Shoestrappers

We spent one day exploring from Mataram to the southern coast. There are numerous small artisanal communities along the way but mostly vast agricultural fields. The only major airport on Lombok (Zainuddin Abdul Madjid International Airport, LOP) is located about halfway from Mataram to the coast, in a fairly sparse area, making it pretty much equally <in?>convenient from the main population centers.

Views from the road..

Rismunika Astuti art shop is a pottery facility about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Mataram. It’s composed of a few big warehouses with open retail space along the front. Aisle after aisle of local pottery pieces of various styles at reasonable prices.

There are so many pieces that it’s easy to forget that these aren’t produced by machine or overseas, each is individually crafted and painted. We were especially impressed by the shell overlays. The butterfly, sun, and moon designs below are made entirely of tiny pieces of egg shell. They prepare many sheets in advance by removing the shell from eggs, fragmenting them, and gluing them to a piece of paper.

As we found all over Indonesia, when pieces are painted or dyed they tend to use natural, local substances to do it. Turmeric is typically used for yellow, indigo for blue, etc.

Pottery is a tough thing to buy while traveling since you need to get it home. They do offer a shipping service, but it was basically just standard rates at a local international shipping company. Very expensive. Instead we tried to only buy unique, smaller pieces, take pictures of others, and wrap everything in bubble wrap and clothing in our luggage. Everything made it intact!

Sukarara Manggis Songket is a weaving community about 20 km (12.4 mi) south of Mataram. It’s a traditional Sasak village with some unique twists. Women must master nyesek (weaving traditional songket cloth) before they can marry.

The sweet and powerful lady on the right explained to us (only slightly tongue-in-cheek) how women do all of the work in the village. The men do the heavy labor, but it’s true that all you see is the women doing everything, including all of the cotton spinning, weaving, and selling of goods. We saw men eating and finding the shadiest seats.

Art centers like this always run the risk of losing their authenticity as they cater to higher demand and more tourists. For example we discovered that while they do spin their own cotton thread, most fabrics they produce are actually made from imported strings of different types and colors that are either unavailable or too expensive to produce in Lombok. In fact, songket usually includes metallic strings (note that ours does not as we prefer the natural tones) so these days is usually at least partially imported. We saw some neon threads as well, which are entirely unappealing to us in traditional blankets, but clearly there is a market for them.

I would definitely recommend visiting communities like this while in Lombok. The women are incredibly sweet and make the learning experience enjoyable. Being able to <briefly!> try to do what they do gives you a real appreciation of the art form and the grueling difficulty of doing it day in and day out.

We visited the south coast’s destination city of Kuta… for 20 minutes. The central touristy drag was lined with vendors selling the same old stuff at higher-than reasonable prices. Meanwhile the roads are narrow and packed with cars, scooters, and motorcycles, making it difficult to walk safely (as in so much of Indonesia). We grabbed some cash at the ATM and some water and escaped.

We drove west and had lunch at Laut Biru Bar & Restaurant, right on Selang Belanak Beach. It’s a very nice, very busy restaurant with modern options and extends from shaded indoor tables to right in the sand. We had western fare with local flare and enjoyed it.

Selang Belanak is a favorite for people across the island with its sandy bottom and gradual slope. I went swimming for maybe 45 minutes while Savitri enjoyed a drink. I actually saw Christo out in the water swimming with his daughter. He had described to us how this restaurant was the best way to access the best beach, reinforcing what Ibu Sopan had told us earlier.

We asked what other natural sights were on the nearby coast and our driver excitedly took us back east to… Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit (also here) just to the east of Kuta. This is a world-class motorcycle racing venue and I’m sure to some people a thrill to visit but.. not for us. There wasn’t an event going on yet there were quite a few people around the entrance peering in, and even some inside watching an SUV tow tourists in a cage around the track. Our driver was surprised that we only stayed for 20 minutes or so (and that was only because I found it all so surreally funny that I FaceTimed my friend Russell to share the scene).

I understand and agree with the need to geographically spread out tourism more so that its benefits are wider spread and its downsides are less concentrated. This seems important around the world as tourism overwhelms some areas. However I’m not sure I like what they’re creating in the Kuta area.

Lombok seems to have a special relationship with the sun. Hot days and gorgeous sunsets! As we drove back north to the villa we caught countless glimpses of the sunset over the western mountains.