff were surprised to see that we stayed that long in Jogja.

Enough of rambling, back to the main reason for the need of sharing this out.

RAMAYANA Ballet which is the famous dance performed in Jogja and can be seen from many places in Jogja but after hearing my friend who went there before, I chose to watch it at Prambanan temple. I was actually hoping for dance at the open theater but when I saw the pamphlet, it's only up to Oct and from November onwards, during the rainy season, the dance will be held indoor.

We chartered a car with driver to the temple which was around 20 minutes from our hotel, Jogja Plaza. We prebooked the tickets with one of the tour agent stationed at our hotel and we opted for first class which cost us IR 175,000. There are a total of three classes and first being the middle one. Luckily we arrived early and managed to take photos with Rama and Hanuman before the plan started.

I was really happy when I found out that they were going to performed at the out door theater but sadly it only lasted for a mere 5 minutes before the rain start pouring down. Hence, the play had to be moved to indoors and I would say they oversold the tickets as the indoor theater is much smaller than the outdoor one. We cheated and went to sit at the VIP seats instead although we pay for the cheaper seats, haha. I was surprised that my hubby who always follow rules actually took my cheating suggestion and moved to the more expensive seat. That's the best decision ever as we managed to get a good glimpse of the dance. One note though, there are no speech during the whole 2 hours of the play but the story was conveyed using dance and singing from the Gamelan troupe.

Basically, for those who had watched the Kecak dance in Uluwatu in Bali will be familiar with the story and it's a story of how Rama saved his wife, Sita from the villain who captured his wife while he was out hunting for the golden deer for her. Oh, another advantage of watching indoor was that the story was told via projector screen while there is none for the open theater.

Overall, I would highly recommend the play. It's something that you have to watch in Jogja, the same like when you are in London or New York, musical broadway is a must.