I made it home by Monday morning I swear. And I did. Knocking on the door at 2:00am in the sweetest home in Lombok. My mother had no idea about my coming. Since it was Mother’s Day, I planned it to be a bit dramatic with the surprise after not coming home for almost a year. Last winter break, I was in New York and smelling the scent of white Christmas and caught up with all the family there.

Cut the crap!

Okay. I am in Lombok now and feel the tremendous happiness and peace at the same time. As I caught the last flight and departed from Jakarta, I didn’t feel anything but my relaxed body seated in a leaning chair in the aircraft.

How is home different than the last time I left it? I can assure you that the answer to this question can last around four hours. Although it primarily focuses on the growing tourism industry that has already attracted the ‘B’ figure of dollars to flood helping to stimulate businesses to grow. Nature has been exposed from virgin beaches to waterfalls, new routes to hike are opened, numbers of coffeeshops are opened at least 10 times more than a few months ago, barber shop, local music, and the building process of many new shopping malls is accelerated to help our people catch up with modern world like big cities. There have been too many exciting news and people to catch up with. And I would say that newcomers are starting to invade the island of Lombok, especially expats and some people with big cash buying houses in the tourism area like Senggigi and the thousands of Gilis. The elite villas are too many and none of these we can afford yet. If Richard could buy an island that’s worth $220 million at only $8 million price, can I get one too at a cheaper price?

I had everything scheduled: the places to visit, casual late meetings with my folks, and two family days. I wanted to make the best out of this one-week escape.

Let me summarize how the trip went.

Beaches

Lombok is somewhat like Bali. You can enjoy up to five beaches in only one day and still wanting to go to 20 other beaches. The only reason why is that each beach offers different type of sand and cliff and color and wave and coral and everything (excessive use of ‘and’ makes it sound strange). This could be worse if you were a huge fan of photography that plays with art and perspective, or maybe just focus on the nature, you would have stayed for a month just to capture pictures of the beaches. Lombok is hell of a place to stay for that passion.

Waterfalls

You know what sucks about photography? We can play with lens and editing but will never be able to capture the nature the way our eyes do. I feel unsatisfied with this product of my camera even the one that was captured by my partner’s professional camera; none of these can be compared to eyes. I am saying that you have to literally be there to fully enjoy the magic of nature. I am sure if you have a crazy hectic life that you can’t breathe in any days of the week, you would never take this nature for granted. Apparently, I have been taking the nature of my own island for granted. Trying to learn from my past experiences, this week, I had my e-mail and phone deactivated until 9pm and get connected back to the world to catch up with e-mails and chats to keep a good tracking of my work and project for sure, just like you. Speaking of modern technology, I was laughing literally for an hour with a friend who is now busy developing a very promising business plan in some parts of Indonesia. We felt funny at people who think that scrolling down the feed or timeline on social media is just a waste of time where innovative ideas can be born and developed by this very activity. I was once told that I am a person who takes too much on thinking. I laugh in silence and whisper this question: you think Facebook idea just came into realization in one night in one Harvard dorm? Ah people, we develop the belief that we’re always smart and forget how far left behind we are when we don’t consider others in our thought process. Yes, just stick to that. It’ll take you nowhere.

BTW, the waterfalls are everywhere surrounding the mountain of Great Rinjani (second tallest mountain in Indonesia after Jayawijaya in Papua) and each of which has different height and number of visitors. I suggest you to go to the ones that are barely exposed and have that mind massaged by nature! ☺

Culture

I am sorry for the culture. I have not had the chance to go to temples and other religious places to show. Simply talking about culture of Lombok, we have this saying:

“You can see Bali from Lombok, but you cannot see Lombok from Bali.”

That should be sufficient in explaining my point. Literally, with diverse backgrounds, Lombok should be the top player in tourism industry. Where else do you see Hindus and Muslims pray at one temple without getting in a conflict? I am a big big big fan of diversity. I explore other religions as I go to temples, mosques, or churches in order to embrace the understanding of how spiritual power can affect people in certain ways. I got picked on for doing this. My friends would usually say “Are you a Muslim, an atheist, or agnostic?” I am just this Muslim who is simply interested in learning more about the beauty of differences. Come on, go judge.

Anyway, the future of this unique combined culture between religions and languages in Lombok can be some kind of valuable assets that should be maintained by good policies and balance with the coming of western culture where 6 year-old kid in one street of Senggigi beach screamed at each other saying the F-bomb. Uh, this is the consequence?

I want to wrap things up since I am running out of time. Javanese coffee is good. Good evening. Have your checklist done before Friday! See you in my next writing. (feeling like celebrity now? lol no)