Map, Journey and Costs

Note: prices are for 2 adults with baggage

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From	To	Mode	Duration	Cost
🇮🇩 Labuan Bajo - Komodo Island (LBJ)	🇮🇩 I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport - Bali (DPS)	Plane	01:18	£55.82
🇮🇩 I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport - Bali (DPS)	🇮🇩 Gsaskara Homestay	Taxi	00:53	£15.82
🇮🇩 Gsaskara Homestay	🇮🇩 Sanur Dream Beach	Taxi	00:27	£2.06
🇮🇩 Sanur Dream Beach	🇮🇩 Lombok Bangsal Pier	Ferry	04:59	£34.67
🇮🇩 Lombok Bangsal Pier	🇮🇩 Green Rinjani	Taxi	01:24	£0.00

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Our time in Indonesia ended with an another volcanic adventure: hiking on Rinjani. It’s an active volcano with a summit at 3762m. We booked a 3 day/2 night trek to conquer it 💪.

It was the first multi-day trek on our trip, which was daunting. The tour we booked took as much pressure as possible off us. They handled the logistics, food and shelter for us - all we had to do was summon the energy to keep on hikin'.

We backtracked to Lombok on the ferry. The ferry dude spent the crossing ensuring that everybody had a safe taxi booked from the port. He said the drivers that hang around the port were dodgy. We were glad our tour company had organised a ride for us 😂.

We had some food and a short briefing at the tour company’s office. Then retired to their on-site accommodation for some rest and recuperation.

As you can see, the second day was particularly brutal! It began at 2am so we would reach the summit for sunrise. The trail to the summit was like an ash tray, each step forward greeted by two slides back:

The descent to the lake, and following ascent, was also quite something. An earthquake in 2018 fortunately had no fatalities, aside from the ease of trails.

Natural hot springs at the bottom of the lake descent teased us. Alas, at the time of year we were hiking they were natural meh springs. They were tiny and not very deep, we managed some foot dippage.

Any whining from us should be immediately disregarded. We’re now of the opinion that the porters of Rinjani are only people in life allowed to moan about anything. Ever.

Here’s a job description I’ve knocked up.

Photograph of ideal candidate:

The porters were incredible. In a fairer world they would be top ultramarathon competitors if they decided to compete. We tipped generously.

It’s a volcano. There’s no running water. No drainage. Gulp. The setup was extremely rustic:

A hole dug into the ground sheltered by a roofless tent that went up to your torso.

We immediately thought of one of our closest friends. In a superhuman feat he was once able to go without having a “number 2” for over seven days whilst traveling on the Trans-Siberian railway. Seven days. Seven. Days. It’s mind-blowing stuff, and his secret was to eat only Pringles.

We naively thought that we could mimic him, and avoid any “number 2” use of the toilet tent. Alas, our trekking company and porters were ace at their job, and we were extremely well fed.

It was ridiculous. They gave us noodles, veg, tempeh, tofu and egg for lunch once. Then they brought out a cauldron of rice. Then they brought out 2 oranges, 2 mangoes, 2 bananas and 2 apples. Sliced, so they had to be eaten.

We persevered, believing that we could reach less than half the achievement of our beloved buddy.

We’re semi proud to say that we were able to reach our goal of toilet tent avoidance. But we felt grim by the end. The negotiations of who was to use the first proper toilet available to us have gone down as solid marriage foundations.

Our WhatsApp conversation that day (redaction is to protect the innocent):

Blimey. What an adventure. We adored Indonesia. It’s gone down as one of our favourite destinations. We’d love to go back to meet the orangutans on Sumatra some day.

Next up is our exit from South East Asia 🙁. We had a couple of short stop-offs on the way out. In Kuala Lumpur we met our new friends Max & Leo fleetingly, and in Tokyo we stayed with our amazing friend Will.