CREATIVE TRAVEL – LEARNING VACATIONS

Join us in the exploration of this extraordinary tropical Indonesian island.

Visit authentic traditional pottery villages, participate in a hands-on experience and enjoy the island’s charming ambiance with sculpted rice fields, temples and markets.

Excursion Highlights
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Excursion Highlights

LOMBOK, INDONESIA -16 days

Visit the authentic traditional pottery villages and watch the highly skilled women potters forming and firing.

Participate in a hands-on pottery experience.(optional)

Enjoy the island’s charming ambiance with its sculpted rice fields, waterfalls, temples and markets.

Swim ,snorkel and relax in the pristine Gilli islands.

Charming mountain village acommodation.

Visit Ikat weaving, basket making, rattan and woodcarving villages.

Stay in 4* tropical oceanfront accommodations, enjoy a relaxing swim and the local cuisine and fresh seafood.

 

LOMBOK

Situated at only 25 miles east of Bali, Lombok is an incredibly diverse island of abundant natural and cultural interest. The island’s topography is dominated by the mighty presence of Mount Rinjani, a volcano which towers over the entire northern half of the island. Rivers spilling down its fissured slopes water the island’s crops, such as rice, soya beans, coffee and tobacco. Lombok has retained a natural, uncrowded and undeveloped environment, which makes this island a perfect place to enjoy a relaxed pace and explore unspoiled but spectacular natural beauty. Most people on Lombok are Sasaks, a Muslim people with a culture and language unique to the island. There is also a significant Hindu Balinese minority – a legacy of the time when Bali controlled Lombok from the 18^th century until the Dutch arrived at the turn of the 20^th century.  

 

Lombok PotteryVillages

 We will visit several villages, where most of the families living in the village are involved in the making, firing and distribution of pottery. In addition to being able to experience the pottery process in an ancient culture, our visitations to these small pottery villages provide us with a rare opportunity to interact with the people and their daily lives in a way impossible for the average tourist. We will have a interpreter with us at all times and participants are encouraged to communicate directly with the potters and their families. They are also very interested in the way we work with clay in our countries, and the sharing that occurs is a special cross-cultural experience. The streets are lined with shallow piles of drying clay. The dry clay it is then crushed and mixed by hand and processed to readiness by foot wedging. Women are the makers of the pots and men are often involved in the firing and gathering of fuel.The methods are age old and employ simple technologies such as hand building and simple manual potter’s wheels. Often pots are made by the potter walking backwards around the hand-built piece forming and paddling as she walks. Another method uses a combination of throwing and coil building. Coiled walls  are exquisitely thinned through the use of a very slow turning banding wheel powered by one hand, while the other  practiced hand of the potter works the surface. Other forms are slab built, employing the use of a support mould or sometimes simply a depression in the ground. There are a wide variety of forms made in Lombok and some are old and the pots are still used in the traditional ways, others are modern adaptations and cater to the designer and tourist markets of Indonesia. Traditional clay stoves are fashioned using clay. These tripod top charcoal or wood burnings devices support clay plates, pans or other cooking utensils. The surfaces of large vessels are often are sealed and decorated with multi-coloured fine slips or terra sigilatta. Sea life, bird, floral and animal motifs are used to embellish the pieces prior to firing. Very little or no glazes are used in these Lombok village potteries. Firings are a community based project. One often sees a person balancing large baskets on a pole, carrying pieces from a pottery to a community kiln some distance away. Firing tends to be achieved by means of brush fires on top of the ground. Branches and palm fronts are placed on the ground and the pots piled on top and then they are covered by a mixture of brush and grass. The fast firing is completed by igniting the mass, and occasionally new bunches of grass are added to fast burning areas in an attempt  to slow down and partially smother the flames, allowing the heat to build up inside. Other potteries use a mixture of dried coconut husks and branches that they place among the pots in the pile and then feed grass and more coconut husks to the already burning fire.We saw some potters using a low kiln made from a series of three or four rows of  earthenware bricks which were  placed in a circle, with openings left for primary air entry.

Visiting the Lombok potters is a very special and unique opportunity!

 

Exploring Lombok: the western part

Our first base on Lombok is the beautiful Senggigi Beach Hotel, located on a fine sandy beach and featuring a lovely swimming-pool as well as lush gardens decorated with local traditional pottery. The seafront restaurant offers beautiful views of the blood-red sunsets over Bali. We will visit the traditional Banyumulek Pottery Village including demonstration and optional hands-on experience. Our sightseeing activities include the most important Balinese temples on Lombok, such as Pura Meru, built in 1720 and dedicated to the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The holiest of the temples in Lombok, Pura Lingsar, combines the Bali Hindu and Wektu Telu religions, the latter being a Muslim sect that mixes traditional Islamic practices with elements of Hinduism and animism.   

South Lombok

South Lombok is the our next destination: This area is blessed with the island’s best beaches, from dramatic cliff-backed coves to oceanic expanses that catch world-class waves. On our journey we visit Sukarara Village and look at the production of textiles such as Ikat weaving. Our base is the exquisite Hotel Novotel Coralia, located on a magnificent white sandy beach, next to turquoise sea with rugged hills in the background. From here, we start out to explore the Penujak Pottery Villages and we spend one day at the beach relaxing, swimming or hiking.  

Tetebatu

Nestled in the foothills of Mt Rinjani, the town of Tetebatu is an attractive rural retreat and the perfect place to sample Lombok’s cuisine and enjoy air that is a few degrees cooler than along the coast. There are magnificent views across tobacco fields and rice paddies towards southern Lombok, east to the sea and north to Rinjani. We will visit traditional villages, renowned for their handicrafts, such as fine basketry, rattan handicrafts and woodcarving.  

North Lombok

The sparsely populated northern part of Lombok is remarkably beautiful, with a variety of landscapes, featuring waterfalls, traditional villages and stunning views of Mt Rinjani. Our accommodation Pondok Senaru offers great views on a valley, and is the starting point for visits to picturesque Senaru village, situated on a ridge featuring sweeping views, as well as some short hikes to impressive waterfalls.  

GILI TRAWANGAN

Just off the northwest coast of Lombok is a vision of tropical paradise – a trio of tiny coral-fringed islands, each with white sandy beaches and pellucid water teeming with a kaleidoscopic array of reef fish. Delightfully free of cars and motorcycles, the only traffic on the Gili Islands is the tinkling donkey-driven cidomo and the odd bicycle. As the islands are flat, it is easy to get around by foot or bicycle. We will stay at Hotel Villa Ombak, a highly attractive resort with a leafy garden plot partly shaded by yuccas and palms as well as a great pool. There will be opportunities for diving and snorkelling as well as swimming with turtles.

 

TENTATIVE ITINERARY

Day A   Departure from Vancouver
Day B   Enroute
Day 01 Arrival in Mataram/Lombok  Transfer airport-hotel. Welcoming drink after dinner.
Day 02 Free day at the beach hotel, relax and swim, special dinner at local restaurant.
Day 03 Visit, demonstrations, and optional hands on at Banyumulek Pottery Village. Visit Pura Lingsar temple.
Day 04  Visit, demonstrations, and optional hands on at Banyumulek Pottery Village. Visit Pura Meru temple.
Day 05  Transfer and sightseeing to Novotel Coralia Hotel in south Lombok beach. Visit Mandalika Public Market, Sukarara Weaving Village. Free afternoon.
Day 06  Pottery program to Penujak Pottery Villages: Kampoeng, Tongkek, Kampoeng Kange, and Kampoeng Andon. Include picnic lunch package from the hotel. Return to Novotel in the afternoon.
Day 07  Free day at the beach hotel, relax, swim, hike, photography.
Day 08  Transfer and sightseeing to Tetebatu Mountain Resort. Overnight in Wisma Soedjono. En route visits to traditional handicraft villages (woodcarving, rattan handicrafts, basketry).
Day 09  Tetebatu sightseeing incl. visits to villages.
Day 10  Transfer and sightseeing to Senaru and Sembalun Villages with Rinjani Volcano view. Overnight at Pondok Senaru Cottage.
Day 11  Soft trekking around Senaru including walk to waterfalls and local farms with terraces.
Day 12  Transfer & sightseeing to Gili Trawangan Island incl. visit to Segenter traditional village. Overnight in Hotel Villa Ombak.
Day 13  Free day at Gili Trawangan. Optional snorkelling or diving tours.
Day 14  Free day at Gili Trawangan. Optional tours to Gili Meno or Gili Air.
Day 15  Depart Gili Trawangan for Sengigi/Lombok. Overnight in Senggigi.
Day 16  Optional free day, add-ons, or return flight.
    

OPTIONAL ADD-ONS

1. Bali - Witness the colourful festivals and ceremonies amid elaborate traditional dress, basketry and offerings. Visit amazing Balinese temples. Admire the traditional Balinese architecture through its buildings, shrines and statues. Rest and acclimate in a luxurious Balinese style ocean front hotel.
2. Extension of your stay at the Gili Islands
3. Nature and adventure trips Komodo Island,  Flores Island, other Indonesian islands.
4. Explore other S.E.Asian locations such as Thailand, Angkor,Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia. 

PACKAGE INCLUDES :

 

First class min-van transport.

Boat transfer from Lombok to the Gilli Islands.

Local guide and interpreter on-board for the entire excursion.

On-board professional ceramic artist and tour leader.

Visits to potteries on Lombok.

Visits to local arts and cultural locations and events.

All breakfasts.

Some dinners and lunches.

Accommodation  5 nights at Senggigi Beach Hotel**** on Lombok beach.

Accommodation  3 nights at Novotel Coralia Hotel**** on Lombok  beach.

Accommodation  2 nights at Wisma Soedjono Bungalows (simple authentic)

Accommodation 2 nights at Pondok Senaru Bungalows (simple authentic)

Accommodation 3 nights at Villa Ombak Hotel ***  beach on Gilli Island.

 

See Participants' Photos NEW! or Denys's Photos from past excursions.

Cancellation Policy:

If you must cancel ,the following cancellation fees will apply:

APPLICABLE DATES	CANCELLATION FEE
October 15- October 31  November 1- December 31 January 1- January 31 February 1- February 15 February 15- March 5	Deposit of $150 Deposit plus 20% of the invoice total Deposit plus 40% of the invoice total Deposit plus 60% of the invoice total No refund

There is no refund for arriving late or leaving the trip early.

Discovery Art Travel reserves the right to cancel the trip due to low enrolment, or if we feel that the quality of the trip or the safety of travelers would be compromised. In such a case, we will refund all payments received to date, which constitutes full settlement.

Text and photos by Denise Okan and Denys James