Texts & pictures: Western coast discovery (1/2)


	Lombok

Western coast discovery (1/2) | Western coast discovery (2/2) | The Gili islands | Beaches and nature | The human environment | Around Lombok with Willy by motorcycle

Western coast discovery (1/2)

Claire and her followers, in front of the horse carts of the Kediri market

sale of local products inside the Kediri market

harvesting and beating of the rice, in the western part of Lombok

Following our first footsteps on the charming land of Lombok were some funny young girls, as fascinated by a Barbie doll in flesh and bone as Claire was herself inside the local market. Amongst all the vegetables, spices, and local dishes, we were able to apprehend the richness of this volcanic soil which offers so many products to those who know how to cultivate it: saffron, ginger, palm sugar, betel nut for chewing tobacco, and all kinds of rice, in particular one which is not as tasty, but which grows more easily, so as to avoid a famine as terrible as the one that lasted from 1963 to 1965.
All of this reveals the traditional Indonesia, which continues to live like it used to in respect of tradition (adat), while still encompassing some aspects of the modern world. It's hard to see what has changed in this typical local market in the past centuries, except the arrival of plastic, and of metal roofs as well as the use of rubber wheels for the carts pulled by small docile horses.
If I were to describe what is so enjoyable in Indonesia apart from the tourist places, it would be this in particular: the lively but peaceful social life, in which each has his role and goes at his own rhythm, and in which the human contacts are so warm and friendly.