15 April 2023, Saturday

Woke up at 5:45am this morning and it was a cool 20 degrees C outside. I climbed out of our tent and saw the sun just peeking out from above the mountaintop. 24 hours ago, I was making the strenuous climb towards the summit, hoping to make it there before sunrise. That felt like a long time ago. As I surveyed my surroundings, I saw beautiful grass plains and the peak of the majestic Mount Rinjani in front of me. Our bright orange tent was perched peacefully on the ground, with the early morning air crisp and invigorating. Birds were chirping sweetly in the distance. The entire scene was very serene. It was a beautiful morning.

Breakfast was served at 6:25am. Last night, Harry gave us two options for breakfast – banana pancake or omelette. JC chose the former while I chose the latter, but Harry said that it could only be either one. As the other Singaporean group also chose omelette, JC was overruled so we had omelette for our breakfast this morning. It was accompanied by toast and the usual coffee and fresh fruits platter.

At 7:12am, we set off from Pos II and resumed our descent towards Sembalun village. The way down from here was very easy compared to the past two days. We passed by herds of grazing cows and carefully avoided their fresh “cakes” on the path. We reached Pos I at 7:36am, took a short break and left three minutes later. The terrain was gentle and posed no challenges so we moved fairly briskly. At 8:45am, we reached the entrance gate at Sembalun, back to where we started our trek two days ago.

We hopped on the back of our pick-up truck and drove back to Senaru, arriving at Rudy Trekker at 9:38am. Here, we collected our luggage that we left behind two days ago, freshened up and waited a while for the other Singaporean group to arrive. They were also heading the same way so the five of us shared a car. At 9:57am, we left Rudy Trekker for Mataram. Bye Senaru!

During the ride, I plugged in to my AirPods and listened to music while penning my thoughts about the trip on my iPhone’s Notes app. I managed to get through the entire Surfacing album by Sarah McLachlan and half of Diana Krall’s Wallflower album. It had been a while since I managed to listen to an album from start to finish. It brought back memories of my school days, listening to CDs on my DiscMan while taking the one-hour bus ride from home to school every morning.

I really enjoy listening to music while travelling. As I reflected on the trip while watching the scenery through the car window, I knew that I was perfectly capable of travelling alone. It is nice to have a companion of course, but I also enjoy the feeling of travelling solo and the solace of being absorbed in my own thoughts. The long car ride was a nice way to unpack all that had happened over the past three days.

I thought about whether I would ever return to Lombok again. I have some “unfinished business” from this trip, because we didn’t make it to the lake, hot springs and second crater rim. I would love to complete it next time, perhaps with my Mount Agung climbing buddies AK and KH. They were keen to come along but couldn’t join us this time because of Ramadan. Perhaps next time, but for now, I am thinking of doing Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia next.

After more than two hours on the road, we arrived at our Aston Inn Mataram Hotel at 12:10pm. For our one-night stay here, I booked an Aston Suite via Agoda for S$82.42. The suite was spacious, nicely furnished and the bathroom was very big. There were cheaper options but we wanted to pamper ourselves a little as a reward. Furthermore, the price was reasonable. A suite in a hotel like this in Singapore would easily cost three times as much, so why not?

I took a good long shower, my first proper shower in three days. It felt good to be clean again and have hot running water, after two days of only using wet wipes to wash up. As it was very hot outside, we chose to relax and laze in the room so we ordered lunch in using Gojek food delivery. JC ordered a spicy chicken dish with rice each for the both of us. The chicken was really spicy but very good. I loved that the food was wrapped in banana leaves, which was environmentally friendly and traditional.

JC also ordered a stick of bakso bakar mercon, a bowl of bakso and two drinks, which came up to Rp 89,250 (around S$8) altogether. Bakso refers to Indonesian meatballs. I don’t normally order food delivery in Singapore, but I suppose the delivery fee in Singapore would already cost S$3 or more, so I think the prices of food delivery services in Indonesia like Gojek or Grab are pretty reasonable.

After a short rest, it was time for a massage. We were lazy to find a place outside so we settled for our hotel’s spa. I went for a two-hour relaxing massage and scrub, which cost Rp 350,000 + 21% tax, or Rp 423,500 including tax (about S$38). I’m not very particular about massages but I felt this was only so-so. I think it was mainly because they didn’t give my feet a hot bath before starting the massage, and there was also no background music, so the experience felt a bit incomplete.

At 5:15pm, it was not so hot anymore so we ventured out of the hotel. By this time, we were really feeling the effects of the climb and our legs ached badly. We had to walk down the stairs gingerly and slowly. We walked over to Mataram Mall, located just beside our hotel. It was a very old school shopping mall, reminiscent of our Lucky Plaza mall in Singapores in the 90’s. Many of the shops were shuttered. There was a children’s fashion show taking place in the mall’s atrium and we stood to watch for a few minutes. One of the girls in particular had a flair for modelling and she struck the poses really well.

The anchor tenant at Mataram Mall was Tiara department store, occupying a large swathe of the second floor. Like the mall, it was also very old school. A long-sleeved batik shirt caught my eye. Unlike most others, which were dark coloured, this one was ivory white with a pair of beautiful phoenixes on the front and back side. Its design was clean cut and elegant, and the material was good, so I bought it for Rp 240,000 (S$21.60). I left the store feeling very happy with my purchase.

After doing some grocery shopping at the supermarket (I bought some snacks, sweets, beer and Sensodyne toothpaste), we returned to the hotel to drop off the stuff before heading out again. Being a foodie, JC had watched some YouTube videos by food vlogger Mark Wiens and bookmarked some of the eating places that he went. JC booked a Grab car and we were off at 7:04pm for a night of feasting!

Our first destination was Sate Rembiga Ibu Sinnaseh located at Jl. Dr. Wahidin 11B Mataram, a 10-minute drive away from our hotel. Actually, JC wanted to try Warung Sate Rembiga Utama Bu Rurin next door (which Mark Wiens went to), but our Grab driver said that Ibu Sinnaseh was better, so we heeded his advice. When we arrived, there were scores of locals at the entrance. Most of them were doing takeaways and were waiting for their orders to be ready.

We found an empty pondok and sat there for our meal. It felt more atmospheric dining there than on a chair and table. We ordered 10 sticks of the famous Sate Rembiga and 10 sticks of Ayam Sate, which came with two seasonings – Bumbu Kacang and Bumbu Rembiga. But first, what is sate?

Sate, or satay as we spell it here in Singapore, refers to skewered meat grilled over charcoal. The name Sate Rembiga comes from a village in Lombok, and it is lean beef marinated with red chilli, arenga sugar, shrimp paste and local spices. The sate is flavourful on its own and doesn’t need any additional gravy. The Sate Rembiga was very spicy but oh so good. Really nice.

The Ayam Sate (chicken satay) was also very good. Bumbu means “seasoning” and kacang means “peanut”. I preferred the Bumbu Rembiga, which had more kick to it. The peanut gravy was a real winner. I loved how smooth it was. Very different from the coarse peanut gravy we have in Singapore.

We also ordered a bowl of Bebalung soup, which is beef ribs soup cooked with a mixture of spices including turmeric, ginger, garlic, onion, galangal and pepper. Like Sate Rembiga, it is a traditional Lombok dish. The locals believe that Belabung soup is an energy enhancer and drinking it enhances vitality. The soup was very tasty and the ribs were very soft and tender. Yummy!

The 10 sticks of Sate Rembiga cost Rp 25,000 (S$2.25), the 10 sticks of Ayam Sate cost Rp 20,000 (S$1.80) and the bowl of Bebalung soup cost Rp 20,000. We also ordered drinks, rice and some keropok. The total bill came up to Rp 120,000 (S$10.80), which was very reasonable.

At about 7:55pm, we took another Grab car to our next destination, Taliwang Khas Pak Udin, located at Jl. Gelatik No. 28, Cakranegara. We arrived at 8:11pm. This was another of Mark Wiens’ recommendations. This restaurant was famous for their Ayam Bakar Taliwang, or grilled chicken. JC ordered the Ayam Bakar while I had the Ayam Goreng Taliwang, or fried chicken. It came with a side of fresh sliced cucumber, an eggplant salad with coconut seasoning (which we didn’t like) and a tangy dipping sauce made of peanut, lime, tomato and chilli peppers.

I felt that the Ayam Bakar was nicer because it was more flavourful, whereas the Ayam Goreng was rather dry. For this dish, spring chickens or kampong chickens (free range chickens) are used. The birds were tiny so there wasn’t much meat, to be honest. We also ordered a glass of iced tea each. The Ayam Bakar/Goreng Taliwang was Rp 35,000 (S$3.15) each, plus an additional Rp 7,000 (S$0.63) for steamed white rice. The total bill came up to Rp 94,000 (S$8.46). Not expensive.

Having had our fill, we couldn’t eat any more so we left at 8:41pm and took a Grab car to our hotel. As we were nearing our hotel, we saw a few large retail shops packed with locals. The open space in front of the stores was filled with motorbikes. We decided to alight and check it out.

As it was Saturday night, the locals were out in full force and they were in the mood for shopping, even though it was already quite late. Perhaps they were buying new clothes for the upcoming Ramadan. We popped in to a few stores – Royal Surf Outlet, Fashion One Kota and Roxy Fashion Outlet. The apparels were quite cheap but nothing really caught my eye so I didn’t buy anything.

We returned to our hotel before 10pm as we were very tired and aching badly. We then chomped on the snacks we bought earlier and sipped our beer while watching some Netflix programmes. At around 12:45am, I called it a night.

16 April 2023, Sunday

We went for breakfast at our hotel’s restaurant at 6:30am. There was a good selection of food, pastries and fruits. At 7:50am, we checked out of our room and booked a Grab car to the airport. There was only light traffic on this Sunday morning and it was a pleasant drive. The ride took less than half an hour and we arrived at 8:24am.

The airport looked very new and workers were polishing the floor. The escalator up to the departure hall was not working. After getting our boarding passes, we wanted to go into the departure hall to lounge around and get a second cup of coffee. However, the staff told us that our International gate was not ready yet at 8:45am so we went to the Domestic boarding area, where there many F&B options like Starbucks and Roti O, souvenir and retail shops.

Initially, we were not aware that our International boarding gate 6 was located at a separate area from the Domestic boarding area. Luckily, we found out early enough. We had to exit the Domestic area and go through security clearance again at the International area. After we passed through, we saw that there was only one pathetic food stand selling instant noodles, bottled water, potato chips, biscuits and a small coffee machine. It was strange that there was such a big disparity in the facilities and shops at both areas.

At 10:40am, we boarded our Scoot flight TR259 and departed Lombok at 11:05am. After a 2½-hour flight, we touched down at Changi Airport Terminal 1 at 1:39pm. Home sweet home. End of another great trip!

Bonus blog post: For those who are considering a climb up Mount Rinjani, I have written a post about what you should pack and bring for the climb. Hope it will help you prepare and have a comfortable and safe climb. You can read my post by clicking here!