A Journey to Rinjani: Day Five
Monday, August 06, 2012
For
me, the last day of traveling often means going to gift shops to buy souvenirs
or tasting local foods. Since there were only few hours remained for us to stay
in Lombok, we could only spend the last day on the beach.
Walking to the beach in the
morning, we stopped by at a food stall to have a short breakfast. Finally, I
found another kind of breakfast beside pancake. It was Nasi Kuning, yellow
rice, naturally colored with turmeric leaves while it was cooked. If
it was served with mince and fried egg in Jakarta or Bandung, there it was with
fried grated coconut. The taste was great. I was glad I got my appetite back
after losing it in the mountain on the other day.
The
beach was gorgeous, especially with not much tourists around at that time. The
place we came happened to be some sort of traditional port of local fishermen. What
I found that morning was a group of people running toward every boat that came
from the sea. They pulled the boat to the shore. Each of them was rewarded with
a fish for every favor they did to a fisherman.
We
took the different route to return to the guest house and that was way farther
than the first one we had taken to the beach that morning. As a result, we had
to ride the local transportation. I didn’t know what it was called in Lombok,
but it reminded me so much of the one I rode in Pangalengan, a small mountainous
town in West Java.
Within
minutes, we checked out from the guest house, quick shopped for souvenirs and
then got on board to the shuttle bus that would take us to the airport at
Praya. On the way to the airport, I took several shots of Mataram from the bus.
After
having a very quick lunch of fried rice at the airport, we got on board, ready
to leave Lombok for Jakarta. As a farewell, a grasshopper perched on the
window, as if it had wanted to say goodbye. At 12:42, the plane took off and
within few seconds after that, I looked through the window the peak of Rinjani,
covered with clouds.
“That’s
the peak, isn’t it?” I asked Gilang to convince myself.
“Yes
it is,” he replied. “And we have been there.”
4 comments
I love the grasshopper :)
ReplyDeleteMe too. I hope it's a good sign.
Deletesego kuning seems soooo delicious!
ReplyDeletevery much! I would crave for more.
Delete