100 Days Onboard, Indonesia – Lombok and Bali, 2024

$1 US = 15,300 rupiah

March 18-20

100 Days! Royal made us a cake to celebrate. I spent day 100 doing most of the same things as always – trivia, playing guitar, blogging, visiting, etc. A great day overall.

Lombok – we visited Lombok in 2020 on the abbreviated CMV World Cruise, just as things were shutting down (March 10-11). There was a lot more traffic on this trip. The cruise port is over an hour’s drive from the main beaches, and although OK, they’re not great by beach standards.

The people are very friendly, and everything is very reasonably priced. Our driver, Amin, negotiated down to $35 for the 6 hours in port. We visited a beach, got really nice massages at the Orchid Day Spa and Beauty Salon for 120,000 rupiah each – about $8 (I wish we’d had time for me to get a pedicure- which would have been about $7),

John got a haircut at Amin’s barber (just under $2) and bought some mangosteens (his favorite fruit).

That was about all we could accomplish in the time allowed and returned to the ship with about 30 minutes before all aboard. 

Bali – Liam, Alan, Ken, Dottie, John and I hired car for $55 for the day. We lucked out and got Kutu as our driver. What a lovely young man, who in the past worked for Princess Cruises in housekeeping for 5 contracts, and spoke English very well.

We had a choice of activities – we went to a silver shop, to a Balinese dance (entry 150,000 rupiah each),

then up to the Tirtha Empul (Water Temple) we visited in 2020,

and then to lunch. Unfortunately, after that it was constant traffic back to the ship – too much to risk trying to stop at another temple or other activity.

(On a future trip, I want to see the giant Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue that rises above island’s skyline and dwarfs the Statue of Liberty by 30 meters). 

History Lesson: 

The archipelagic nation of close to 18,000 islands has been inhabited for over 1.5 million years – including the “Java Man” remains of a Homo erectus individual that lived on the island 700,000 years ago. Modern Indonesians descend from humans who came to the islands around 2000BC, and likely much earlier. Its position in SE Asia led to its importance for trade even among early humans, with influences from Taiwan and India predominant in early history. Islam spread across most of the islands starting in the 13^th century AD on Sumatra, though Bali and a few others have remained primarily Hindu. The 16^th century brought European explorers and businesses looking to exploit the rich sources of spice, with the Dutch establishing the dominant Dutch East India Company from 1602-1800. The Dutch managed the colony (with a brief interlude in the early 1800s) until the islands were invaded by Japan in 1942. Immediately after the Japanese surrender in 1945, Indonesia declared independence, but the Dutch weren’t ready to yield the territory. It took another four years of fighting before the Dutch recognized Indonesian Independence in 1949. Like many young democracies, the country went through a number of autocrats between more democratic leaders, and still managed to develop until the 1990’s. The East Asian economic crises of the 1990’s stalled the momentum, but the country has since resumed development with almost fifteen years of progress. 

At a crossroads of all cultures, Indonesia remains very tolerant of all religions, but not tolerant of what most westerners find essential in human rights for women, and the LGBTQ+ community. Those who belong to the LGBTQ+ community need to use caution in much of the country– especially in Aceh and South Sumatra, where same sex activities can lead to eight years in prison and 100 lashes. Transgender is illegal at a national level. The conservative nation passed a law in 2022 that criminalizes all sex outside of marriage, which can lead to one year in prison, which takes effect in 2025. Overall, I enjoy Indonesia and its people, but it’s difficult to bring money to a place that does not value women’s rights or my friends.