Lombok Drive

We enjoyed a scenic drive on Lombok Island. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, and it was mostly cars and scooters, but we also passed a few horse drawn carts along the way.

As our guide explained, “That is a small horse, not a donkey. Indonesians are small people, so God in his great wisdom gave us small horses.”

Rice fields abound on Lombok, so we passed many fields. Some rice was recently harvested, as evidenced by the woman we saw spreading using a push broom to spread out some rice on a sheet to dry. (I took that as a weather forecast, as well. After all, they wouldn’t dry rice on a rainy day, would they?)

Unlike neighboring Bali, Lombok’s citizenry is mostly Muslim and Wetka Talu (a syncretic blend of Islam with the local tribal animism), along with a smattering of Balinese Hindus. (Bali, on the other hand, is mostly Hindu.)

We passed a lot of mosques and temples on our drive.Read more