Mt. Rinjani

Arriving late (as usual - thanks Sinan) to the Mataram aiport we are picked up by our tour guide... or rather, his driver and taken to sengiggi - the center of Rinjani trekking. We agree to a price, $200 hoping we would get to summit the mountain, and head to a hotel for the night.

Next day up at 5am for the long car ride to the edge of the mountain. We arrive, and the trek "manager" organizes several groups, sending us off full of banana pancakes and his youngest nephew (izzy) who will be our guide.

Turns out Izzy is smoking too much, so we quickly pass him on the trail and begin up on our own. The mountain begins through a cloud forest with lots of humid, wet trees and bugs buzzing around. Half way up we stop for lunch, the porters (carrying far more than their own shares) cook some soup, boil some eggs, and throw some rice on top. The food is delicious, and certianly not clean (not western clean, that is). The mountain got significantly steeper as we got close to the crater rim, this was expected, but not welcomed.

With dust covering our bodies, we take the last few steps to the rim edge and are welcomed to a beauty few have seen. Here, a perfect cone volcanoe grows out from the middle of an old, much larger volcanoes crater. And, they are still active. The small volcanoe, as night fell, revealed its red glow as lava spewed out constantly. Even through the night, camped just over the hill, we were remined of mother earths power as the volcanoe sent thunderous echoes throughout the region.

The next day, waking for sunrise over the ridge, we head back down the mountain - probably much faster than we should have as our legs still cry everytime we sit down... oh well, that's vacation.

Tropical Singapore Photo

Tropical Singapore

So, we arrived tired last night at midnight. Woke early today and walked the city from Little India, through Chinatown, and on Orchard Road (a shopaholics fantansy). This image is from the quite exquisite orhid garden in the national botanical gardens.

We're off to Jakarta! See you in two weeks Singapore.

El Archipiélago Expreso comienza en Singapore, después de una noche continua hacia Jakarta. La parada es corta en ésta gran cuidad porque las aventuras comienzan en Mataram y Gili Air (22-7)...El viaje continua hacia Yogykarta(29-7) y Termina en Kuching-Malaysia(31-7)... Escribiremos pronto desde estos hermosos y enigmaticos lugares. Selamat Jalan! -Isa