Day 4 (8/1/12)

My day started with the song “Whenever You Are” by Sami Yusuf and it touched me deeply. I kept listening to it again and again at every free moment I could find.

“…In each smile
In every single sigh
Every minute detail
Traces of you are found there

Wherever you are I’ll find you
Cause you’re the one I turn to
Wherever you be I’ll be with you.

… To see your smile
I would pass every trial
Desperately I await
For the day when I’m by your side…”

The perfume of these words followed me in my mind throughout the day.

It was raining the entire day but the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits. We decided to rent a couple of bikes anyway and headed to the south of Senggigi. It was a bit tricky for me in the beginning as I haven’t biked much in my life but I am kinda learning on the road. At one point I even tried to reverse the bike forgetting that a bike goes only 1 way and not 2 like a car! (Amma and Uncles, do not worry, it sounds worse than it really is! I am SAFE and I go really SLOW!)

The whole idea of biking is really warming up to me. I might not be great at it, but it truly feels like the best way to explore. We stopped at random places, some good and some not so good. But we were lucky that most places we stopped were wonderful. We stopped at great view points, took impromptu walks into small unknown goat paths and stopped at a wonderful lunch place where we had the best and the strongest coffee of our lives! Well, best coffee of “my” life! Daddy would have probably enjoyed it. :) Lombok Coffee is something you all have to try atleast once in your life!

We also stopped at a local temple called “Batu Balong Temple”. It sits on a small cliff overlooking the ocean and the waves crash into the temple’s wall every now and then, spraying the people sitting inside with sprinkles of salt water. It was clearly a Hindu temple and we were handed a yellow stole at the entrance and were asked to tie it around our waist before we went in. The most interesting thing about the temple, was that there was no statue of any god in there. There were other statues around the place ofcourse but they clearly weren’t the center of worship. Instead, there were just these narrow, tall, multi-stored pagodas with an empty box at the top and people offering pooja things to it. It was like the pagodas were saying, “It doesn’t really matter what your object of love is - Baba, Vishnu, Daddy, Nature, Quantum Mechanics……! Just fill it in the empty box above and express your love!” :) Ofcourse one could spend the entire day trying to figure out the symbolism behind the empty boxes but I didn’t. I spent a long time sitting on the cliff and thinking of daddy and the words from the song “Wherever You Are” kept coming to my mind. Thank you Yvu Anuty and Margrit Aunty for sharing that song with me.

We had an interesting encounter today with an Australian lady. We had just checked out of our previous hotel and were walking to our new hotel with all our heavy backpacks and day packs on us. It was drizzling when we started but it soon turned into a heavy downpour, so we quickly had to duck into the entrance of a small store to take shelter. There we met a lady named “Lee” and we started talking about the rain, the economy, education, and so on. She was telling us about her life and hers is an interesting and strange story! She married a Sasak man from Lombok, who turned out to be a fanatic muslim and wanted her to have kids for Allah! When she refused he simply married another woman and told her about it over an sms! Can you believe that? She had to get out of the marriage with a lot of pain and stress. Her life sounded like it was taken from an tragedy novel rather than reality. Guys, shit really happens!!! Her story makes me realize how blessed I am. Anyway, interesting encounters, inspiring people, and challenging situations. That’s what travel is all about, isn’t it?