Marriage rituals on Lombok
by xuessium
Very lucky to encounter a Lombok-style wedding. Great photography opportunities!! Was really puzzled why the bride was not smiling at all!
Young couples in Lombok have a choice of three marriage rituals; an arranged marriage, a union between cousins and elopement. The first two are uncomplicated: parents of the prospective bridal couple meet to discuss the bride's dowry and sort out any religious differences. Having handled the business arrangements, the ceremony called "Sorong Serah" is performed.
The third method is far more complicated and dramatic. Theoretically a young girl is forbidden to marry a lower caste man, but this rule can be broken through "kidnapping" and "eloping" and thus still is a widespread practice on Lombok, despite the fact that in most instances, the parents of the couple know what's afoot. Originally it was used to elude other competitors for the girl's hand or to avoid family friction, but it also minimised the heavy expenses of a wedding ceremony. The laid down rules of this ritual must be followed step by step. After the girl is spirited away by the boy, he is to report to the Kepala Desa (Village Chief). The Kepala Desa then notifies the girl's family through their village head. A delegation from the boy's family visits the girl's parent, and between them they settle on a price for the bride, a fine (uang adat) which is distributed among members of the bride's family in recompense for losing her.
Traditional dowries are worked out according to the caste differences; the lower his caste and the higher hers, the more he has to pay. Once settled the wedding begins. Generally the bride and the groom are dressed in ceremonial clothes, carried through the village's street, accompanied with sounds of traditional music (gamelan) mingled with the shouts and laughters of the guests as the couple are swooped up and down and around on their way to the wedding place. Throughout the whole ceremony, the bride must look downcast and unhappy at the prospect of leaving her family (Lightbulb!!).
Traditional Village of Sasak Tribe
by traveldream
Sasak tribe is Lombok's local tribe. You can visit one of the villages. I think there are one or two villages that are open for 'outsider' to visit. You can see the traditional silo where they keep harvested rice inside, traditional handycrafts such as hair accessories, necklaces, bracelets, belts
Sasak house
A Sasak house has no window. It is because of the local tradition of kidnapping young women to be married. To avoid a daughter from being kidnapped by a man, the house has no window.
The Air, Land & Sea Combo
by balisunshine
If you decide not to
spend the whole day traveling by boat,
& do the land and sea combo thing instead:
Lombok’s Mataram airport is international –
and there has been a regular Silk Air flight from Singapore.
Trouble is, with the introduction of
the $US25 visa on arrival this year,
Mataram was not designated as
one of the places where you can buy the visa.
So unless you organize a visa before departure,
they send you right back to Singapore!
No problems flying into Bali
and hopping across from there.
There are very cheap fares from
Bali’s Denpaser airport to Mataram
on mainland Lombok -
Merpati was charging $US25 one way.
Denpasar-Mataram takes around 25mins.
Mataram airport is less than an hour by taxi
where motorised praus will transfer you
to the islands for a few dollars in around 20 to 45 minutes.
Be warned:
The Taxis at the airport refuse to use their meters,
setting the transfer to 75,000 Rp.
We were able to negotiate the rate down to 50,000.
But with the prices of petrol raising up 50% more,
those days of cheap transportation are changing.
Airport Fess do apply.
Calculate around 30,000 RP p.p. each way.
The Tranquil Kuta Beach
by traveldream
Kuta beach in Lombok is very beautiful and there is ALMOST no one there except yourself....... and some locals.
The locals could become annoying when they start to offer you to buy some stuff. They would follow you around. They could even call you stingy when you refuse all their offers. But when you finally buy something from one of them, the others would protest if you don't buy from them also... It's up to you because you come there to enjoy yourself.
Going to Gili Meno
by freshia
This is the smallest island among the 3 Gili Islands near Lombok. Reputation as honeymoon island. It's the quietest island and less developed. Because it's so small we can walk around it in 1 hour. When we walked around the island we can see many abundant hotels - The local said that 10 years ago before the global warming when the corals were still alive, Gili Meno is one of the best diving/snorkeling spot. Nowadays the Coral only live in certain parts of the sea. Mostly in front of the Bounty Hotel and Malia's child When we stayed we were the only local tourist, the rest are westerner, mostly couples. The Bounty Beach Bungalow used to be very nice but it's a little run down now, probably because not many people go to Gili Meno.
The Nicest and most expensive accommodation in the island is probably Villa nautilus for 500K (They have hot shower). The Villas are next to Malia's child Bungalow. Malia's child looks nice with each bungalow built like rumah panggung very close to the sea. Too bad none have aircon so I have to skip it
Special features of the island is the salt lake and spectacular dive sites such as, Meno Wall, Sea Turtle Point, and Blue Coral Point.
There is also a Bird park located near The Bounty Hotel of Gili Meno, you can see various tropical birds from many different rain forests of Indonesia
Sign in with Facebook
the summit
Sasak, Balinese, Javanese and Sumbawa characters
Sign
Pura Manik Sari built on a rock
