Lombok was another tender port and Carol arranged for our group to get off together on one of the early tenders. Once we arrived at the dock and made our way through the port building there was a bit of confusion finding the tour bus and guide which gave Carol a bit of anxiety.
Once we were on the bus we made our way to a weaving business and watched the weaving process. Angela even tried weaving. A typical item takes 3 months to produce and the girls doing the weaving start when they are ten years old and work at the craft until they get married.
Next we visited a little museum (West Nusa Tenggara) and learned a bit about the local culture. Lunch was sort of a surreal experience. We had been traveling the morning on narrow crowded roads past very rural scenes and signs of poverty. Suddenly we came upon a large bright and shiny mall that looked every bit like a typical American mall. Down in the basement floor I found an Indonesian restaurant where I enjoyed a typical Indonesian noodle dish with a drink for under $2US. It was tasty unlike much of the ship food which tends to be a bit bland.
Throughout the day, one of the striking features I observed were the sheer number of Islamic mosques and how colorful they were. This was in sharp contrast to the homes that surrounded them. Also, many mosques were located relatively close to each other. On more than one occasion I could see 4 or more mosques in my field of vision.
In the afternoon we visited more temples before making our way back to the port where we took a tender back to the ship, ate our dinner in the Lido, and enjoyed a variety show with the harpist Alana Conway and the illusionist Ruben Vilagrand. We skipped the movie (Victoria & Abdul) which we had previously seen and went to bed a bit earlier as the next day in Bali was scheduled to be a long one. Stay tuned.
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